High School History Spine needed!

[AndreaK]

Hi there, I am new to this forum, but not new to homeschooling. I have a 9 year old, who attends CC and loves Story of the World. I also have a 15 year old, who I didn't start homeschooling until middle school. He has completed a year of ancients, and is ready to move into the middle ages, which is also the cycle of history that my younger son will be in. I have combed the earth looking for a history spine for my 15 year old to no avail. Biblioplan was dry and choppy, Notgrass doesn't follow  4 year cycle, and most of the other books are boring. It would be nice if both of my boys could follow the same history flow, so that our family discussions can be done together. Any suggestions? Is there a book for teens that is like Story of the World?

[Amateur Actress]

Susan Wise Bauer also has upper level history books...History of the Ancient World, History of the Medieval World, History of the Renaissance World.

[almondbutterandjelly]

We like Human Odyssey by the K12 people.  You can get it used on Amazon.  (We're doing Medieval also, which is partly in HO vol. 1 and partly HO vol. 2).  I'm pairing it with Usborne Encyclopedia of World History and Draw Europe.  (We actually dropped SWB's HotAW halfway through 9th grade and switched to HO.)

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited September 5, 2023 by SilverMoon

[Heathermomster]

World History: Our Human Story by Pearson/Holdren or World History by Spielvogel are textbooks.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Heathermomster

[Brad S]

As a textbook spine for medieval-Renaissance, we are planning on using Noble, et al, Western Civilization supplemented by sections from Strayer Ways of the World With Sources, for non-European history (or maybe just using Strayer and dropping Noble next year).  I like that both of those texts refer a lot to primary sources and how to interpret them.  DS seems to like the Noble text as part of our ancient history course (along with the ancient history Great Course by Aldrete).  We are also planning on using the excellent Great Course audio lectures on the Western European middle ages by Daileader.

 

We read SWB's Story of the World series when DS was younger and really liked it, so we started with her high school level HoTAW.  While it's a pretty good book, neither DS nor I were that crazy about it, and we dropped it during 9th grade.  I wanted something more linked to primary sources, he wanted something a little deeper, more interesting to him, and less western-focused.  Biblioplan seemed more simplistic to us; I don't think you'll find SWB's History of the Medieval World choppy -- IMO it's well written.

 

Besides the ones listed here and the posts above, you may want to consider The History of the World by Roberts and Westad which has received some good feedback on its writing style.

 

 

[UmmIbrahim]

My just turned 14 year old son loves the K12 Human Odyssey series and we have some great discussions after reading through the material. (Used on Amazon is how we got it as well)

 

We also use the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia alongside the K12 and read some of the matching topics there for a second perspective. If you are reading through Story of the World vol. 2 with your younger child, you could even have your older child sit in for some of the readings for a third source as well.

 

Good luck finding a spine that works for you!

 

We like Human Odyssey by the K12 people.  You can get it used on Amazon.  (We're doing Medieval also, which is partly in HO vol. 1 and partly HO vol. 2).  I'm pairing it with Usborne Encyclopedia of World History and Draw Europe.  (We actually dropped SWB's HotAW halfway through 9th grade and switched to HO.)

 

[Ggg]

Could you pair HO with History Revealed?

Thanks

[mom31257]

World History by Spielvogel 

 

We really enjoyed this textbook.