We are diving into Biblioplan this year. I am confused about something though. We are using the Cool History for Littles (Ancients). It has recommended Companion readings (for littles) listed on the Cool History page. However, then the questions it has from the readings come from parts of Companion that were not the recommended reading. What am I missing here? Any experience with this? Thanks!

Next year, I will have: 5th gr, 3rd gr, and P-K. History has been very hit and miss in our house up until now. With the 5th grader, I would like to make it more of a priority. I am not so much concerned with mastery; just a basic understanding and whetted appetite for the subject. The 3rd grader will join us and the Pr-K will do what he pleases. :) I would love to hear thoughts about pros and cons of these two systems, especially if you have used them both and can help me with how they are similar/different: Story of the World + Activity Book Remember the Days from Biblioplan + the extras (Discussion Guide, Family Guide, Cool Histories, etc) (I don't mind not starting with Ancients, since the Remember the Days for Ancients is not yet ready.) Thanks in advance! Stacey

Does anyone have a reading schedule of Sotw 2 that includes the History Lives Books by Mindy and Brandon Withrow? There would be a few chapters from Peril and Peace, then Monks and Mystics, and some chapters from Courage and Conviction. I have found a schedule that includes Trial and Triumph. I think Biblioplan may include all of these resources together, and has them scheduled, but is it worth it to buy it just for that? TIA.

This will probably be all over the place because I am about to have a nervous breakdown. We have been all over the place between Wayfarers, Biblioplan, and TOG, and it is making me a crazy person. I must decide what history curriculum to use and stick with it. I am down to choosing between TOG and Biblioplan for good. I have used TOG (LG) for a unit. I LOVE the "excellence" of it...however... reading the teachers notes isn't happening, and I am not sure it ever will. It seems like the teachers notes are what ties it all together, so this is a problem. I keep telling myself I will make the planning and reading the notes happen. But, I am not sure I want to commit to that for the next twenty years. And without the teacher notes, the reading list seems somewhat random. As for Biblioplan, I am worried that it is not as in depth for high school as I would hope. Somehow the idea of everyone using the same textbook, and the younger kids just not reading as far seems fairly shallow to me. Is this accurate? Is TOG head and shoulders more advanced than Biblio? In all honesty, I want the depth of TOG with the ease and time commitment of Biblioplan. I think my crisis is actually deeper than just this. I am torn between wanting absolute academic excellence, and wanting time for learning more practical skills and just being a kid. I don't want their entire childhood to be a pursuit of history knowledge...but I want them to have an excellent foundation. I would go with Biblioplan in a second if I thought that the highschool level was deep enough. But I'm afraid maybe it isn't. Any wisdom out there on which to go with?? Thanks.

I'm needing advice. We are really needing to get this decision made for several reasons. However, I am going back and forth terribly! We really like TOG, but I am worried about the work load for once we get to high school. Does anyone know around how many hours a day on average a child would spend on the rhetoric level with TOG (specifically for non honors credits)? I lean Charlotte Mason, and the idea of nonstop hours and hours of intense work at the rhetoric level is really intimidating me. But, I am not sure TOG has to be that intense. I'm wondering if we did just the basic credits in high school maybe it wouldn't be so much.....? Biblioplan scares me because it seems like maybe it isn't meaty enough for rhetoric. And while I don't want to consume my children with academics, I do want to provide them a really strong base. I guess I am wanting the best of both worlds, the lesser time commitment of Biblio, with the academic excellence of TOG. And, we tried Wayfarers, and it wasn't a fit :( Any advice?? I'm going crazy with this.

I'm still trying to decide what curriculum to choose next year. I like the Biblioplan, but had a few questions. When I searched on CathyDuffy's website, she rates Biblioplan highly but said it is more labor intensive for the teacher (more labor intensive than Sonlight, for instance). What has been your experience with it? I really liked the fact that they use challenging books, like Shakespeare's works but am a bit concerned that I can keep up with it. I do like literature and history, but I'm a little concerned I can pull everything together since I have 2 younger children. I'm college focused and would hope that my children could get adequately prepared for college. I was also concerned that there is a large booklist and I'm not sure which books or how many to choose from the list? I live overseas, so I have to buy everything very soon and I can't update the list later. There seem to be about 40 books. At the top of the books list it states, "We do NOT recommend buying all of the books on this list! Instead, we recommend using the annotated book lists in our Family Guide " but I don't see the list from the Family Guide on the website. Further, the Biblioplan curriculum seems to cover lit and history but not writing and vocabulary, so it seems I'd need to purchase these separately. For vocabularly, I like the Vocabulary, Spelling, and Poetry books sold through Abeka. For writing, I've still not decided, but perhaps I might use the composition set sold through Abeka as well.

I have an upcoming 9th grader, that finds history very boring, (she was ps up until two years ago), and not an academic gal. She will do the work, but not real excited about it, unless it's art. As of now, she has no desire to go on to college, and thinks she's wants to join the military. I do not want to push her too hard, but I do want her to be college ready just in case, because she may very well change her mind, (and I have heard that homeschoolers must obtain a higher score on the ASVAB). We used boring text books, (actual ps text books), our first year, and are currently using MFW, (ECC) at the moment. I really want to start with Ancients next year and go through the four year cycle. How do I present history to a child this age that is interesting, challenging, yet will not overwhelm her? WTM- I love the idea of planning this out, but not sure I am confident enough to plan and teach her completely on my own. Does anyone teach history strictly using the WTM method? Having never used any of the WTM outlines before, will this be a difficult transition, and is there anything I can start now that will help prepare her for next year? BP- I downloaded the free three-week sample, but have not had time to really look over everything. It sounds like a nice balance of "hand holding", and at the same time allowing me to make some decisions. I haven't been able to find many reviews online, especially for the high school level. I have heard that the companion is great and typically the only spine needed. Any advice? Please help :confused: Edited: Decided today that MFW is no longer an option, and now trying to determine if I want to strictly use the outline in the WTM or use BP. Does anyone use BP, but also loosely follow the WTM outline?

I LOVE the look of biblioplan for history. My girls will be in 2nd and 4th grade and in the medieval period of history. This year we did ancients with SOTW. We loved it. We did narrations and a lapbook and a timeline and just had so much fun with it. I really wanted to incorporate biblioplan and do more literature tied in with history, as well as stuff that isn't history related. My only concern was that it doesn't include narrations. Have any of y'all used this program and incorporated narrations for history? I don't want to bog them down with extra work just to say we did. But I loved having them write out what they learned in history. Or do you find the kids do great with the questions and not bother with narrations? Thanks so much for your help.

I just wanted to post what a great experience I had with Biblioplan this weekend. I emailed customer service to ask if there was a discount or some sort of incentive to get the updated version of the guide, since I already purchased it previously. Within about two minutes, I was emailed with a link to the updated version. I was so excited I didn't have to repurchase the guide that I just wanted to share. It is rare to get such an expeditious response and to get a free updated guide, so I just wanted to share.

Anyone do these together? Pam

We are seriously considering the Biblioplan Year 2 "new edition" for my highschool level son. He is younger, 14. Pro's, Con's, Mehh's?

First, let me give you a little background. I've homeschooled my three children since the beginning. Initially I was what I would call a "Charlotte Mason" gal, but swiftly moved more in the direction of classical education with a C.M. twist. Now that I'm the parent of a high school student, and one middle school ADHD student, plus one grammar dyslexic student, I'm a "whatever it takes to get it done" type of homeschooler. In the past, our family has followed the trivium with regards to history study. I began way back when with Story of the World. Once I discovered Biblioplan, which melded Story of the World into it, I happily switched over to its fold. Now, however, I'm running into some challenges primarily related to SAT subject testing. You see, most of the colleges that my son (9th grade) is interested in, require additional testing beyond SAT/ACT testing. These are primarily accomplished via SAT subject tests or AP tests. My son is at the tail end of his 9th grade year and we have been looking at SAT subject tests. His most recent one was done in Biology. We still haven't received the score on that one, but I hope it went reasonably well. The social studies tests are all based on American History, or World History. Well, our history in that regards is spread out over several different years (two years for American, and four years for World). I'm wondering if there would be a better fit for him now that he's in high school that is perhaps set up more like the school systems encounter. Now, this is mostly for better recall of information when he encounters the test. After all, we last covered exploration two years ago, so that information is definitely more foggy than say, World War II, which we covered this year. Because we've been happy with Biblioplan (and I anticipate still using it with my other two children) I haven't been looking further. Now that the convention (FPEA) is barreling down on me, though, I'm wondering if there is a good fit for "testing" that I could look at. The only other one that I've even briefly looked at is Notgrass History. If anyone who has some information/experience with my situation can help me out, I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Hello, I have SOTW and MOH for Ancients and wanted to use them both. Biblioplan (upper middle grades 6-8) includes both of these for spines and I like the Christian approach. The cost for the set is more than I was planning on. My ds wouldn't like the coloring book and we have a timeline that could be used. My question for those of you who have used Biblioplan is which books are the most important if you purchased them separately ? Family Guide Companion Discussion guide Cool History Cool History Classic? Hands-on Maps This is for one student, my youngest. Thanks for your help.

We will begin SOTW 1 with my first grade son in the fall. I like SOTW for the most part, but I really want to weave Biblical history in as well. Is Biblioplan a good fit for a 1st grader? Would I just need to buy the lesson plans and not the companion, since I'm using SOTW as my spine & I'll also use the AG for SOTW? I downloaded the sample from the website & I wasn't impressed with the companion from Biblioplan.

I know choosing history can be a serious challenge, (it certainly was for me!), so I thought I would do a review of Biblioplan on my blog, and a "Why we chose BP over other history choices" as well. I will be adding a "week in the life" post soon! Curriculum choices are so individual, but I am hoping this helps as when I was searching, every bit of information helped! Hope this helps someone wanting to know more about Biblioplan! A review of Biblioplan. Why I chose BP over SL, TOG, and SOTW

Hello everyone. I will begin HS next year. I have 4 children (ds6, ds5, dd3, dd2). My sons are in a private school that teaches the classical approach. I want to continue that. I have been looking at choices for over a year and need a little help from y'all. :confused: Here is what I do know (I think I am sure on these.:lol:) Math: Math U See, Life of Fred, and supplement with Kumon Phonic/Spelling: All about Spelling, Dorbooks Science: AIMS at this time b/c of age of my kids, but any input is welcome here Grammar: need ideas here Art:? (would like something b/c my oldest loves art) Here is where I need help.:crying: I know I need to relax and i am sure I will once I start HS, but right now... well, you know. Okay. I like BiblioPlan and TOG. BUT TOG is overwhelming and although it looks good and I might revisit it later...I just can't take that on right now. Other mamas say to just use what you want, to break it down into smaller pieces, but I don't know how to do that. And honestly, I don't know if I want to know. LOL So BiblioPlan. I have read a lot of helpful threads here and thus led to more questions. Here they are? 1.) I see people saying they are using BiblioPlan with SOTW (is that correct... just learning what all the letters mean). What exactly are they doing with both? Is SOTW being used as a supplement to BiblioPlan? 2.) Do you like the Bible portion/lessons of BiblioPlan? 3.) What other subjects am I going to need to cover in HS ages 6, 5, 3 (not really schooling her yet...just doing a lot of play with her)? 4. What planners do you use? (hard copy or on computer) 5. I have seen HST+ on many threads. What is that? Thank you so much ladies!! I eagerly await your replies. :bigear:

Need help deciding what to do for my 9th grader this year. I am torn between doing MOH as is because it has the mapping and notebooking and extra literature. But so does Biblioplan. I have heard that Biblioplan uses MOH but skips around with it. Does it actually use the entire book or just bits and pieces? I also like the emphasis on church history and missionary biographies that Biblioplan has. I just don't know what to do.I have looked at Biblioplans 3-week samples and liked what I saw. However I thought the Companion looked like it was written in more of a piecemeal fashion with factual information unlike MOH which is written in more of a story format, which I like. I have pros and cons for both options. Any help out there from those of you who have used either of these options? thanks :)

I need help comparing and contrasting MFW vs. Biblioplan, and I am totally new to this forum. I had heavily researched TOG, but we are missionaries, and the cost to buy and ship all those books is too much. We plan to buy 3 years ahead when we're in the States next year, because shipping curriculum and books internationally is so expensive. I don't want to make a mistake and be stuck with a curriculum I'm not happy with. Could you help me? 1. I like 4-year chronological history. 2. I want to use the curriculum for all my kids. 3. I also want things more scheduled out for me. (vs TOG) 4. I want it to incorporate the Bible. How do they compare biblically? Does Biblioplan incorporate it into every year, or mainly just ancients? Same question with MFW. 5. I want to mix the history with literature from the time period. How do they incorporate literature? Would it be cost-prohibitive to buy the extra books? Does MFW have discussion/review questions for lit? 6. I would like to be able to solidify their knowledge somehow, especially with the older grades--have some type of evaluations. Does MFW have study ?'s,/sheets, tests to review the history knowledge in their 5-year cycle? Please help me if you have used these curricula. Thank you!!!!!

I've seen several threads resurrecting my interest in Biblioplan, again. (I know, I know, these things come in waves... :) ) Looking more carefully at their materials has me wondering if something like the Companion would be helpful for self-education, even if we use something more like SOTW for the kids. Akin to the "meat being in the teacher's notes" vibe I get when people discuss using TOG for youngers. I am especially interested in meshing some church history with SOTW2. I have SCM's Middle Ages guide, and might do some of the Famous Men books instead, but will probably end up with a little bit of everything thrown in (my own personal recipe for procrastination :glare: ). Does anyone do this? Use just the Companion and do something separate for the littles? Thoughts? :bigear: Thanks!

Hello everyone, I have been looking at biblioplan for next year. I would like to make it secular. Do you think it would be easy to leave out the religious things? Would it still "flow" and have enough books to fill the year? I mean would we have to skip weeks because all the books listed are religious? Thanks for your help, Kim

We started out in January using Biblioplan Ancients, which basically mixes SOTW1, Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History, and the Bible, and throws in some readers at the K-2 level, though my library only had less than half of those, so we rarely got to them. There was mapwork, which I had to do for him as he watched (and he DID learn from it) and some Cool History questions which were ok. I used the SOTW AG to do narrations. Anyway, we started to get to where the Bible readings were taking sooooooo much time that we weren't able to move forward in SOTW at all. We also weren't seeing the connection between the two. So I decided to drop Biblioplan and just do SOTW and the Bible separately. We're now going leisurely through Egermeier's Bible Story Book (which DS loves), and easily doing 1 chapter of SOTW per week. We're doing the mapwork from the AG, which my DS can do all by himself. We're doing the narrations for each section, and it doesn't feel like too much. Basically, things are much more relaxed. I even threw the Usborne readings back in! In BP, I had read them at first, but then DS's eyes would glaze over as I read. Last week, I made up a Word document with a little "schedule" of what to do 2 days per week, with the Usborne and SOTW readings. I made narration pages. I printed out the map. I found which library books my library had that were recommended in the AG (usually my library has about 2 per week - better than the BP options!). I also realized that my son could just read the Usborne book himself. It turns out that: My son really enjoys the Usborne book when HE is reading it! SOTW is way more exciting when you're not trying to squeeze in 5 Bible stories along with it! My son LOVES to read SOTW itself on his own! Just this morning, he read 7 chapters. :001_huh: We'd be doing math or grammar, and I'd have to stop for a second and tend to something, and when I sat back down, he'd have his nose in that book. :lol: Just a minute ago, I was wondering where he was. Found him at the kitchen table... reading SOTW. I said "It's a good thing there are 4 of those books!" and he said "There are FOUR of them?!?!?" with a look of amazement. What a difference this change has been! I'm glad I finally just went with SOTW+AG. So simple, yet effective. And my son is so interested in history now! He keeps telling me random facts about what he's read in SOTW.

...or do you simply follow what BP has laid out? I'm not sure if we need to add a Bible program on top of BP Ancients in the fall. My DDs also go to AWANA, so I am leaning towards "no", we don't need it. But - I am really liking the looks of Bible Study Guide for all Ages :tongue_smilie: and still have a few more programs to look into. What says the Hive?

I've read great things about how MFW lines up history & Bible. Are there other programs that do this just as well? I know I need to print off samples of different programs, but I'd like some input from users, too. I've looked at TOG, SCM, Biblioplan, & TruthQuest. I know there are probably others I haven't even considered. I'd really like a chronological history curriculum that integrates biblical history & secular history with as much actual Bible reading as possible. Sounds like this is exactly what MFW does. But I'm not sure it will have enough flexibility, especially with science. I guess I could add or sub science. Anyone use MFW for history & Bible only? I've also thought about combining a couple of the others (SCM/Biblioplan/TruthQuest). And TOG looks great, but I'm not sure it has as much Bible integration throughout all years. But again, I could add in appropriate Bible studies. I don't want to waste time & money on a program then do lots of tweaking. And I'm afraid I'm going to be a tweaker. TIA for any input you can give.

My head is spinning! I'm very new to homeschooling with young dc (ds4 & dd 16 mo). We're part of a preschool co-op now that's working great, but I'm a planner & like to look ahead. I'm comparing MFW, TOG, SCM, Biblioplan, & TQ. I'm not sure TOG is really for us, but I keep reading a couple of great things about it that I'm not specifically seeing about other programs. 1. Parents are learning along with their dc. I had no idea that this was a goal for our family until after I'd made the decision to hs. 2. The teacher's notes give direction & lead to great discussions. I guess I'm hoping somebody will have insight into these other programs, especially with regard to the family learning (including mom). I thought I had settled on MFW, but as I get a tiny bit more experience, I'm wondering if I'll want more flexibility. TIA!

I have been attempting to look at some book lists for next year to help me in my decision. Deciding if compiling SOTW, TOG, and SL is a doable option :lol: I have also been looking at Biblioplan, but unlike TOG or SL, I cannot find the booklist, am I missing something or is is not available unless you buy it? I certainly wouldn't want to buy a curriculum without knowing what we would be reading. Thanks!