MerryAtHope--MOH question

[wehave8]

Or anyone else.

 

I am thinking ahead.

We will be ready for American History next year.  I was thinking of MOH for our to be 8th & 9th graders, but I've read that you'd have to do another in depth study of American History if you go that route.

 

What did you do?

 

Pam

[Lori D.]

I'm not Merry to be able to discuss MOH specifically ;), but I'll just throw in some high school administrative info that might be of interest or help:

 

Yes, for college admissions, many colleges want 1 credit of the required 2-3 Social Studies credits to be American History.

 

As a quick aside, here's the list of typically required credits for college admissions:

4 credits = English

3-4 credits = Math (Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, + a 4th math requiring Alg. 2 as a pre-requisite)

3-4 credits = Science, with labs

3-4 credits = Social Studies (1 credit = American History; some colleges also want 1 credit World Geography/History, or 0.5 credit each Econ & Gov't)

2-4 credits = Foreign Language (same language)

1 credit = Fine Arts

4-8 credits = Electives (examples: Computer, Logic, Health, PE, vocational-tech, personal interest, Academic Electives (additional credits beyond the above required credits in English, Math, Science, Social Studies, For. Lang.), additional credits in Fine Arts, etc.)

22-24+ credits = total

 

Your 9th grader would be fine -- taking American History at a high school level while in high school. If your 8th grader also works at a high school level, then you could "bring up" the high school level credit of American History onto the student's transcript, and list as a "high school credit completed before 9th grade". Then your 8th grader would also have the American History box checked, and you would not have to repeat later in high school.

 

Just be aware that some colleges only accept credits completed in the 4 years prior to college freshman admission as "counting" towards the college's admission requirements, so that *could* be a potential concern for your 8th grader, depending on where the student applies for college.

 

Also, I don't know where you are located, but some areas have specific requirements for credits that homeschoolers must complete during grades 9-12. Some areas actually require 2 years of American History (from the public school students -- don't know if that also applies to homeschoolers). If you live in a more regulated state, you'd want to check on what the policy is for "bringing up" high school credits completed in middle school.

 

(Side note: typically, because they are harder to see that they are of high school level and of "progressing" levels of difficulty, usually credits in Social Studies, English, Fine Arts, and Electives are not usually "brought up" from 8th grade. Compare to Science (Biology and above), Math (Algebra 1 and above), and Foreign Language, in which there are clear and progressing levels of difficulty. However, every family needs to make this call for themselves, and as long as you're not bringing up so many credits that it looks like padding the transcript, and the credits are of clear high school level, you can make the call for yourself as to whether or not to "bring up" a high school level credit completed in middle school.)

 

 

Not that it will help you at all, because it's completely different than what you're asking about, but we set aside History when our 2 DSs were grades 7 & 8 and did a year of World Cultures & Geography / Comparative Religions & Worldview, which was fantastic prep for then doing History in high school. We did American History the year DSs were grades 10 & 11.

Edited November 21, 2017 by Lori D.

[MerryAtHope]

I used Sonlight 100 with one of mine, but got bogged down in the endless notes on Hakim. So much that for the other, I subbed in Notgrass for a spine but still used SL 100 lit for my dd. Notgrass is "okay" but not as interesting--if I had it to do again, I'd go back to SL 100 and probably either significantly cut the notes or drop them completely. We enjoyed the variety of other books. I did add in a couple of higher level books based on interest (The Scarlet Letter which SL schedules later, Christy, my son read Red Badge of Courage I remember--my dd wouldn't have been interested but I knew he would be. When my dd did US history, my oldest was doing Sonlight 430 literature with Notgrass Government--which I do like--and I read some meatier books out loud like Huck Finn and My Antonia...) So, I was kind of eclectic but mostly followed Sonlight with a few twists based on my desires, their ages, their interests...

 

Not sure if that helps!

[wehave8]

I used Sonlight 100 with one of mine, but got bogged down in the endless notes on Hakim. So much that for the other, I subbed in Notgrass for a spine but still used SL 100 lit for my dd. Notgrass is "okay" but not as interesting--if I had it to do again, I'd go back to SL 100 and probably either significantly cut the notes or drop them completely. We enjoyed the variety of other books. I did add in a couple of higher level books based on interest (The Scarlet Letter which SL schedules later, Christy, my son read Red Badge of Courage I remember--my dd wouldn't have been interested but I knew he would be. When my dd did US history, my oldest was doing Sonlight 430 literature with Notgrass Government--which I do like--and I read some meatier books out loud like Huck Finn and My Antonia...) So, I was kind of eclectic but mostly followed Sonlight with a few twists based on my desires, their ages, their interests...

 

Not sure if that helps!

So MOH III & IV are not accepted as American History because they are about the world chronologically and specifically American History?

 

Pam 

[MerryAtHope]

So MOH III & IV are not accepted as American History because they are about the world chronologically and specifically American History?

 

Pam 

 

 

I think you'd have to add to them to round it out for an American History credit (the publisher doesn't bill it as such). There is a lot of US history in those levels, but the focus really is World History in MOH. I preferred to use it as is and do a specifically focused US history course rather than lose the flow of MOH by trying to make it into credits for both world and US history. 

[mschickie]

While there is a good deal of information in MoH III and IV on America there really is not enough for it to be a fully US History course.  It hits some of the big topics but leaves out much of the nuances found in US History.  You do not get the full story.