My daughter just turned 13, and is having a few girls over to spend the night for her birthday. I was hoping to get a list of good movie recommendations that were appropriate for her age, and that would be acceptable to a bunch of homeschooling moms as well. She probably wants one that is not animated, but is light and on the funny side. (There will be a 10 year old there as well). Thoughts?

We are doing Mystery of History volume 2 this coming school year. I was considering doing Sonlight core 200 for my daughter who will be in 8th grade this year (- some of the books to make it a lighter load for her). Am I reading correctly that these would go well together? (I have 3 younger boys who will be doing MOH with us). Thanks for any input.

Thanks Herbalgirl, it's nice to know that about TOG. I'll have to look at Picturesque Tale of Progress now. But I'm still leaning towards Mystery of History because it's all so overwhelming - all the good choices. I'll probably look at other curriculums and add stuff to supplement (like readers) at my kids levels. (That's something I've never done - I usually like it all layed out). I'm excited about history this year. I always considered it as a side class that you could take or leave, and even skip some years. Now I am tending to use it for our core studies. Funny how things change over the years. :001_smile:

Wow. Thanks for all this info. Thank you to the person who mentioned that the ones voting for My Father's World also have to vote for SOTW too. That is very helpful information. Did most people who voted for SOTW vote for something else too? My sister has mentioned My Father's World - I had never heard of it before this year. I'll look at that, too. I thought it was just for younger kids, though. (Like SOTW). Julie in MN - I love how you mentioned your experience with each of the curriculums. That is most helpful to me. I am still heavily leaning towards Mystery of History for several reasons, a big one being that I have it already. :-) So if it's a good one, even if there are other good ones, I'll probably stick with it.

Thanks for the abbreviations. I should have known My Father's World since I had that as one of my choices - I'd just never seen it abbreviated. I've heard Kingfisher's History Encyclopedia is a great resource regardless of the curriculum you choose. I may invest in that. Thanks all! I love hearing other's choices and comments - it really helps with my decisions.

Thanks so much for all the replies! I was surprised at how many answered the poll, and surprised at the results as well. I guess I should have put Tapestry of Grace on, but I'd not realized it was chronological and also for some reason thought it was geared towards girls. Is it (geared towards girls)? I do not necessarily follow the classical teaching methods, but like some of the ideas. I am still tweaking our homeschool ideas & styles to fit our family. I had trouble with some of the abbreviations that were mentioned. Can someone clarify about these: KFHE MFW I have decided against Story of the World for several reasons. One more question for all of you who have used Sonlight & Beautiful Feet: Using these curriculums, can you really cover all of the periods of history (in order chronologically)? What would be the order and how many years would it take? I'm leaning towards Mystery of History. Coffeefreak - I loved your descriptions of the different curriculums that you had used and why you liked/didn't like them. That was really helpful. I will look up Ambleside Online because I've never heard of them. I also plan to look up Streams of Civilization (never heard of it), and TOG. In someone's signature, I noticed their 4 year old plays with light bright. I LOVE that idea, and will use that for my 4 year old (which he would love) while I am trying to work with the others. Thanks for all who answered the poll! (Anyone know if I can add Tapestry of Grace and let people change their answer from "other" to TOG?)

Hi, I am looking for input from others who have used the following curriculums specifically, but also if you have another chronological history curriculum starting with ancient history that 1) you used and really really enjoyed & would recommend and 2) you think it would fit our family. Veritas Press Mystery of History My Father's World (?) Beautiful Feet ancient (what grade level?) Sonlight ancient (what grade level?) None of our family (including myself) has EVER taken ancient history, and I all but failed any history class I ever took in school. It was my worst subject, I am not good at it, I found it boring and could not relate to it at all. Since homeschooling, I have enjoyed history and am learning it along with my children. We've used Beautiful Feet Early American History (years ago), and Sonlight Core 5 (past 2 years). We loved them both. I am looking for something I can use with all of my kids (maybe not exactly) so I can keep them on the same (approximate) timeline. I also think I (and my kids) would be able to grasp history a little better if it 1) started at the beginning and 2) were tied in with Biblical history. My children: -8th/9th grade boy who will be taking GBT I (Great Books Tutorial - reading Homer, Odyssey & Illiad, learning about ancient Greece & Rome, etc). -7th grade girl who is a good reader, does well in school, scored high on her scholastic achievement tests EXCEPT for history which she only got 3/10 correct, and her scores (though above average still) have been getting lower every year since 1st grade. (And I know it's not all about the scores. :-)) -3rd grade boy who is gifted in some areas and challenged in others. He needs activity and challenge. He needs to be included, and no reading material is too hard for him (though it may be too boring for him to *want* to read it). He has just read the first 2 books in the Wayne Thomas Batson series for fun this summer (The Door Within trilogy) to give an idea of his reading level. His science skills and memory are great (except for math facts). His fine motor skills are VERY poor, and writing is difficult for him. He's had not much formal schooling (except for a page of ABeka math and ABeka Kindergarten writing per day that he's done on his own w/o much supervision from me) because he's so far ahead and I was working with other kids who I thought needed it more. - 1st grade boy who wants to *do* something. He is forever trying to keep up with his older brother, and half the time succeeds. His reading skills are also good, but he is reading at about a 3rd grade level, not a high school or adult level like his brother. He's quite active, but can sit for periods of time. - 4 yo. boy who wants to be included, but does not yet know all of his letters and can count only sometimes to 10. He is quiet & clingy and will sit & listen well. He doesn't like to get his hands messy. He can entertain himself all morning, but I don't think that's good for him and would like to include him somehow, even if he just sits on my lap. Any thoughts on curriculum (chronological history) or what would be good for our family (for history)? Thanks!

Thank you all so much for responding. I am a little overwhelmed at the options now, so will do a little more study. I am looking at Veritas and Mystery of History, and trying to decide which will best fit our family. I am also considering Beautiful Feet or Sonlight. But I haven't looked into them at all for ancient history. I'm planning to post another thread to see if others can give me more input on the other chronological histories. I'd really like input from others who have tried them. This was quite helpful; thanks again!

Thank you so much for all these quick responses! I will have to talk more with the people who told me about SOTW since I was under the impression they used it with all of their kids. Also, someone said that BF (Beautiful Feet?) had good high school material - I loved Beautiful Feet with my younger kids, but haven't looked at high school material. Is there an ancient that would be good for my 7th & 9th grades? I've never heard of Kingfisher; and hearing "SWB's adult history texts" scared me. I was never good in history and reading texts are not easy for my kids (though they ARE good readers). Most texts I know are so boring that I could never ask my kids to be tortured through them. Does she make them more interesting somehow - even for adults? I DO like the idea of keeping my kids all on the same timeline. Do the texts match up fairly well with SOTW? As I am typing, I just figured out what MOH was. (I am new to classical, so the abbreviations are taking me a while). HollyDay - would you recommend MOH for the younger kids? Thanks to ALL of your responses - I would love to find something and actually stick with it for a few years! Considering that I (and my children) have never had ancient history, it is sounding really fun to me.

I know many people who say this is a great curriculum. I would love to have a history curriculum to teach all of my children: 9th grade, 7th grade, 3rd grade, 1st grade, 4 yr. old. I was told that this curriculum is good through high school... that you do the 4 books over 3x's in 12 years. Is there an activity book that includes activities for the different grade levels? I do want a curriculum that is chronological. My daughter (7th grade) scores very poorly in "history" for her standardized testing, but above average in most everything else. How do your kids score when using this curriculum? Would it work for my kid's ages? Could my high schooler benefit and is there something I can do (w/o alot of prep) to make this high school credit? It seems similar to "Mystery of History" to me. But this one says it goes through high school, and has activity lists for each age group. Has anyone done a comparison on these? We've used Beautiful Feet in the past (and loved it), and also Sonlight (and loved it), but the idea of chronological and teaching all the kids together is really sounding great. Thanks for any thoughts/comments. This is my first visit to these forums.