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Social studies long-term
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I’m trying to figure out my long-term plans for social studies so I have am idea of where we’re headed (even though I know it will probably change.)
I was thinking of doing one 6-year rotation using SCM, but with a government/civics/econ break every 4th year (prior to election years). Then doing world, U.S., geography, and government for HS. So for my oldest that would look like this:
1st-3rd: SCM, 4th:civics, 5th-7th: SCM, 8th:civic, 9th:world, 10th:U.S., 11th:geography, 12th:government
I feel like this plan allows us to cover periods in depth using SCM, BUT this actually only covers history once, instead of the usual 2x or 3x rotations. Is that enough? Do I need to scratch this plan?
I don’t think it would work well. Only covering a time period once means that for some things they only have a very ‘young child friendly’ version of history and a young child’s understanding. For example my teens get a lot more out of our studies of the middle ages now than they did as elementary kids. My elementary kids are learning basic foundations, but the older kids are diving deep into the whys. The older kids are making connections with prior knowledge and studies, drawing conclusions with their no longer little kid minds, etc.
A few thoughts on the suggested schedule you shared: Geography can be done alongside every year’s studies and doesn’t need to be it’s own separate year. Civics (studying elections, government, etc) doesn’t need to be a full year course three times, but can be something you spend 30 minutes on each week during an election year with a more in depth study in high school for one semester.
Also, while I have enjoyed SCM for years, we ultimately decided the 6 year rotation for history didn’t work for us. We actually are doing a full span of history from creation to the present day, stopping at different points each year. For example this year we did creation, ancient Egypt, and are currently in the middle ages, with stops in the reformation, WWI, and the Cold War coming up. Next year we will begin at creation and then may stop in ancient Greece, and then move into the renaissance, American Revolution, pioneers, and WWII, and space race. Each year they see the whole cycle of history but meet new heroes/heroines, visit new cultures/events.
Tristan, thanks for taking the time to answer. The ‘young child friendly’ point is the same main problem I have with the plan too.
Here are the problems I’m trying to reconcile:
1. Most colleges that I’ve looked at are looking for a year of world history, a year of U.S., and a year of government/econ at minimum for HS. If I follow the 6-year rotation, some of my kids would not get any U.S. history in HS.
2. We’re just in the first couple of years homeschooling, but I want to try not to use my oldest kid/kids as guinea pigs. I hate to think they won’t get as good of an education as the youngers if I keep changing things around. So if we’ve already done the first two SCM modules and then switch to a 4-year rotation, the youngers will miss out on the deeper exposure. Is this just inevitable and an irrational worry on my part?
We already do geography each year, I just saw that as a common recommendation for HS. As for Civics, I was really just trying to figure out what to do for the “left-over” years that didn’t fit the rotation. I like the idea of what you’re doing, but I’m not confident enough with history to make my own plans.
I am not there yet, my oldest is only in 7th, but I had to let go of the “perfect plan” for history (or really anything). If you do a rotation and have younger kids, they will all start and finish at different times no way to get it perfect for all of them 🙂
We do SCM modified to a 4 year rotation, but I also fully expect my kids to start going more “solo” in highschool so they can meet their requires credits as needed. I hope they will continue to participate in the family history readings, they are not too long and great for all ages and family time, but I can easily incorporate some of the history readings as literature if desired while they do other history time periods or civics or gov. credits.
I had to give myself permission to not plan for the distant future when my oldest was in 2nd grade, because I was trying to plan through 12th grade without success, haha. Once I let go and took it a year or two at a time, it was much more relaxing, less stressful!
I have all the SCM history guides, and have pulled from the history books for literature reading knowing that my student would miss one because they will be older when we cycle back. Last year my oldest read some from Early American while we did Ancients for our main history just because I know they woukd be enjoyed. Something like that can work for highschool years too. 🙂
Sarah, running two streams of history like you did may be just the ticket when we get there. However, in the interim, I need to just let go of having the perfect plan 10 years out! It’s encouraging to know I’m not the only one with these exact struggles, so thanks for sharing with me!
I have a similar dilemna with my middle child. She is in 7th now and we are doing Early Modern so she will not cycle through this time period again which means she will miss her required American History credit. We started out with a four year history cycle, and while I love the idea of three tours through history, the reality was we were always behind due to rabbit trails or extra “cant miss” books. Our 4 year cycle took 6 years anyway….. So now I have to figure out how to get those blasted credits taken care of. I am thinking of letting her go through Early Modern and Modern over four years as a second stream. Maybe count some of the other reading as literature or a Biblical history elective. I really prefer the slower pace of SCM guides, its so much more enjoyable and leaves room for the extras. I just need to figure out how to make it all line up with those pesky state requirements.
Jennifer,
My comment doesn’t apply so much to your original post but to your last comment about letting go of your ideal plan.
I’d like to encourage you to not worry too much about the “future” or work too hard to try and lay out all 12 years of your children’s education right now. Focus on here and now. I have “planned” out or thought about my “ideal” so many times only to have curve balls thrown onto our path.
It took us 3 years to get through the Early Modern and Modern history guides SCM created. It was due to several factors: a 2nd trimester infancy loss, the birth of a new baby, enjoyment of the time period leading my children to ask to linger longer, and a close to death experience in our family that completely stalled us for 2 full school months. Life was school during all of those hard times. Sonya said in an article, “Education is all about knowing, not just knowing.”
I remind myself of this every time I start to stress about “my plans.” Allow the Lord to lead you and all will be well.
I think, in general, most homeschool mamas need to lighten up, including me.
Please don’t misunderstand me. Plans are good. Plans are important. If we aim at nothing we will hit it. But…
Life happens.
The hardest part of schooling our children is letting go of the public/private school model. Our children are learning way more than just academics. They are learning to navigate life. Babies, health issues, death, special needs, behavioral issues, job losses, moves, etc are a part of real life. They change our days and weeks and some times even whole months or years.
I have three children who struggle with special needs. Believe me, my life hasn’t turned out in any way like I ever planned, especially my home schooling. I have shelves full of books I planned to use, but never did, or if I did try they didn’t work. We have changed our plans so many times over the years. Trying to find the right curriculum to fit our family. Trying to find the right fit for individual needs. If I looked at only that, I would be a failure in every sense of the word.
My oldest is in her first year of high school. I worry, all too often, that she has holes in her education, especially history and math. I can’t tell you how many times over the years we have tried different curriculums until settling on SCM. Worse yet, we started each one with Creation so we could be on the right rotation for that program. Now, we have “holes”, but I often stop myself and sit back and think…”holes according to whom?”
When people look at her, (who didn’t read fluently until she was 10) they are amazed at how mature she is and how much she can accomplish as a young lady of 14. She carries herself well, speaks easily with adults, can run our home if there is a need and yet, has special needs and is behind according to “the school clock”. She can finally read at grade level, she has conquered reading! She struggles with significant sensory issues and often is overwhelmed and melts down, is behind in math and history, but she’s progressing!
Last year I spent most of the year teaching from the couch. My husband helped me get dressed and got me to the couch after I got up, usually around 10-11. Significant health issues changed our whole world. She took care of cooking all the meals, laundry, house work and did schoolwork too. Did she get as much book work done as I planned? No way, but she learned huge life lessons and accomplished skills that will serve her well during her entire life. (We didn’t even make it through half of our SCM history, speaking of being behind :)).
Reality is, you can get all of it fit in shorter amounts of time than school systems do. We still have time for her to do what she needs during her high school years. Will we be able to follow all of SCM’s years we need in the next 3.5? No, but she can get what she needs much faster than if she was sitting in a classroom. She can choose to double up on lessons if we want to cover every single jot and tittle in the curriculum, or we can make sure we cover the basics. And that brings me to another truth, textbooks are not giving schooled children anything more than snippets of history. The depth like they are getting with a CM living books way of teaching is going to serve them extremely well.
Having been where you are, I too would encourage you to lean on the Lord when you feel overwhelmed with worry that you won’t get it all done, or when it’s not going according to plan. Life never does. Many, many homeschool veterans have gone before us and tell us the same. We need to lean on their wisdom and experience.
It’s hard to break from the fear, worry and comparison that we mamas feel when taking on our children’s education. The enemy would love to paralyze us with those feelings and thoughts, so that we don’t keep moving forward or worse, begin to teach out of fear. That changes the atmosphere of our homes (ask me how I know) and creates more trouble than letting a plan go and not covering academics.
I heard recently this idea which I’m putting into my own words and trying to take to heart:
<p style=”text-align: center;”>Families celebrate progress, systems celebrate perfection.</p>
You are doing a good job. Hang in there. Let the Lord lead your schooling, rest in Him as you tackle each day, which has enough trouble of it’s own. Plan? Yes, but hold those plans very loosely in your hands as you seek Him to guide your home and school.I hope this helps even though it doesn’t answer your question directly.
Blessings.
I appreciate the encouragement and knowing that we share the same struggles. Thank you to Tamara and Trish for reminding me to lean on the LORD and stop trying to out-plan Him. I need to work on that a lot more!
I have a senior this year and as we go through the college application process I am not seeing the need for the kind of history we do in a CM education (as it pertains to college entrance). They require very little compared to what our children will have covered in ANY type of rotation we use. So, my advice would be to not focus on history’s path so much; do whatever works best.
I see a far greater need when it comes to having rigorous 4 years of science, english and math. That’s what I’m now paying more attention to for my second child.
I always smile at the SCM cloud for the forum because it really shows our mild obsession with history. 😉
Just the thoughts of one more.
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