History: The Human Odyssey - how to use?

[NatYoung17]

HI!

 

I just bought the first of The Human Odyssey books for my 12 yo and I'm wondering how people are using it?

Do you have your kids write up a summary for each chapter? Note just the main points...?

I don't want her to just read it, because I think writing things down keeps in your memory better...but I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it, so it doesn't become too tedious...??

Thanks!

[EKS]

I had my son write about things that interested him or that I decided were important (which might be a whole chapter or part of a chapter).  But he didn't necessarily write something for every chapter.  Another thing I started doing, once we got to HO3 (but would have done if I had thought of it much sooner) was to find sort readings that stretched his reading level that pertained to the topic being discussed.  He would then read them and answer questions about them in writing while having a discussion with me about them (so the discussion was based on the questions, but instead of just talking, he had to write out coherent answers).

 

Knowing what I know now, I'd have my student produce some sort of output for each chapter but I'd mix it up--outlining, summarizing, writing an essay, writing a short story (if she likes that), and discussing/answering questions about supplemental readings.  If she likes art, you could even have her create artwork (or a skit, song, dance, video, comic strip, etc) to go with a chapter or two.  If there were particular skills I wanted my student to work on I'd be sure to cycle back to them several times each year.

 

 

[RootAnn]

I posted some samples in a previous thread of what DD#2 did last year with HO book 1. She also does map work (with Map Trek maps) and keeps a timeline book. She'll continue that this year with the rest of HO Book 1 & about half of HO Book 2. I wrote last year's assignments loosely based off of History Odyssey's assignments - lots of summaries, drawing pictures, and writing short bios. She's my artsy girl & she also isn't afraid to write (even if her spelling isn't the greatest).

 

This year, I don't plan on writing detailed plans - just letter her notebook her way through (doing maps & timeline stuff as she comes across them). I wouldn't expect a kid to be able to do this without some direction if they hadn't done it before. She might end up needing more scaffolding, but I'm going to see how it goes at the beginning.

[Momto6inIN]

We discuss and keep a timeline and she writes a once a week summary for output.

 

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[ScoutTN]

We discuss and she either outlines or writes a summary once every week. We supplement with literature and library books. We make a timeline too. We are doing the 3 books over 4 years.

[MinivanMom]

I had my kids write an outline of each chapter. We would discuss the chapter when I looked over each outline. At the end of each section of the book, we would take a week to read primary documents and discuss the major historical themes.

[ScoutTN]

Primary sources are a nice extra. We did that too this year.