Let's get specific! What are you looking at for history next school year?

Christine

I'm new here. I just ordered A World of Adventure. My friend let me take hers for a week to see if I like it. If any curriculum would work for my family for history/science, this will. Now I'm trying to figure out how to schedule my day so I get to teach reading to the three boys, work one on one with my 10 yod, have a half hour for my little girls and still do this too. I'm sure the Lord will help me figure it out.

The reason I chose AWOA is because it covers every subject except math, foreign language, and typing. It has the main points actually in the book that you read aloud to your children, then either they go off and read library books about the topic or you read library books to them. AWOA also includes Bible and many times the Bible lesson goes with the literature reading.

AWOA has a few hands-on activities, but not so many you want to run aaway screaming! LOL

I'm excited to start...sometime after our homeschool group's Geography Fair.

My oldest (2nd child, oldest student next year) will be taking World Geography next year, so no history. She might take Economics/Government at our co-op, either in addition or instead of the Geography. My son is taking that class this year as a senior and loves it. I've heard the current teacher might come back next year, but I don't know for how long, so if she does I definitely want to get my daughter in that class.

For my younger two, who will be 7th & 8th grades, I *think* they're going to do American History with the History of US books. My current 7th grader is reading those now but she won't finish them, so I'm planning on her just picking up where she leaves off. My youngest may do just the first half and then finish them in 8th, or she may read them all in 7th. She's a much faster reader than her sister so she could well catch up to her. We also use the American Adventure series of books as a supplement (historical fiction).

Wow, this is so strange! Next year I'll only have three to plan curriculum for, and two of them will often be doing the same thing. What a switch from planning four different grade levels! What am I going to do with all that extra time I'll have!?
Lori

I have a (secret) scope and sequence I keep for each child, and mark off as we cover certain things to a level of mastery I am comfortable with. We have a family of readers here and I haven't found I needed any curriculum for history at all. We read books, fiction and non-fiction, watch movies and discuss them, look at maps old and new, visit historical sites; so many different things we do relate to history!

In her 9th grade year, one of my daughters created a family tree complete with historical research back beyond the American Revolution. That was positively the "hook" she needed to become personally involved and absolutely enthralled with history!

OK, Anji, spill it - how did you assemble your scope and sequence? Do you repeat at different grade levels?

Hi Dawn! I've heard of ANWOA. What time periods does that cover - what age levels?

Christine

A World of Adventure is for 4-8th grades (but can be adjusted up or down) and covers Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, The Rennaisance and the Reformation.

A New World of Adventure is also for 4-8th grades and covers 1600-1800.

The new one Dorian Holt is working on is called Westward and Onward and covers the years 1800-1860.

quote:

Originally posted by christinefield:
OK, Anji, spill it - how did you assemble your scope and sequence? Do you repeat at different grade levels?

I paid $1 for one put out by World Book Encyclopedia back in 1987! I ran it through my scanner and printed off one copy for each child!

We don't do a lot of repeating. Because we don't really cover American History in Grade x and British Literature in Grade y, we cover as we go. If someone is too young to remember when we studied William Wallace, it'll eventually come around again in the normal course of reading.

We read a LOT.

Anji,
That's a great idea! Does anyone know if that World Book s & s is still available anywhere?
Christine

It used to be available on their web site. I couldn't get the link to work this morning, but if you do a search for World Book Course of Study you can probably find it that way.

Here's a link to an about.com article containing the online version.

http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/learning/a/courseofstudy.htm

Anyone else use a scope and sequence for history? Tell us about it and how you use it.
Christine

Mystery of History volume 1

Welcome again,Oney!
Tell us about Mystery of History please! Is it a text, or literature based? What grades, eras?
Thanks,
Christine

Christine,
Thanks for the welcome (a l*o*n*g time ago--I'm so embarrassed!!)

MOH Volume 1 Creation to the Resurrection is by Linda Lacour Hobar. Here is a website where you can read all about it.
Mystery of History

Ms. Hobar suggests creating a timeline either in a notebook or on the wall and this excites me. I think I would have loved history had it been more than reading dates and names in a text book.

We are finishing our second year of American History using Sonlight. It will be our third year using them(we did World History for a year), and we absolutely LOVE IT. It is literature based, which means that instead of reading dry textbooks, we get to read really fabulous biographies and stories, ranging from things like Johhny Tremain, to Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?. Some books the kids read on their own, some we do as read-alouds. They will cover a topic (like the American Revolution) in several different books so the kids start to see the connection. ("Oh Mom, it's that Sam Adams again. I bet he's stirring up trouble," or "April of 1775 in Massachusetts? Hey, isn't that the ride of Paul Revere?") It also comes with a fabulous timeline you create, so the kids can see how things flow together, and how they relate. I'm using it with my 10, 8 and 6 year old, and so they are getting to experience and share things together. Everything is scheduled for me, and it comes with a fabulous instructors guide that covers everything from comprehension to vocubulary to geography. Our Language Arts also ties in with it, so their dictation and writing assignments come from books they are reading. This Old Schoolhouse magazine just voted Sonlight best curriculum for both literature and history. Anyone interested should check out their website, sonlight.com, or request a catalog.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Wheat,

HI Wheat!
Welcome to the board! Tell us some more about your family ...
Is this your first year using Sonlight? We have used it in the past and loved it as well.
What other history programs have you used?
Welcome!
Blessings,
Christine

My sixth grader will be using Truthquest Age of Revolution I, and my second grader and kindergartner will be using Truthquest American History for Young Students I, after we finish up the Renaissance, Reformation & Exploration guide. Dc#1 will be in ninth grade, and I've signed him up for the World History I class at Scholar's Online.

Het Alegnab,
How do you like TruthQuest? Any trouble finding books? (Probably not, with your 2000, eh?) Is there enough of a writing component?
Thanks,
Christine

I love TruthQuest. We haven't been using it very long, but I recently read through a friend's older editions of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Reformation & Explorers guides and decided that TQ will be our history from here on out. My boys like TruthQuest so far. They prefer to just do a lot of reading for history -- in other words, don't give them worksheets. They do like hands-on projects, but I don't assign them often enough. Fortunately, they retain a lot from just reading. Ds#2 told me this school year that his favorite thing to do in school is read history. Sometimes when I tell him he can go read history, he lets out with a "Yahoo!" Both of my boys would be content with just reading all day long (ds#1 would want to read science stuff also).

Since there isn't much writing suggested in TQ, I'm considering purchasing History-Based Writing Lessons. Ds#2 needs to do more writing than he has been doing, and I'm not creative enough to come up with a variety of assignments.

Ds#1 will be doing an online history course next year (along with two other online courses), partly because he needs to be accountable to someone else for a change. I'm going to buy the TQ guides that cover the history periods that he'll be studying, because I want him to read the author's worldview info.

I've been disappointed that many of the books recommended in TQ are not in my library. When we did Tapestry of Grace, about 85% of the recommendations were in my library, so it was surprising to find that so few books recommended in TQ are in my library. The author has listed far more books than anyone can read, though, so everyone can hopefully find some book for most topics. If I can't find a recommended book, I can get whatever my library has that I think is suitable for my children. The new editions of TQ have page or chapter listings for several spine books throughout the guides (a spine book covers a large time span, so it isn't read all at once), and I have a few of them (H.A.Guerber books, Famous Men of..., Story of the World, Charles Coffin books, etc.). A few of the spine books can be read online for free at http://www.mainlesson.com .

To see samples of TruthQuest, go to http://www.truthquesthistory.com/store/products.php . There are links for PDF samples in each book's section.

Can you tell me more about the writing aspects of TruthQuest? You said there was not enough - what was there? Are there assignments?
What is History-Based Writing lessons? Haven't heard of that one.
Christine