For those who have NOT done a 4 year history cycle in high school...

[Heather in VA]

What have you don't instead? I'm curious to hear which subjects/time periods, which curriculum, etc. Anything you've done, I'd love to hear about it. I have done the 4 year cycle with my 2 older ones but I'm thinking with my last one I might not so I'm trying to see what we might do instead. 

[Guest]

9th - World Geography (A Beka)

10th - World History (Notgrass)

11th - American History (Notgrass)

12th - US Govt/Economics (Notgrass)

[SparklyUnicorn]

The plan is one year world.  One year US.  Half year economics and half year government.  Schools tend to do that plus a geography course or other social science type elective (psychology, sociology, etc.).

 

 

[KarenC]

dd1 -strong math & science  

9th grade - geography

10th - 1/2 credit Government

11th - Modern US History

12th 1/2 credit World Current Events

 

dd2 - strong literature & writing

9th - Modern World History 

10th - none

11th - AP US History

12th - AP Human Geography & 1/2 credit Government

 

dd3 - strong math & science

9th - grade - 1/2 credit Government

10th - none

11th - AP US History

12th AP Human Geography

[AK_Mom4]

9th - World Geography (A Beka)

10th - World History (Notgrass)

11th - American History (Notgrass)

12th - US Govt/Economics (Notgrass)

This is what we have done - using different materials as we want secular.

[mom31257]

DD:

9th: Biblioplan Year 1

10th: Biblioplan Year 2

11th: US History BJU DVD

12th: Econ BJU DVD/ Government Dual Enrollment

 

Plan for DS:

9th: 1/2 credit in Geography and finish study of US history with CLE's Changing Frontiers

10th: World History

11th: US History 

12th: Gov/Econ

(Probably BJU for some of these as well as some dual enrollment)

 

[EKS]

I like this sequence for a kid who has gone through world twice before:

 

9: Geography using a college level resource

 

10:  American

 

11 and 12:  World history with forays into topics of interest (history of science, art history, the history of a particular geographic region, etc)

 

 

[Lori D.]

Well, I thought we'd do a 4 year cycle, but student interest waned, and we ended up needing some of that time to pursue other coursework and opportunities.

 

Also, when you hit high school there are certain credits you want to complete in order to meet requirements for admission to college -- typically that is 2-4 credits of Social Science, with 1 credit being American History; a few colleges want to see the 0.5 credit each of Gov't and Econ, a few want to see 1 credit of World History or 1.0 credit World Geography. Most colleges are pretty flexible and accept a wide range of things for those Social Science credits: History, Geography, Philosophy, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science...

 

DSs were 1 grade apart, so we keep together for Social Sciences, and we did Lit. a la WTM/WEM, so that matched up well; we also did Government while doing American History, which was another really good match-up. I also included what we did in grade 7/8 (dropped History for a year-long World Cultures & Geography/Comparative Religions study), as I think that would also be an excellent high school Social Science option, if not done as one of the middle school years.

 

All that said, here's what we did:

 

gr. 7/8

World Cultures & Geography/Comparative Religions

(we focused on Eastern Hemisphere nations, since high school studies almost exclusively focus on Western Civilizations / Christianity, and since 4/5 of the world's population are Eastern Hemisphere nations and house the other major religions of the world, which heavily influences culture, history, politics, it seemed very important to me to cover this vast area at some point)

 

gr. 8/9

1 credit = Ancient World History (DIY -- we made our own from variety of resources)

1 credit = English: Ancient Lit. (DIY)

 

gr. 9/10

1 credit = Social Science: 20th Century World History (DIY)

1 credit = English: "Worldviews in Classic Sci-Fi Lit" (DIY)

 

gr. 10/11

1 credit = Social Science: American History (Notgrass)

0.5 credit = Social Science: Government (Great Source tedxtbook + YMCA Youth & Gov't model legislation)

1 credit = English: American Lit (DIY)

 

gr. 11/12

0.5 credit = Social Science: Economics (Teaching Company: Economics + Dave Ramsey Foundations in Personal Finance + several books)

0.5 credit = Social Science: Church History (DIY)

0.25 credit = Social Science: Medieval History (DIY)

1.00 credit = Social Science: Worldviews (multiple summer camps of Worldview Academy + multiple books)

1 credit = English: British Lit (DIY)

 

gr. 12

1.00 credit = Social Science: Worldviews (multiple summer camps of Worldview Academy + multiple books)

 

 

Best of luck in coming up with what works for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited October 17, 2016 by Lori D.

[Hilltopmom]

Oldest is history buff & historical re enactor, so has a lot of history experience, but is going into STEM instead & wanted more time on robotics & coding than history, so now in 11th we aren't doing hardcore history anymore.

 

 

9- ancient world & Renaissance (started out planning to use SWB high school stuff but switched away from it to a hodge- podge of stuff I'd have to go look up

9- half year British history elective

 

10- american history loosely using the FundaFunda outline with the Great Courses & a public school text

10- WWII full year elective, Great Courses & way too many novels & non fiction books

 

11- US Govt & economics (just checking the box on these unless he does DE Econ next semester)) & election coverage, will add personal finance

 

12- world (but likely more specific than that, interest led- thinking Eastern Hemisphere or Middle East) , either Great Courses plus living books, or DE at the CC more likely so he can get credit for it.

Edited October 17, 2016 by Hilltopmom

[quark]

We have a student who is more interested in math than history but interested enough in history to unschool with resources he liked.

 

9th - Ancient Civ through a study of epics from Gilgamesh to the Ramayana. We used Vandiver's lectures from the Great Courses. We also used Larry Gonick's The Cartoon Histories as a very fun supplement. We had loads of fun but not much written output. Lots of oral discussions and debates.

10th - Survey of World History with special emphasis on areas of interest including culinary history of selected world cultures, the industrial revolution and the Jewish holocaust.

11th - US Government through DE with emphasis on the presidential elections. Special report on the campaign strategies of candidate of choice.

12th - US History through DE with emphasis on events after 1865 (very intense with 2 essays a week in addition to 2 longer research papers).

[Loesje22000]

In Belgium grade 7/8 covers Prehistory - Ancients

Grade 9/10 covers Middle Ages - 18th Century

Grade 11/12 19th+20th century

History is about a half credit per year.

 

Geography is also taught every year during grade 7-12, about a half credit per year (integrating topography, cultural geography, physical geography etc.)

 

Intro to Economy is required during grade 7/8 and after that, only those in the Economy track will keep the subject.

[Luckymama]

9: US History (K12's book Anerican Odyssey)

 

10: Ancient World History

AP Human Geography

 

11: AP Comparative Government and Politics

 

12: AP US Government and Politics

 

(She also has AP Psych, AP Macroeconomics, and AP Microeconomics. Her transcript is skewed toward social sciences and Arabic + Chinese. I teach/facilitate all but the languages.)

[elegantlion]

This is what we ended up doing: 

 

World History – Renaissance to Elizabethan 

World History – Ancients

Themes in Human Cultures*

American Government. 5 credit

American History – Civil War to Cold War  

 

*We examined cultures through things like the development of time, ethics, power, and religion. 

 

[Heather in VA]

Wow - so many great ideas. I'm not sure if that's good or not LOL. I'm going to have to expand my horizons and have some fun.

[happypamama]

My ninth grader is doing workd history: medieval this year and will do a year of US history at some point, possibly next year. Probably a year of government or half year government and half year economics sometime, and one more year TBD by her interests but possibly either Ancients or early modern/modern world history.

 

After doing more in depth history with a more or less four year cycle, a one year world history from Ancients to modern just does not really appeal to me. But I don't know about my student. She might find it an easy refresher sort of class, or she might find it completely uninteresting.

[historically accurate]

My oldest is currently in high school; here is our plan.

 

9th: History of Science (kind of a 1 year world history by looking at great breakthroughs in science) 1 credit, World War II 1/2 credit

10th: US History 1 credit

11th: Political Science/Government 1 credit World Geography 1/2 credit

12th: Choice of time period

[almondbutterandjelly]

Thus far, this is the plan:

9th: Ancient World History (1.0 credit)

10th:  Government (.5 credit), Medieval World History (.5 credit)

11th: Economics (.5 credit), Modern World History (.5 credit)

12th: US History (1.0 credit)

 

 

[RootAnn]

Dd#1 has so far done or is doing:

9Th: US History (to WWI)

10Th: 1 sem Gov, 1 sem Econ

 

The plan is to do 2nd half US History in 11th and interest led in 12Th (probably ancients).

[MerryAtHope]

Oldest: 1 year US history, 2 years World History (AD-1700's, and 1700-present), 1 semester Japanese History (his choice), 1 semester Government, plus a World Views course.

 

Youngest: 1 year US history, 1 year modern World History, 1 semester Psychology (her choice), 1 semesters Government, plus a World Views course. 

Edited October 17, 2016 by MerryAtHope

[KarenNC]

This has been influenced by the availability of a hybrid homeschool-public school program with our local high school, dual enrollment with the community college for 11th and 12th, and my daughter's desire to not do ancient and medieval a third time ;).

 

9th: US government/civics (co-op) and introduction to psychology/sociology (homegrown)

10th: US history since 1865 (hybrid program--did CLEP afterwards)

11th: macroeconomics (homegrown, plan to CLEP), possibly sociology (dual enrollment)

12th: world civilizations II (dual enrollment)

[SparklyUnicorn]

We would have liked to do a far more interesting history combo, but a lot of what we are doing for history is dictated by the regulations.  Which given what I do gets no recognition at all by the powers that be I shouldn't care so much about following the regs.

 

That's another discussion.  LOL

 

 

[Heather in VA]

My ninth grader is doing workd history: medieval this year and will do a year of US history at some point, possibly next year. Probably a year of government or half year government and half year economics sometime, and one more year TBD by her interests but possibly either Ancients or early modern/modern world history.

 

After doing more in depth history with a more or less four year cycle, a one year world history from Ancients to modern just does not really appeal to me. But I don't know about my student. She might find it an easy refresher sort of class, or she might find it completely uninteresting.

 

This is my problem. I'd love to do a World Geography/Cultures one year and probably a 20th century. If I then did 1 year of American it would only leave on year for a 'World History' and everything I see looks fast and superficial. It's probably not, but after doing years of 4 year cycle history it's hard to adjust to. I'd love to find a really good program that does it in two years. That might be a good compromise. I know I could use a 1 year program and expand but if I could avoid designing my own I'd prefer that. 

 

I do Government and Econ as electives so that won't take up a year of history. 

[Lori D.]

This is my problem. I'd love to do a World Geography/Cultures one year and probably a 20th century. If I then did 1 year of American it would only leave on year for a 'World History' and everything I see looks fast and superficial. It's probably not, but after doing years of 4 year cycle history it's hard to adjust to. I'd love to find a really good program that does it in two years. That might be a good compromise. I know I could use a 1 year program and expand but if I could avoid designing my own I'd prefer that. 

 

I do Government and Econ as electives so that won't take up a year of history. 

 

That's where a careful use of 8th grade gives you a 5th year for all your desired topics. :)

 

(Then you get into the later high school years and your student ends up going in a completely different direction and you have to throw all those carefully planned Social Studies credits out the window to leave room for the student's new college/career path interests...  :laugh: )

[swimmermom3]

We would have loved to use the 4-year history cycle for high school, but Sailor Dude's initial choice to attend public high school for ninth grade after five years of homeschooling wrecked havoc on that plan.

 

9th grade:  Global Studies (public school first semester), Ancient World History up to 600 AD at home second semester (son loved it)

 

10th grade: AP European History - home study for which I submitted syllabus for audit. Ds did not take the exam but later kicked himself once he had more AP exams under his belt because he realized he had actually been well prepared.

 

11th grade: No history. Ds's AP Macroeconomics class was one credit

 

12th grade:  AP US History - home study, AP US Government, AP Comparative Government, AP Microeconomics (the boy finally decided on his direction for college)

[swimmermom3]

This is my problem. I'd love to do a World Geography/Cultures one year and probably a 20th century. If I then did 1 year of American it would only leave on year for a 'World History' and everything I see looks fast and superficial. It's probably not, but after doing years of 4 year cycle history it's hard to adjust to. I'd love to find a really good program that does it in two years. That might be a good compromise. I know I could use a 1 year program and expand but if I could avoid designing my own I'd prefer that. 

 

I do Government and Econ as electives so that won't take up a year of history. 

 

Ds and talked about what we would do if we could do it all over.  He would cover World History up until about 1350 for ninth grade.  10th - 12th grade would cover World History from 1350 to now with extra time spent on European and American history.  He wants American history woven into the world/European history in order to provider a greater sense of context.

 

We used AP texts and AP formatting for his ancient world history course as well as, obviously his AP Euro and AP US classes. We both disliked the intensity of AP history pacing, but liked other aspects.

 

[SkateLeft]

Kid #1:

9th - World History

10th - US History

11th (dual enrolled) - Human Geography / Microeconomics

12th (dual enrolled) - US Politics / World Civ 1

 

Kid #2:

9th - World Geography

10th - US History

11th - World History

12th (dual enrollment) - Arab Culture / American Government and Politics

 

Kid #3:

9th - Big History Project World History

10th - US Government (semester) / Economics (spring semester)

I have US History and at least a semester of modern world history planned. He'll also do a semester of human geography.

[Heather in VA]

Ds and talked about what we would do if we could do it all over.  He would cover World History up until about 1350 for ninth grade.  10th - 12th grade would cover World History from 1350 to now with extra time spent on European and American history.  He wants American history woven into the world/European history in order to provider a greater sense of context.

 

We used AP texts and AP formatting for his ancient world history course as well as, obviously his AP Euro and AP US classes. We both disliked the intensity of AP history pacing, but liked other aspects.

 

Thanks - I much prefer American woven in as well. That's what I've done with my older two. This last one is just different. She has learning issues and things need to be spelled out for her. She's smart and likes history but things aren't intuitive to her. My other kids did Omnibus and Biblioplan. It went great. They didn't do a ton of writing, maybe one essay a week, and I really never had to work to make connections or pull out the ideas. And I never had to help them understand concurrent events or see cause and effect. 

 

This one won't be doing AP or dual enrollment. I do think she'll be able to go to college but it won't be until she's of college age and then will probably start with community college. She just needs more time to develop that kind of thinking and to learn to work with her learning issues. 

 

All that to say that's why I wonder if a focused American history wouldn't be better for her. We are currently doing a cycle in 3 years using Human Odyssey so she won't be completely ignorant of the other events. 

 

Why is it that kids aren't exactly alike  :lol: ?

[GoodGrief]

9th:  AP US Govt and Politics (Thinkwell, with supplemental extracurriculars; took AP exam)

10th: World History (audited AP World History with AP Homeschoolers, and took SAT subject test at the end of the year; had difficulty finding testing location for AP exam!)

11th: US History (a curric that someone here on the WTM boards wrote and posted)

12th: Alaska History (1 semester, state requirement), Economics (Thinkwell, 2 semesters)

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I would have loved to figure out a 4 year world history cycle that integrated economics, geography, and government (and US...as if US isn't part of the world, but I'm sure many here KWIM). 

 

I just didn't want to have to put that together myself, and I didn't know of anything out there like that.

 

 

[PeterPan]

Does she have any particular areas of special interest?  If she does, then you can use them to drive/create courses.  Or you can use your more typical progression (geography, US, world, gov/econ) and let her interests drive how you approach them.

 

[Momto6inIN]

1st DS is doing this:

9th & 10th - Ancient & Medieval/Renaissance World History using MOH I-III and World History Detective (for output) and Annenberg Western Tradition videos

11th - US Government using A Noble Experiment (I don't recommend this, but we're making it work because I paid for it :( ) and Economics using Great Courses

12th - US History in World Context probably using American Odyssey and the rest of Annenberg Western Tradition videos and Critical Thinking in US History

 

2nd DS is just starting high school and has much more of an interest in history than 1st DS, so I'm not completely sure what his sequence will look like yet. But here's a strong possibility:

9th - US Government and Economics (this is what they're doing this year - see above)

10th & 11th - 2 years of US History in World Context using Great Courses History of the US, American Odyssey, Critical Thinking in US History, MOH IV

12th - Ancient & Medieval History using Great Courses and World History Detective (for output)

 

It's also possible 2nd DS will decide to condense 10th & 11th into 1 year and do an year of interest led history at some point.

[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.  

 

Ninth grade was the last year she did history at home.

 

 

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