BlessedMom Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Please share your thoughts about these two programs. Unfortunately I have not been able to see either of these, so I would greatly appreciate any information you can provide. Pros and cons? Recommended age level? How much teacher prep in advance? On going? Are they basically book lists and schedules or do they contain commentary etc...? What about activities? Thanks for your time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
way2cross Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 (edited) I used Truthquest last school year. We read alot of the book recommendations, and did some history pockets. But, overall I feel Truthquest is a series on book recommendations in chronological order with a brief commentary for the time period/historical figure. It's a good resource, but we needed way more meat. Kids are ages 9, 8, and 6. We're starting Mystery of History and I feel much better about the lessons ahead. And it has a schedule, and Truthquest does not. I've heard good things about Biblioplan. Edited July 5, 2009 by way2cross Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 (edited) I used TQ this year (attempted to anyway) and will be using Biblioplan ancients next year. TQ is just a list of books in chronological order with Christian commentary. Biblioplan is recommended K-8, but I believe can be beefed up with not much effort for later grades. Biblioplan is a list of books and a schedule, but no commentary. There is no activities in biblioplan, but they can easily be added using history pockets etc.... There are a few people on the board who use TQ with Biblioplan, letting biblio. drive the lessons each week and just adding in the TQ commentary where appropriate. I would also encourage you to join the Biblioplan yahoo group and post your questions. There doesn't seem to be alot of people on this board who use Biblioplan and post. HTH Edited July 5, 2009 by mama25angels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narrow Gate Academy Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Pros and cons? Pros Lots of living books to choose from so it's not dependent on specific books The lists include both in print and OOP books (I find the OOP easier to find at the library) Each book has a recommended reading range making it easier to narrow down the list on large topics The selections of topics being covered is very thorough. Cons No reading schedule provided. You can put together your own or just move along at your own pace. No coordinated mapwork or hands-on activities. Personally, this has not been a problem for us. If you have some good blank line maps, then you can just do mapwork as you encounter it in the books. There are recommendations for books for hands-on activities. You can either just let the kids pick something that interests them or skip them if that's not your cup of tea. Recommended age level? The American History for Young Students series is recommended for grade 1-5. The rest of the books are for grades 5-12 although they do contain some recommendations at younger reading levels for families with younger siblings tagging along. How much teacher prep in advance? On going? That depends entirely on you. I like to schedule out specific books ahead of time. Then I just have to place them on hold during the school year. Others just go one topic at a time, check out whatever is available, read, and move on when they're ready. Are they basically book lists and schedules or do they contain commentary etc...? TruthQuest is a booklist with commentary. Basically, the commentary tries to help you look critically at what is happening. She focuses on two main questions. What do they believe about God? What do they believe about man? Then you see how those beliefs affect their choices. What about activities? There are recommended activity books in the guide that you can use if interested. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura W. Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 We've just started with Biblioplan, and we use the Truthquest commentary alongside it. If you're looking for Biblical/church history integrated with secular, either one will help you achieve that goal. Truthquest covers a lot of topics in a lot of depth. However, BP covers almost all the topics that TQ does, and at an appropriate depth for younger students. When there's a topic that TQ covers, and BP does not, it is usually because the only books available on that topic are at high school level. Biblioplan: Pros - An excellent booklist scheduled out for you Map and timeline packet available to use with map/timeline assignments Short descriptions of each book The guide is very easy to use - it's laid out simply and easy to follow, with each week's work scheduled on one page Cons - No commentary (if that's something you want) Recommended age level - K-8th, with a high school supplement available Teacher Prep - Mainly collecting the books. The other prep work consists of picking the right resources from among those scheduled. There are several history spines, but some are better for younger students, and some are better for older. There are also several levels of readers to pick from. What it is - Basically a book list and a schedule - but they are great books, the schedule is a good one, and all major topics that grammar and logic students should cover are covered (IMO) Activities - BP has a suggested writing activity for both grammar and logic stage each week. Map and timeline activities are also scheduled. Other than that, BP recommends the Greenleaf guides that go along with the Famous Men books they schedule in years 1 and 2. Those guides do have a few activities in them. What I have done is use the SOTW activity guide alongside BP. It is very easy to note which SOTW chapters are read in each week of BP, and find the corresponding coloring pages, activities, etc. in the SOTW activity guide. Truthquest: Pros - I really like the commentary (but some people don't care for the style of it, so it's really a personal opinion here) A really nice booklist, and excellent coverage of a lot of topics. Some things can be covered through TQ that I haven't seen covered in other history programs. I really like the ThinkWrite assignments (there seem to be about 8-9 per guide) Cons - Not much description of each book other than a recommended age/grade range No schedule Recommended age level - The American history guides are for K-5th/6th. The rest of the guides are for 5th-12th grades, but they list quite a few books for younger students (at least in the guides I have). Teacher Prep - Would involved picking from among all the excellent book choices and collecting and scheduling those books (unless you're wanting to explore each topic for as long as it takes/as long as there is interest) What it is - Basically a book list with commentary and a few writing assignments (each assignment requiring research, some critical thinking, and writing a short paper on the topic) What about activities? When activity books or videos about a certain topic are available, they are included in the booklist. The booklist is divided into categories under each topic, and the activity books are listed under the Activities category, while videos, etc. are listed under the Video/DVD category. HTH. Blessings, Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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