7th grade SECULAR world history

[Forget-Me-Not]

I need a (preferably open-and-go) SECULAR history program for my new 7th grader.  She was using Comprehend by Responsive Ed last year (our charter school had it) and really liked it.  Mostly it was a short reading selection followed by some questions and the occasional map activity.  Unfortunately it seems their 7th grade history is Texas history and we don't live in Texas . . .

[maize]

https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/045536/World-Civilizations-Homeschool-Package-Grade-6-8.html?

[maize]

I don't know anything about it, just saw it as part of a RR secular curriculum package.

[EKS]

The Human Odyssey series from K12 is truly excellent.  It doesn't have questions.  Just read it with your student and discuss--it will be obvious whether she is comprehending it or not.  If you feel the need for output, simply have her write a short report every so often on whatever is important and/or interesting.

Human Odyssey Volume 1

Human Odyssey Volume 2

Human Odyssey Volume 3

[SilverMoon]

Oak Meadow is pretty open and go. And secular. I've used their high school history with my older kids. They were simple, get-it-done courses but still interesting and engaging. 

(My current 7th is using Build Your Library, which doesn't sound like what you're looking for.)

[pitterpatter]

Not completely secular but the religion is limited to sidebars that may be easily ignored. The text is very nice and the LightUnit worksheets, quizzes, and tests are short and sweet. There is mapwork too. Not labeling blank maps but using maps to answer questions.

It's listed as Grade 8, but it's totally doable for Grade 7. Seriously, check out the samples. We wanted secular history too. (There is a similar text for Grade 7 for Western Civ but I don't have it in person.)

https://www.clp.org/store/by_course/80

[Forget-Me-Not]

3 hours ago, SilverMoon said:

Oak Meadow is pretty open and go. And secular. I've used their high school history with my older kids. They were simple, get-it-done courses but still interesting and engaging. 

Oak Meadow is the program they gave us this year for English and History combined. We don’t love it. I’ve tried with OM several times over the years, and I just . . . can’t like it.  

[Lori D.]

Can you opt for the 8th grade history option with Comprehend by Responsive Ed?

Or, a middle school textbook? Quite often there are questions at the end of a section.
Examples: Harcourt (Ancients); McGraw Hill Impact (Medieval/Early Modern); Holt-McDougal (U.S. History)...

[Forget-Me-Not]

11 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Can you opt for the 8th grade history option with Comprehend by Responsive Ed?

Or, a middle school textbook? Quite often there are questions at the end of a section.
Examples: Harcourt (Ancients); McGraw Hill Impact (Medieval/Early Modern); Holt-McDougal (U.S. History)...

 

Yeah, I know they have some standard textbooks available at the school.  I'll have to check into those.  We might just end up doing SOTW with the comprehension questions and some mapwork. 

[BusyMom5]

My World History by Pearson.  I used it last year with 6th and 9th graders.  Easy, worksheets and writing prompts in the workbook.  The only thing I added was mapwork and I had a few books and documentaries that we watched, too.  Overall easy to read and open and go.  Wecdid not do a lot of the worksheets,  but it was nice to have them available.  The writing prompts and papers had clear instructions and I just assigned a few here and there.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

For US History: The Drama of American History, by Collier.  Each book is concise and stand-alone, and the series is truly excellent.  They do not contain any questions, but you could easily add output by asking the student to outline chapters or write summaries.  I am using them alongside SOTW 3 and 4 with a 6th and 8th grader.  

[EKS]

12 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

Unless you sign up for the teacher-led course...

True.  But that's expensive and unnecessary, IMO.

Do you know if you can still do the K-8 courses independently?

[EKS]

29 minutes ago, Paradox5 said:

Last I checked, nope. And they changed to some new provider or something. It is a mess.

That's terrible--I thought that their K-4 history was better than SOTW. 

[ScoutTN]

Seconding the K12 Human Odyssey books. Nice narrative text and appealing layout. And cheap, used, on Amazon. Add a few literature books and add simple writing assignments. 

[serendipitous journey]

On 8/19/2020 at 10:13 AM, Monica_in_Switzerland said:

For US History: The Drama of American History, by Collier.  Each book is concise and stand-alone, and the series is truly excellent.  They do not contain any questions, but you could easily add output by asking the student to outline chapters or write summaries.  I am using them alongside SOTW 3 and 4 with a 6th and 8th grader.  

May I ask how you schedule these?  Or how you plan to pace them?  Especially if you are covering them in one year ... thanks!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

8 hours ago, serendipitous journey said:

May I ask how you schedule these?  Or how you plan to pace them?  Especially if you are covering them in one year ... thanks!

 

So, we will need 2-2.5 years to finish the whole series.  I have them spread out between SOTW3 and 4.  Basically, we read SOTW until we come to the relevant time period, then set it aside and work through a Collier book. They are each between6-9 chapters or so, and we just read a chapter a day outloud together.  In order to have the time to add them to SOTW, we do multiple chapters of SOTW many weeks, and my kids have a pretty large reading list to do independently related to history.  Sometimes the books don't all align exactly, but the overlap or review has never been an issue.  I will try to attach my spreadsheet.  

 

 

 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

SOTW and Collier Plans.xlsx

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

@serendipitous journey In the plans above, we've completed all of the stuff in the SOTW3 tab and have begun SOTW4.  So I can't really vouch for all the resources I've listed for SOTW4, and I suggest if you use my booklists, you preview the resources first, both for SOTW 3 and 4.  Not all of them are appropriate for every age/family.  I realize that's obvious, but don't want anyone yelling at me later. 😂

For example, in The Visitor's Guide to Victorian England (which my children LOVED), they discuss prostitution, birth control, abortion, and birth.  I told my 11 and 13 year olds what that section was about, and that they could read it together with me if desired, or skip it entirely.    

 

[Clemsondana]

World History Detective from the critical thinking company is good.  We use it as a once-or-twice/week supplement while using other materials (it takes us 2 years to finish it)..  It's a workbook format.  With one of mine, I would have strongly considered using it to do a 1-year world history course except that I'm focusing on writing about history so I need something other than a workbook.  

[Forget-Me-Not]

On 9/3/2020 at 6:15 PM, mshanson3121 said:

 

We like it for Science but not for history. My son enjoys the assignments, but found the text very dull.

Funny, because it was the assignments that I hated.  My son tried to use it for high-school geography one year.  The first week, he was supposed to choose from several assignments.  One was "listen to this piece of classical music and record your impressions."  Another was, "read Guns, Germs and Steel  (a 440 page book) and write a report about it".  Uh, those aren't comparable assignments.  Not even remotely.