History program that will help ds learn to work more independently?

[Wendi]

My ds will be an 8th grader next year. I am trying to figure out a plan for history for 8th grade through high school. We used Veritas grammar school history, but I don't think ds is ready for Omnibus. This year, we're doing Around the World in 180 Days.

One of my major goals for ds is to get him to work more efficiently and independently. I have always done programs that required a good amount of planning on my part. I would love to have something that's planned out for me/us, and has instructions directly to the student. I like the idea of TRISMS, but wonder if it's a little too open-ended. I want him to have some independent work he can do himself during the week, and then some discussion questions for us to go over to encourage higher-level thinking and analysis.

Here's what I've been considering:
TRISMS
Notgrass
MFW


Wendi

[Texas T]

Dd does MFW. It's been a really good program, for both of us, IMO...once I got past not having her in our daily school and stopped missing her presence so much. ;) It's really enabled her to take responsibility for her work but I have a copy of her schedule and look through her work and discuss it with her so she's not completely on her own. This is our first year with it, and we're using Ancients. I'm very impressed! She just finished the Iliad and I liked their way of handling it, having them write a summary of a chapter each day, plus looking at it Biblically as well.

She will be doing the Odyssey starting this week. She is also doing an in-depth study of the Book of Daniel via a teen Kay Arthur study guide. It's really good as she's getting the history/Biblical Prophecy and in-depth character study of Daniel. She told me she prefers this study because it causes her to look at the text herself and she's not spoon-fed the answers. :) She will have read the entire OT this year. It has been great academically, she's had a lot of growth in independence, a definite heart for service as that is part of the curriculum, and she's learned to manage her time well!!!

I'm looking forward to next year!!!

[Texas T]

Oh, also, if you are wanting to start in 8th, MFW will only have 4 years of their high school program so factor that into your decision.

[Wendi]

Oh, also, if you are wanting to start in 8th, MFW will only have 4 years of their high school program so factor that into your decision.

I'm not planning to start in 8th, unless I find a great program that I'm not sure will fit into 4 years, and want to spread it out over 5. But it seems hard to plan what to do in 8th until I figure out what I'm going to do for 9th-12th.

My tentative plan for 8th grade history is to do Brimwood Press's program (which is supposed to take 10 weeks), then .... ?? I'm thinking of either church history, Native American history, and/or Asian Studies (ds is really interested in Japan and will start Irasshai in the fall).

Wendi