SWB's The History of the Ancient World

[tenoraddict]

I think I sent out an SOS already on this. I know that I did on the Facebook site. And I posted on the General board. But here goes again...

 

If you have used this curriculum (text and study guide), I'd love to hear from you. There are 85 lessons! I'm trying to make it work for a 7-8 grade once/week co-op next year. We only meet 32 times, so my plan to cover one chapter/week is not a good one. Two lessons/week means I'd have to cut 21 lessons; I can live with that.

 

Help!

 

Thanks,

 

Becky

[SilverMoon]

I wouldn't use that book with 7th-8th graders unless they were all strong, advanced readers. It's solidly high school level.

 

Human Odyssey volume 1 by K12 publishers is more appropriate for that age.

[redsquirrel]

Have you read the book? I can see the parents of middle school students raising an eyebrow or two at some of the stuff in there, or being outright uncomfortable. It is written for adults, the curriculum to use it for high school students came later. I would absolutely use it with a high school student who is a strong reader and writer, but I would think twice about using it with a middle schooler.

 

And the study guide is written to a rhetoric stage student, not a logic stage student.

 

 

[AmyontheFarm]

My son loves history.  We used this book for grade 9.  I wouldn't have wanted to use it at a younger age level.  I'd suggest you put it back on the shelf until high school.

[katilac]

Have you read the book? I can see the parents of middle school students raising an eyebrow or two at some of the stuff in there, or being outright uncomfortable. 

 

Heh, yes, I well remember the "plowing her damp field" kerfluffle when it first came out. 

 

OP, I would not recommend the book for 7th/8th graders. It is solidly high school level, probably more difficult than the vast majority of high school books. 

 

I'd only use it with a strongly academic high schooler who really liked it. dd1 was a strong reader in 9th who liked history, but she bailed in the first quarter, lol. I do like the book a lot, so for dd2 in 11th this year, I'm going to pick and choose some chapters to fold into our studies. 

Edited June 1, 2016 by katilac

[GailV]

Heh, yes, I well remember the "plowing her damp field" kerfluffle when it first came out. 

 

 

 

Also cutting off testicles ... more than once.  Well, not happening more than once to the same person, but it's just something that comes up in various mythologies. 

 

Someday SWB will write a history of middle school, we hope.  In the meantime, this isn't it.  It's for high school and above.  

[Sahamamama]

Chiming in to say that I read it, and would not recommend it for middle school, nor would I just hand it off to a highschooler. HTH.

[kchrrs]

I listened the audible copy of this in the car with my seventh grade son who loves history. That said there were quite a few parts that were too intense/graphic for him to hear. When we came to those parts we would turn it off until I could listen and find an appropriate place to restart. I would then summarize what we had skipped over. It is very content heavy and retention would definitely be improved with multiple opportunities to listen to it. I did find that being on audio allowed us to not become bogged down and overwhelmed as I feel reading would.