Skipping logic stage history

[SomberHeart]

Hello. I'm not sure what to do. I started SOTW when my oldest was in 4th grade. We will be finishing it up when she is in 7th and I want to start her on History of the World in 9th grade but that means we would be skipping most of the logic stage. Should I be doing some logic-stage work with her while reading SOTW? She already does a timeline, writes a list of facts and reads the harder chapter books. What else should I be doing with her to prepare her for high school History of the World?

Thanks a bunch!

[HomeAgain]

An easy way to incorporate some of the skills is by introducing activities with primary sources.  We use Reading Like A Historian to supplement in middle school. It's free, and I like the way it asks students to look at documents and come to conclusions with guided questions.  A more expensive alternative are Jackdaws, and they dive deeper into single subjects (you can spend weeks or months on a single Jackdaw).  There are several different activities ranging from using the primary sources included to doing research projects. 

I think the most important thing when you get to logic stage is for the student to understand there's not a single history narrative.  Each person involved has their own opinion and own spin, and when you start to get into secondary and tertiary sources (like textbooks), you have to understand that how the author says something and what they say is as important by what they leave out.  By the teen years you really want to be able to give a few different perspectives for them to put together and mull over.

[Lori D.]

Welcome! I see by your post count that you are new!

One thing you might do is slow down the last 2 books of SOTW and add in a lot of additional resources in the study of the Early Modern (1600-1850) and Modern (1850-present) time periods, so that your current run-through of SOTW extends through the end of 8th grade. The previous poster mentioned a few resources.

Another idea: once you finish SOTW, you might enjoy taking the rest of 7th and 8th grades to do other topics -- for example, U.S. History. Or a World Cultures/Geography and Comparative Religions study -- which, BTW, is what we did at that age and it was a fantastic prep for History studies in high school, not to mention very enjoyable. 😉

Looking ahead to high school:

As far as using SWB's high school/adult "History of... World" in high school -- just a note for your future planning: SWB's History of the World series for high schoolers/adults is only up through the about 1500AD, and it is unlikely her series will be completed by the time your student reaches the need for the Early Modern and Modern eras in the last years of high school. 

Also, just an FYI: if using SWB's History of the World books, be prepared for a LOT of reading of just the texts, before even adding in any Great Books or primary source readings:

History of the Ancient World (896 pages) -- pre-History to 300AD
History of the Medieval World (768 pages) -- 300AD to 1100AD
History of the Renaissance World (816 pages) -- 1100-1500AD

Also, if planning a 4-year chronological World history cycle for the 4 years of high school, you will also want to be aware that you may need to figure out how to also get *required* credits accomplished as well. For example, some homeschoolers are required to complete certain credits for high school graduation, AND, *all* colleges require certain credits to have been completed in high school in order for the student to be eligible for admission.

History and Social Studies credits that are very frequent required include:
- 1.0 credit (year) = American History
- 1.0 credit = World History (or sometimes World Geography)
- 0.5 credit each = Economics and Government

Edited January 28, 2019 by Lori D.

[2_girls_mommy]

We always read SOTW alongside WTM style logic stage recommendations. So my dds would read their encyclopedia and outline from it. We used the second printing of WTM that suggested outlining vs. the list of facts. Then they added dates to their timeline book. We did one Jackdaws unit for American History with SOTW 4. And then they wrote 1-2 history papers for each semester. That was just for history. We did art projects that were from SOTW all throughout middle school and into early high school. We read literature from the time period for English. But we always read from SOTW too. They are pretty short readings, so I usually did them as a read aloud, and they read literature on their own or listened to audio books. 

ETA,and I forgot the Geography Coloring Book for Geography. They each started one for middle school and are still working in them and reading from them to go along with their studies in high school. There is SO much in each of those books. 

Edited January 31, 2019 by 2_girls_mommy

[sweet2ndchance]

On 1/28/2019 at 2:35 PM, HomeAgain said:

An easy way to incorporate some of the skills is by introducing activities with primary sources.  We use Reading Like A Historian to supplement in middle school. It's free, and I like the way it asks students to look at documents and come to conclusions with guided questions.  A more expensive alternative are Jackdaws, and they dive deeper into single subjects (you can spend weeks or months on a single Jackdaw).  There are several different activities ranging from using the primary sources included to doing research projects. 

I think the most important thing when you get to logic stage is for the student to understand there's not a single history narrative.  Each person involved has their own opinion and own spin, and when you start to get into secondary and tertiary sources (like textbooks), you have to understand that how the author says something and what they say is as important by what they leave out.  By the teen years you really want to be able to give a few different perspectives for them to put together and mull over.

 

That Reading Like a Historian curriculum looks awesome! Thanks for sharing that!

[lmrich]

I would fill those years with American history. I loved using the Joy Hakim series. 

[Trilliumlady]

9 hours ago, lmrich said:

I would fill those years with American history. I loved using the Joy Hakim series. 

For the OP and myself, would you mind sharing how you used hakim? Just reading? Is there a supplement anywhere for it people like? I’m starting to look into it and wondering.... also, did I see somewhere there is a condensed version?

[lmrich]

I did the whole set in one year! It was crazy. I had 13 kids who came to my house twice a week for class. So we read it in class and discussed it. They read it at home and answered questions. I bought the workbooks and pulled questions from there. Each kid had to write and present two reports throughout the year which added to our learning as well as theirs. We watched videos during lunch and on rainy days. Some kids had the audio version to help them get it all done. BUT all the kids did get it done. And many say AP US history has been so much easier for them. 

I did add in know your states and capitals and memorize your presidents as a bonus, but for most of these kids that was a review. 

[Trilliumlady]

6 minutes ago, lmrich said:

I did the whole set in one year! It was crazy. I had 13 kids who came to my house twice a week for class. So we read it in class and discussed it. They read it at home and answered questions. I bought the workbooks and pulled questions from there. Each kid had to write and present two reports throughout the year which added to our learning as well as theirs. We watched videos during lunch and on rainy days. Some kids had the audio version to help them get it all done. BUT all the kids did get it done. And many say AP US history has been so much easier for them. 

I did add in know your states and capitals and memorize your presidents as a bonus, but for most of these kids that was a review. 

You are amazing!  The whole set in a year - I’m in awe.  What grades were you working with?  Now I’m pondering.......

[Farrar]

We did a history cycle for the grammar stage, were mostly interest led for history in the logic stage, and are now back to being more methodical in high school. I liked taking a break from being too top down about it and letting them pick things to study instead. If there's any time that's perfect to do that, it's middle school.

[Momto6inIN]

4 hours ago, Trilliumlady said:

For the OP and myself, would you mind sharing how you used hakim? Just reading? Is there a supplement anywhere for it people like? I’m starting to look into it and wondering.... also, did I see somewhere there is a condensed version?

To the OP: My 5th - 8th graders listen along to SotW with my younger kids, but then they do other stuff along with it to supplement instead of the stuff from the SotW activity book. They keep their own timelines throughout the cycle. For Ancients & Medieval (5th & 6th), they read most of the Human Odyssey Vol I & II textbooks (which contain some primary source material) and do some world geography and maybe a power point presentation or two about some topic of interest to them. For Early Modern & Modern (7th & 8th) they read History of Us by Hakim (which contain lots of primary source material) and some US geography and some civics stuff.

To Trilliumlady: We use the Hewitt Homeschooling syllabus along with Hakim's books for some output. That syllabus contains some short answer/essay questions as well as ideas for projects and a research paper. We use the 4 book concise edition of Hakim, not the 10 book set, and it's much more manageable and not hard to line up with the syllabus which was written for the 10 book set. We spread the 4 books out over 2 years and they do lots of fiction reading that goes alongside (some written in the period and some historical fiction) as part of their literature reading list.