Beautiful Feet Ancient History users....

[Rhondabee]

Would it be fairly easy to substitute Spielvogel's HO for Streams of Civilization?

 

Thanks!

[Susan C.]

Rhonda,

I think you could, you may have some study questions not match up, but HO has plenty of questions to use. It has been awhile since we did BF Ancient, but I think it just says to read the Streams chapter, and the questions are for the other books. But, I have the older study guide. Either way, with little to no adapting I think you can do it.

 

Susan

[jibaker103]

Would it be fairly easy to substitute Spielvogel's HO for Streams of Civilization?

 

Thanks!

This is exactly what I'm doing for my ds. 3 weeks in and have no problems. In fact HO covers a lot more than BF Ancients which only covers Pre-History, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

[Rhondabee]

This is exactly what I'm doing for my ds. 3 weeks in and have no problems. In fact HO covers a lot more than BF Ancients which only covers Pre-History, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

 

If you don't mind, may I ask what your schedule is? (How many days are you doing history and for how long?)

 

Thanks!

[Rhondabee]

Rhonda,

I think you could, you may have some study questions not match up, but HO has plenty of questions to use. It has been awhile since we did BF Ancient, but I think it just says to read the Streams chapter, and the questions are for the other books. But, I have the older study guide. Either way, with little to no adapting I think you can do it.

 

Susan

 

Maybe I should ask you to list everything you like, since we seem to be doing so many of the same things - LOL!

 

But, if I may ask, I am considering doing BF Ancients with Smarr for lit because my "home-grown" list of things to do for Great Books ala the "old" WTM way is just not clicking with my ds. He is a real box-checker and wants to be told exactly how many pages to read, rather than "read for 90 minutes". I know the BF guide doesn't break it down by day, but if we do 3 lessons a week, I could break that up over 5 days, I think. I'm a pretty good tweaker! I just don't know what is reasonable to expect from him now that high school is here, so I'm always second guessing my own plans. I really want to be able to point to someone's tried and true plans and say, "Here, it says do x, y, z - so do it."

 

So...at last...my question is - from your experience with BF, do you think my expectations of BF are realistic?

 

Thanks for all your help today!

[jibaker103]

If you don't mind, may I ask what your schedule is? (How many days are you doing history and for how long?)

 

Thanks!

History M, W, F and Geography T & TH.

[Susan C.]

Maybe I should ask you to list everything you like, since we seem to be doing so many of the same things - LOL!

 

But, if I may ask, I am considering doing BF Ancients with Smarr for lit because my "home-grown" list of things to do for Great Books ala the "old" WTM way is just not clicking with my ds. He is a real box-checker and wants to be told exactly how many pages to read, rather than "read for 90 minutes". I know the BF guide doesn't break it down by day, but if we do 3 lessons a week, I could break that up over 5 days, I think. I'm a pretty good tweaker! I just don't know what is reasonable to expect from him now that high school is here, so I'm always second guessing my own plans. I really want to be able to point to someone's tried and true plans and say, "Here, it says do x, y, z - so do it."

 

So...at last...my question is - from your experience with BF, do you think my expectations of BF are realistic?

 

Thanks for all your help today!

 

Rhonda,

I guess we both just have good taste. :):) I have a closet full of what I have used homeschooling! And, the second one doesn't like everything the first one used... I didn't do WTM back when I did BF, I hadn't read the book yet, I just read it this past summer, so our second one gets to reap the benefits. I did some of what was in the book by instinct, though. My first one would have loved the WTM way, the one I am schooling now, not so much. I am integrating what will benefit her. She is a much slower reader, so I have to give her less reading, or there isn't enough day. The great thing about homeschooling is that you can tailor things to fit each child. I think it is important to pick books they like and can read without too much effort, or they won't have much motivation. I mix harder with easier, usually an easy book after a hard read where they have stretched themselves. For history, my goal is that they actually remember it, and whole books and interesting textbooks help with that.

 

My son did BF Ancient, Early American & World, and US & World from Civil War to present. My ancient may not look like yours (I have an older version), but I just had him do one section a day. I guess if it were really long, two days would be alright. My son was a avid reader, I don't know if my other would go that fast. We didn't always do everything, I just circled the numbers in pencil in the guide what I wanted him to do. And he checked them off (your son would like that!). We didn't draw maps, I just had him study the one they wanted him to look at. Instead of reports, I let him do bullet facts (it was a compromise because he was paper resistant when younger, if I were to do it again, I would probably make him turn a few of those into papers). He usually had around five questions to answer plus reading. I also didn't do every book, and added others I thought he would like. If there weren't questions for that book, I just let him read it.

 

Let the guide be your servant, not the other way around. Pick the questions you want, leave the others. Use your spine, and add other BF books you like as you go. You might feel better loosely mapping your year out. Sometimes you might want to cover more in the spine than BF does.

 

HTH