Why Aren’t You Finishing the Four Year Cycle of History in High School?
“The logical way to tell a story is to begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end. Any story makes less sense when learned in bits and pieces.” The Well-Trained Mind, page 105 (2004 edition)
I embraced the four year cycle of history years ago when we started with The Well-Trained Mind format of homeschooling. I liked the tidy way it kept us going forward through time and it gave a shape to our history, literature, art, and music appreciation.
In case you are not familiar with the four year cycles:
Ancients 6000 BC – AD 400
Medieval/Early Renaissance 400-1600
Late Renaissance/Early Modern 1600-1850
Modern 1850-present
My sons were in the 4th and 5th grades at that time we started the cycle and we started off with them working together using resources suggested in The Well-Trained Mind, including the Story of the World. This worked well for our family for a couple of years. At that point I was introduced to Tapestry of Grace and I thought it would be helpful in organizing classical resources at different levels of study for my two boys. (I was tired of pulling it all together on my own.)
Now, we are definitely a mix of both classical homeschooling ideas and Charlotte Mason’s ideas as far as how our day to day homeschooling looks. I don’t stick strictly to any one way of homeschooling and at this point I couldn’t tell you which way I lean farther……..Charlotte Mason mornings and Project based afternoons would be the best description of what we look like at this point.
Below is more information that you probably need, but it shows how we year by year have used TWTM and TOG and their different levels for our homeschooling.
Our History Sequence
(Another reason this may be helpful is for you to see how I shaped our homeschooling over the years. I am not one that started with one method or curricula and stuck with it for many, many years. I use what seems to work at the time. I know there are moms that feel like jumping around is going to be harmful to their children, but in our case it has worked out just fine.)
Mr. A:
- 5th: Year 1 Sonlight Core 6: World History Part 1 (with TWTM Logic Level resources and The Story of the World)
- 6th: Year 2 TWTM Logic Level resources
- 7th: Year 3 Started TOG D Level
- 8th: Year 4 TOG D Level
- 9th: Year 1 TOG R Level (see the details of this year: Well-Trained Mind Grade 9)
- 10th: Year 2 TOG R Level (see the details of this year: Well-Trained Mind Grade 10)
- 11th: World Geography (Year 3 TOG R Level and TWTM R Level for literature, highly customized) Details: Grade 11
- 12th: Govt and Econ (Year 4 TOG R Level and TWTM R Level for literature)
Mr B:
- 4th: Year 1 Sonlight Core 6: World History Part 1 (with TWTM Logic Level resources and The Story of the World)
- 5th: Year 2 TWTM Logic Level resources
- 6th: Year 3 TOG D Level
- 7th: Year 4 TOG D Level
- 8th: American History using HEO 9 (My history buff wanted to take a year to focus on this period of history and there was room in his overall school schedule to allow it.)
- 9th: Year 2 TOG R Level
- 10th: World Geography (Year 3 TOG R Level and TWTM R Level using literature, research, and writing instead of full-blown study of history)
- 11th: Year 1 TOG R Level (This is also his choice since I was ready to skip it and hop right into Year 4 in the cycle. He wants to spend some more time in the Ancient time period to get his Bible chronology more firmly established.)
- 12th: Govt and Econ (Year 4 TOG R Level and TWTM R Level using literature, research, and writing instead of full-blown study of history)
As you can see, we will have worked through the four-year history cycle two times since we started way back in 5th/4th grades. I have adapted the cycle for my youngest because of maturity level and interests since he is a young schooler….he is 14 and in 10th grade. Academically it has worked well for him to stick with his brother most of the time in his history and literature.
Hopefully this clears up the questions about “taking a year off” for World Geography in high school. We really haven’t taken much of a year off from history but rather rearranged our years to allow time for an additional study of geography. We are still covering the history time period with our literature, research, and writing assignments. It was and excellent decision for our family.
Just a note: Prior to starting with TWTM and TOG, we used Sonlight curriculum: Core 2, 3, and 4.
I sure appreciate your TOG info. We are in our second year and love it. On a friend’s advice, as she and I were both getting used to TOG, we decided to spread Y3 over two years of study.
Now that we are into the rhythm I think we will sail right into a full year of units come fall. Just trying to decide, based on my eldest going into 7th, which year to pick. Leaning towards Y1.
Neat… We also started with Sonlight for early grades, then did two years of SOTW before finding TOG.
For you son who loves ancients–have you looked at “Remembering God’s Awesome Acts” [link below] I’m considering it for next year. If you haven’t seen this company’s products, don’t be put off by the “look”–there’s more there than you may think upon first glance. [Note: I am in NO WAY affiliated with the company, but loved their science program when we used it]
I like seeing what you are doing and would have floundered with ToG without your great guidance! [Especially since I was in a hurry and bought the electronic version! I’m getting the print next time] I like seeing what you pick and chose and how you do things.
http://www.eagleswingsed.com/products/history.html
We did Sonlight Core 5 last year after several years of using WTM and Veritas Press for our grammar stage swing through history. I didn’t think of it so much as taking off from history as focusing on a some specific areas that we tended to gloss over (especially since I loved doing Greece, Rome and the Am Revolution).
We’re back in the chronological swing again, using the Sonlight 6 schedule stretched way out to take a year and a half to complete.
I love the idea of geography (cultural and physical) as part of high school.
We love TOG, and have used it as well as SOTW. The 4 year cycle makes SO much more sense to me than the way I learned history. I’ve never thought of taking a year off just for geography, I might have to explore this more! Thanks so much for sharing!
We had a wonderful year with World Geography in high school. No regrets and keeping up with the literature from the time period made us feel like we were not totally neglecting the history. We still cover so much that it didn’t feel like we were “cheating”.
Are you familiar with the history plans on Simply Charlotte Mason? I’m having a hard time figuring out what I want to do for history. Either a program is too expensive for what I think it’s worth or too rigid (I really do like planning my own things and incorporating what I want). I like planning my whole thing entirely, but am feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all. I was just looking at the Charlotte Mason plans and they are cheap and simple, which allows me to add lots where I want it while still following the basic outline. Just wondering if you have had any experience with that one. Thanks for linking up to Trivium Tuesdays! Your posts always give me a lot to think a bout!
I have used the free Ambleside Online plans (Charlotte Mason) for many years. I use them to supplement whatever other plans we are using with my boys. https://amblesideonline.org/
I have not seen the actual plans from Simply Charlotte Mason so I am not much help.
Thanks, I’ve looked on Ambleside before, but not recently, so I’ll check it out again.