More History! I started a year of only US history this year....

[home4school]

We're using the awesome Los Banos plan and are enjoying it very much. It goes thru the Civil War. When you start down the path of only US history, how far do you go? After this year ending at the CWar, do you continue on with only US? Start over at Ancients doing World? Jump into a world study at the end of the war?

I have really messed up our cycle. We have never managed to accomplish a lot in history, its always been hit or miss. I am making it a priority this year to see if we can pull it off bc I had the grandest intention of starting TOG next year. I wanted to be sure we could put enough time into it before I spent the money. Now, with all the TOG drama, I've been looking at other options. That's when it hit me.....where do we go from here?

My dss will be 5th and 7th grade next year. What would you do, especially if you wanted to use TOG or something similar, like Trisms, or any other suggestions any of you may have.

Thanks,
Kim

[kokotg]

Mine are much younger, but we're doing the first half of American history this year and will do the second half next year. Before this we did the first two volumes of SOTW, so very tentatively my plan is to pick back up with that year after next with volume 3 (even though it will mean repeating a lot of the US history). Then we'll start over again with ancients with a 9 and 7 year old, and my then almost 5 year old will be able to join in for some of it. But I tend to change my mind a lot....

[Carol in Cal.]

I would use SOTW4 as your main spine the following year, and maybe even spread it out over 1 1/2 years. I would cover more US history by adding in the Critical Thinking in US History books suggested in TWTM, and also perhaps by supplementing with Hakim or AAH Volume II, or just with a lot of good living books--for instance, the books by Marrin about WW1, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, WWII, and Vietnam would go a long way toward fleshing out SOTW4, and they are written with a decidedly American POV. He also has one about the Middle East, but I would preread that one and decide what you think of his POV on it--not that it's wrong, but it is more opinionated than his other writing, and you might disagree with him.

Then for the rest of the year I would start over with whatever topics you are most interested in, and study several of them in a fair amount of depth, and use that to teach and practice research paper skills--citations, use of quotes, multiple sources, evaluation of sources, primary sources, how to evaluate historical arguments--those are good things to use shortly before high school, but are accessible enough that your younger one could certainly follow along. Maybe the older would be ready for instruction in what a thesis statement is, and could even write an argumentation paper.