We couldn't STAND OPG. We use 100 EZ Lessons with great success so far. I'm tossing around the idea of JUST using WRTR with my 6th child, but she's only 20mo so I have a while LOL. There are LOTS of options to teach your child to read without OPG!

That's how TOG is as well. IMO the Bible IS history, when it comes to ancient times.:D I'm looking at their samples again right now. I keep forgetting to turn off the sound when I go to their home page - the music scares me every time!

In looking at MFW more, I remembered something else. If Bible is included it would need to be easily left out or something just related to history. We already have a Bible curriculum that is working well for us. For example, TOG's Bible is incorporated into Y1, but that is so historical that we did it in addition to our regular Bible. Sonlight's doesn't appear to be incorporated into the history studies, but it's easily left off. Those are both good.:)

Thanks! That does help. I may have to look at it more closely. What sort of activities does it have the kids doing?

This is good to know! I agree totally. We do do that.:D DW's materials include recommended reading, and some of it is literature/historical fiction. We are liking her stuff for the most part, but once we hit American history I'm up a creek.:tongue_smilie:

:lurk5: I've been wondering the same thing. I hate it when there aren't samples online!

We are actually dropping grammar altogether until we get to JAG in 5th grade.:blush:

My kids hated it. We made it through 4 chapters and gave it back to the library. I hated it too.:blushing:

I looked at it some last night...what sort of activities does it have? One thing I forgot to mention is that my kids don't really like lapbooks or notebooking either. (Honestly I'm *this close* to just picking something and saying, "tough" since they won't like whatever I pick.:banghead: ) That is very good to know! Hmmmmmmmmmm. I've also heard some say that it's a bit "light" for 7th and 7th graders???:confused: Do they assign different things for olders and youngers?

I swear, history is going to be the death of me.:rolleyes: I'm so sorry if this is long. This year I have 6th, 4th, 3rd, and 1st graders. I also have a PreKer and a 20mo. For next year they won't really be involved much, but they are definitely a consideration for my long-term plan.;) We are currently using Diana Waring's History Revealed and like it pretty well. I'm having a difficult time with how long of a time period each unit covers (1 unit = 4 weeks = several hundred years), but I've asked about that on the yahoo group and hopefully will get some ideas on how to work around that. However, she does not have an American history program, so whenever it comes time for that, I'm on my own. We are using RRR, and that incorporates SOME American history stuff, but we'll need to focus more on it, and I'm at a loss as to what to do. My kids aren't real thrilled with books, but I'm realizing that honestly, they're gonna have to just deal with it since to some extent school = books. I personally love reading and read-alouds, so Sonlight would have been perfect for me if I were being homeschooled.;) However, my kids aren't me. RRR has books plus other fun stuff, and they are all over the "fun stuff." So what I'm looking for is: 1. I guess a 4-year chronological cycle? I'm not particular about that, but it does seem to be the most "popular" thing. I guess I'm more particular about chronological than anything.:confused: 2. Not all books. At the end of our most recent unit in RRR, for their final project nearly all of my kids put together some sort of drama thing. 3. Christian. IMO history and Christianity can't be separated. If it were to be a secular history program, it would have to be VERY easy to add in Biblical history and church history (and I do mean VERY since I know zippy zero about church history) 4. Covers all grades. Maybe not one program covering all grades (like TOG), but at least the whole curriculum eventually covers it, maybe just in different levels? For example, when my 20mo starts K, my oldest will be in 10th grade. I'd like to find something that, once I find something that fits us, I can just continue to use - I don't want to hae to continually look for other things as my children get older. (That's what drew me to TOG, but it just didn't work great for us.) 5. Something where we'd be able to cover the same period of history at the same time. 6. If #5 just doesn't exist, then it would have to have the older levels pretty independent except for some discussion now and then. But really I don't like that option much. 7. IDEALLY it would have things scheduled out for me - do this project as you are reading through this book, and these books coincide somewhat, etc. It'd be a HUGE bonus if the reading was broken into nice "chunks" for me, but I'm used to TOG, so I'm OK if that's not possible. But the main kicker would be that stuff JIVED (that was one of the problems I had with TOG - sometimes it didn't jive). 8. Also IDEALLY it would present American and world history somewhat side-by-side, since world events affect America and American events affect the world. Not necessary, but it sure would be helpful! Here are my thoughts about many of the things I've looked at/used...maybe they can help you help me??? TOG - I struggled with knowing how to get our weeks to flow well. We used it for 2 years, so it's not like I gave up after a few weeks of the "fog" it is known for. I also had lots of instances where the overview pages (or whatever they are called) didn't really match up with what was in the reading. At the suggestion of Dana C. and other more experienced TOG users, I quit using the overview sheets as our "goal" for the week and just read the books instead - much less stress trying to figure out why Rameses was listed as a person to learn about in the LG/UG list, when come to find out he wasn't even mentioned until a D book!:banghead: Stuff like that. Sonlight - I'd have to come up with extra stuff to do besides just "all those books" (to quote one of my sons). Also trying to figure out what core to use with whom and when just hurts my brain. History Odyssey - I like the look of it, but see point #3 above. How difficult is it to incorporate Biblical/church history? Also I saw a thread here that mentioned that they assume the child is starting with the Ancients book, so the subsequent books coincide with the next grade?:confused: Not sure I understand. WP - I've heard sometimes it doesn't "jive." Also trying to figure out what program to use with whom and when hurts my brain, like Sonlight LOL. And their company policies really turn me off. That said, it has been a strong contender for our study of American history since it has a good blend of what I'm looking for "stuffwise." SOTW - we use it like a spine now, but once they get older, then what? MOH - I've heard lots of people that love it, but I don't know much about it. And how easy/difficult would it be to adjust it for a wide span of ages, since it's geared toward 4th-8th graders? The history modules at Simply Charlotte Mason - this appears to be essentially a book list, so I'd have to come up with my own ideas to "flesh it out" - I'm not OPPOSED to that, but I'd certainly prefer for it to already be done for me! ;-) Truthquest - ditto SCM Veritas Press - I didn't like each child studying a separate period in history Ambleside Online - ditto VP MFW - I know that high school will be there SOMEDAY, but someday would need to be there in the next couple of years LOL. Also would it be awful if I skipped the ECC and just did a 4-year cycle? We do our own geography study based on Trail Guide to World Geography that we are really liking. Heart of Dakota - too many different levels to keep up with Sigh. Is it hopeless? Am I destined to have to basically write our own curriculum? :confused:

Are there any Y4 samples on the TOG site? (I can't remember.) I've used both the classic and the redesign. If I were you, I'd wait for the redesign. I know people have used classic and still do, but the redesign is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better, and especially since you are used to it, it would be hard (for me anyway!) to use the classic.

Thanks! That helps a lot!

Bumping.:)

It depends. If you're like ME...nope, didn't help a bit. I was diehard Sonlight because that is totally the way I would have loved to have done school. My children hate books. It would have been nice to have had a clue BEFORE I started using Sonlight.:tongue_smilie: BUT it's nice to know just what all options are out there.

Can I just say "thank you" for y'all sharing what it's really like???:grouphug: I've had a couple of those "I like the IDEA of it" or "I wanted to like it more than I did" curriculums, and man, they are frustrating!

I'm not at all familiar with Horizons, only BJU and Singapore, but I haven't had trouble at all. Maybe it's because BJU's manipulatives are very similar??? Anyway, the blocks are merely counters as the child learns the facts. The green blocks are just individual counters. The "tricky" stuff comes when place value comes into play - 10 greens equals 1 blue (10), and 10 blues (or 10 greens) equal a red (100). They also use the colored blocks that represent numbers 2-9. He explains the reason behind that in lesson 3. It's so that when children are learning to add they are tempted to count. So they use the colored blocks rather than the individual green ones (which are easier to count). Yes. He explains it in the videos. Not if they are going through the program at the pace they are supposed to. They are not supposed to move on to the next lesson until they are able to teach the lesson back to you (which shows that they understand) AND until they know the math facts taught in that lesson down pat. If they are still counting the manipulatives to arrive at the answer, that means they should not be moving on to the next lesson. Hope this helps!

Yes, that was new. I'm not sure how much the CDs are from WP (I was buying some other stuff from HITW, so I just bought it all at once LOL). I decided to do that so that I could just print what I wanted rather than possibly paying for something that I end up not using (if we don't do a particular project or whatever). No, printing things really isn't a huge concern of mine - I print so much stuff anyway that it's not that big of a deal. I'll look at it though and see if I can print things up ahead of time, just to save on some of the day-to-day printing.

We are using Diana Waring's History Revealed. The main crux of it is geared toward older students, but they do have an elementary activity book, and that mostly what we do. We listen to the CDs and read some of the recommended reading books that she lists as well (whatever I can find at the library). *IF* her materials covered American history in-depth I would just continue to use them. But alas, they don't, so that is why I'll use WP AA1 when we get to that point in history. My kids are almost 12, 10.5, 8.5, almost 7, 4, and 20 months.

I bought the Time Traveler's CDs from Homeschool in the Woods for $28.95 apiece and will print off what I need from them. I will be using AA1 with 4 children next year.

I have kids similar ages (except one more!) - almost 12yo ds, 10.5yo ds, 8.5yo dd, almost 7yo ds, 4yo dd, and 20mo dd. We are doing Diana Waring's stuff right now, but once we get to the point in history where American history fits in, we plan to do All-American I. Now, I haven't actually USED it yet LOL, but I don't see where it would be too terribly difficult to implement, especially compared to what I'm doing now (which is a mix of reading aloud and doing crafty stuff.

This is the one I've seen, since Apologia doesn't have any earth science books. I was looking for some sort of earth science, so I looked at this one. I'll have to check it out again now that it's been updated!

I've looked at God's Design in the past, but it seemed sort of "boggy" and too technical for the ages it's geared toward. I like the conversational tone of Apologia more. Maybe that was just the samples I looked at though??? Also I got the impression of "only morons believe in an old earth." I'm a young earth creationist, but I just didn't care for that sort of tone. But again, maybe it's just the samples I saw.

Diana Waring's History Revealed.

Do you pre-read the books? How do you know what discussion questions to ask and whether he is answering correctly? You would THINK that if a child doesn't read the story well enough you'd be able to tell, but lemme tell ya...my son can come up with some DOOZIES at time!:blink: It won't be on purpose, mind you...he just doesn't follow the story or something. I wouldn't have known if I didn't have an answer key telling me what the answer SHOULD have been! How much time does it take you? What would using this with multiple children look like? Can you think of any genres that AREN'T covered? How much prep time on your part does it entail?

:lurk5: