I have 2 years before I need to "worry" about high school but I am trying to think ahead and make sure I have in all the elementary requirements before then. We have been doing history Chronologically. The plan was to do each section (ancients, middle ages, US history) slowly and throughly. Then I read something about needing to redo history in High School and now I am afraid I don't have time to cram it all in before I have to re-do it again. I would like to take 2 years to do Rome, the reformation, middle ages, ect (MOHv2 and supplements) and then do America History with the wars and such when they are in high school. Do you think it would be OK to do them slowly as long as everything is covered before graduation or do I need to cram and reteach it (albeit at a higher level) again?
well from what I have been taught is that we have to teach and reteach at a deeper level for JR and Sr high both. So we are doing MOH v3 then I have another history book for Sr high history. Actually itsa set of books, three, big books! lol, but then for US history we have been through it in parts and again last year, then this year we did medival times, and then next renesannce to ref. which should bring me right into the Sr High stuff Here in CA they dont do history for one year, and that is when we will jjust focus on geography alone, even though all his history classes have been geographically enhanced because we love geo! hope I helped answer your q
I should say we have done some American History. We just stopped short of the wars. I wanted to wait until they were older for that. I could do that next year if I do MOHv2 in 1 year as written. Then next year focus on the wars. Then go into highschool.
High School history usually goes deeper on the basic history taught in elementary and jr high. There should be more of an emphasis on critical thinking and exploring connections and understanding why events happened not just that they did. Traditional High School history would have 1-2 years of World History. That could be divided into regions, topics (wars, government, social...) or straight chronological order. Then there would be one year of US History and then another year of Civics/Government where the focus would be on structure and laws (Supreme Court decisions and such). In high school there should also be a good deal of working with primary sources and especially writing Document Based Question Essays. Walsh has some good books with DBQs in them. If you choose not to go the traditional route the one thing I would say is to make sure the depth is there. You want analysis and connections. This will help them tremendously in College.
bunnytracks I like your plan! If you do it that way ti can fill in the one year in between. It is funny but I think because they add the full language, and the full computer classes and that other one... what is it called life skills class Lol that history gets the boot in the upper jr high level... whatever grade that is for your state, here it seems tobe changing a lot!
I am struggling with this also. I think for next year we will stick with Rome and then the middle ages. ( we are doing a bit of state history for the 4th grader, but I think we will cover a bunch of that this summer with trips) Then do american history for the older one (well, again both...but mainly for) and see how far we get. I think modern american/plus world wars and cold war history for 9th. Ancient/world for 10th and then see where I think we need work...unless he goes back to ps. I might look into a civics deal in 11th, with forays off into middle east history and things like the british empire and the IRA and why and how certain historical happenings affect how people react to things now. That connection is so important. That our Navy was implemented to fend off northern african pirates...(does history repeat itself?) Imperialism...how it affects our predjudices today. I hope I can get the boys more INTERESTED in history. I LOVE history, but they think it is so boring. The only thing that has sparked ds interest is the old mythology...and a few of the wars.
I love history too! So far my kids are pretty into it. I think the MOh is going to be like Story of the World, he had enough activities to draw my son into doing it. Dd was easy she read history books and asked for them from the library to thepoint that she coudl teach a class in history of the World War eras and can tell me when I miss quote a section of history. She used Exploring World History by Notgrass. They are great! BIG thick books of reading, and literature in one, High school level books. Plus a third book of literature alone! She has grown in her desire to read history through that lesson series. We also grab history related to our studies area novels. I guess they call them living books, but its about history and real enough to get the idea across. Dh also orders net flix movies that represent the era so that helps too! MY dd is going into 12 th grade in the fall! So scarey! I have home taught her all the way through, but next year she goes out to our Church school. I think History is easy enough at the High School levels because if they can read, and watch videos for film strips, they can learn anything!
This is what we're doing. Rachael has done MOH Vol. 1 and 2. This gave her world history through the Middle Ages (not the Renaissance), and then she's had two solid years of U.S. History. We also read The World of Columbus and Sons by Foster to bridge the gap between the two. Next year, she will be a sophomore. She will be doing Notgrass World History independently. My other two will be doing MOH 3. I will probably have her listen in on the readings of MOH 3, but that's it. Her Junior year she'll be taking Notgrass American History.
I will be interested in hearing hwo the Americann history in Notgrass is when she gets there Jackie, cause we will do the world one with ds then if he stays home I want to do us with it too, unless he opts for it on SOS like dd did. Ds is also a sports kid so I was kinda wanting him to get involved at a local high school sports program, somehow, once he reaches that level but want to home school him too, he is learning so much more this way! \
Jackie you are right it doesnt cover Renaissance. I am guessing that is covered in 3??? Jackie is their a reason that you have changed to Notgrass in highschool? MOH claims that it can be used for highschoolers as well.
Yes, Vol. 3 is Renaissance. I really like MOH, but I think the high school needs something more. (Or it could just be the way *I* do it, too!) Notgrass is considered History, Bible, and Literature all together. It seems to be very in-depth, and something Rachael will need to do on her own. It relies heavily on "primary source" materials. I just think it will be good for her. She's already independent with Teaching Textbooks Math, and Apologia Science. I give her the books at the beginning of the year, she tells me when she takes a test, and that's it.
Thanks Jackie!! I will look into Notgrass. I was just trying not to skip around in Curr too much and stay with MOH all the way through to keep us all together. High school is a whole other ball game. I never even imagined going all the way through when we started and now I can't imagine not doing it all the way. You ladies are so wonderful though. Listening to me thinking out lous and helping me to navigate the right way
My son just finished Notgrass world History this year. It is very intense. It required a Minimum of 1 hour every day to get through the reading and the quizz. That does not include the literature reading and the writing assignments. Very Bible intensive also. Could easily take 3 hours a day. Just thought I would throw that in since several people are planning to try it.
My son was not really in love with it. It is very much an overview of World history and the program moves very quickly. My son really prefers to plod through subjects and this program kind of grabbed him by the hand and drug him along at a high rate of speed. :lol: But it got us where we needed for High School Credit and we are both releived to be done with it.
So could you make it an English/History class? I know in our local high schools, in the gifted program, they combine the 2. Then give 2, or maybe even 3 credits for it. A 3rd credit can be given if you are giving bible class credits?
MFW highschool program is using Notgrass and they are doing 1/2 the book at a time and adding to it to make it a full credit. It can be done. I was wondering why they didnt just finish the book in one year and now I think I see why.
I plan on doing it in one year, and giving three credits, one each for World History, World Lit, and Bible.
It is designed to be 3 credits "Completing the full course provides your child with a year's high school credit in World History, English (literature and composition), and Bible" My son was doing a different compostion class so we skipped most of the writing. He is not a strong writer and he needs someone other than me to be grading his compositons. I do think he would have gotten more out of the class had he done the writing as assigned, but it just wasn't a good fit for us. I did have him write a daily paragraph about his reading for the day to make sure he was getting the main points each day. As I mentioned, it was moving quickly and any day that his focus wasn't where it should have been, I could tell from his summary of the unit. He is also doing a mission trip this summer, so I feel really good about counting the Bible credit. We are counting 2 credits history and Bible.
