*Please* help inspire me

[Osmosis Mom]

I am sitting here, tired and despondent. I am not sure how to approach history for ds almost 14.

Last year he was supposed to have done Trisms, but that practically bombed due to lack of directions, him not wanting to just dig around to find the information (his sister liked it). I bought HO Middle Ages (level 3), but in loking through it I am not happy at all with what I see. First off, the spine is beyond boooring. Secondly, the treatment of the different civilizations is so off-sided it hurts me. Perhaps it is because only Western influence is worth learning and knowing about, but to me it comes off as if the author took the easy way out and only focused on what she already knew. I do not feel the syllabus outline would expand my son's mind plus I don't appreciate the way Muslim civilization gets treated (it was almost laughable and I am not even a history buff).

So, where does that leave me right now? His three younger siblings are going to be doing SOTW with add-ins and some more focus on geography. His older sister will probably continue with Trisms. I do know that I want to do Middle Ages while covering as many civilizations and cultures as possible.

I also know that I cannot just use magic dust and spend hours re-creating the wheel. My focused hours are very limited as I have a busy toddler. I own Spielvogel's Human Odyssey and find that simplistic and somewhat superficial. Perhaps it could work. I doubt doing it the WTM-way would work for us as I want to cover more than the West.

Any suggestions to help me get over my brain-friedness???

[Nan in Mass]

Could you have him do Human Odyssey by reading and answering the questions, not putting too much time or effort into it but using it as an overview, and at the same time, have him listen to some of the Teaching Company courses to listen to, ones that would cover the aspects you are concerned about in greater detail? Or I filled out Spielvogel's Western Civ by having my children read what I thought of as "culture" books. They were at middle school level, so they could get through quite a lot of them in a summer. They did Habibi, Shabanu, Red Scarf Girl, The Endless Steppe, and Zlata (think I got the title right), to name a few. You could probably come up with a better list. I didn't put a lot of thought into it, just grabbed what I had on hand. Are there short novels he could read that would fill out HO? Or are appropriate selections of those just as scarce in English?

-Nan

[Michelle in AL]

My dd, 10th grade will be doing middle ages too and will be using Spielvogel. To "beef" it up we're adding in World History in Documents a Comparative Reader. It uses primary sources in a chronological order throughout World history to compare civilizations. It gives great discussion ?'s to help the student to compare documents. It does contain Christian, Muslim, and Bhuddist documents. I can't tell you if any are offensive since I haven't read it yet. You can read much of the book on google books though.

The Teacher's manual for Human Odyssey really helps to bring depth to the text with more discussion questions, comparison activities and writing assignments. Do you have that component? I also ordered the study guide, hoping to add some reinforcement of what was read.

[Corraleno]

The Oxford University Press series The Medieval and Early Modern World is a 7 volume set which includes volumes on Asia, the Middle East, and Mesoamerica as well as more Eurocentric topics, and they cover the Mughal, Ottoman and Manchu empires as well as European empires. It's middle school/early high school level (grades 7-10). The complete set is about $150 new, but you could probably put together a set for between $70 and $100 by buying individual books used. Or you may be able to get them from your library.

http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Early-Modern-World-Seven/dp/0195221575/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

You can also get Teachers Guides and Student Guides for individual volumes.

Jackie

[matroyshka]

The Oxford University Press series The Medieval and Early Modern World is a 7 volume set which includes volumes on Asia, the Middle East, and Mesoamerica as well as more Eurocentric topics, and they cover the Mughal, Ottoman and Manchu empires as well as European empires. It's middle school/early high school level (grades 7-10). The complete set is about $150 new, but you could probably put together a set for between $70 and $100 by buying individual books used. Or you may be able to get them from your library.

http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Early-Modern-World-Seven/dp/0195221575/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

You can also get Teachers Guides and Student Guides for individual volumes.


Nadia, if you're interested in those, I got my local library (MVLC network) to order two complete sets of this - one for reference and one to loan out. So you'd be able to get your hands on them fairly easily. Most of the set are elsewhere in the network as well, but some were missing, so I convinced our friendly homeschooling librarian that they should purchase them. :001_smile:

Hey, just don't be wantin' 'em the same time as me. ;)

[Amy in TX]

I've got a 14yo going into 9th grade and an 11yo going into 6th. I liked HO last year, for ancients, level 2. However, after looking at the HO level 3 for middle ages, I've decided not to use it, for the same reasons you have.

I've spent the last couple of months looking for world history texts (both middle and high school levels) that aren't 90% European history texts, and that aren't full of misinformation about Islam/Islamic history.

I looked at the Spielvogel texts and found them incredibly shallow, Human Odyssey most of all. After looking at many world history texts via Amazon, used bookstores, and the library, here are the ones I've settled on.

For middle school: K12's The Human Odyssey--this is not the Spielvogel text. It's published by K12. (3 volumes altogether; I got the first two used on Amazon).

For high school: The Heritage of World Civilizations by Craig, Kagan, Ozment, and Turner (2 volumes altogether, got them used on Amazon).

There's probably no such thing as a history book that everyone thinks is fair, but these give Asian, African, and indigenous American cultures more coverage than anything else I've seen. And their treatment of Islam didn't make me cringe.

These are both textbooks, with chapter questions, etc. I plan to use them as spines and loosely follow the WTM methodology, inshallah, ie, lots of supplemental reading, frequent short papers, and a final paper for my 9th grader.

Hope this is helpful!
Amy

[Osmosis Mom]

Wow. Amazing suggestions. I am so thankful for you all taking the time.

Matroyska -I'll ask the two libraries where I have library cards about ordering the series and if not...we'll see about you ever getting your eyes on that series again once I borrow it, haha!!

Amy, I'll check out the textbook you suggested. we are on a tight budget, but maybe an inexpensive used copy will show up.

If not, then I'll use the Human Odyssey and add to it. I agree that it is shallow.

I am myself studying Islamic historical "high lights" such as when Muslims were in Spain (700 years actually!!), travels of Ibn Battuta, and am looking for sources to find about Saladin; all pretty famous historical incidents that are barely mentioned (not mentioned) in textbooks. I am not even aghast if Islam is mis-represented (usually the mention of the religion is kept neutral), but to skip over Muslim history just like that is not what I want for my kids. And of course then you start wondering what about a few other cultures/lands, what is not told there? Was the world really only catered to the Western ideologies and peoples?

Anyways. I own HO and all the bells and whistles that come with it, but we have never used it as my oldest was a self-studier and loved istory and my second is even more. I'll reconsider Teacing Company as my library has several lectures.

OK.
Gotta run, but I'll be back once I think things over more.

[mamaof2andtwins]

Nadia,

You and I have taken the same path.

I started my son out in TRISMS last fall, and we had the same reaction that you did. There was not enough direction, and we just couldn't pull it together. Then I did history on my own for a while. Around Thanksgiving I found History Odyssey. I purchase Level 3 Ancients, but it was too advanced for my son. So, we dropped back down to level 2, and finished the year with it, but I was not as thrilled as I thought I would be.

I finally came to the conclusion that we need a textbook style for high school. I have decided to use Notgrass Exploring World History this fall. I like the literature component. I bought the quiz/test booklet. I really feel the need to quantify the learning that he is doing, and this seemed like the best fit.

It sounds to me that a more textbook driven course is what you might be looking for.

Jennie

[Linda in NM]

I feel like I could have written your message--we, too, used Trisms, and it was my fault that my 14 YOS did not "get it" like we did with HistoryMakers...I've decided to go back to Tapestry of Grace (a unit study I've used in the past), because, for some reason, I'm more accountable with TOG. We will be using Y2 redesigned, starting with the dialectic phase and moving to rhetoric by unit 2. It, too, is a study of the Middle Ages (and something you could do with all of your children...)

[Osmosis Mom]

Linda and Jennie,

At least we are not neighbours, donig the same mistakes while living right next to eachother, LOL!!!! I like the concept of Trisms, but there has to be a coherent text to work from or a an assigned base read before each unit.

I was looking through some books this morning including some original works by traveling Arabs in the Middle ages. Discovered a few connections I hadn't known about (adding to my mental timeline), but also concluded what wouldn't work. I still need to look further and check out Human Odyssey with the student book that I also own to see if I can make it work. I am feeling very frustrated actually at having to review everything and actually learn it because I am in a timecrunch constantly.

I did look at TOG yr. 2 unit 1 last night and toyed with the idea of getting it, just to have an overview. I don't mind explicit Christian references. What I do mind is the assumption that only Western/Christian cultures and people civilized the world.

Nadia

[Ruth in Canada]

We are using Speilvogel & Duiker's university-level World History book as a spine. I wanted world history, not western civ. She answers the focus questions as she reads. We're adding in various library sources: The PBS "Empires" series is very good. We used the DVD version of "Guns, Germs and Steel" in grade 9 and dd surprised me by devouring the full book in grade 10. She usually identifies a topic of interest, does some research or reads a related book and writes a short paper for each chapter. This was a bit of a stretch for grade 9, but she's managing very nicely (and independently) for grade 10. She'll continue this way until grade 12 (unless she decides to take modern history at the local U in grade 10). Given that the public school kids are only required to have one history course--and that she reads widely, I'm not sweating this too much.

[Kareni]

I wonder if you've seen this older thread which mentions a lot of resources. Admittedly many are for younger children, but it looks like there are some there for older students as well.

Islamic homeschoolers (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97809&highlight=islam)

I hope you'll soon get past your discouragement.

Regards,
Kareni

[Osmosis Mom]

Kareni,

Thanks for the link. It has been encouraging to be getting all those posts from people trying to help me sort this out.

Nadia

[Linda in NM]

Well, I suppose you could call it European Middle Ages...hmmm...although I did notice some reference later in Unit 1 to Muslim/Islam...which brought me to an interesting point brought up in church on Sunday (Trinity Sunday)...more and more to think about. I love this forum!