Starting with a Highschoolers / history/science

Those poor “guinea pig” older DC!  I really wish I had another year with DD, a.k.a. my guinea pig!  lol

My plans for high school are to use a combination Memoria Press and Compass Classrooms.   MP teaches several “strands” of history: Bible, classical, and modern.  So, they will be working on half of the old testament for Biblical history, ancient Greece & Iliad/Odyssey for classical history, and geography or American history for modern history.   We’ll be using Compass Classrooms for American history, Modernity (world history), and Latin.  Both programs offer video components to their lessons, which I think will be a great addition for the high school levels!

I have no suggestions for British history though.  Maybe try on the Well Trained Mind high school forum?

James Stobaugh has a British History course for high school. I also recommend The Great Courses for individual courses specific to British History, Western Civilization, American, and Eastern.

Definitely do ancient history; you live in a country that is part of Western civilization, was once the largest empire (so, your history is intertwined w/the Near East it helped carve in modern times, Africa, India, Ireland, Australia, etc), and integral to that is study of the Ancient World, specifically Greece and Rome. Without a knowledge of Greece amd especially Rome, they won’t understand the development of the Roman Catholic church – vital in Britain’s history- and the occupation of Britain by Rome and the effects of that occupation, as well as the trauma of her downfall on Britain and the world. There’s a book about the stuff they left behind, available from SCM. Also, this is interesting, though, I think they leave out religion: http://www.britain-magazine.com/features/history/roman-legacy/ http://www.britain-magazine.com/features/history/roman-legacy/

American history can be integrated with British  (for obvious reasons) so they will have basic understandings of our constitutional republic.

Three years is sufficient to learn the three divisions pf world history: Ancient history (up till 4th c. Roman fall); Medieval (includes British + world up till 15th c. ); Modern (includes American and British with the world). Ambleside Online is a good resource for books iusing this method of teaching. Paul Johnson – a pro-American British journalist and historian – wrote a book on American history which can be divided over a year. Or you can use Stobaugh’s high school history books – Ancient, American,  British,  and World. Combining the American and British together once you hit the 16th c., when Britain started sending colonists to the continent. Many British thinkers have written on America’s original principles, since Her common law is our foundation, along w/the Ancients.

Science: with as many children as you have, I suggest a textbook which they can work independently. If you have a co-op nearby, even better, due to the lab requirements. Or, you could have them work through the book, then take a lab intensive. My son is taking his Biology labs this fall with CollegePrepscience in a group locally after using Virtual Homeschool Group w/Apologa Biology.