History: to skim or skip... that is my question

[Kathie in VA]

Our year has been so full of interruptions (funerals, illness, etc) that we are very far behind in our history/lit. This was our year for American History. I chose SL core 100 for my 7th and 8th graders and had my 3rd grader tag along for the 'History of US' & poetry read aloud time. (The 3rd grader also did CC-Foundations which focused on Am Hist. so we all lined up nice.) Would you believe we are on week 9 (bk 3 of 10 in 'History of US')??? ug. :eek:

Anyway my dh wants us to stop schooling at the end of June so we all can have a real break from school and so I can have time to plan for next year. This sounds good but next year I want to start our 2nd pass thru history and go back to the Ancients (& rising 4th grader and 4year old will hit Ancients also with Foundations). {I know my dh said that we could just stop and then continue it in Sept but that throws off all plans for history... ug.}

Anyway, now I'm restructoring our schedules to just incude the main things I need them to work on. SL core 100 has the spine, and history novel, and a literature novel to work on daily. I think I'll encourage them to read the history novels on their own and try to work on the literature ones together. I think it would be fun to read Huckleberry Finn aloud together... all of us. Perhaps I can try some of the ideas in WEM, since I'm debating between that and Omni for next year. If we get thru it then we'll just read the next one, w/o analysis... and see how far we get. (I guess what we don't get to do, can be summer reading????

Now for the spine. I'm thinking of skipping the SL questions and just reading aloud to them w/ discussions as they occur. I know we'll forget it if we don't do something with it so I'm thinking of outlining some or all as we go. My older two have done some outlining but aren't good yet and my younger guy is old enough to learn. Perhaps if I just demo it, over and over, and then start having them 'help', they will get it and have that skill for next year. We will also be crusing thru CW so maybe I'll have them do a paper for history using those skills?? (iff time). So now I'm considering doing this history for about 30 minutes a day .... well maybe 2 - 3 sessions of this per day?? We can do other work in between and not outline for all of it.... Do you think this is too much?? Any other ideas?

We'll be doing math all summer, they all already agreed to that one. Rosetta Stone will also be continued this month and probably into the summer as they want to surprise their grandma. The older two didn't get any Gen. Science done so I'll try to get some of that in also. Evenings & weekends tend to be a bad time for 'teacher needed' school work. So that's out.

Thanks for your comments and ideas!
:bigear:

[Carol in Cal.]

I would suggest prereading Huckleberry Finn, though. It has a tremendous amount of severe domestic and public violence in it--not to mention the n-word pretty much every other sentence in some chapters. It's not an easy read aloud, and I'm not so sure that I would want a 3rd grader having to deal with it.

[LoriM]

Don't fret. You have four-five more years with your older two. Sometimes the best-laid plans need to just be tossed. Honestly, if I were you, I would simply do a "unit study" on the Civil War, and the WWI/WWII era of about 2 weeks each. BIG BIG picture of American timeline...and watch some historical movies.

If you *must* go back to Ancients in the fall, do that, but I'd be tempted to cover Modern History next year. After all, that's the part of American History you never got to...so you could do 20th Century history (which, face it, IS ancient history to your children! LOL!), and save Ancients for your 7/8th graders when they are more mature high school students. Ancient texts are HARD reads.

HTH,

Lori

[Kathie in VA]

I would suggest prereading Huckleberry Finn, though. It has a tremendous amount of severe domestic and public violence in it--not to mention the n-word pretty much every other sentence in some chapters. It's not an easy read aloud, and I'm not so sure that I would want a 3rd grader having to deal with it.

hmm, a thought. I sometimes forget he's young because he is a brite and mature guy... already reading way above his grade level. He's the one that can answer the questions to the older kids by just overhearing the lesson from the next room! I'll have to think about this some. He has been exposed to lots with the TV, but then again I do have lots of books from the SL core to pick from. (Although he already read White Fang.)

Don't fret. You have four-five more years with your older two. Sometimes the best-laid plans need to just be tossed. Honestly, if I were you, I would simply do a "unit study" on the Civil War, and the WWI/WWII era of about 2 weeks each. BIG BIG picture of American timeline...and watch some historical movies.


:willy_nilly: Toss the plans! :eek: you're probably right :blink: Oh but this thought is soooo harrrd!
Oh their dad is a history nut, so they see historical movies all the time!
But, finding a way to get the big picture... hmm. Need to ponder ways to do that with what we have here.


If you *must* go back to Ancients in the fall, do that, but I'd be tempted to cover Modern History next year. After all, that's the part of American History you never got to...so you could do 20th Century history (which, face it, IS ancient history to your children! LOL!), and save Ancients for your 7/8th graders when they are more mature high school students. Ancient texts are HARD reads.

HTH,

Lori

I do see your point here, however that would have me dealing with two different time periods as my younger two kids will study the Ancients with the Foundation co-op.... and I'll be one of the tutors. Then there's the fact that they are really looking forward to studying Greek and Roman history again. The Greeks are my oldest's favorite and the Romans are my ds's favorite to study. It's been about 5-6 years since we read about that time period.

[Kathie in VA]

[QUOTE=Carol in Cal.;967720]I would suggest prereading Huckleberry Finn, though. [QUOTE]

Ooops. I just realized that I had the wrong book. SL core 100 includes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Not sure if this is any better or not though.
:confused:

[Carol in Cal.]

"Tom Sawyer" is MUCH more entertaining and light than "Huckleberry Finn." I held off on it, though, til DD was 11 because it is also very sarcastic and includes a tremendous amount of disobedient behavior. It's extremely funny, and when DD was younger she would pick up on styles like that and imitate them. But I didn't object to it, per se, it's more that there are so many great books to read to a 9 or 10 year old, and given the stuff I figured that TS would make me deal with, I waited a bit in favor of some other books like "Number the Stars". It would have been perfectly appropriate, however.

BTW, if you decide to go with a history unit study, check out the Steward Ship offerings in American history. They are really, really good, multi-level, and relatively inexpensive.

The Lewis and Clark one and the Civil War one would fill up a nice summer for your family, I think.

[Kareni]

Another thought ...

Joy Hakim also has a one volume book entitled Freedom: A History of US (http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-History-US-Joy-Hakim/dp/0195157117) which accompanied a PBS series of the same title. Perhaps that could be used instead of the original 10 book History of US series to get an overview.

Regards,
Kareni

[Kathie in VA]

Thanks all, for your ideas. I don't think I want to purchase anything new at this point, though. I have, however, peaked into what netflix has to offer. Anyone heard of : "Getting Ahead: US History" ? I might consider this as a way to skim the facts if we need it.