TRISMS HM vs. Learning Adventure WOA?

[LBS]

I'm finding too many wonderful programs/curricula!

 

I've carefully chosen math, LA components (CLE, Wordsmith, Jump In!, Working with Words, Pathway, CTGE), RS4K Level 1 (all 3 in one year or close) and playing with DK Definative Vis Guide Science plus Science Matters, and was settling into working thru Spielvogel's HO, finding all the teaching guides, including a music enhancement. For US History: Hippocampus, TCC, Freedom History of US (Hakim), and Guesthollow to help. THEN I found TRISMS History Makers and Learning Adventures World of Adventure. WOW! So my research and plans are all blown, by finding two programs that seem complete except for math....or nearly so. I sorta prefer more secular, both seem to be.

 

I need to get my son up to date. He's 8th grade age (just turned 13) and has been out of school for a year and a half, recovering from ps burn out. We played for a year, and learned how to negotiate the world, did Scouts, cooked, cleaned house, museums, and he recently has said "I"m so happy." He never said that when in ps, but cried every night trying to get it all done, figure out the bullying, figure out making friends. Big mess, long story, not new one to many. But, he's amazed me at how much he retained, and how far ahead he was ;many programs that have assessments, he tests on his age/level or ahead. I have an eye on keeping him thru 12th or maybe just thru 10th (his choice)and we have a wonderful High School, not sure how that will pan out. So, we need to do catchup....math will breeze by, science he absorbs in his sleep, Scouts can be electives, history and LA are the work.

 

Have I set up too much? Can I use TRISMS or WOA to pull it together/teach/spine, or would I just confuse myself further. I love WOA reading list (he has not read ed stuff, more loved the big kid stuff his older sibs were reading) but TRISMS is so exciting looking. Pulling it together and learning to research are big needs. They both look fun, actually. I like creating notebooks....to see all he/we learn(s)......

 

My questions are:

1. could I fit all this in? Can I make it work? Should I ditch some of the ind choices and go more with the TRISMS/WOA?

2. Compare TRISMS and WOA, please, anyone who knows both programs. I love the feel of both, have looked at all the samples I can find, but maybe lean towards TRISMS, for the whole year of world history survey. WOA may be too young. Picking and choosing items I can handle, but creating harder levels is too much tweaking.

 

Thanks for any replies, sorry to write so long, but this is the culmination of months of research.

 

LBS

Edited November 8, 2009 by LBS
clarification

[LadyAberlin]

I haven't used either. My kids are too young. I've looked into them though. If you prefer secular then I would go with Trisms. AWOA isn't secular. Also the writing of the learning adventure guides has been put on hold indefinitely so you aren't guaranteed anything for Highschool. My IRL friend Shalom22 is using History Makers so you might want top her and talk to her about it. Also if your son is going into 8th you might want to just do Trisms Discovering the Ancient world, unless you just think that would be too much for him at the moment. Most people take 2 yrs to complete the Age of Revolution so that means ancients need to be started in 8th. However you could speed through AOR, but it would be difficult. Shalom 22 is using HM with her 7th grade dd and 8th grade ds. I think she would be a lot of help.

[LBS]

Thanks, LA,

 

I will contact her.

 

LBS

[Deb in NZ]

I used AWOA when my dc were 11, 9, & 5. AWOA was perfect for my dd (then 11yo) & my boys used parts of it, but not the writing. AWOA is not secular. It's a fun program that has lots of hands-on activities as well as a pretty meaty LA program. AWOA says it covers everything except math & typing, but IMHO science is very light. For a 13yo I would add in a science text of some sort. My first choice would be Apologia General Science or Physical Science.

 

My ds#1 used Trisms: HM when he was 14yo. If your ds likes research & writing, he'll love HM. HM is really just a collection of worksheet forms that get filled in each week on different inventions, explorers, & scientists + LA work based on IEW & a literature book to read each week chosen from a suggested list. HM is good at teaching how to research. HM can be used independently. Again, I would add in a science text along with your chosen math curriculum as the science in HM is mainly history of scientists.

 

Comparing the 2 programs: AWOA is best done together. It is not secular, but we liked that. AWOA is fun, with lots of projects. AWOA has a great writing program! HM is designed to be used independently. HM covers all of world history in one year, while AWOA only covers up to 1600. You will need IEW to use the writing in HM to its full extent, but AWOA is self-contained. AWOA has 7 required books + the Bible, but all other books can be what you have on the topic at home or in your library. HM has a list of suggested books for each week's work. I found it handy to have a book each about explorers, inventions, & scientists on hand, but borrowed extra books from what our library had.

 

In your list of what you'd planned on using you have a lot of duplication. This can lead to burn-out very quickly in my experience. For LA choice 1 resource each for writing, vocabulary, spelling (if still necessary), grammar, & literature (or a list of books to cover.) Sometimes a single resource can cover more than 1 LA subject. AWOA covers grammar, spelling, vocabulary, writing, & literature. HM only covers writing & literature. I have my dc do Latin & use that for vocabulary & grammar.

 

JMHO,

Edited November 8, 2009 by Deb in NZ

[shalom22]

I haven't used either. My kids are too young. I've looked into them though. If you prefer secular then I would go with Trisms. AWOA isn't secular. Also the writing of the learning adventure guides has been put on hold indefinitely so you aren't guaranteed anything for Highschool. My IRL friend Shalom22 is using History Makers so you might want top her and talk to her about it. Also if your son is going into 8th you might want to just do Trisms Discovering the Ancient world, unless you just think that would be too much for him at the moment. Most people take 2 yrs to complete the Age of Revolution so that means ancients need to be started in 8th. However you could speed through AOR, but it would be difficult. Shalom 22 is using HM with her 7th grade dd and 8th grade ds. I think she would be a lot of help.

 

Hey, That would be me.

 

We are using Trism's HM this year. I like that it can be a very literature based approach to learning history. It is not totally secular, there are references to church history. But that can be skipped. It is not pertinent to the lesson plan.

 

I have used Sonlight in the past and my kids seem to retain more information when they read the great books. I have incorporated some of Sonlight's books from Cores 5, 6 & 7 as additional reading material. Trism's gives you a list of books for each time frame. There is also a great resource called "Reading Through the Ages" that you can get that lists even more books according to time periods.

 

HM is a world history overview. It does move quickly through some areas that I had wanted to spend more time on. Like Roman history for example, but I have to remember that this will get covered again in next year and in more depth.

 

One other point that I have heard and read about Trism's, is that if you don't do HM and go right into DAW that it can be very overwhelming. By doing HM first, you learn how to do the research and learn how Trism's works. Since you ds is in the 8th grade, I would think the HM would be a great fit. It would give him the tools that he will need for the upper levels.

 

Trisms's is great to learn how to do research. Each week is scheduled out for you and is relatively easy to follow. It includes LA aside from the IEW, but it is more complete when you couple the two together. The IEW program to learn the writing skills is very good.

 

HM covers some science, mostly related to the inventions, scientists or explorers studied that week. There are vocabulary words covered that are related to each weeks topic.

 

Overall I am very pleased with Trism's HM. I will most likely take more than one year to get through it, but not quite two years. Which is an option. I am working towards making my kids more independent by the time they are ready for DAW and on. Trism's is set up to be done independently and if you ds catches on to the process, he can just take off.

 

I may not have covered everthing, if you have any questions, please pm me and I will be glad to help.

 

I would also like to recomend Rainbow Science as an option. We are doing this also and my kids love it. It is the first science curriculum that we have stuck with. Just to give you something else to ponder.;)

[LBS]

THANKS, Deb,

 

I do see I have collected a lot of duplicates, and think maybe I"ll be trying stuff that I discard if it does not fit, then I'll have the backup right there. At my son's age, his opinions count, and his input will be considered when deciding on programs, a lot, and I honestly don't know what he'll like/benefit from most.

So the pros for TRISMS are the research and writing that I need him to get better practice, less hands on for me (he wants to do it himself). It sounds like more of a tracking system, drawing all subject together. I can use my own LA, math, and keep the beefed up science, but TRISMS might pull it all together?

 

I think I may have missed the age for AWOA, and really search for good writing programs, but have Jump In!, and Wordsmith (spelling WW and FS4K supplement, CLE Grammar...I read that AWOA is good for multi-age and I just have one young scientist, to have his own workroom devoted to himself....did I mention he is a science/mathy kid? Engineering type. Would TRISMS tend to be a better fit for that type of kid?

 

Thanks!

LBS

[Deb in NZ]

LBS,

 

In your situation I would recommend Trisms, not AWOA. As far as writing programs I really like Jump In. I haven't used Wordsmith, but Jump In is the best I've seen so far. My dd has used it as a resource in writing papers for her tertiary course this term. She went through Jump In a couple years ago. I have Jump In planned for my ds#2 to use when we begin school for 2010 in February. He will be 12yo. Jump In can be used independently for the most part. See if you can borrow the IEW dvds to get the most out of the writing component of HM.

 

JMHO,

[EKS]

If you prefer secular then I would go with Trisms.

 

TRISMS is *not* secular.

[LBS]

Being totally secular is not hugely important....I like "3/4 secular", if that's a good way to put it. We do family Bible stuff, so if he's doing more, he gets on another track. We go off on too many tangents anyhow, with three teens, so keeping one area exclusively family sharing time, is important.

 

Does everybody agree that the IEW component is a pretty integral part of TRISMS HM? I'll get it if it is. Is it a really good program? I'll start researching it now.

 

LBS

[asta]

TRISMS is *not* secular.

 

Well, that depends on how you are defining secular. Is it devoid of religion? No. Is it centered around a particular religion? No.

 

The only religion it has is from a historical perspective, and it isn't particular about any one religion.

 

I have used HM, bought DAW (decided not to use it) and am now using Expansion of Civilization.

 

Kid has learned about the the religious practices of the Mayans, Chinese, Japanese, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Christians, Muslims - on and on.

 

It is simply impossible to separate religion from studying the Western Canon. How does one study the middle ages or the renaissance and leave out the influence of the Catholic church? Or Martin Luther? Or the Church of England? I suppose someone could do it, but there would be gaping holes.

 

I will say that, in the "other things you may want to research" section, you will find several religious figures for each section. You can either look them up or not. We've never had the time, and we end up spending two weeks per unit as it is.

 

 

a

[thowell]

We are currently using AWOA and we love it. That being said my oldest using it is dd9. Dd6 only sits in on Bible, lit, history and science. The Grammar portion is pretty involved but my 4th grader is doing it this year. It is designed to be for grades 4-8 but I would have to say you would want to beef it up. The history is good but you will need to add extra resources, books, videos. The science has been light so far but looking ahead into the next unit it seems to pick up. Again this is easy to beef up with extra resources. It is planned out Great! If you have a tight day you can just use the book and know that everything was covered. For the days you have plenty of time add in all the extras. My girls are doing an egyptian dig as I speak. I was worried that the Bible was a little slim but it also seems to be picking up. I have not used the other program.