Poll: History for Grammar Years

[Medieval Mom]

What history do you use in the grammar years?

[LanaTron]

SOTW!

[chaik76]

4-year cycle, other. We use various resources to cover everything, with some CHOW thrown in. I've tried SOTW several times, and it just doesn't call to me. I really liked the suggestions in the first edition of WTM best.

[coffeefreak]

We've tried Veritas, WTM and even tried going it on our own. Now we're doing Ambleside and absolutely love it.

[melissaL]

I use SOTW for grammar and logic stage

[8FillTheHeart]

We don't do history until 3rd grade, don't follow any specific cycle, and it is all put together by me. For example, last yr my then 3rd, 6th, and 8th graders all did medieval history. This yr my 9th grader is doing Yr 1 of cyclical history. My 7th grader is doing world cultures/ancient history (we are mostly focusing on cultures, but are doing units on Egypt, Rome, and Greece b/c he decided he wanted to read them) My 4th grader is doing American history. As far as next yr, only my high schooler has a specific study already planned.

[AnointedHsMom]

We use Heart of Dakota and will be using their 4 year cycle starting next year. They start with Ancients.

[matroyshka]

I'm an "other". I love, love, love the idea of chronological history, but we've kind of rabbit trailed down our own path.

1st grade we followed our noses - we hit on the ancients with a study of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and also medieval Venice, Marco Polo and China and the Silk Road, oh, and Columbus and the Maya Indians.

2nd grade I wanted to start chronological US history, to take advantage of all the great local field trips we've got around here. It was supposed to take 2 years. We're on year 4! and with any luck we'll be finishing up this year. It's been a *lot* of fun, though! This year is 20th century - once we get to the world wars, a lot of world history will get mixed in.

So next, year, 6th, and 7th I'd like to do Western Civ - from Ancients through at least somewhat modern times, but focused on Western cultures.

Then 8th, a focused semester on chronological Asian, then a semester of African history (rather than mixing it in)

Then, assuming we keep going through high school:

9th/10th - cycle back to US history. I think this might take 2 years. I really never planned to spend this much time on US history! US Govt would I think be mixed in there somewhere.
11th - World History
12th - Current Events and maybe Econ

This all assumes we get through the 20th century this year! This should get us through everything about twice - does that make it some kind of twisted 6-year cycle??? My younger dd is kind of tagging along (she listens to the read-alouds and I assign her reading at her level), so these years don't really correspond. When the older 2 are done, we'll just have to see where we're at and what gaps we have for her.

I've totally been making up all our history curriculum myself - apparently this is what I find fun. :D

ETA - Oh, wait, you only asked about the grammar stage - couldn't manage to answer that without including what comes next, I guess! I've been thinking a lot lately about what comes next because we're supposed to be finishing the US stuff that's been keeping us going so long...

[Lori in MS]

I use MFW which does 3 cycles. The K-2nd grade cycle begins with creation and a study of what God has created, goes through an overview of the Bible, and then does an overview of American history. After that we do 1 year of geography, followed by 4 yrs of chronological history (using SOTW and other books). You will repeat the year you did in 3rd grade in 8th grade at a deeper level. Once the child reaches high school, there is a 4 yr sequence on that level.

[Lori D.]

I originally *planned* to do three 4-year cycles -- we took 6 years to get through the first "cycle". By then we were into middle school, and so we took a history break and did a year to do world cultures/geography and comparative religions (VERY worthwhile break from history -- wish we'd taken 2 years for that!). And now for the high school years we're jumping about following their interests and allowing them input where possible in determining their schedules: last year was the ancients, this year 20th century, next year U.S. history, the following year Medieval -- and then I don't know what for the younger student's senior year!

It's all been great, though. Everything connects and weaves together. I loved taking the extra time in the early years to follow bunny trails, or even set aside history for awhile to focus on other things. No program here, but we use lots of book recommendations from WTM, Sonlight, Veritas, Ambleside, and others. I would also say that doing history chronologically the first time around at least helped *me* see a lot of connections and consequences between various cultures and events.

Just my 2 cents worth (on what's supposed to just be a poll -- geesh! you'd think I could keep my comments down for that! lol) Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Hannah]

I voted "4 year cycle: WTM: Story of the World (SOTW 1-4)" because we're using SOTW, but we've taken three years to get to the end of Book 2. We do the activities in the guide with three other families. The moms take turns preparing the activities for 8 kids to do together one afternoon per week.
I don't know how long it will take to finish books 3 & 4.

We also read living books for South African history in parallel with the SOTW, so on slow "History Club" weeks, we add more local history.

[Laura Corin]

I put 6 year cycle, but should really have chosen 4/5 year plus 1 other. We do around five years of SOTW plus Our Island Story and This Country of Ours. We also do one year of Chinese history. We have now added in a casual unit study on Scotland.

Laura

[SBP]

I voted "other" because we used #1 - SOTW/4-year, and at the same time, we used Classical Conversations' 3-year cycle. Seems confusing - and sometimes it was - but mostly it's worked just fine. This year (5th) we're taking a year off and doing American History.

SBP

[Shari]

We've used TOG since oldest ds was in 1st. He is now in 5th, and we are halfway through Year 1 of our second 'go round' through the cycle. I love love love TOG, and having the full program for so long has given Mom a lot of time to get used to the way it works and to gather books.

That being said, when we started TOG was still publishing the "Classic" version, which IMHO was more family friendly than the current publication. Definitely cheaper. If the TOG price tag THEN was what it is NOW, I doubt we would have used it for Grammar.

[nukeswife]

I voted for the 4 or 5 year cycle +1 "unit" since we are using SOTW via History Odyssey, but when we get to American Colonization we'll put SOTW and HO aside and delve much deeper into American History than they do with the Time Travelers CDs.

[Medieval Mom]

Looks like a lot of exciting options out there! Thanks, everyone, for sharing your ideas and plans.:)

[Melora in NC]

I used SOTW for four years with my ds, but this year dd is starting first grade and we are trying TOG.