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Where To Begin With 6th & 5th Grade Daughters???
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Hi “Friends”. I could use some advice.
I haven’t been thrilled with the history curriculum I’ve been using… it’s too dry. And I’ve recently learned about the Charlotte Mason method and am trying to learn more to be able to implement, but I’d like to jump in with living history right away. My girls are currently in 6th and 5th grades, this is our 2nd year homeschooling, and they haven’t had any American History. So after this year my older daughter only has 6 years left. I’ve purchased some TruthQuest Guides but here’s the problem. We are currently doing ancient history (just read about the Assyrians taking over Judah), although it’s pretty dry as I previously stated. TruthQuest works chronologically so I don’t know exactly which guide to begin with. But if I continue, they won’t get any American History until 10th grade which seems so far off. I see that Sonya Shafer has a 2 volume set of “Stories of America” although they are listed for use only through 6th grade, which my older daughter is currently in. I was wondering if that would be good to use. Or if I should just get going with TQ and wait for American History. Any and all suggestions and guidance is greatly appreciated.
Blessings,
~ Julie
TQ now has Ancient Egypt incorporated into the Beginnings guide. You could get up to speed up to Ancient Greece and start there and move chronologically as you said. I think it’s fine if they don’t have American History until high school. They would have a phenomenal foundation for the flow of history and when you come to American History, they would understand the issues behind it’s founding.
I’ve only used TQ since its release in 2001 so I can’t advise on other things out there.
The SCM outline for history is done chronologically over six years. If you feel they need some US History before high school, or if that is what they are interested in, you could use module 6 next year, or even shorten both modules 5 and 6 into one year, for a brief overview. The following 2 years you could cover modules 1-3, which would cover the ancients. Again, shorten each module a bit. Then in the older daughters final 3 years you could cover modules 4, 5, and 6, one per year, as written.
I am not familiar with TQ – would it work to adjust the curriculum to fit your needs?I would start with the Truthquest guides in American history if that’s important to you. 🙂 Our years with Truthquest American history were some of the best history years we had-especially when the kids were young.
Another option would be to go with the SCM guides in order but add in a bit of American history along side. You could also take a break, cover basic American history so that they have some idea of the major points in history (discovery, pilgrims, native Americans, revolutionary and civil wars at this age) and then start with the SCM guides in order from the beginning.
Another option is to continue chronologically with your history studies for school time, but add in some interesting American biographies and books for personal reading or family read alouds. In that manner, your children would have some informal background with American history. There may even be some well made documentaries you could view over the summer or other times. I know PBS has aired some interesting ones from time to time. I especially enjoyed one about the creation of the national parks, and it brought in the history of the times (Teddy Roosevelt, etc.). Other easy reads for American history for the ages mentioned are Joy Hakim’s The History of US series. I have seen others mention it is not the high quality literature most CM students are accustomed to, but our library has the entire series and I read through them as an adult. Field trips are also a great way to build American history background, assuming you live in the US.
If you are looking for something a bit more engaging that would cover American history I would recommend Beautiful Feet Books’ Early American History course for intermediate grades. It covers the Vikings up through Abraham Lincoln and utilizes a literature-rich approach, meaning they would read great books outlined with a study guide to give it structure. They also just released a program for 5-8th that covers modern American and world history. I know these studies wouldn’t quite fall in line with what TQ offers and their chronological sequence but they would give your students a good foundation in American history before they get into high school. It would certainly be a leap of faith to jump into a new curriculum but if it interests and connects with your students, and they enjoy it, it might be worth it! All the best, Josh.
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