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Starting SCM history mid-year/mid-cycle in high school – some ideas needed
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Hi :). I am homeschooling DS 15/9th grade. I’ve dabbled in CM methods and various curricula over the years (including SCM). For the remainder of high school we’d like to move to a CM style of learning for history as “other methods” have been disappointing or overwhelming. I do have experience with SCM history and have enjoyed watching/listening to Sonya via the podcast/You Tube lately. Currently, we are right at the American Revolution using a textbook (Biblioplan). It’s been such a drag for us as it’s VERY overwhelming …. too much info. I also want to use methods that allow for narration (textbooks don’t work well) as I now understand the power of it for thinking and composition (just read Know and Tell by Karen Glass and listened to podcasts with her sharing her wisdom).
I don’t think my son or I want to return to the beginning of the Early Modern era but I am pondering the right next step here. We are at the spot in the SCM Early Modern guide that is nearing the end of Term 2 (right about the Boston Tea Party). We have read Amos Fortune, Free Man and Johnny Tremain together as read alouds recently. He is about to read the Daugherty biography of Ben Franklin. It may be a little messy to make this transition but in the end it will meet our needs MUCH better. I have the remainder of 9th, all of 10th and 11th to complete the Modern Times so I don’t feel rushed at all. We could backtrack if needed in the SCM Early Modern Guide. Questions that I have:
1. If we start “mid-term” would you: do the Visits To book that is scheduled but start in the middle?
2. Since he is in 9th he is “straddling” the “history spine” for the 7-9th and 10-12th age. As he moves up to 10th it would be recommended that he read The Last Best Hope in either Early Modern OR Modern. Would you just “start in the middle” with Last Best Hope or would it be better for him to read from the beginning up to the point we’d like to begin our “formal studies” using the SCM Guide? I don’t have that book on my shelf so I need to grab a library copy to check out the reading level and flow.
3. With a high school student in 10th and 11th would we use both the Lorene Lambert “spines” AND The Last Best Hope? He is my only student and I would LIKE to do some reading aloud together. I DO want to “catch up” in narrating and wonder if the Lambert books are easier to learn to narrate from.
4. Alternatively, is it okay to SKIP The Last Best Hope and focus on the Lambert books and “other living books” (plus some documentaries/movies that we will watch) in 10th-12th grades?
I would like to work hard on narration in the remainder of our high school history studies. We are late to using narration in lieu of other things (i.e. comprehension questions). Now that I understand its power and effectiveness, I want the books we read/he reads to tell stories and communicate ideas he can narrate well. I don’t want to feel inundated by information.
I do intend to incorporate the “feast”. We’ve used many of SCM’s tools in the past and LOVED them (Shakespeare, picture study, etc.). That will continue.
Thanks. 🙂
Hi!
1. Some thoughts on how I might handle the lessons for the Visits to North America book would be to do two lessons per week (beginning with Lesson 1) if you start Early Modern & Epistles at the beginning of Term 2. (See answer 2. below) The only book assigned in Term 1 of Visits to North America for his age is Paddle-to-the-Sea. Over the first twelve lessons there are a total of 27 pages read, which amounts to all the chapters in the book. While the whole book is assigned over just three of the lessons in groups of nine chapters ( one chapter is one page) at a time, you could spread that out more evenly over a six-week schedule if you choose to do two lessons a week. For Term 2 in Visits to North America, Minn of the Mississippi has six of its chapters read. I think combining those first twenty-four geography lessons at twice a week for Term 2 of the Early Modern & Epistles guide would be fine. You could even choose not to read one or both of the geography books, but they are really neat viewpoints of the geography of North America.
2. I would go ahead and move him up to America: Last Best Hope. Chapter 3 is where Term 2 picks up in the Early Modern & Epistles guide. As long as he has a good knowledge base of Early America from the explorers and first colonies, he’ll be able to jump right in to chapter 3. I know you said you were about to the end of Term 2 in the guide, but given that your son is getting ready to read about Ben Franklin, I might would start at the beginning of Term 2 and make the easy transition from there. Some information may overlap here and there from what he already knows, however, if he begins with America: Last Best Hope at chapter 3, he may find new perspectives or knowledge about that time that he hadn’t discovered up to now, especially with it being an older book. Feel free though to not re-read the family history readings from America: Our Stories Vol. 1 again if you already covered those in Biblioplan, like the French and Indian War scheduled for family in Lesson 61 at the beginning of Term 2. Just a thought too, I might would have him read The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin that was scheduled in Term 1 in place of Daugherty’s biography. It would give him that personal connection to Ben Franklin instead of someone else’s. Either would be fine, I just think it’s nice to get the actual person’s own story of his/her life when we can and its appropriate.
3. You’re correct! Lorene Lambert’s spine is for the family readings and it’s a great way to keep the family readings there if that’s one of your goals. In regards to narrating, since he’s older he’ll most likely catch on quickly. Each family spine– America: Our Stories and Our Neighbors: Their Stories only have four readings each scheduled throughout Term 2. It’s a nice balance and I never felt like it was too much with the upper high school readings.
4. America: Last Best Hope does give them more solidity in reading and in picture of what was going on at that time. Especially since it is also continued in the following school year I would be sure to include it. The titles scheduled in the Early Modern & Epistles guide, really all the SCM guides, do a phenomenal job of spreading a feast of great living books that are easy to narrate from and read without feeling like it’s too much information. Each guide also has plenty of balanced room, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!I’m so glad you’re loving the feast opportunities from SCM JThese are just some ideas I had as a long-time SCM mom and having gone through the upper high school years twice with this guide in particular.
Hello Stacy,
Thank-you for thoroughly answering my questions. All that you’ve shared and recommended makes sense. What a help you have been. 🙂
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