History line up

[desertflower]

Hello,

What does your history line up look like for 12 years?  I'm kind of confused.  I guess in my earlier years of homeschooling I thought we would do 3 rotations of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern + Econ and Civics.

But now, I'm thinking probably not?  Just confused for the middle school years.  All I remember is in my high school I did US History, World History, Political Science and Econ.

This is what I'm thinking:

1st grade:     Ancient

2nd grade:     Medieval

3rd grade:      Renaissance/Early Modern

4th grade:     Modern History

5th grade:  Geography

6th grade:   World History   (perhaps Adam to US)?

7th grade:     American History  

8th grade:     Civics / Econ

9th grade:   World History

10th  grade:     American History

11th grade:    Civics / Econ

12th grade:    British history

But that seems boring and repetitive. 

Do people double up on history in the high school years?  For African History or Asian history or World religion, etc?

What does your line up look like?  I don't need to know details.  Perhaps just the title of the program or the time period like I listed above.

Thanks for any input.   

[goldenecho]

I can only speak up through 6th grade, but it won't be boring and repetitive.  

In first Grade, history isn't about retention...it's about sparking interest and exploring.   As it happened I actually did ancient history from half way through 1st through 2nd and a little into 3rd, cause long story, but we went SUPER slow at first, added all of bible history (pretty much...all the major stories), re-did a little part of it with our co-op, etc etc...

We didn't get through all of Middle Ages history in 3rd...we just barely got to the crusades, and then he went back to public school for two years.  Public school was doing California history in 4th but it started with Native Americans and then Spanish exploration, so it sort of picked up soon after we had left off.   They got all the way to the Industrial revolution by 5th (and covid hit).   I decided to homeschool for 6th, but through a district  homeschool program that matched up tightly with what they were doing in regular school.   And guess what they were doing...Ancient times!!

We had JUST finished that up in the beginning of 3rd grade.   Surely he wouldn't want to do Ancient History AGAIN so soon.   But nope, he was excited that it was Ancient history.   Did he remember a lot of it?   Not really (that was clear once we got into the material...)   But he did remember that  he had enjoyed it, and that history was fun (and there was a few things he did remember).

I'm not sure if you need a whole year for geography...unless it also incorporated modern world cultures, in which case that might work (but I remember 7th grade geography, which doesn't exist anymore, being dull as dirt).  You can teach geography while teaching history so I think a whole year just on that might be too much.  

However, in the later grades I'm a bit confused.   I would never try to fit all of world history in ONE YEAR (6th, 9th).   The amount it would have to be reduced would be either dull or shallow (ok, maybe not...Crash Course on you-tube does do a very short overview of all history it in a way that doesn't stink...so it might be possible).  We're you going to do just a section of world history then (like ancient to Renaisance in 6th and Modern world history in 9th?)


One thing that might be good to replace one of your years (or maybe half of one of your years) is letting your child pick a historical topic of their choice to explore.  It could be an "all through history" topic like (science through history, ships and sailing through history, history of sport, education, warfare, whatever...") or it could be any era or civilization he just really wanted to dive deep to explore.  

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by goldenecho

[kiwik]

You can plan but it won't go to plan anyway.  I did ancient, mediaeval as an afterschooler.  Early modern, skipped modern, anciennt, mediaeval, early modern and now modern for my first four years of high school.  I am planning on an overview year next them maybe GPS.  I live in New Zealand though and there is no requirement to do any history at high school and it is minimal before (though there is a plan to introduce NZ the likelihood is the curriculum will be so vague it will be up to the interpretation and skills or lack thereof of the teacher).

[HomeAgain]

The only thing we have found to be repetitive was Greek history, and that is because ds lives and breathes Ancient Greece, so finding an aspect to study it from to challenge him was....difficult.

Our first run through was just about exposure.  Lots of crafts, hands on, play, and stories.  Our second run through is all about learning to read primary sources and put together clues, while also making it personal.  The third, if we get there, is about diving into 2-3 topics from each time period hard, learning to research and collect sources to form their own paper.

[Sherry in OH]

K - ancient

1 - medieval - early modern

2/k - modern with emphasis on US and state history

3/1 - prehistory

4/2 - ancient

5/3 - medieval (emphasis on Europe)

6/4 - non-western ancient and medieval, pre-Columbian Americas

7/5 - early modern

I planned to do modern in 8th/6th, but they went to school.  The school did topics in US and state history for 8th and ancient history for 6th.  7th grade is geography.   The high school requires 1 credit US history, 1 credit (modern) world history, and a half-credit each in civics and economics.  Students may take additional social studies courses as electives.   

[Momto6inIN]

I like to plan too, and I think it's super valuable to have a direction you want to go, but remember, as others have said, to hold the plan loosely. Elementary is all about exposure and middle school is all about analyzing and looking deeper into why and high school is about making connections between subjects and you can do all that studying just about any history topic. No one is ever going to retain all of History, kwim? So with that caveat 😊 this is what we shoot for:

1st and 2nd - Ancient & Medieval world history

3rd & 4th - US history

5th - 7th - World History Ancients - Current

8th - US History

High school - Depends on the kid exactly how, but we do US History, World History, Econ & US Gov for sure. One of them has stretched world history out into 2 years, one chose comparative government and politics, and one chose sociology for the 4th credit.

[desertflower]

Thanks for the tips! You are right in the goal is to make history fun,  interesting and to make connections.  

I guess I got nervous because my oldest is going into 7th grade and he hasn't done much of modern history. 

I feel better now. Thanks everyone!

[egao_gakari]

2 minutes ago, desertflower said:

Thanks for the tips! You are right in the goal is to make history fun,  interesting and to make connections.  

I guess I got nervous because my oldest is going into 7th grade and he hasn't done much of modern history. 

I feel better now. Thanks everyone!

You do want to cover it at some point but it's never too late and it's really up to them how much they retain anyway! My DS16 looked up from his US history book in complete surprise yesterday: "I never knew Bill Clinton was actually the president! I thought Hillary was the politician in that family." My jaw just absolutely dropped 😅 This was our second time through modern history and I could have sworn we'd made it to the 1980s-2000s last time, but it clearly didn't stick!