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History with a big age range
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I’m not sure what to do with my crew for history. The older 2 (6th/7th and 10th grade) are doing Notgrass which I like. One if doing the jr. high level American history and one is doing the high school world history. Then I have my 2nd grading who I’m just doing history read-alouds with him. But I’m thinking I’m going to have to combine them because it’s not working with the older kids. They both “hate” history. It’s not the curriculum, I’ve heard it with everything we’ve done. And so far I’ve liked the Notgrass much better than others we’ve tried. They just aren’t big fans and don’t get why I want them to read all this “boring” stuff.
We’ve also just not done alot of history partly due to the above, and partly due to learning problems and the lang. arts subjects taking over much of our school day in the past. I’m concerned with my oldest now in high school, we have 3 years left to cover alot of stuff. I wanted to combine all the kids so that they’re doing more history with me rather than independently but their age span is pretty big. I’m not sure if I should just combine the older 2 and leave the 2nd grader doing his own thing (his is working) or combine all 3? And if I combine all 3, what books do I read that aren’t over the 2nd graders head or not too “young” for the older kids?
I’ve never successfully combined the older ones, I’ve tried in the past but they were younger, one not yet reading, they were 4 grade levels apart and dealing with learning problems, it just didn’t go well.) But I’m wondering if now I should try again just for history? And how to actually do that.
We combine. 14, 11, 9, 7, 4, 3, and 2 years old. We read from the Module 6 list right now. I read the 4-6th suggestion aloud, assign the others as independent reading. Lots of narration (both oral and written for the olders). We’re at the 1900 mark right now, and good books are very limited. And we aren’t doing as much notebooking/timelining as we usually do…but they’re still sharing this and that with Dad…so I guess it’s all still working. We plan to start with Module 1 in March, continuing to combine. We are VERY excited!
(I will add…History is a favorite in our family, so maybe that’s why our somewhat laid back approach in this subject still works.)
I also like history and prefer the laid back approach, but since it’s turning into an issue, I think I’m needing to make it a bit more formal, less independent to ensure *something* gets done.
That is a challenging gap. I’m not sure what I’d do, given the oldest are doing 2 different periods now. We use Truthquest. Here’s their 3 yr. plan, to get all cycles in by graduation: http://truthquesthistory.com/howtochoose.php#three_year. It’s pretty fast paced, you’d need to really pick and choose the best books of each period to get it done in 3 years for your oldest. Or your oldest, since world history was just covered, could maybe start with the Age of Revolution (American History) guides. Your middle child would be able to use this guide (they’re for 5th-12th). They also have book selections for K and up (I believe..not there yet) so they could read those selections. If you wanted the commentary for the youngest you could adapt the older guide, or buy the younger guides that coincide. They give a TON of book selections, so I generally just pick AO and SCM books and pencil check in my Truthquest guide. I read a spine to my 9 and 12 yo.’s, and assign independent history readers (mainly SCM right now) to both.
If you did this, after this cycle your middle child could then use the upper level world history guides, which are ages 5th-12th, so you could combine your youngest and middle once the oldest graduates. The main downfall I see with this is your middle child would be doing Amer. History again. I hope that made sense and was helpful. I know how challenging this can be! Blessings, Gina
TracyM, do you read aloud? My kids love it when I read aloud. We do this a lot for history. I have a wide gap including 1st, 2nd, and 10th grade. I prefer to keep everyone on the same time period so when I read aloud or we decide to add a family movie, it makes sense and supplements what everyone is doing. They can all participate in the dialog.
We recently finished our first term and I did a blog post about it. The reason I mention it is to show you what types of books our 10th grader has read in addition to the Notgrass spine. Also, you can see notebook pages that our 2nd grader has completed as we’ve studied Ancient Rome. I think if you click on “older posts” at the bottom, it will show you exactly what books we’ve been using over our homeschooling years. Please don’t be overwhelmed. We are voracious readers and I love curriculum so I supplement and use bits and pieces of many things. We don’t always use all these books in their entirety. My hope is give you some ideas. Blessings, Melissa
http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/search/label/Curriculum
Been lurking in on this thread as our children will be spaced kinda funny when they’re all in school (they are currently 9, 4 1/2, 22 months, and one due in Feb.), and I just wanted to say thanks to those who have responded already, and that Melissa, you’re a rock star. I just checked out the link you provided. Wow, good job! You should come live with me for a week or so and show me how it’s done…
Blessings, all. Looking forward to more responses.
LillyLou
We thought Notgrass was boring and we love History. We’ve used a number of different History courses over the years, all with a literature focus and my children have all loved History. Currently we are doing the modules from this website. I am only teaching one child now but they would be perfect for a wide range of ages. Being Christy is 16, we are going through the module more quickly. We started Module 3 in Sept. and will finish it in about a week. I already have the next one ready for us to move into shortly. Even though one of the books is hard to find I found videos on Netflix that make up the gap quite well. I highly recommend the SCM History modules and wish I had used them earlier. I just bought the download version. This is also the least expensive teacher manual that I have ever seen.
Thank you LillyLou…you are too kind 🙂
Sue….are you the same “Sue in MN” that was on the MFW forums? If so, are you still using any MFW? We are using the MFW World History for high school, but switched over to SCM for our younger kids and will more than likely switch high schooler next year.
Blessings, Melissa
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