History sequence in H.S.--did you consider it when planning prior years?

[cintinative]

I had it in my head that I was going to do my sequence like this:

4th--American History

5th--SOTW 1/2

6th--SOTW 2/3

7th--SOTW 3/4

8th--Notgrass American History

9th--????????? (I don't even want to think about HS at this point)

 

The issue is--I have no idea what we will do in 9th grade. We might do PEP, we might do a local co-op, we might do Potter's School, Veritas online, etc.

 

Did you worry about the history progression in your "school options" for high school when deciding history progression for the prior years? I would hate to have my kids do two years of ancient history back to back if I could avoid it, but I don't feel at all ready to make a decision about what "school" we will be doing five years from now. How did you all sort this out? Or did you just trust God to work it out?

 

TIA for any "real life" experience you have in this area!!

[Luckymama]

I didn't worry about it :)

 

We began homeschooling in fifth grade, thinking she'd go back to school in ninth grade. Dd chose ancient history over US that year, so we continued with chronological world history in sixth and seventh. Eighth grade was a strong US history year.

[Starr]

S l o w  down.  All will be revealed in time. :D

 

I would worry more about enjoying SOTW 1 in only half a year. I mean, it's the Ancients! I would give a year to each SOTW book and add in American History as I went. Okay, so that's what we did so many years ago. And we used the activity book. Not all of it but enough for it to be quite worthwhile.

[cintinative]

Thanks! Yes, agree on SOTW 1.  Honestly I would like to do one year of SOTW 1, 2 and 3 and skip SOTW4 entirely. We might do that. Thanks for the encouragement not to worry!  

[chiguirre]

Your oldest is 9? Seriously, do whatever strikes your fancy.

 

In a couple of years, take a look at the colleges and majors your kid is drawn to. At that point, you'll have a better idea of what courses they'll want to take in high school and you can plan backwards for middle school.

 

For example, in Texas, state college students have to take 6 credits of American history and 6 credits of American and Texan government. That's almost a whole semester dedicated to repeating classes you have to take in high school too. It makes a lot of sense to do AP US History  and dual enrollment government in high school to fulfill those requirements and free up slots for classes that are more interesting to the student.

[Paula in MS]

I ended up ditching the 4 year sequence in 7th grade for Veritas Press Omnibus.  So, my schedule looked like

Grades 1-4  Ancient through modern cycle

Grade 5 Ancient

Grade 6 Middle Ages

Grade 7 Ancient (Omnibus)

Grade 8 Middle (Omnibus II)

Grade 9 Modern (Omnibus III)

Grades 10-12 The Omnibus rotation again with IV-VI....Unless I find something else again.  Ha. Ha.

 

I am starting to thing we need an American history somewhere, though.  

 

If I had known about Omnibus earlier, I would have done a 4 year cycle followed by 2 years of American, then Omnibus.  The reality is that new curriculum is always coming out.  The only thing you can do is plan ahead while being flexible.  I know I'm not any help. :)

 

[8filltheheart]

I didn't worry about it before high school, but I don't worry about it during high school either.  ;)  My current high schooler has taken Western Civ, Russian history, and Communism in the 20th century. She is taking US history next yr.  You can follow cyclical history if you want, but you do not need to. 

[Guest]

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Edited July 14, 2016 by Guest

[Amira]

There are so many good options out there depending on what's required where you live and the requirements of potential universities.

 

I didn't worry about history either and I'm glad I didn't because my plans wouldn't have worked anyway.  My oldest ds is doing an online high school and takes their history classes, and my middle son did SWB's HOTAW in 8th grade, is doing Mexican history this year, will do Washington DC and civil rights history in 10th grade, and we'll figure out 11th and 12th grades later.  He did SOTW in elementary and OUP's middle school history series.

 

I know you're not asking this, but I think SOTW is too easy for middle school. 

[NittanyJen]

I have planned how my oldest would get through high school history since we started when he was in 4th grade.  Of course I let him have a say in his high school planning, but so far, he likes my ideas.  We are wrapping up our final year before high school, and the plan is still on track.

 

last half of fourth-- Used Usborne Ancient History encyclopedia (the one that has only Egypt, Greece, and Rome) and had a blast with a giant unit study (literature, history, geography, science, writing . . .) based around the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans.  At the time I thought this was my stalling tactic while I figured out what we "should" do, but in retrospect, it was brilliant.  Both boys loved it and it got them off to a great start.

 

5th-- Pandia Press History Odyssey Level 2 Ancients, plus extra literature and writing

6th-- " Medieval

7th-- " Early Modern

8th-- " Modern

 

Plans for the next 4 years, as of now:

 

9th and 10th-- a 2-year world history tour; I am putting this together now from accumulated resources and WTM recommendations

11th-- US Government, history, and Economics

12th-- his year to take control; he can design two semester-long unit studies that are more focused (ie, Tudor England) of his choice, take university courses, take an AP course, or do a longer tour through his favorite era.  He LOVES this plan of giving him a year to choose what to study in history.  He was also very thorough (for his age) during logic stage studies, and knows history better than most college grads, so I'm not intimidated by having him cover world history in 2 years this last time through.  

 

(Science will go the same way-- 9th grade bio, 10th physics, 11th chem, 12th his choice.  He's already finished with algebra 2, so doing high school physics by 10th will not be a problem).  Again, this gives him a chance to express his choices in a way that will show up on his transcript and allow him to explore some areas of interest before he hits college.

 

 

 

 

 

[AppleGreen]

I am sure I put way more thought into than necessary many years ago when I had time to ponder such things. Now that I have an almost 9th grader, I can tell you any ruminating I did on it was not a great use of my mental energy.

 

My vote is for finding a way to enjoy history with your children. SOTW might be perfect for you for a couple of years, but that may change, and that is totally fine! You may develop a love for writing your own history or creating your own path. I certainly didn't have that confidence when I was first starting, but some of our best history has been when I got right in there. Who knows what history looks like in five years, but when you get there the picture will probably be a lot clearer.  :001_smile:

[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.

In 9th, she did an at home WTM inspired world history study of the time period from 1700 to 2000.  

In 10th, she took an out of the home AP US History class which used Bailey's American Pageant.

In 11th grade, my daughter had an out of the home AP Comparative Gov't and Politics class.

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

[LisaKinVA]

Yes, I did think about it.  But, we also changed curriculums a couple of times with the oldest three -- so they are on a bit different schedules for 6-8.  In the end, we're switching up a bit, so it will go like this:

 

6th -- Ancient to Middle ages

7th -- Renaissance to Modern Times

8th -- Modern Times

9th -- American History

10th -- Western Civ 1

11th -- Western Civ 2

12th -- US Gov't

 

Two children will smoosh the 6th-8th cycle into 2 years, and have it as written.  One has Western Civ 1 & 2 Smooshed...but he can handle it ;)