History Sequence

[Woodland Mist Academy]

For years I've presumed we would rotate a third time through the history cycle. Now that we're at the cusp of high school, I've noticed this isn't as common as I had hoped. I'm starting to wonder if we should break things up into what seems to be the more typical US courses of American History, World History, Economics, etc. 

 

We aren't rotating though the cycle because I think we're supposed to, but rather because it makes sense to us. I am interested in hearing how others are choosing/have chosen a high school history path.

[Gratia271]

We are focusing our studies on areas of interest and compacting the required instruction in areas oldest DD (as well as other two children down the road) is not particularly interested in.  As long as the requisite work is completed, it will be transcripted however it needs to be.  Compacting courses works well for us. :)

 

[Woodland Mist Academy]

We are focusing our studies on areas of interest and compacting the required instruction in areas oldest DD (as well as other two children down the road) is not particularly interested in.  As long as the requisite work is completed, it will be transcripted however it needs to be.  Compacting courses works well for us. :)

 

Would you mind elaborating on this? I'm not sure I'm familiar with concept of compacting courses. How does this look in your home? Thanks!

[Luckymama]

Since dd has distinct interests, we're going with those!

 

Ancient history of the entire world and AP Human Geography for ninth grade

 

History of ???? (last night she suggested the history of North Africa or Arabic-speaking lands) and AP Psych for tenth grade

 

Eleventh and twelfth are up in the air!

 

She'll need US History on her transcript for college. Her eighth grade course was excellent. We may do a quick run-through of US history again (as a semester, compacted as above) and have her follow that with the SAT subject test (thus covering those schools who want to see SAT II scores).

 

Dd has interest in working for the government in some capacity. If so, I want her to be exposed to US government in high school before a college poli sci course. Last night she came across the description of AP Comparative Government---her entire face lit up :lol:

[Gratia271]

Sure. In my oldest daughter's case, she loves the pre-modern world, classical languages, philosophy and linguistics so we spend a lot of time on those areas including extensive Great Books study.  She will spend a summer compacting American History because she has zero interest in it.  She went through it all in middle school with DBQ's, primary source writing etc. and simply is not interested in spreading her HS studies over an entire year.  So she decided to compact it this summer and take the SAT II in American History to validate her work.  In terms of Govt and Econ, she plans to self-study for the AP exams in the spring of her senior year.

 

My children sometimes prefer compacting courses in lieu of taking both simultaneously for a year.  So my oldest DD did that with Physics (4 months) and then spent the rest of her academic year in 9th doing Chem.  This academic year she didn't compact her AP courses except for AP Language which she just began working on with me.  I have largely let her make the call with scheduling her work.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Sure. In my oldest daughter's case, she loves the pre-modern world, classical languages, philosophy and linguistics so we spend a lot of time on those areas including extensive Great Books study.  She will spend a summer compacting American History because she has zero interest in it.  She went through it all in middle school with DBQ's, primary source writing etc. and simply is not interested in spreading her HS studies over an entire year.  So she decided to compact it this summer and take the SAT II in American History to validate her work.  In terms of Govt and Econ, she plans to self-study for the AP exams in the spring of her senior year.

 

My children sometimes prefer compacting courses in lieu of taking both simultaneously for a year.  So my oldest DD did that with Physics (4 months) and then spent the rest of her academic year in 9th doing Chem.  This academic year she didn't compact her AP courses except for AP Language which she just began working on with me.  I have largely let her make the call with scheduling her work.

 

What will she use this summer for American History? We are considering doing American history over the spring/summer.

[Gratia271]

I am starting to put it together. She'll use Tindall for a spine in conjunction with The Great Courses videos on American History.  I still have to piece together primary sources, essays and rhetorical analysis assignments. So it's definitely rough right now.

[swimmermom3]

For years I've presumed we would rotate a third time through the history cycle. Now that we're at the cusp of high school, I've noticed this isn't as common as I had hoped. I'm starting to wonder if we should break things up into what seems to be the more typical US courses of American History, World History, Economics, etc. 

 

We aren't rotating though the cycle because I think we're supposed to, but rather because it makes sense to us. I am interested in hearing how others are choosing/have chosen a high school history path.

 

My plans for the four year rotation were thrown by ds's desire to do 9th grade at the high school. Then we had to resort to Plan B when he came home for history and English at the semester, which was only a semester of ancient history and literature. Best time homeschooling EVER.  I messed that up by thinking we had to jump on the AP bandwagon and we are still there.

 

If I had do-overs, we would go back to the four-year rotation tying it into our literature, except that I would still want ds to have had the PAHS AP Lang. class. I like US History to be built into the context of world history, so I probably would have scrambled the time periods a little differently than TWTM does. I would also make sure that we built religion and philosophy and fine arts into the history and lit. We've done that to a certain extent, but I wish we were doing more. For us, the high school history doesn't look like the middle school history. There is much more critical thinking and writing and digging deep.

 

There is not a right answer. Go with what you think makes the most sense for your student and for you as the teacher.

 

[AppleGreen]

Ha! I just asked a question along this line over the weekend, as I am contemplating the history sequence right now. Actually, i am contemplating all things related to high school; it seems so big and huge!

 

I am considering a year of World Geography using OM's syllabus, partly because I need something that is done for me, but also because I really feel like we need to focus on a couple of key areas in 9th grade. Realistically, I probably shouldn't make every class very full. That will not be a good fit for my particular student, so it seems like a year of World Geography might be a nice way to keep moving forward, but also give us some breathing space. But really, I don't know. I have spent way too much time on the computer researching and thinking about this. 

 

I think this post is actually useless. I will be sitting by reading others' thoughts and insight.

[swimmermom3]

Since dd has distinct interests, we're going with those!

 

Ancient history of the entire world and AP Human Geography for ninth grade

 

History of ???? (last night she suggested the history of North Africa or Arabic-speaking lands) and AP Psych for tenth grade

 

Eleventh and twelfth are up in the air!

 

She'll need US History on her transcript for college. Her eighth grade course was excellent. We may do a quick run-through of US history again (as a semester, compacted as above) and have her follow that with the SAT subject test (thus covering those schools who want to see SAT II scores).

 

Dd has interest in working for the government in some capacity. If so, I want her to be exposed to US government in high school before a college poli sci course. Last night she came across the description of AP Comparative Government---her entire face lit up :lol:

 

Do you think she might like to do something like The African Experience series and The Barbarian Empire of the Steppes? I think the girl is on to something. I might try to do both and not just stick to North Africa. There is potential to do some mind and perception expanding work. Just of the literature.  She could potentially tie in the Silk Road. With her interest in Arabic, she could probably come up with a project that would be unique and that would stand out for college admissions.

 

Did I get carried away? :blushing:

 

 

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Ha! I just asked a question along this line over the weekend, as I am contemplating the history sequence right now. Actually, i am contemplating all things related to high school; it seems so big and huge!

 

I am considering a year of World Geography using OM's syllabus, partly because I need something that is done for me, but also because I really feel like we need to focus on a couple of key areas in 9th grade. Realistically, I probably shouldn't make every class very full. That will not be a good fit for my particular student, so it seems like a year of World Geography might be a nice way to keep moving forward, but also give us some breathing space. But really, I don't know. I have spent way too much time on the computer researching and thinking about this. 

 

I think this post is actually useless. I will be sitting by reading others' thoughts and insight.

 

Not at all! It's nice to know I'm not the only one trying to decide!!

[Lori D.]

I also assumed we'd do three 4-year chronological cycles.

 

That plan started being tweaked even in the first cycle (elementary grades), when we stretched from 4 years to 6 years to have time for bunny trails of interest, some additional Civics and other Social Studies units, and include 2 years of US History and some state history in that chronological study.

 

After 6 years of solid History studies, we were all ready for a break, so we did a year of World Cultures/Geography and Comparative Religions, focusing on Eastern hemisphere nations, and a worldview focus. Awesome! DSs really enjoyed the break, and the worldview and cultural aspects -- along with seeing how religions shape cultures and thus, history -- was an incredible foundation to give them going into the high school years of Social Science studies. In retrospect, it would have been wonderful to have two years for that (7th AND 8th grades), and cover Western hemisphere nations.

 

For high school, I thought we would do a second full 4-year cycle of chronological history, but it just worked out differently for us; we largely did a WTM type of Lit. study that mirrored the History period:

9th = 1 credit = Ancient History (+ 1 credit = Ancient Lit, + LLftLotR for the Lit. portion of English credit)

10th = 1 credit = 20th Century History (+ 0.5 credit = Modern Lit., + 1 credit = Classic Sci Fi Lit)

11th = 1 credit = Amer. History, 0.5 credit = Government (+ 1 credit American Lit.)

12th =  0.5 credit = Church History, 0.25 credit = Medieval Lit., 0.5 credit = Economics (+1 credit British Lit/"kitchen sink" Lit -- any works we meant to do earlier but hadn't gotten around to)

 

 

How did we choose a high school History path? Short answer: it became increasingly student-led, gently bounded by credits to meet graduation and admission requirements; we were already heading down that path by our early choices in the elementary years to diverge from the (for us) restrictive three 4-year cycles.

 

In detail, how did we get on that path in high school?

 

Well, we started down the chronological path with Ancients. However, by the end of the year, I began to realize that DSs' interests and activities might mean we would not be able to complete a full 4-year chronological cycle, so for the following year I let DSs pick, and they chose 20th Century World. My thinking was that if we don't have time for 4 full years, better to go with what was of high interest. In retrospect: that was the perfect decision for our family, as it turned out we did NOT have time for 4 full years, and having a solid grounding in Modern World history -- coupled with the earlier world cultures / worldview / comparative religions -- has given them a very clear understanding of the "why" behind current events around the world.

 

The next year we were checking off our required college admission credit of American History, and that was a *fabulous* time to also do the Government -- SO many cross connections!

 

The final year, we were out of time, and it was more important to DH and I to give them a last overview of the history of their faith. And we needed the required credit of Economics. Then dual enrollment and leadership-type of extracurriculars and senior year stuff sucked away so much time that it would have been difficult to try and jam in more History, when we had already completed the required amounts, so regretfully, we were only able to barely touch on Medieval History with a partial credit. That is the only regret I had -- wish we could have done a real, full year of Medieval to match up with the Church History. BUT, there is SO much happening in the last year or two of high school and you just have to make the best use of the limited time you have.

 

 

So, the initial plan of three 4-year cycles ended up as one 6-year cycle, a year of cultures/religions, and then four years of "mixed bag".  Worked very well for us. ;) Once we abandoned the idea of repeating three 4-year cycles, we never looked back. That allowed us to enjoy the view along the way, take more time at points of personal interest, and include topics that there just isn't time for if you're having to rush to finish yet another whacking big chunk of world history by the end of the school year. I also think if we had done the traditional 3 full cycles, it would have started to feel like a lot of repeat ("didn't we just study this…?!").

 

JMO, but since no one can cover ALL of history in great detail, once you've done a round of chronological history to "get" the connections, going with your student's interests in the upper grades can be very rewarding for them -- they tend to dig deeper and run farther. :)

 

Just our experience! BEST of luck as you think through what works best for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Kareni]

We came to homeschooling late and began in 7th grade.  We allowed my daughter the decision of whether or not to homeschool each year, so we took things on a year by year basis.  I'd describe our homeschooling as WTM inspired; however, I elected to do a three year run through world history.

In 7th grade, my daughter covered Pre-history to about AD500.

In 8th grade, my daughter studied the time period AD500 to about AD1700.

My daughter finished her three year sweep through world history in 9th grade.

Her interests in high school led her to emphasize foreign languages at the expense of history; there were only so many hours in a day! Her high school record looked like this:

9th: World History from 1700 to 2000 (at home, the third year of her chronological sweep through history)
10th: AP US History (out of the home class)
11th: AP Comparative Politics and Government (out of the home class)

You might not classify it as history, but she also did

12th: Art History (quarter long class at the community college)

 

We had access to excellent AP teachers at a free homeschooling resource center, and that was part of what decided our history choices during the high school years.

Regards,
Kareni

[EndOfOrdinary]

We appear to be established for two, very dense rounds through the history cycles. Ds has expressed a desire to focus on a few main themes as we go through each round. This first time through it has very much been about the cultural mythology and how that creates a social structure. Lots about the theology of the people, reading Great Books and foundational documents, and comparative religion. Cultural geography, political and power dynamics, and how mythology supported those. That Dort of thing.

 

The next round through he wants to focus more on the economics, trade, and resources. More looking at how the battles and political structures rose and fell based on the monetary aspects, not the religious and social/cultural aspects.

 

From everything I have looked into, this sets the stage to grant credit based on AP testing of World History, Art History, and Human Geography. Much like the condense courses are described above, he learns the history stuff and foes a very quick run through of the testing materials to hit he high notes with either AP or SAT. I will more than likely try to sneak in some U.S. History credit, just for college pleasing and transcript.

 

Could you do something where you are still going through the rounds, but with a much different lens? Pick one facet of a civilization and watch how it shifts based on different factors as you go through time?

[swimmermom3]

We appear to be established for two, very dense rounds through the history cycles. Ds has expressed a desire to focus on a few main themes as we go through each round. This first time through it has very much been about the cultural mythology and how that creates a social structure. Lots about the theology of the people, reading Great Books and foundational documents, and comparative religion. Cultural geography, political and power dynamics, and how mythology supported those. That Dort of thing.

 

The next round through he wants to focus more on the economics, trade, and resources. More looking at how the battles and political structures rose and fell based on the monetary aspects, not the religious and social/cultural aspects.

 

From everything I have looked into, this sets the stage to grant credit based on AP testing of World History, Art History, and Human Geography. Much like the condense courses are described above, he learns the history stuff and foes a very quick run through of the testing materials to hit he high notes with either AP or SAT. I will more than likely try to sneak in some U.S. History credit, just for college pleasing and transcript.

 

Could you do something where you are still going through the rounds, but with a much different lens? Pick one facet of a civilization and watch how it shifts based on different factors as you go through time?

 

I think your idea is great. How do you propose doing it and will you try to include elements of the AP Comparative Government and Politics material? So for the second time around you would be focusing more on things like the Silk Road, the voyages of discovery, Trans Atlantic Slave System (that doesn't look right), and maybe pulling from books like Salt, History of the World in 6 Glasses, or Spice?  I had no clue the part tea played in the Industrial Revolution or of course the mess it made in China.

 

 

[Penguin]

POV:  Rising 9th grader.

 

 

Of all the plans that I am making for high school, history remains the most volatile.  I thought we would try to accelerate through our world history sequence this 8th grade year so that we could start a two-year world history sequence in 9th.  But we have decided that we do not want to rush through the 20th and 21st centuries.  There were too many things that we wanted to explore within the time period.

 

As of today, 9th is looking like 20th / 21st century. 

 

We will have a cumulative 1/2 credit (or more) of Roman History.  DS is really interested in Roman History and he plans to keep taking the NLE.  So we think it would be best to spread the effort out over the years

 

I would like him to take an AP History in 10th - either World or European.  Whichever one isn't up for redesign that year :tongue_smilie: .  I forget which one that is...

 

11th will be American History (AP or not)

12th TBD

 

At some point, we have to work in 1/2 credit of geography and 1/2 credit of American government..  And we would like a 1/2 credit in Scandinavian Studies. I also think he should take one of the SAT Subject tests in history. 

 

Right now, history is my son's favorite subject, so I could see him taking 1.5 credits per year.  But that could change, and then the plans will of course have to then change.  In summary, between our cover school requirements and my requirements I have this planned as a minimum:

 

4 total credits (cover school requires 1/2 credit of geography, 1 credit of American History, 1/2 credit of American govt)

1 AP

1 SAT Subject test

 

 

[Loesje22000]

We did in grade 4-5-6 one 'round' of history, mostly Dutch history.

I think grade 7-8-9 will be another round using American textbooks.

Grade 10-11-12 will be focused on the exit exam program using:

IB 20th Century World History

An Epic History of Congo

Belgium, a history without Country

In Europe

 

Maybe adding some British history, and some history around persons of interest, focus will be 19th/20th century.

We will cover the history of the Dutch Indies through literature.

 

History is 'just' 2h per week, Geography is another 2h per week,

Grade 7/8 = Belgian Geography

Grade 9/10 = World Geography

Grade 11/12 = Earth and Space Science

 

We have no transcripts, and our graduation requirements = passing the 12th grade exams from your track

[LisaKinVA]

Oldest son looks like this:

 

9th -- Modern World History

10th -- US History

11th -- Western Civ

12th -- US Gov't & Constitutional Studies

 

PonyGirl will look like this:

 

9th -- Western Civ 1

10th -- Western Civ 2

11th -- US History

12th -- US Gov't & Constitutional Studies.

 

I am hopeful the others will look more like Pony Girl...but it's too far out to tell.  I'm tired of completely re-doing stuff!

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Could you do something where you are still going through the rounds, but with a much different lens?

 

Oh, you have no idea how many lenses I am considering! Each more shiny than the last....   I think that's part of my problem. We both enjoy history and could easily spend lots of time on it, but there are other subjects we just enjoy as much or more.

 

Thus, my feelings of :willy_nilly:

 

It would be much simpler if she disliked history, or if I didn't place a high value on it. I've had a multiple lens idea going through my head... it seems a bit like the four year rotation on steroids.... probably just enough to send me 'round the bend...

 

If I can arrange my thoughts so they seem more like a proper plan and less like the ravings of a homeschool mom in February, I'll post them. ;)

[AppleGreen]

 

 

If I can arrange my thoughts so they seem more like a proper plan and less like the ravings of a homeschool mom in February, I'll post them. ;)

 

This is a perfect description of my feelings on all things high school. I want to like this a hundred times! 

[Luckymama]

Do you think she might like to do something like The African Experience series and The Barbarian Empire of the Steppes? I think the girl is on to something. I might try to do both and not just stick to North Africa. There is potential to do some mind and perception expanding work. Just of the literature. She could potentially tie in the Silk Road. With her interest in Arabic, she could probably come up with a project that would be unique and that would stand out for college admissions.

 

Did I get carried away? :blushing:

 

 

Wow, thanks for those suggestions!

 

I think she might just want to stick to North Africa instead of the whole continent, but I will keep that in mind (side note---I found an interesting college textbook also called The African Experience on Amazon). Our library actually has the African Experience series. I found it by searching the title instead of 'Great Courses' or 'Teaching Company'.

 

The Barbarians one sounds fascinating. I wonder if I could flesh it out with primary sources. This kid does not like reading the literature. She prefers to read nonfiction, like government papers, writings of historians like Sima Qian, religious and philosophical pieces, letters, and diaries.

 

Huh, I just realized that the book sitting right next to me, The Human Record: Sources of Global History to 1500,would give me a good starting point :D

[swimmermom3]

Wow, thanks for those suggestions!

 

I think she might just want to stick to North Africa instead of the whole continent, but I will keep that in mind (side note---I found an interesting college textbook also called The African Experience on Amazon). Our library actually has the African Experience series. I found it by searching the title instead of 'Great Courses' or 'Teaching Company'.

 

The Barbarians one sounds fascinating. I wonder if I could flesh it out with primary sources. This kid does not like reading the literature. She prefers to read nonfiction, like government papers, writings of historians like Sima Qian, religious and philosophical pieces, letters, and diaries.

 

Huh, I just realized that the book sitting right next to me, The Human Record: Sources of Global History to 1500,would give me a good starting point :D

 

What about Africa and the West: A Documentary History, vols. 1 and 2?

 

The two of you need to read and discuss Iran Awakening no matter what she studies for history, given her areas of interest. If you two do it, I'll read it again and would make Sailor Dude go along too.  He has sometimes asked how countries can make the decisions they do, especially with regards to revolution and how it doesn't seem to work out the way one wants it to. Ebadi does a great job of describing what it is like to be young, idealistic, and wanting to turn your country around, and then finding the turn around is not at all what you expected.

[swimmermom3]

Wow, thanks for those suggestions!

 

I think she might just want to stick to North Africa instead of the whole continent, but I will keep that in mind (side note---I found an interesting college textbook also called The African Experience on Amazon). Our library actually has the African Experience series. I found it by searching the title instead of 'Great Courses' or 'Teaching Company'.

 

The Barbarians one sounds fascinating. I wonder if I could flesh it out with primary sources. This kid does not like reading the literature. She prefers to read nonfiction, like government papers, writings of historians like Sima Qian, religious and philosophical pieces, letters, and diaries.

 

Huh, I just realized that the book sitting right next to me, The Human Record: Sources of Global History to 1500,would give me a good starting point :D

 

Africans: The History of a Continent  or Africa: A Biography of the Continent - both were recommended in TTC bibliography with the first one being more academic

 

What about Olaudah Equiano's memoir?  We read the kids' version when we did Sonlight many moons ago.

 

[Luckymama]

Lisa, I'm going to be busy this evening :D

[Luckymama]

Africans: The History of a Continent or Africa: A Biography of the Continent - both were recommended in TTC bibliography with the first one being more academic

 

What about Olaudah Equiano's memoir? We read the kids' version when we did Sonlight many moons ago.

 

The first two books have just been requested from the library :) Awesome, thanks!

 

Dd read a chunk of Equiano's memoir last year during US history.

[AmyontheFarm]

My history loving son is looking forward to doing:

 

Grade 9: History of the Ancient World

Grade 10: History of the Medieval World

Grade 11: History of the Renaissance World

Grade 12: U.S. History - American Heritage Series  and  Canadian History

 

He has asked that I also match up some videos/lectures for him to watch with each textbook.  That is what I am currently fighting my way through right now.

 

 

[EndOfOrdinary]

I think your idea is great. How do you propose doing it and will you try to include elements of the AP Comparative Government and Politics material? So for the second time around you would be focusing more on things like the Silk Road, the voyages of discovery, Trans Atlantic Slave System (that doesn't look right), and maybe pulling from books like Salt, History of the World in 6 Glasses, or Spice?  I had no clue the part tea played in the Industrial Revolution or of course the mess it made in China.

 

 

 

I haven't completely organized all the Great Courses; there are just so many that deal in history. Seventh grade is all Ages of Exploration/Voyages of Discovery with Histories Greatest Voyages of Exploration by Vejas LuiIevicius.  We'll see if I can sneak in Great Minds of Eastern Intellectual Tradition.  In eighth we are doing Timothy Taylor's Economics so that the basic foundations of AP Macro and Micro.  The later information will then help build upon it and hopefully allow for Ds to have a better idea of each area/time period.  We are doing Global Perspectives this year and are using it much like cultural geography.  The hope is that Histories Greatest Voyages can be used much like this as well.  I hope to incorporate the AP Comparative Government in starting in 9th.  Salt and Spice are very interesting.  I have not yet read "Cod" or "History of the World in 6 Glasses."  The books cause me to get all geeked out, but not as much Ds at this point.  I'm going to start sneaking them in :)

 

 

Ds might want to major in Classics, but he is already lobbying on the state government level and speaking to legislative committees on environmental legislation.  Organizing either on grassroots levels or as a lobbyist are his career pursuits.  As such, the U.S. Government AP is being covered on much more of a personal level.  Courses like American Identity, American Mind,

 

Modern Political Tradition Hobbes to Habermas, Modern Intellectual Tradition, Tocqueville, and Machiavelli are all on the docket.  Mainly lots of scribbled notes of what to search about for.  Luckily, most of these are smaller courses which can be accomplished and spread out together.  The current search is for sources which over nonWestern places before the West decided to come on in and muddy things up.  After all, the Malaysia and the Philippians had quite a bit going on before the spice trades.  My own knowledge is very lacking here, so I'm needing to self educate quite a bit.

 

Ds has a strong desire to do Bob Breir's Ancient Egypt and I have no idea where that one is going to go!

 

The book list is evolving.  Figuring out the level of political science to delve into is proving harder than I initially thought and projecting that far out is difficult. 

[regentrude]

We are doing a chronological coverage. I don't care what is "common".

We did one year of Ancients, one year of Medieval+Renaissance, and then put some focus on US history during the last two years of our world coverage and called those courses "US history in World context". In 12th, we did a half credit of that only, and a half credit of government.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

We are doing a chronological coverage. I don't care what is "common".

We did one year of Ancients, one year of Medieval+Renaissance, and then put some focus on US history during the last two years of our world coverage and called those courses "US history in World context". In 12th, we did a half credit of that only, and a half credit of government.

 

This sounds like what we are leaning toward. I have been trying to decide what to call it on the transcript. The bolded is a great idea.

 

Thanks!

 

[MarkT]

Are any of the AP History courses in your future plans?

[Woodland Mist Academy]

No plans for AP History.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

No plans for AP History.

 

Never say never...

 

AP history courses are now in the plans...

[TarynB]

Do tell!  Don't leave us wondering. :)

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Do tell!  Don't leave us wondering. :)

 

Oh, you've completely misunderstood! I'm waiting for you all to tell me! Get to it already!  :toetap05:

 

:lol:

 

 

[Woodland Mist Academy]

I'll hopefully have details tomorrow.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

I'll hopefully have details tomorrow.

 

Or not. ;)

 

No brilliant plan surfaced overnight, go figure... :rolleyes:

 

I'm considering something like this:

 

9th: AP Human Geography

10th: AP World History or European History

11th: AP US History  (possibly  AP US Gov as well)

12: AP Economics

 

The sequence may change, she may switch focuses, and/or she may decide not to do all AP. So, basically this is probably an exercise in futility... ;)

 

[Corraleno]

The next round through he wants to focus more on the economics, trade, and resources. More looking at how the battles and political structures rose and fell based on the monetary aspects, not the religious and social/cultural aspects.

 

Ooooo, can I suggest a great spine for this? Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's The World: A Brief History. He is a great writer, and this is his very personal, somewhat idiosyncratic take on world history, specifically focusing on trade, migration, environment, and resource use. Here is a blurb from the back cover:

 

 

There is no prospect of covering all of world history in one book. Rather, the fabric of this book is woven from selected strands. Readers will see these at every turn, twisted together into yarn, stretched into stories. Human-focused historical ecology—the environmental theme—will drive readers back, again and again, to the same concepts: sustenance, shelter, disease, energy, technology, art. ...  In the global story of human interactions—the cultural theme—we return constantly to the ways people make contact with each another: migration, trade, war, imperialism, pilgrimage, gift exchange, diplomacy, travel—and to their social frameworks: the economic and political arenas, the human groups and groupings, the states and civilizations, the sexes and generations, the classes and clusters of identity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[momto2Cs]

We are focusing our studies on areas of interest and compacting the required instruction in areas oldest DD (as well as other two children down the road) is not particularly interested in.  As long as the requisite work is completed, it will be transcripted however it needs to be.  Compacting courses works well for us. :)

 

Exactly this. For compacted studies, we're doing "surveys" of world and American history, with various resources (maybe the history book suggested above for part of it?). I am not worried about government, as both kids plan on getting their undergrad work done at the local cc, part of it as dual enrollment, and they have to take a semester of Political Science at some point with that plan.

 

This upcoming year appears that it will be a year of British history and literature, due to immense interest from my rising 9th grader, and some interest from my rising 7th grader. They've also mentioned a possible study of Asia/South Asia at some point, and dd has always been interested in Africa, so I am storing away ideas from this thread for that.