Julpost Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 We began homeschooling again this year after a 2 year period that ds was in ps so I began slowly. For history, we've been reading SOTW:Early Modern Times, answering the review questions, mapwork, and writing a summary. I haven't had him do any outlining because I don't have a good history encyclopedia. I read mixed reviews about the Kingfisher and was leery of purchasing it, so I've put it off. I think he's at the point now where I should probably asking more of him in this subject. I'm just not sure what to do. Should I have him do a report each week? We study a chapter a week. That would expand the topic for him. How important is the outlining? What additional sources could we use? I'm overwhelmed by the curriculum choices out there and have limited financial resources, otherwise I might just go the Tapestry of Grace route...that looks nice and complete. Does anyone have any advice?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 We began homeschooling again this year after a 2 year period that ds was in ps so I began slowly. For history, we've been reading SOTW:Early Modern Times, answering the review questions, mapwork, and writing a summary. I haven't had him do any outlining because I don't have a good history encyclopedia. I read mixed reviews about the Kingfisher and was leery of purchasing it, so I've put it off. I think he's at the point now where I should probably asking more of him in this subject. I'm just not sure what to do. Should I have him do a report each week? We study a chapter a week. That would expand the topic for him. How important is the outlining? What additional sources could we use? I'm overwhelmed by the curriculum choices out there and have limited financial resources, otherwise I might just go the Tapestry of Grace route...that looks nice and complete. Does anyone have any advice?? Do you have access to a decent library? It would be nice to check out some additional books for some chapters. I don't know if you would need to do a report a week. I hesitate to mention this, given some of the current threads, but if you are interested in what my seventh grader is doing in school for social studies. . . so far they've had one group project (a report plus a model dwelling and a presentation) and one individual report/oral presentation. (They're studying ancient civilizations with a focus on the origins of religions.) Seventh grade is a good time to bring in some original sources. I can't remember what they're called right now, but it seems like for not too much money you can get a packet of source documents on a theme. Hopefully someone else remembers what they are called. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedarmom Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Original source documents are called primary source. This is an excellant time to begin them. Do you have the WTM? Susan has some excellent questions to ask your student for primary source documents. She also has some recommendations for which ones to use. I would add some historical fiction books to his reading list. Susan has great questions to ask for these reading too. I think outlining is very important. It is such an awesome tool for teaching your student how to organize and process what he is reading. My son is now in high school and we are doing great books. I think one of the reasons he does not get as overwhelmed with the books is because of the skills he learned in outlining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julpost Posted January 6, 2009 Author Share Posted January 6, 2009 I'll have to dig out my copy of TWTM and find that info. It gets overwhelming to me sometimes. Well, not sometimes, all the time actually. I keep telling myself that once our littlest ones are a little older, I can do all of the stuff she recommends. It has just hit me that by the time they're 4 and 6, he's going to be a junior in high school. I can't wait till then. So I'm trying to bring myself up to speed here. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 ...as well as for beefing up American history, WTM recommends "Critical Thinking in US History" for this age. I have been impressed with this series--it actually teaches the kids to think like historians, while exposing them to some limited source material from the relevant periods. It is far from complete, but as a supplement to SOTW, it's pretty good. I would recommend having him outline SOTW--it's actually a pretty good text for that, as long as you just have him do one section (an entire chapter would be pretty arduous to outline). Personally, I had DD learn to outline and then show me that she could do it, and then it quickly became busy work so we stopped. SOTW3 is not really at the 7th grade level, so it's important to do as you're thinking and add some supplementary work. I would suggest using upper level books recommended in the AG if you don't want Kingfisher, to supplement SOTW. Or just buy the American History books for middle school recommended in Beautiful Feet, and use them to beef up the American history part of SOTW3 and 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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