SWB's High School History

[Amp]

Has anyone used this after using SOTW 1-4?  We are currently doing history as a family and that's what I'm leaning toward for next year.  My oldest is going into 7th and we will be using SOTW vol 2.  I do have him do more writing, assign the questions and make sure his reading list is appropriate for his ability.  I'm tempted to buy her high school books and read myself but was curious if anyone has used them for 7th grade and could offer a review.

[Miss Tick]

So, the first book has 85 chapters which can be tricky to fit into a school year! Also, the second book is Medieval Times and the third is Renaissance, so you would lose familial alignment - which it sounds like you are enjoying. Everything I've read says the books are really high school to adult. 

My dc are 4 years apart, so after my twins finished SotW, they moved into the K12 Human Odyssey while my youngest started SotW. To maintain "familial alignment" I rearranged the K12 readings to align with SotW using a spreadsheet I got from a fellow boardie. Where K12 had gaps I filled with library books or SotW.

There are a few other options for middle school history if keeping everyone in step is less important.

[Ethel Mertz]

DS read SWB's Ancients in 8th (and used the study guide as well) and her Middle Ages in 9th. He loved it all. However, history is his favorite subject, so there's that. At some point, he'll read the volume on the Renaissance and whatever else comes next. He's in public school as of this coming fall for 11th and 12th grades.

[Momto6inIN]

I read SWB's Ancient History and while it was fascinating and is a great option, it was definitely a higher reading ability than my middle schoolers would have been capable of.

[Bocky]

Yes - buy for yourself 😁 to read. No - probably not for 7th grade. We used History of the Ancient World for 9th this year with the accompanying student guide. This is an excellent high school level program, with map work and a good amount of writing. A student using it will be working on history for about an hour each day.

[Ausmumof3]

I’m still doing story of the world 3 with my 7th grader and will do 4 with the 8th grader next year.  The level is slightly higher in the last two volumes in my opinions and fine for this grade.   Sonlight schedules them through 5th to 8th grade from memory.  You could do volume 2 and 3 and then still hit the history of the World Series for 9,10,11 and 12.  Or you could pick highlights from 2 and 3 and do a compressed overview in one year.  Or just get the audio and use them as car listening to get more done.  I find the history of the World Series a bit heavier myself so I wouldn’t rush to get to them especially when story of the world is so good anyway.  You can always add more of the extra reading from the activity guide to make it meatier if needed.

[serendipitous journey]

We did seriously consider them for high school, but my middle schooler opted out: he just wasn't engaged at all.  The K-12 "Human Odyssey" is a better fit for him, and so are the Oxford University Press "Medieval and Early Modern World" titles suggested in the Well Trained Mind logic stage history section.  What I ended up doing was have him re-read and briefly narrate the sections from SOTW2 his little brother was reading, and then read from a different source and do some WTM-style work (outline, dates, &c).  I made no effort to "align" the resources, just had him work through each one in order. 

If you are interested, though, I'd strongly suggest downloading a Kindle sample of the book and trying it, and if you like have the child read it and report his thoughts.