Four year history rotation vs. Government/civics/econ

[JennifersLost]

I had planned to keep doing the WTM four year history cycle with my high schooler, but I know a lot of colleges want a specific American Government or civics course, and they also want an econ course. How are people doing this? Are you lumping it all in together or dropping the four year rotation and doing the regular high school type courses?

[readwithem]

I had planned to keep doing the WTM four year history cycle with my high schooler, but I know a lot of colleges want a specific American Government or civics course, and they also want an econ course. How are people doing this? Are you lumping it all in together or dropping the four year rotation and doing the regular high school type courses?

Next year my dd will be 11th grade, so we'll follow WTM's suggestions and study Federalist Papers, US Constitution, Common Sense....I intend to allocate 1/2 credit to Government. Not sure what I would do living in Canada.

For Economics we'll watch the Teaching Company's videos and we may read a textbook they recommend. Otherwise, I'm not sure :)

We'll still do the other books rec'd in WTM as Literature, but she's a prolific reader and we generally read year round.

[JennifersLost]

Thanks - that makes sense.

I didn't realize Teaching Company had an econ course. That sounds like a good plan.

[Laura K (NC)]

The subject matter largely impacted the United States. If the college my son applies to is a stickler about having an American History credit in high school, I will rename our modern history class "American History" without any guilt. I plan on doing government when my son is doing the premodern period, and we'll use original source documents so the two (different, simultaneous) classes are complementary. I'll bring in some extra source material for more modern issues of government, but really, we're doing that right now with the election process. I will most likely let a community college handle economics. I can't see substituting econ and gov. for history, especially for my three sons who love history so much. We really need four full years of history in addition to economics and government.

[danielle]

Before you pop for Teaching Company (which are usually good) be sure to check out the Anneberg/CPB stuff. They have economics and at least 2 government courses--free. www.learner.org (http://www.learner.org)
Danielle

[carolinagirl710]

A friend recommended this plan which is working well for us:

9th: Western Civilization I : Ancients to 1600
10th: Western Civilization II: 1600 to Present
11th: American History
12th: Government

We are using Western Civ. by J. Spielvogel and TC lectures from Foundations of Western Civ. for 9-10th. The plan then is to switch to The American Pageant for US History, and for government.....not quite sure but she will participate in Teen Pact and volunteer at our local political party headquarters.