History - am I reinventing the wheel?

[HomeAgain]

I cannot find what I want, but I figure if anyone can, it's the hive.  Or, they can tell me I will definitely be building this on my own.

Next year for history I don't want to skim through several topics.  I want to do units centered around a few major literature books or themes that incorporate research, projects, science, and primary sources, so even though we cover less ground, ds gets more out of it.

For example: reading King Arthur and Black Horses For The King, exploring the origins of the story, why it may have been popular with the people of Britain, what was really going on with migrating/invading peoples, natural resources of the island...and so on.

So we'd do
Arthur
Rise of religions (Islam and Christianity)
The Plague & Crusades
Science & Art in Europe and the Middle East
India, China, Japan
Travel/Exploration
Poetry, music, and theatre

I'm not fixed on these.  They're just what I already have on my shelf to build connections from, giving us 7 units, or 1 a month, taking off a month for exploring holidays in December and 1 month devoted to a larger review project at the end.

Is something like this out there?  I don't want religious, or a ton of options of things to do.  Just a simple guide of "read this, explore that."
 

[Porridge]

How old are your DC?

[HomeAgain]

10 hours ago, WTM said:

How old are your DC?

Middle school.

The silence tells me that no, there does not seem to be something like this, and that the board has vastly shrunk so there is no answer even if there was such a program.  I do appreciate the interest, though.

[Porridge]

Yeah, I can't think of anything so single- topic focused as a unit study. I'm sure if you search various blogs, people will have posted their ideas for specific topics, but I can't think of an all in one place from which to browse different topics. Perhaps you can make a list of potential topics, then search blogs? Or, post your topics here and the Hive can help you crowdsource ideas?

[UHP]

On 4/1/2021 at 7:51 AM, HomeAgain said:

Next year for history I don't want to skim through several topics.  I want to do units centered around a few major literature books or themes that incorporate research, projects, science, and primary sources, so even though we cover less ground, ds gets more out of it.

I'm of no help but I'm curious if you've done something very different from this before, or are doing it now.

3 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

The silence tells me that no, there does not seem to be something like this, and that the board has vastly shrunk so there is no answer even if there was such a program.

What a pity that it's shrunk. What was like here, once?

I've gotten a lot out of the place by clicking around. When I see a post by a homeschooler with a 6-year-old, and notice it's from 2010, I can feel someone walk over my grave. "It's later than you think."

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, UHP said:

I'm of no help but I'm curious if you've done something very different from this before, or are doing it now.

What a pity that it's shrunk. What was like here, once?

I've gotten a lot out of the place by clicking around. When I see a post by a homeschooler with a 6-year-old, and notice it's from 2010, I can feel someone walk over my grave. "It's later than you think."

We did SOTW for 1st through 4th, adapting it for each year as we saw fit.

This year we did a combination of Marion Brady and Reading Like A Historian, with Human Odyssey as a "touch-base" sort of spine.  I worked together a program for him that included everything I wanted using the books and resources we had.  It worked quite well.  There are still some investigations we have not done from MB that will center on the middle ages, but it is a lot on my part to put together a whole syllabus up front.  If I found something already made I absolutely would not hesitate to buy it so I can take one thing off my plate this summer.  And lol, no, I won't have the time in the fall to wing it.  I know that will be a good way to drop it entirely. 
I'm now girding up my loins to dive into each of the books I have laid out and create 16 lesson units on a pattern of research - science/technology investigation / related art / literature  all intertwining with each other over a 4 day week.

About here.......For a long time, this was the go-to place.  Conversations were lively and there was a lot of interest in HOW things were done and gleaning new ideas from each other.  It will be missed if it goes the way of the dinosaur.  Well, new folks may not miss it, but the idea of home education being beyond a workbook or online program will fall into the abyss and there will be a feeling of incompleteness without it.  I left a year and a half ago, and I don't think I'm up for the chat board again, but it is disheartening to see the education areas so slow.
 

[domestic_engineer]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

This year we did a combination of Marion Brady and Reading Like A Historian, with Human Odyssey as a "touch-base" sort of spine. 

I’ve been on the boards for a while now, but I had never heard of MB or Reading Like a Historian. So thanks for sharing these resources!!

ETA:  those resources aren’t my cup of tea, but they reminded me of things that Prufrock Press sells.  Did you already see if they have anything?

Edited April 2, 2021 by domestic_engineer

[UHP]

2 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

About here.......For a long time, this was the go-to place.  Conversations were lively and there was a lot of interest in HOW things were done and gleaning new ideas from each other. 

After what happened over the last year I bet there's even more interest in that now, but from folks without experience. That's me, anyway.

[Momto6inIN]

I don't have any answers for you about your history program, although I can tell you that your plan sounds amazing and fun! 🙂

As far as why this forum is slow lately, I think it's because although many, many, many more people are homeschooling nowadays, most of them are used to participating in a FB/Instagram style of social media, not the forum style. Which is a pity, because I learned so very much from a lot of the experienced moms on these forums!

[Porridge]

2 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

We did SOTW for 1st through 4th, adapting it for each year as we saw fit.

This year we did a combination of Marion Brady and Reading Like A Historian, with Human Odyssey as a "touch-base" sort of spine.  I worked together a program for him that included everything I wanted using the books and resources we had.  It worked quite well.  There are still some investigations we have not done from MB that will center on the middle ages, but it is a lot on my part to put together a whole syllabus up front.  If I found something already made I absolutely would not hesitate to buy it so I can take one thing off my plate this summer.  And lol, no, I won't have the time in the fall to wing it.  I know that will be a good way to drop it entirely. 
I'm now girding up my loins to dive into each of the books I have laid out and create 16 lesson units on a pattern of research - science/technology investigation / related art / literature  all intertwining with each other over a 4 day week.

About here.......For a long time, this was the go-to place.  Conversations were lively and there was a lot of interest in HOW things were done and gleaning new ideas from each other.  It will be missed if it goes the way of the dinosaur.  Well, new folks may not miss it, but the idea of home education being beyond a workbook or online program will fall into the abyss and there will be a feeling of incompleteness without it.  I left a year and a half ago, and I don't think I'm up for the chat board again, but it is disheartening to see the education areas so slow.
 

@8filltheheartstarted a FB group awhile ago for those interested in discussing the HOW of designing customized curricula and courses of studies for our DC. However, I think it lacked critical mass and folded. I was pretty bummed.  But there are still at least some of us who are very interested in what you describe. I hope you post specific topics on the forum and just see what responses you get! I for one would be happy to throw out ideas and resources if I think they might be helpful (if I know the topics and ages). These kinds of questions (and hopefully answers)  might help revitalize the boards 🙂 

For me, the hardest part is not pulling together resources, but figuring out how to chunk the readings / resources and (hardest of all) figuring out what kind of output is appropriate for my kids. I think I tend to either expect too much of them, or too little, and have a hard time knowing what is just right.  

[HomeAgain]

2 hours ago, UHP said:

After what happened over the last year I bet there's even more interest in that now, but from folks without experience. That's me, anyway.

Ah, yes.  It just tends to manifest itself differently.  Like, not quite looking for a conscious goal-oriented style, but more of a trust-the-process sort of mindset.  There's a lot of fear and anxiety when a person is new to homeschooling and may not continue.

  It doesn't help that I am struggling with losing a lot of in-person conversations this year which would have touched on working things out and bouncing ideas around, or that the education classes I signed up for have been appallingly bad.  So, so bad. As in, I have learned nothing and fear for the next generation of teachers in my area. *sigh*

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, WTM said:

For me, the hardest part is not pulling together resources, but figuring out how to chunk the readings / resources and (hardest of all) figuring out what kind of output is appropriate for my kids. I think I tend to either expect too much of them, or too little, and have a hard time knowing what is just right.  

YES!  Or how the day will flow.  Even planning it out on a spreadsheet and color coding things by output to balance it all, it's a LOT of time and effort and crossing my fingers. 

[HomeAgain]

3 hours ago, domestic_engineer said:

I’ve been on the boards for a while now, but I had never heard of MB or Reading Like a Historian. So thanks for sharing these resources!!

ETA:  those resources aren’t my cup of tea, but they reminded me of things that Prufrock Press sells.  Did you already see if they have anything?

I hadn't checked them out, thanks!

I am really hoping to bring in some of the literature.  I didn't realize how much ds would gravitate to it this year.  He is not interested in all in video, so many of the documentaries I had planned were stripped out of the lessons once I realized that, but he LOVES classic literature.  I think, if I'm doing this from scratch, I'm going to find a way to base around:
OUP's Medieval & Early Modern World
Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages
Hakim's Story Of Science, end of vol. 1 and vol 2.

So, the literature first.  Make outlines of things to cover from the characters, time period, geography, events.  Create basic lesson plan with a starting point question for him to research.  Match primary sources to study together.  Assemble evidence into final conclusion.

Upside: it's 7 books.
Downside: It's 7 books. 🤣  But I should be able to google other's ideas and apply the concept I have for teaching to the skeleton of their ideas.

[domestic_engineer]

59 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

OUP's Medieval & Early Modern World
 

I found this series too late for my plans, but I think it would be a good resource for at least the India, China, Japan unit.

Are you trying to cover the medieval period through those lenses 7 lenses or all of history through those lenses?  (really the last 4 lenses, I mean)

[elegantlion]

I'll sneak in here to comment, I think it sounds like a great idea to build your own. You could theme is around the migration/movement/trade of cultures and the economic/technological developments.  I did a few courses for ds that were theme based using what we had on the shelves. I think middle school is a great time to be creative with some courses, especially history.  

You can add in some primary sources, perhaps use something like coinage to look at trade. The Scandinavians had extensive trade routes in the medieval era and Arabic medieval coins have been found in Scandinavia. 

An interesting book on Arthur might be The Search for King Arthur  which has copious images and provides a bit of history for the main characters in the Arthurian stories. 

Monica Green has a great writeup on teaching the Black Death- you'll have to click on the Academia page for the download.

Fordham has access to many medieval primary sources. 

[HomeAgain]

12 hours ago, domestic_engineer said:

I found this series too late for my plans, but I think it would be a good resource for at least the India, China, Japan unit.

Are you trying to cover the medieval period through those lenses 7 lenses or all of history through those lenses?  (really the last 4 lenses, I mean)

I haven't quite decided.  DS really has a remarkable memory sometimes so the idea of running through a large number of topics again just wasn't going to work well, mostly because we wouldn't have time to get very deep in any of them so we'd cover quite a bit of the same information as the last cycle.  I wanted to pick areas we didn't have a lot of time to explore last time(or he was too young to give adequate justice to), and mostly use the books to reinforce the learning, but not necessarily read straight through them.  Make sense?  I also have a beautiful set called What Life Was Like In..., and those are meant for high school to adult, but I don't think I like them as much.  Beautiful, but more of stories explaining life while punctuated by illustrations.  And I do have Jackdaws. 
If this was my oldest I would have no problem just throwing in the towel and getting Learning Adventures again.😄 It's almost what I want, except not.  This kid would also rebel at the language arts component, and I would definitely rewrite the science and history lectures.  Other than that............🤣

 

[HomeAgain]

12 hours ago, elegantlion said:

I'll sneak in here to comment, I think it sounds like a great idea to build your own. You could theme is around the migration/movement/trade of cultures and the economic/technological developments.  I did a few courses for ds that were theme based using what we had on the shelves. I think middle school is a great time to be creative with some courses, especially history.  

You can add in some primary sources, perhaps use something like coinage to look at trade. The Scandinavians had extensive trade routes in the medieval era and Arabic medieval coins have been found in Scandinavia. 

An interesting book on Arthur might be The Search for King Arthur  which has copious images and provides a bit of history for the main characters in the Arthurian stories. 

Monica Green has a great writeup on teaching the Black Death- you'll have to click on the Academia page for the download.

Fordham has access to many medieval primary sources. 

Yes!  Thank you!  These look wonderful!  I found a program on Amazon Prime last night, too, where they were recreating historical outfits using only the techniques available to them at the time.  Even ds found it fascinating, how something that looked simple could be extremely elaborate and quietly show wealth, so, now when we get into the art & science portion, we can look at merchant wealth from Van Eyck's Arnolfini portrait.

I found the Camelot Project, too, which seems to be a wealth of all things Arthur.  I'm hoping to be able to direct ds there when figuring out the difference between the time period in the book, when the stories first began to be written down, and explore the current events at both time periods. 

I think my problem is less that I lack resources now and more that I lack a coherent plan. 😄

 

[8filltheheart]

nm .....deleting my resources 🙂

Edited April 3, 2021 by 8filltheheart

[HomeAgain]

Okay, I have to share this.  I started plotting out lessons for the first segment, just to kind of give my mind some direction.  When I went looking for resources I stumbled on this site: Teach With Magic

It looks brilliant.  Enough to give me ideas and resources, not enough to overwhelm.  Projects, primary sources and investigations are included. I can ditch what DS already knows a TON about, pull literature books to match, and add in Reading Like A Historian or Jackdaws when applicable.  It's enough guidance in one spot to help me through the planning this summer. :)
 

[8filltheheart]

Blech.  I looked at the Christendom PP and was definitely NOT impressed.  Very poor quality with poorly defined criteria.  I found the pictures caricatures of complex topics and some of the pictures offensive.  (A nun holding a ruler??  Seriously?  Stereotyping as a way of teaching is not my definition of quality of thought.)

[Not_a_Number]

On 4/2/2021 at 6:55 AM, HomeAgain said:

The silence tells me that no, there does not seem to be something like this, and that the board has vastly shrunk so there is no answer even if there was such a program.  I do appreciate the interest, though.

I think this subforum is also one in which it's hard to get attention. 

I think it's shrunk a bit since you left (welcome back, I hope you stick around!), but not super dramatically. I would guess that it was past its heyday when you left as well. 

[HomeAgain]

30 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

Blech.  I looked at the Christendom PP and was definitely NOT impressed.  Very poor quality with poorly defined criteria.  I found the pictures caricatures of complex topics and some of the pictures offensive.  (A nun holding a ruler??  Seriously?  Stereotyping as a way of teaching is not my definition of quality of thought.)

Fair enough.

I need a guide.  A template.  I have dozens of resources.  If I find something that goes against our ethics, I can change it.

I have built this entire year's program.  I have reconfigured math this year, science, language arts, built a French program and thankfully did Latin as it was written.  I WANT some sort of assistance to help me not have to spend my entire summer planning and writing programs and pulling sources together.

I appreciate constructive help.  I'm not sure your post applies. 

[8filltheheart]

21 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

I appreciate constructive help.  I'm not sure your post applies. 

Well, I admit I am a snob in terms of what I use.  Using the term Dark Ages dates its perspective.  https://www.history.com/news/6-reasons-the-dark-ages-werent-so-dark  It lists Shrek , A Knight's Tale, Family Guy, The Simpsons as media resources.  It seems to take the approach of fluffery and entertainment over quality education.  I didn't spend time digging beyond that bc that superficiality reminds me completely of why I homeschool.

FWIW, I did offer a list of quality resources above.  ETA: NM.  I deleted them since apparently they won't be appreciated.   

Edited April 3, 2021 by 8filltheheart

[HomeAgain]

Just now, 8filltheheart said:

Well, I admit I am a snob in terms of what I use.  Using the term Dark Ages dates its perspective.  https://www.history.com/news/6-reasons-the-dark-ages-werent-so-dark  It lists Shrek , A Knight's Tale, Family Guy, The Simpsons as media resources.  It seems to take the approach of fluffery and entertainment over quality education.  I didn't spend time digging beyond that bc that superficiality reminds me completely of why I homeschool.

You mean, the resources that show classroom kids the cultural impact in ways they can connect, like seeing how the pod races in Star Wars (something they're familiar with) evokes the image of chariot races from ancient Rome (a topic that may be new)? 

Those weren't even the meat of the resources.  They were offered up as ways to add connections.  What you're really saying is that your quick overview of it should be taken with the grain of salt it deserves, and that your strong language-driven response may be overblown.

Again, I appreciate constructive help.  Since you didn't spend time actually looking at the ideas but superficially glossed over to give a review, I'm not sure it's the kind of post you will get a great response to in this thread.

 

[maptime]

On 4/3/2021 at 5:53 AM, HomeAgain said:

 I found a program on Amazon Prime last night, too, where they were recreating historical outfits using only the techniques available to them at the time.

Would you mind sharing the name of this show?  It sounds like something my kids would love!

[HomeAgain]

15 hours ago, maptime said:

Would you mind sharing the name of this show?  It sounds like something my kids would love!

Not at all. :) It's called A Stitch In Time.  There are only a handful of episodes, but we've liked what we've watch so far!

[Lori D.]

4 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

...A Stitch In Time.  There are only a handful of episodes, but we've liked what we've watch so far!

You might also like the James Burke Connections series.

There are several rounds of the series:
10 episodes done in 1978
20 episodes done in 1994
10 episodes done in 1997

[2_girls_mommy]

I never had a program for history in the 5th-well, through high school really, lol.  I loosely followed WTM some years.  But I ventured into more of what you are describing as we got further into it.  I know for our 8th and 6th grade Am. History in Modern World History context/State history year, I very much chunked our studies into a basic topic a month.  I did not have a cohesive plan.  I used the methods we had previously used with WTM style logic stage history for output, but used that in my plans.  So month 1 was the Revolution with a Jackdaws portfolio as our spine.  Month 2 was on the Constitution.  Can't remember what I used besides the constitution and library books for that, then each month had its own theme that moved through time.  We never got to everything this way, but we really learned the topics we were in.  Since we were doing state history with co-op and we always do it in our modern history years, we just added readings and museum trips and whatever else we could as went through modern history... so when we were discussing the 1841 Indian Removal Acts, we stopped and dived deep into how that affected our areas.  During black history month, we spent time in our city exploring different exhibits that were relevant and added readings from African American biographies and a book on black towns in our state, etc.  We just tried to stay in the time period we were in in our overall Am./World history and found what was happening in our state at the time of each broader event we were learning. I do not remember how much literature we did each year.  I used the blog, The Classical House of Learning Literature's book lists for the first 3 years of the logic stage history rotation, which had about 13 books a year.  That was too much for us, so we narrowed the lists some, and if I remember correctly, the blog never completed through to that fourth year of modern history anyway, so I had to come up with our own readings.  I probably picked a few from the WTM suggestions. 

[kiwik]

On 4/3/2021 at 5:05 AM, HomeAgain said:

We did SOTW for 1st through 4th, adapting it for each year as we saw fit.

This year we did a combination of Marion Brady and Reading Like A Historian, with Human Odyssey as a "touch-base" sort of spine.  I worked together a program for him that included everything I wanted using the books and resources we had.  It worked quite well.  There are still some investigations we have not done from MB that will center on the middle ages, but it is a lot on my part to put together a whole syllabus up front.  If I found something already made I absolutely would not hesitate to buy it so I can take one thing off my plate this summer.  And lol, no, I won't have the time in the fall to wing it.  I know that will be a good way to drop it entirely. 
I'm now girding up my loins to dive into each of the books I have laid out and create 16 lesson units on a pattern of research - science/technology investigation / related art / literature  all intertwining with each other over a 4 day week.

About here.......For a long time, this was the go-to place.  Conversations were lively and there was a lot of interest in HOW things were done and gleaning new ideas from each other.  It will be missed if it goes the way of the dinosaur.  Well, new folks may not miss it, but the idea of home education being beyond a workbook or online program will fall into the abyss and there will be a feeling of incompleteness without it.  I left a year and a half ago, and I don't think I'm up for the chat board again, but it is disheartening to see the education areas so slow.
 

I miss it already but it is not just here.

Edited June 22, 2021 by kiwik

[HomeAgain]

So, update on this.
I did end up reinventing the wheel slightly, but not as deeply as I wanted.  I have units, but we have a spine (Human Odyssey vol 1 & 2).

I'm going to be taking a class of my own next fall that requires 40 hours in person (split between the day and evening), so streamlining is important, especially leaving components ds can do himself and get him excited to explore.  I'm still working on setting up everything weekly, but I think it's going to be a good year for him.

[Momto6inIN]

On 6/22/2021 at 8:31 AM, HomeAgain said:

So, update on this.
I did end up reinventing the wheel slightly, but not as deeply as I wanted.  I have units, but we have a spine (Human Odyssey vol 1 & 2).

I'm going to be taking a class of my own next fall that requires 40 hours in person (split between the day and evening), so streamlining is important, especially leaving components ds can do himself and get him excited to explore.  I'm still working on setting up everything weekly, but I think it's going to be a good year for him.

We loved Human Odyssey in middle school! Very well written and engaging 🙂

[HomeAgain]

5 hours ago, Momto6inIN said:

We loved Human Odyssey in middle school! Very well written and engaging 🙂

We used most of volume 1 this year with Ancients.  It was a good spine, and ds really wants to stick with it.  I figure we'll cover the last quarter of 1 and go through the first half of 2, taking time to explore the topics when we can.

[theelfqueen]

Have you looked at Beautiful Feet?