Hi Katrina! I know it's been several months since your initial post, but I just came across this very helpful thread and had to chime in. We have used both MoH and MFW and have Diana Waring's RRR to look over this year. We are currently using BiblioPlan and enjoy it. The reason I have RRR on hand is because I wanted to read through it, and I had discovered it after already starting BP. I know exactly how you feel about History; it's kept me searching as well! I came across a great article recently and have pasted the link below. The writer, Teri Johnson, does a great job of explaining why we should teach History using a good assortment of living books. What really has drawn me to History Revealed recently is the strong Biblical focus. Diana focuses on the Bible as the foundation, then works from there. A lot of Christian curricula seems to simply integrate Biblical teachings into the author's ideas. That might be fine for certain subjects, but I feel and believe that the Bible is the foundation for everything, and all else should be worked around that. That is my personal belief, which helps me in narrowing down the choices. If you have any questions that I could help with, please let me know. Blessings, JB http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/history.htm

Hi there! Did you end up using History Revealed after all? I would have liked to read some information on this as well. Hopefully someone will chime in soon! Blessings, Jackie

Thank you for sharing your experience, ladies! I have had such a wonderful experience with Julia Nalle at BP as well. I was so blessed by her kindness that I have recommended all my homeschooling to BP! Please keep sharing good experiences like this. A lot of small curricula businesses like BP grow and keep afloat by word of mouth, so share away! ;-)

I totally agree about an acronym for Illuminations, LOL! :-P As for Beautiful Feet, it was my understanding that it can work for middle school and high school children, just not sure on the littles. I know they do carry elementary curricula, though. Check out their website. Another reason I was a bit hesitant on BF Ancients is the amount of required reading that was Greek Mythology. I do want our children to know about it, just not so much of a focus on it. Other than that, BF seems like a great History and Literature program. I read a great article recently about why it's important to have a variety of books to read when studying History. The link is below. If you scroll towards the bottom of the article, you'll find the author's addendum to her review of MoH. Hope this helps someone! http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/history.htm

Hi there! I asked BiblioPlan about year 3 and she said that it should be ready by Spring/Summer 2014. As for Illuminations, I'm not sure when they will be adjusting their years to correlate with MoH IV. I am going to send them an email and will let you all know what I hear. With BP, MoH II & III are used in year 2, then MoH III remains in year 3. When I asked Julia at BP if/when they would integrate MoH IV in the next year, she said they didn't have a time frame yet. I would think that I could just add it into the lesson plans as we go through it. Since we've used some of Illuminations previously, I will say that they do a great job of putting together the various subjects. However, you are pretty much paying for the lesson plans and literature guides, both as downloads to print. The lesson plans correlate with the curricula they suggest to use, which is purchased separately. The main similarities between BP and Illuminations is the suggested literature and guides. They both offer some great reading suggestions, as well as clearly mentioning that a high school student needs to pair a reading book with a literature guide to obtain a literature credit, depending on how many are completed throughout the school year. Beautiful Feet was also suggested (hey Dorinda!!!), and I also agree that it is well laid out. I was able to get my hands on the Ancients guide recently and really like it. I decided not to use it only because I wanted all 3 of our homeschooling children working from the same curricula together. I may revisit BF next fall. ;-)

This is excellent and oh-so-helpful, 1togo! I was wondering how we were going to organize it all, and you've made it pretty plain and simple. I have Year 2 in eBook format, but will most likely get Year 3 for next year in blended format, since I agree that the companion is way too big to print on my own. Since we've used it before, I am adding the literature guides from Illuminations Year 3 (Bright Ideas Press) for my 9th grade daughter. The only reason I decided to add those is because we used Illuminations last year and really enjoyed the guides. Some of the guides are sold separately on the BIP website, but it was way more cost effective to get the year of Illum. instead of purchasing the guides alone. I also use their lesson plans for a couple of the other subjects, like writing and English from the Roots Up. I will say that Biblioplan is more than enough by way of History and Literature, for sure. My daughter just liked the literature selection that Illum. offered for this particular year. We will have to re-visit this for next fall. We are quite new to BP, but have really enjoyed it so far and love the quality of the curricula. The customer service is outstanding, which is a big thing in my book!

This is a wonderfully helpful thread, I'm going to come back and read it all this evening!

Hi Angie! I was in the same "boat" that you are in, and finally was able to narrow it down to 2 choices: Biblioplan or Illuminations. We used MoH 1 last year and are just finishing up MoH 2 to begin volume 3 before Christmas. Our children are in 9th, 7th, and 4th grades, and I had the same concerns as far as high school credits. Illuminations is from Bright Ideas Press (MoH publishers) and was created specifically to use with MoH, along with other subjects. It is a great program that includes literature suggestions and guides for grades 3-8 and high school. I was also able to get my hands on Biblioplan Year 2, since it utilizes MoH 2 & 3. I love that BP also has the book lists and literature suggestions, especially for high school. The annotated book list is in the Family Guide, though I don't believe they included it in the free 3-week sample. I had purchased the Ancients Year 1 Family Guide, but am not currently using it. If you haven't purchased it from BP just yet, let me know and I can explain it to you via email. My email is below also. I'm really leaning towards BP, but am still deciding on both. We do love MoH, so it's a win-win either way, since they both use MoH in these programs. By the way, Bright Ideas Press will be having an after Thanksgiving Day sale, if you'd like to check out Illuminations. That would probably be a great way to save money. Either way, both programs are excellent! Blessings, Jackie the betancourt 6 {at} gmail dot com