Guest bookwormmama Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 My kids have done Sonlight Core PreK, Core K {intro to Cultures}, and Core 1 {Creation to Rome} and for one year we dabbled with Tapestry of Grace Year 1 {also Ancient History}. I feel like we have covered a LOT of Ancient History and different Cultures. My older two kiddos will be 8 and 9 {3rd and 4th grade} when we start school this fall and I have a delimma with what to do for history. If we continue with Sonlight, we will move right into Sonlight Core 2 {which covers the Fall of Rome to Present Day, just touching the surface of everything basically...} and the following year they will move into Core 3 which is the first part of American History. The problem I am having is I am sick to death of Ancient History and my kids have had no American History at all. My oldest is begging me to do American History. What do you do when one of your kids wants to study something different other than the chronological order of things? is it ok to take a side step and do American History or should we just keep on plugging along in order like we are? Is it REALLY necessary to do history in order? Do kids even remember it that way anyways? I have toyed with the idea of doing Winter Promise AS1 or AA1 next year instead of our planned route... What do you think? will this confuse them? Should I continue on our course? Any help from seasoned moms would be helpful! Thanks1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bookwormmama Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momofeat Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 I had a similar situation to yours, and we settled on MFW's Exploration to 1850. Only my dd(9) did it, though. The MFW Adventures program would probably be more appropriate in your situation. I've never used WP, although I sure have drooled over it a few times, LOL! I don't think it's the end of the world if you take some time to study American History. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandalwood Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 What if you did a really mad dash through some of the Core 2 books (spine books, etc.) from now to summer? Core 2 is like 1 and just "touches" on some of the events in history. You talk about a lot of things but never get too deep in any of the topics. I remember the Usborne world history book being the same in both cores and maybe CHOW....can't remember what else was the same but I'm sure you have your catalog. I sold all mine or I'd look for you. Anyhow, Core 3 that we did this year was really, really, good once we got into it. If your child is begging to do American History, I'd say go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 While I think it is important for retention for there to be some narrative flow to history (ie chronological), I don't think you necessarily have to start at the beginning of time and work forward. The schools just jump about from here to there within a year, and that I think ends up being disjointed, but if you choose a starting point and work forwards for some reasonable point of time (a year or two?), I'd think a kid could still place that in time even if it isn't an exact follow-on of the previous year. But then I'm a rebel (at least as far as the 4-year ancients to modern cycle)... We did jump around for 1st grade to whatever topics interested the kids (which ended up being a grab bag of ancients and a lot of time in Venice). The next year we started on what was supposed to be a 2-year study of American history - after 4 years we're at WWII. :tongue_smilie: But it's been great fun. I'm trying desperately to get to about the Moon Landing at which point we're finally going to start the history of the world from ancient times. So, FWIW, I think you should go for it - it sounds like your kids have had enough ancient/world history that they should have some idea of where to place US history even if there's a bit of a jump in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Well, no surprise here! I am all for doing Amer history NOW and using a timeline to show where in time the events take place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brindee Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 (edited) What about SOTW? Modern History has quite a bit of American modern history in it, and is for around 4th grade, which would fit where you're at. Otherwise there is All American History I and II. http://www.brightideaspress.com/aah_info.htm Edited April 25, 2009 by Brindee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 My kids have done Sonlight Core PreK, Core K {intro to Cultures}, and Core 1 {Creation to Rome} and for one year we dabbled with Tapestry of Grace Year 1 {also Ancient History}. I feel like we have covered a LOT of Ancient History and different Cultures. My older two kiddos will be 8 and 9 {3rd and 4th grade} when we start school this fall and I have a delimma with what to do for history. If we continue with Sonlight, we will move right into Sonlight Core 2 {which covers the Fall of Rome to Present Day, just touching the surface of everything basically...} and the following year they will move into Core 3 which is the first part of American History. The problem I am having is I am sick to death of Ancient History and my kids have had no American History at all. My oldest is begging me to do American History. What do you do when one of your kids wants to study something different other than the chronological order of things? is it ok to take a side step and do American History or should we just keep on plugging along in order like we are? Is it REALLY necessary to do history in order? Do kids even remember it that way anyways? I have toyed with the idea of doing Winter Promise AS1 or AA1 next year instead of our planned route... What do you think? will this confuse them? Should I continue on our course? Any help from seasoned moms would be helpful! Thanks1 If you are sick to death of something and your child is begging to do something else, I'd switch. Sick, death and begging are pretty strong words whether you used them consciously or not. :001_smile: I haven't used WP, though I've drooled over it, too. But it is literature based like Sonlight and you can find TONS of resources at your library. Sometimes the ancient times resources can be slim for littles! Use a time line like SnowWhite suggested. You could get a piece of yarn and cut it to scale to show how far back your previous studies are from American History. Best wishes! American history is wonderful!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.