Choosing a TRISMS Volume...

Where do I begin?

There are many different approaches to TRISMS, and only you can decide what is best for your particular setting – home school, multi-level, co-op, school, etc.

Here are a few suggestions:

Middle School (5th – 8th)
  and/or Multi-level setting

 
If you have students who are middle school and below, we recommend that you begin with History Makers.  The overview of World History will be a good review of the first few years of school, and will provide many opportunities to have younger children working with older children.  History Makers is a good way to introduce your students to research, independent lesson planning, and coursebook creation. 

In the second stage of Classical Education, History Makers fits in perfect with its overview of world history and the beginnings of independent learning. 

History Makers is exceptionally excellent in a multi-level setting and can easily be adapted to include younger students with its versatile reading lists with books from Easy Readers to Adult Level to choose from. 

We recommend taking two years to complete History Makers with younger students, and one year with older students. 

If you feel your students are advanced or have already has a solid overview of history, we recommend beginning with Discovering the Ancient World, which is adaptable for 6th through 8th grades and allows extra time in high school for the other three volumes.

High School

Discovering the Ancient World – Pre-history to 500 BC
Expansion of Civilization – Medieval to the Renaissance
Rise of Nations – Renaissance to 1850
Age of Revolution – U.S. and World History 1850 to 2005

In high school, there are also many options available.  Although we recommend that students start at the beginning with Discovering the Ancient World, it is not wrong to do otherwise if your students have had plenty of ancient history.  However, if you start with it in the 8th grade, it will still allow you an extra year in high school for other studies or to expand on a favorite time period.
Many parents will choose to begin with Expansion of Civilization in high school in order to have two years to spend on Age of Revolution, or to leave one year free for extended studies outside of TRISMS. Although each volume builds on the previous as far as timeframes covered, the assignments are not necessarily more difficult.  Also, the entire IEW program is covered in each volume, so that students get plenty of practice.  Therefore, nothing is lost if a student starts at a different time frame.

We believe that Expansion of Civilization and Rise of Nations are imperative to the understanding of U.S. History.  In order for students to understand where we are today, it is important to see where we have come from.  If your students have not had background in studying the earlier time periods, they will have difficulty in understanding today.  We highly recommend the complete of both Expansion of Civilization and Rise of Nations to prepare students for modern history.  If your student has been versed in these time periods through a different curriculum, then please feel free to choose the study of your choice.

Age of Revolution is the only program we know of that has U.S. and World History side by side.  We live in a global society, and events on the other side of the world often affect events here in America.  Age of Revolution has been divided into two semesters which can be covered over two years if an in-depth study is desired.  The entire program can be completed in one year, but students should be prepared for plenty of hard work and research!