StephanieZ Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) So, I've got just one last homeschooler, and she starts official high school next year. I've been very satisfied with how we've done every subject with my older two . . . EXCEPT . . . history . . . Epic fails abound in our journey with trying to do high school level history. We've just muddled through high school history with very mixed success. We survived, and the older two are both excellent students, smart kids, off or on-his-way to college . . . but their history educations after middle school were miserable. We loved SOTW when the kids were tiny, as we then had great access to a library and it was delightful overall, with all the hands-on activities and reading, etc. Then, we loved SonLight for elementary-to-middle school (although I culled out the religious content), but SL is not for us for high school. So far as high school history courses we used . . . we tried PA Homeschooler's AP World History (total disaster, awful teacher, very unlike any of the other PAH classes we've used) . . . we tried Oak Meadow syllabus for World History (not sure why this was a reject. Maybe it was just dull? Maybe my kid wasn't self-directed enough and I wasn't involved enough? Maybe I should try it again?) we did Thinkwell's AP Econ along with mom-led-book-discussion of another econ book. That was satisfactory and got dd college credit on the AP exam for microecon . . . could use that again, but was definitely not a history course and wasn't very substantial, IMHO. We own a lot of Great Courses video series, and used a world history series as a quick-and-dirty history credit one year when some other curriculum was rejected . . . I have plenty of those video series around for world/western civ/etc . . . Could use them, but they aren't exactly a full course . .. So, now, I'm looking at our 9th grade plan for next year, and I want something better for this kid for history. Can y'all give me some suggestions?? Criteria: + High quality materials, high quality work, little/no busy work. + Dd is very bright and advanced intellectually. Works at 11-12th grade level in general. Can read anything, college+ level, no problem. BUT, I wouldn't want her to have the quantity of a college level course, that's for sure. + As self-directed as possible, as I'll be hands-on teaching biology and literature/writing, and it'd work better not to have the history also require hours/week of my input. An hour or two a week of mom-time is totally fine, but not hours/day or lots of mom-time preparing stuff. + We tend to over schedule and over commit, and next year is going to be more full than ever. I'd prefer history to be at most 5 hrs/wk or so of time commitment. + We're liberal politically and also atheists. We can work around minor religious content or a religious context (think SOTW or Rod and Staff), but we have zero interest in using a curriculum that has as a primary intent of promoting a Christian/evangelical worldview and/or right wing/etc politics. (I.e., we're done with SonLight.) I'm open to any region/time period content, as dd has a solid history background up to this point, and we've got 4 years of high school to cover the bases again . . . Suggestions?? Thanks. :) Edited February 25, 2017 by StephanieZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 My parameters were similar: secular, high quality input, no busy work, quality output, self directed. We used a large number of Great Courses lectures which are college level, but very accessible, added a spine textbook, and let the kids run wit it. Output was through essays/research paper. We did four years of history: Ancients, Medieval/Renaissance, US in World Context . 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 We're doing pretty much what regentrude said except we do history over 3 years (ancient/medieval in 1 and US in world context over 2) and do gov/econ the 4th year. Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 Pandia Press fits your bill. DD loves it and it is a good curriculum, although I do have a few complaints about the unevenness of their assignments - some are quick and others are what I consider to be a week long assignments 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 We've been doing a humanities course using these Great Courses: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1565855345/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1598031759/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and these textbooks and literature anthologies: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0077338448/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0077338480/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0077429400/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0077338499/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 We mainly listen, read and discuss. I do assign one or two of the text's essay questions as written work for each chapter. These usually require one solid paragraph, some could be done as 5 paragraph essays if you want a couple longer assignments. We plan to do what we can this semester and summer then take a break for an online class (WTMA History of Science) then finish up over the following summers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAR Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 We're looking at history classes through Open Tent Academy. We've never taken classes from OTA but feel it's a solid option for us this year. DD is leaning toward the class on 20th Century Wars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 We're doing Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Ancient World this year. The bulk of the actual day to day history is reading the text and writing about each chapter daily. Before she starts a new literature book she does some research on the history of it, the author, the times in which it was written using the Timetables of History book, an encyclopedia, and researches and gives a paper on her research. That is about one every 1-2 months. I will require a bigger research paper by the end of the year. This is pretty self directed once we got started. It is working well and we will stick with this for next year using her Middle Ages Book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuckoomamma Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 I'm toying with the idea of paying Tom Richey to oversee my dd's AP Euro next year. Any interest in maybe joining us? Thinking maybe mjbucks1 and some others would be interested, as well. I don't think the workload will only be 5 hours/week, though. Do you mind sharing if the World History teacher at PAH is still teaching there? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 Have you looked at modifying FundaFunda's free US History syllabus? You can just cut out the things you don't have access to, time for, or want to pay extra for. (For us, the Critical Thinking Company books were not a good investment for the $$ and time we put into them. We were also not going for the AP exam.) You can add one or two other books if you cut out something. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
learners4life Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 I'm toying with the idea of paying Tom Richey to oversee my dd's AP Euro next year. Any interest in maybe joining us? Thinking maybe mjbucks1 and some others would be interested, as well. I don't think the workload will only be 5 hours/week, though. Do you mind sharing if the World History teacher at PAH is still teaching there? This sounds like a smart idea! Tom Richey also works with someone named Meredith Noah who does more of the AP Euro side of things. We used her tutoring service when I pulled Hailey from last year's PAH AP Euro class in February. Meredith is excellent! We were very happy with her. She even invited dd to join the weekend review classes, via skype, that she was giving her public high school school students right before the exam. (PAH AP Euro teacher was a first year teacher who did not return this year. It is the only bad experience we have ever had with PAH.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 DD is LOVING Philip Daileader's three Great Courses on the Middle Ages this year. Absolutely loves them. We liked the looks of SWB's History of the Medieval/Renaissance world and the associated guides. For a fast reader, they'd be doable. DD is liking Pandia Press's Medieval Level 3 this year. Their Modern Level 2 might also be suitable for ninth grade (maybe some substitutions with the literature for a very strong reader?). DD will be in tenth next year, and she requested European History. I considered Spielvogel (mainly because he was teaching at my university while I was a history major there, but I never got around to taking any of his classes, which I now wish I had), but I decided it was a bit much for DD. I settled on the AP version of McKay's History of Western Society, and probably some Great Courses Lectures as supplements. McKay looks readable and interesting; I'm not sure of all the differences between the versions, and even though we may or may not aim for the AP exam, the AP version was a price and quality I wanted to pay, and it has the DBQ's in the back, which I think will be interesting to DD. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieZ Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 I'm toying with the idea of paying Tom Richey to oversee my dd's AP Euro next year. Any interest in maybe joining us? Thinking maybe mjbucks1 and some others would be interested, as well. I don't think the workload will only be 5 hours/week, though. Do you mind sharing if the World History teacher at PAH is still teaching there? I will research Tom Richey. Can you give me some links to investigate? Thanks!! The PAH World teacher is the same one that is currently listed as the only world teacher at PAH . . . Initials are G. S. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuckoomamma Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Thanks for the feedback on AP World. The link to Tom Richey is: http://www.tomrichey.net/ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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