calledtobehome Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I have a 1st grade son with a K son tagging along for the upcoming school. I just need some assistance in finalizing History and Math before I walk in the convention tomorrow. History- I like SOTW w/ AG but would like to add Bible with it. We are a christian family and I was thinking about using the redshift schedule for SOTW with the VOS Bible. Bible: http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/chowsotw.htm Or get MOH and SOTW and use them both together? The first thing that come to my mind is overkill for 1st and K!!! Or just MOH??? But I like the way SOTW reads for this age? But I also like the biblical aspect of MOH! Math- Can't make up my mind about MUS Alpha or Singapore 1A/1B. I used the spectrum math for K with tons of manipulatives and games. My son likes math just not sure which one to go with? Just want something that's solid. Bible-We used the Rod and Staff Bible and coloring sheets they did great with this. Anything else you would recommend for this age? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motherdear Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 We have been using this for years and there's no question about a solid foundation. My advice for history would be My Fathers World; I've never used the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzannah Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Well, here's what we do. Read SOTW for history, do the activities you like in the AG (we do all the maps, DS doesn't like coloring but DD does so she does the coloring pages, and we pick and chose other projects and extra reading that strikes our fancy.) And for Bible, we read the Bible. Read a chapter or so a day. If you don't want to just read straight through, you could skip ahead to stories. Genesis is truly action-packed. Exodus is pretty exciting too. The next three can be a bit dry. The Gospels and Acts are great NT books for littles. Or, what we did when DS was K&1st was read the Children's Daily Devotional Bible. I love it because it is actual scripture, not a paraphrase, but it's just the story excerpts. It's broken into a page or so of reading with one or two pictures per page. There's also a suggested memory verse and "prayer starter." This keeps it interesting, but it isn't a cartoony storybook about the Bible. It's the real thing...or at least real enough for a 5-6yo. We did Biblioplan a year ago, and it was fine. It did integrate Bible with secular history. But the appeal fo SOTW is the narrative flow and it irked me to have to flip back and forth in SOTW to match up with the Bible history. But that might not bother everyone. The most successful years of Bible study for us have been when we just read the Bible. Devo books are usually hit or miss. We have been enjoying Drawing to Learn: Proverbs this year by Notgrass though. Even the 2yo "draws" with us. Blessings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katie.Louise Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 We love Math-U-See! This is what I posted about it on another post: I have 2 school aged dd's. We started hsing when my oldest was 2nd and youngest in K. I have always used MUS. My children love it. I love it. The page layouts are so clean too. I know, I'm strange. They have the "primer" level that is perfect for K'er. I had to put them in ps this past year, so 5th and 3rd grades. They both did extremely well in math. I believe it was from their strong foundation in MUS. Both were doing MUS at home all year too. They groaned some, having more work at home, but it was worth listening to. I was planning to go back to hsing this fall, so I didn't want them to be behind. I found the MUS to go much deeper per subject (multiplication, fractions, etc...) In the ps, my 3rd grader's class just learned their multiplication facts the last 4-5 weeks of school. In MUS, they go through 4 digit x's 3 digit multiplication. They do prime and composite numbers and more. Far more than her class ever touched. Same situation with my 5th grader's class too. I am so glad I was making them do MUS at home. They are still finishing up through the summer. I feel that MUS has my children completely understanding what they are doing, which is the goal. I think. Ha HA. Hope my 2 cents help, Katie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 I have a 1st grade son with a K son tagging along for the upcoming school. I just need some assistance in finalizing History and Math before I walk in the convention tomorrow. Thanks You're not in Oregon, are you?? If so, come say hi to me at the Classical Conversations booth. I'd love to meet some fellow Oregonians:-) Carrie:-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calledtobehome Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 No, I'm in VA. Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlee Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 I'm a new homeschooler, and I have been trying to figure things out for my 2nd grader. I just went to a big homeschool convention last week, not knowing what to choose for math/history/geography/Bible so sounds similar to you. I was thinking of choosing between Saxon, Math-U-See, and Horizons; I already have Singapore Math here at home as well but felt like I needed to supplement with someone or use Singapore as the supplement. Going to the convention really helped me to figure it out--looking through the books and talking with the reps gave me a better understanding of the options. There is only so much research you can do online! I did end up going with Math-U-See and also discovered Right Start at the convention, so bought some of their math games as well. I'd say I have enough math curriculum for now. :001_smile: As for the history/geography/Bible...I, too, ended up with My Father's World! I was not planning this at all...although I like WTM overall, I have always been a little unsure of starting with Ancients or Middle Ages at a young age. Especially since this is my first year of homeschooling, I wanted to start with an area of history that I'm more familiar with and that would be U.S. history. (I was swayed by Cheryl Lowe's article on this topic: http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/July08/historynotchronological.html). And I was thinking that it would be great to find a curriculum that would start with U.S. then move into the traditional classical sequence. Voila! I found it at the My Father's World display. They have a curriculum called Adventures for 2nd graders that starts with U.S. history, and it also has materials for Bible, geography, science; they say they are a curriculum for those who prefer the classical/CM approach. I'm very excited to start with this in the fall. So, going to the convention helped me solidify plans...I think if you go in with specific goals and spend your time at the exhibits to help you wtih those specific questions (vs. wandering and spending endless hours at every exhibit, which was very tempting!), the convention experience could really help you finalize your questions. That was the case for me. I spent less time in the sessions--as I just bought the audio files to be able to catch the sessions I missed later--and more time in the exhibit hall. Good luck and let us know how the experience went for you and if you were able to find what you were looking for! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calledtobehome Posted June 13, 2009 Author Share Posted June 13, 2009 Just wanted to give a review. I went to the convention for the very first time and it was inspirational and encouraging. I'm glad I had a list of curriculums and books I wanted to look at, there were so many curriculum publishers there I can see how some people may feel overwhelmed. It was also suprising to found out that some of the curriculums I thought I would like I really didn't like. I really didn't care for MFW adventures(very surprised about this, it looked sort of generic to me). I didn't like MP copy books(feel like what I'm doing at home is the same). What I did like: MUS SL Science 1 SOTW/AG WWE I SL Cores(surprised me ,I think I like it except the fact that they don't do a 4 year history cycle) Classical Conversation has now become an option later in our school Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 (edited) Math U See killed my daughters willingness to learn. She wanted to go to PS and when I asked her why it was because she didn't want to do that math anymore. I would encourage you to go with Abeka or BJU, they have more variety and are tried and true school curriculums. We might use MUS again, as a supplement, videos and TM only. There is a history program at Tanglewoodeducation.com that uses Our Young Folk's Josephus. There is also a history spine that you could add to SOTW that is mostly bible... Story of the World on mainlesson.com. Perhaps you can also take a look at Biblioplan and TruthQuest. Then there's also The Story of the Ancient World by Christine Miller. SL science does look good doesn't it? I love the look of the revisions. Edited June 14, 2009 by Lovedtodeath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralloyd Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 MUS! We went to their breakout session at our convention last year, and were convinced that it is the math for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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