Combining history content
Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:05 pm
We've been homeschooling rather eclectically for the past 10+ years. We have rising 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 9th graders this coming school year. I find that effective tracking of the skill building for the lower grades is lessening as we venture into deeper, more time consuming, discussions in the higher grades. HOD is looking very appealing for that reason. I have the samples practically memorized at this point. :laughs:
But I do have a concern. For our three youngest the best part of learning is history. They love the read alouds, the projects, the timelines, etc....more specifically, studying history together. I understand that their learning would not be hindered if I split them; however, it is really important to them to continue in history together. They already do 95% of other subjects areas individually, so I want to honor their desire to stay together....in fact, separating them would be a deal breaker for us at this point.
So my question is this...is it feasible to keep them together in history (Rev to Rev)...bearing in mind that I have age appropriate reading for each level. Looking at the spines HOD uses, I am confident the youngers would be able to follow along just fine (we have used MOH/SCM this year). We have always tweaked various programs to suit our needs, and I would be fine transferring the skills in Bigger and Preparing history to the readers/read alouds we would substitute. It would only be the basic history we would combine; all other subjects would follow the individual guides...Bigger, Preparing, and Rev to Rev respectively.
I think I'm just looking for verification that it is possible to plug in other history content while keeping all the skill content. It is absolutely not my intention to combine skill levels. My plans are to combine all 4 children in the content study of history only. So the three youngest would listen to the same spines, do modified notebooking, and work on history related art projects, etc. My eldest would be working independently, as she is currently. Each child would have their own level appropriate supplemental history books and readers.
Having studied the samples online, it seems like it would work to take the skills incorporated in the history and apply them to the modified history schedule. I would be keeping all the skill based aspects of HOD...just transferring them, or overlaying them if you will, onto a different content framework; this would entail taking the left page skills from Bigger and Preparing and modifying them to fit the content of Rev to Rev. The change would affect history only. In all other areas we would continue with the levels specific to each child.
Thanks for any input.
~Killian
But I do have a concern. For our three youngest the best part of learning is history. They love the read alouds, the projects, the timelines, etc....more specifically, studying history together. I understand that their learning would not be hindered if I split them; however, it is really important to them to continue in history together. They already do 95% of other subjects areas individually, so I want to honor their desire to stay together....in fact, separating them would be a deal breaker for us at this point.
So my question is this...is it feasible to keep them together in history (Rev to Rev)...bearing in mind that I have age appropriate reading for each level. Looking at the spines HOD uses, I am confident the youngers would be able to follow along just fine (we have used MOH/SCM this year). We have always tweaked various programs to suit our needs, and I would be fine transferring the skills in Bigger and Preparing history to the readers/read alouds we would substitute. It would only be the basic history we would combine; all other subjects would follow the individual guides...Bigger, Preparing, and Rev to Rev respectively.
I think I'm just looking for verification that it is possible to plug in other history content while keeping all the skill content. It is absolutely not my intention to combine skill levels. My plans are to combine all 4 children in the content study of history only. So the three youngest would listen to the same spines, do modified notebooking, and work on history related art projects, etc. My eldest would be working independently, as she is currently. Each child would have their own level appropriate supplemental history books and readers.
Having studied the samples online, it seems like it would work to take the skills incorporated in the history and apply them to the modified history schedule. I would be keeping all the skill based aspects of HOD...just transferring them, or overlaying them if you will, onto a different content framework; this would entail taking the left page skills from Bigger and Preparing and modifying them to fit the content of Rev to Rev. The change would affect history only. In all other areas we would continue with the levels specific to each child.
Thanks for any input.
~Killian
Honestly, I think you are not getting a response here as we are not sure how to help as HOD is just not written to be used this way. HOD does encourage combining, just within smaller age ranges.