What are you doing for middle school (7th &8th grade) history?

[wehave8]

The title says it all...well, except maybe add what you've done working up to middle school, also.  :)

 

 

Pam

[historically accurate]

We've done Build Your Library/Story of the World and mom-designed unit studies up til this point. 

 

For 7th grade, dd is doing The History of US (the whole series) with mom-picked lit, movies and hands-on activities added. For 8th grade, she will do Build Your Library 7 (geography).

 

Older child did BYL 7 in 7th, and K12 Human Odyssey Volume 3 with mom-picked lit, movies & hands-on activities added.

 

Youngest child is paired with middle (current 7th grader). She will do something completely different TBD as she will do BYL 7 in 6th grade. Maybe the K12 Human Odyssey series as I still own that?

[mytwomonkeys]

My son is in 8th grade. We are studying American History. I’m just making it up (at least through December). I used abookintime.com as our spine & we are using living books, movies, written narrations, drive thru history, and online history games. So far so good.

[purduemeche]

We are a Tapestry of Grace family and are really enjoying the literature for our 6th, 7th and 8th grade boys!  For Year 3 units 3-4: Jungle Book, Just So Stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Invisible Man, She, King Solomon's Mines, An Age of Extremes (Joy Hakim).

 

We don't use much else on the list of TOG options outside of the maps and Accountability/Thinking questions for Dialectic students.  We started with grand plans of doing it all, but then life happened.  And 11 kids.

[pocjets]

We are using Omnibus by VP.

[Farrar]

We did a full history cycle in elementary. For middle school, we've been doing unit studies on various topics chosen by the kids. Right now, one of my 8th graders is using Prufrock Press's Exploring America books and I love it (and he likes it fine as well).

[frugalmamatx]

We've been doing Lifepac {I know - different than everyone else}. I'll either continue with that or possibly spend 7th studying New Zealand / Australia / Oceania history {If I can find a darn book!}. 

[ByGrace3]

Biblioplan for us this year. 7th, 5th, and 2nd.

[ScoutTN]

We did SOTW and some VP for elementary. 

 

Dd did not want to go through SOTW again, but I wanted something that would still keep her on the same 4 year cycle, so her history studies would be in the same time period that Ds is studying. I chose K12 Human Odyssey with literature to supplement. There are three volumes, which we use over 4 years. Dd is in 7th, so now in her third year with these books. They have a strong narrative text, attractive layout, and are inexpensive used on Amazon. My Dd reads about 5 or 6 novels, plus biographies and non-fiction books from the library, to add substance to parts I choose to emphasize or that she has particular interest in. She often reads the picture books I have for Ds too! Or joins us on the sofa when I read to him.  :)  I vary the writing assignments depending on what else she is doing. We do lots of discussion. Lots! We do a timeline each year and I require my kids to memorize 5 important dates from each time period.  

 

7th grade. Hormones, brain fog, and several outsourced classes, oh my! I do not make a huge deal out of history. We keep it simple and enjoyable. We are not big hands-on project people. We do two or three simple enrichment things a year. A recipe, a play, a FT, a craft, nothing elaborate. Mostly we just read and discuss. Dd reads well and is a humanities kind of girl. There is always more to learn and we cannot "cover" everything. We do not rush and do skim some things. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2017 by ScoutTN

[tmstranger]

We've done SOTW, and last year, my middle schooler did BYL 7th grade along with SOTW 3. 

 

This year, he's doing SOTW4 along with Civics 8 from Oak Meadow.  It's a lot of work, so we're modifying things a bit.

[Zoo Keeper]

different combinations of:

 

Ambleside Online's Year 6 or Year 7

 

Story of the World Vol. 4, with

, and various fiction/non fiction reading  (inspired by the SL catalog, what the library had, and what I had).

 

A Little History of the World, along with Reading Like a Historian

[sbgrace]

7th and now into 8th--we're working through Glencoe Journey Across Time along with Stanford's Reading Like A Historian for additional source document work. 

 

[Heatherwith4]

This year, we are doing BYL 7 and he’s doing Saxon Pre-Algebra.

[KrissiK]

Nottgrass. For 7th grade he did From Adam to Us and this year (8th grade)  we're doing the American History book. I can't remember the name.

[Garga]

Math:  CLE

 

Writing:  Writing with Skill

 

History:  History Odyssey, Early Modern

 

Science:  Rainbow Science

 

Grammar:  CLE
 

Art:  Discovering Great Artists

 

Health:  Choices Magazine, various videos on Netflix, "The Art of Civilized Conversation"

 

Logic:  Perplexors, Puzzle Games, Smarty Pants workbook, Analogies Workbooks

 

Literature:  Various fiction books I already own that cover American historical events (take place during the civil war, or rev. war, or on the Mayflower, etc.)

 

 

[Tumbatoo]

We used Sonlight through core F (6th grade), and then switched to VP Omnibus for 7th. I'm planning to do a mix of Omnibus and Georgia studies for 8th since d wants to go to public high school.

[Soror]

I've been undecided on his grade with his age on the cut-off thus 2 are listed at a time- 

 

7/8th- This year he is using Mom made studies on Japanese history.

 

6/7th- Last year ds used BYL 7 for history, 

 

5/6th- Before that was a US study with k12 and stacks of books- mom made

 

4th/5th -Before that was medieval history using some Mills, OUP, a million books, I don't remember what else my memory isn't that good!

[Miss Tick]

Being on my phone means I can't read the complete title, but I surmise from the previous posts that you are looking for middle school history? Maybe everything? Hahaha, sometimes the "smart" phone makes me look dumb.

 

After an elementary cycle of SOTW I put my twins in K12 Human Odyssey. Since younger dd is working through SOTW a cycle behind I've just kept everyone on the same schedule and coordinated bedtime read-alouds with the time period. Another boardie did the hard work of shuffling the K12HO second to match. This has been great for us. History is the "lite" subject here. Everybody reads and does a timeline, and the read-alouds give a feel for the period, but that is about it, a subject to be enjoyed and maybe discussed.

 

Lite history balances our focus on math and science and foreign languages and Writing with Skill.

[RootAnn]

We use SOTW in elementary. Some kids get two full rounds, most get 1 1/2 times through. Oldest went from SOTW 1 to Light to the Nations (Catholic textbook) 1 in 7th & Light to the Nations 2 in 8th.

 

Second kid did SOTW fully twice through, finishing SOTW4 in 7th. In 8th, she did Ancients again using K12's Human Odyssey.

 

Third kid did SOTW1-4 through 5th grade. She's now in 6th (ish) and is doing Medieval with K12's Human Odyssey (end of vol 1, about half of vol 2) in a Pandia Press History Odyssey-type fashion, so lots of other resources with it. Plan to continue that in 7th - Early Modern. Will play 8th by ear.

[Aurelia]

We did Build Your Library 8th grade last year (History of Science), and I'm trying to find something more than what we already have, which is Word History Detective by the Critical Thinking Company. It's ok and gets done, but it's nothing new (we've done Ancients at least 3 times already, and middle ages at least once), and it stops there. So I'm looking for something for next semester. Maybe late US history, since DD is interested in that. It may be a combinations of Moving Beyond the Page (their social studies for 12-14 is US history) and the Exploring America books. I don't want to make it too heavy though, because DD is already doing high school level science, and will be doing HS level English and Health next semester, along with algebra.

[Mona]

We did the My Father's World history cycle and then dd did US/Pennsylvania history for 8th using Keystones 2 while ds went on to ancient history in 9th. https://www.lampposthomeschool.com/social-studies/state-history/pennsylvaniakeystones2/

[happypamama]

7th grader did History Odyssey's ancients and medieval using Kingfisher and Human Odyssey the last two years. This year he is doing Notgrass's America the Beautiful. No idea about next year yet.

[MinivanMom]

7th grade: K12 Human Odyssey 3 (we used the first two K12 Human Odyssey books in 5th and 6th)

 

8th grade: K12 American Odyssey

 

We had used Sonlight cores for 1st-4th; I think they were Cores B-E. We covered world history in 1st-2nd and American history in 3rd-4th. I really like doing dedicated American history after a world history cycle.

[2_girls_mommy]

We did WTM style history, following the 4 yr cycle. So whichever stream we were on, use the KHE to read and outline and to put dates on a timeline book. Read related books (often that was a chapter from SOTW, but also library books on the topics. The SOTW AG booklists are helpful here too.) Mapwork in the Geography Coloring Book, writing on topics from history from the extra readings and filing in the WTM set up binder with all of the tabs. Occasional projects, field trips add to the study. And we like Classical House of Learning Literature blog for lit readings that tie into SOTW for the time periods it has.  We added an original source packet for American History from the WTM suggestions that was good one year. And we really went into depth with state history the year we did modern American History, just doing both simultaneously. We would just add the layer of studying what was happening in our state at each stage of history. 

[Momto6inIN]

We do the 3 Human Odyssey texts spread out over 4 years from 5th-8th along with discussion, a few projects, and weekly summaries and timeline entries. They also do the Trail Guides to US and World History and some iCivics mixed in where appropriate throughout those 4 years.

 

Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk

Eta: Trail Guides to Geography, not History

Edited September 27, 2017 by Momto5inIN

[hollyhock]

We cycle through the R&S 7 history text, then SOTW 3 and 4 for world history from about grades 3-8, so grades 7 and 8 are either one of those, depending where we are in the cycle.

[Heathermomster]

DS completed history for 7th and 8th grades following the WTM history notebook recs using K12 and OUP books for Ancients and Middle Ages.  We supplemented with documentaries, field trips, and some historical fiction.

[wehave8]

Reading all of these.  What a variety.

Of the repeats, it looks like Human Odyssey, History Odyssey, and SOTW are quite popular.

 

 

Pam

[RootAnn]

Build Your Library (7th is mentioned at least three times) also shows up, just not as much as K12's Human Odyssey and some of the others. I also saw Veritas Press (VP) mentioned a few times.

[momtofive]

We've successfully used Heart of Dakota for most of our homeschooling years. It could be overwhelming if you tried to do everything. We make it work for us, choosing our own thing for math, language arts, and at times going with their picks for the rest...depending on the year. We really love their history and excellent book choices! :D

[wehave8]

We've successfully used Heart of Dakota for most of our homeschooling years. It could be overwhelming if you tried to do everything. We make it work for us, choosing our own thing for math, language arts, and at times going with their picks for the rest...depending on the year. We really love their history and excellent book choices! :D

 

How many levels at a time do you tackle?  And the ages of your dc?

 

Pam

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited May 17, 2022 by SilverMoon

[OrganicJen]

My reluctant reader is actually loving 7th grade Build Your Library this year. I never tried it before because he is so reluctant to read and it is tons of reading, but I just have him do the reading aloud since he won't actually read if I'm not supervising and he has told me several times how much he loves the curriculum. I've been in mild shock at how well it's going.

[shinyhappypeople]

We've been doing Lifepac {I know - different than everyone else}. I'll either continue with that or possibly spend 7th studying New Zealand / Australia / Oceania history {If I can find a darn book!}. 

 

Us, too.  12 yo is doing Lifepac, but the 4th grade world geography book.  It's going pretty well.  

 

We also own Mystery of History volume 1 and as soon as life settles down a bit we'll start that.  Today might actually be the big (quiet, no interruptions!) day.  Fingers crossed :) 

[mamaraby]

We're using History Odyssey. I tried switching it up this year, but ds requested we keep on with HO. We did Ancients last year (for 6th) and Middle Ages this year (7th). Ds is going to public school for high school so I think 8th will be some version of American hsitory. I'm leaning towards the one from History Odyssey which I believe is high school level. I will probably adapt it accordingly.

 

We're using WWS and a number of the other WTM suggestions, but skipped Latin this year and have not done logic given the paucity of secular options that don't also require piecing a bunch of things together. Ds is not a natural writer, so we're spending some of the time we would have spent on logic on giving ds enough time to write. The rest we spend on current events type discussion.

[fourisenough]

We did SOTW (2nd-5th), Ancients with The Classical Historian/CTC World History Detective (6th), and are doing CLE American history this year (7th).

 

I would like to find a good 9th grade level world history course for next year. Anyone have any suggestions?

[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.

 

 

If you have an interest is seeing the resources we used, let me know and I'll post them.

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.

 

 

I had my daughter keep a Book of the Centuries when she began homeschooling in 7th grade.  We did a three year sweep through world history, and she added information to her book for three years.  Here are the instructions I gave her in 7th grade.

 

"History and Reading

 

The plan:

 

To study history chronologically from prehistory to about AD500.

 

The means:

 

We’ll use Hillyer and Huey’s two books Young People’s Story of the Ancient World as well as numerous other books and resources.

 

Typically each week there will be a list of required reading.  There will generally be a novel to be read pertaining to the time period.  There may also be some myths and legends to be read.  There will also be non-fiction books or selections to be read and perhaps a website to visit or a video to view.

 

You will need to locate any places mentioned on the map, in a historical atlas and on the globe (if we obtain one).  Each week you will make two pages for your Book of the Centuries.  These pages should be work you can be proud of!  They should be well planned, edited and neat.  They can be in your best cursive or done on the computer.  All art work should be done with care.  The pages should pertain to the time period being studied.  Each page should be titled.  Pages might cover such topics as:

 

A people

A great man or woman (a ruler, artist, explorer, scientist)

An artifact (tools, buildings, type of writing)

A religion

An event

A discovery or invention

A war or battle

The daily life of a people

A map (route of an explorer, location of a people) 

An imaginary encounter between two historical personae

???

 

You might find information on these topics at home or you may need to do additional research at the library or online. 

 

Maps should include a legend (which may be printed) in addition to the title.

 

In addition to your two pages, you should also note five to ten important dates in your Book of the Centuries."

 

Regards,

Kareni