woolybear Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 In part I am considering these. I was hoping to do Middle Ages with my ds next year. He will be in @ 5th grade. Of course, there are so many wonderful programs and the more I look at, the more I want all of them. Many of them use many of the same books, so I am wondering what are the differences in these programs? How would you describe each? What are the emphasis or strengths of the different programs? Could you sum up their "styles"? We have been using Ambleside Year one this year and I had planned to go on to year two. Then I started looking at Winter Promise Quest for the Middle Ages. Then I thought I could combine the two. Then I heard of this and then that and then I checked out something else and anyway, my head is spinning. So, here's the list (and feel free to add any relevant ones I haven't thought of): Ambleside Online Year 2 Living Books Curriculum grade 4 Veritas Press grade 4 Winter Promise Quest for the Middle Ages Tapestry of Grace Can anyone set me straight? thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.love.lucy Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Have you also looked at Heart of Dakota's newest one? Resurrection to Reformation. There's some info on their site but numerous threads about the books that will be included in their forums. It looks awesome for a complete program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
at the beach Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 In part I am considering these. I was hoping to do Middle Ages with my ds next year. He will be in @ 5th grade. Of course, there are so many wonderful programs and the more I look at, the more I want all of them. Many of them use many of the same books, so I am wondering what are the differences in these programs? How would you describe each? What are the emphasis or strengths of the different programs? Could you sum up their "styles"? We have been using Ambleside Year one this year and I had planned to go on to year two. Then I started looking at Winter Promise Quest for the Middle Ages. Then I thought I could combine the two. Then I heard of this and then that and then I checked out something else and anyway, my head is spinning. So, here's the list (and feel free to add any relevant ones I haven't thought of): Ambleside Online Year 2 Living Books Curriculum grade 4 Veritas Press grade 4 Winter Promise Quest for the Middle Ages Tapestry of Grace Can anyone set me straight? thank you If AO Year 1 worked well, I say just move on to year 2. Not that I did that, though. ;) But I do speak from experience at this point. What I have found is that AO is quite manageable. We used it and loved it. It was a delightful time. Our days were not crowded and we did not fall behind. We then tried Sonlight, which is lovely in its own way. However, it seems that AO is more of a lifestyle approach. The focus on fine arts, nature, handicrafts, poetry and reading slowly over a long period of time. These are things I love about AO. The material is rich. In fact, some of the books were too rich. :001_huh: Which is what got me looking elsewhere. Seriously, I think what I should have done is just let some of the books go if we really did not like/get them. My youngest has some learning differences and she just could not get into, for example, Parables of Nature. Instead of slogging through, I should have just subbed something else. We are finishing SL year 1/2. She has enjoyed this, too. She especially loves SL's read alouds and readers. We have not read one read aloud we didn't love. What she doesn't like is Child's History of the World. She just does not relate to it. She related much better to Our Island Story when we did AO. I've been subbing Kings and Things by HE Marshall. IMO AO is just more manageable. SL has that whopping big IG, which is great and all that, but it's just so BIG I don't use it as much as I should other than for the schedule. I would say, overall, there's not much not to like about AO. And it's free. Can't beat that, right? Lots of things look great in catalogs or on the web, but they don't always translate as well into real life. I think with AO, you pretty much do get what you see. It lives up to what it says for me. Have you seen the AO brochure that you can download? It really summarizes to me what you get with CM/AO. So, that's my two cents fwiw. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another Lynn Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Well, I don't know about setting you straight, but here's my .02 Ambleside Online Year 2 - This is one of the AO years we loved best. The only book we didn't was Wind in the Willows - a book we likely would have encountered somewhere along the way, but just personally didn't like. Living Books Curriculum grade 4 - I was looking at this to see if it would work with a variety of ages as we are also looking at Middle Ages next year, but I think I've decided to use AO Yr2 with my youngers and maybe Diana Waring wtih my oldest... but I digress. A cheaper version of this would be LBC Middle Ages Guide if you don't want the whole 4th grade. You can see a sample lesson on their website, and I think a different sample lesson at Rainbow Resource. I think it uses the Synge book as its spine. The last time I tried Synge my oldest was 1st grade and I thought it a bit tough at the time, but you'd be fine with a 5th grader. You can read the Synge book online at Mainlesson.com if you want to sample it first. Veritas Press grade 4 - I've never used VP. I do like their cards. I'm sorry I can't give more of an opinion on what it would be like to use it week to week. I'm more of a pick a spine and march through. I do like to scan their catalog for book picks too! Winter Promise Quest for the Middle Ages - I haven't looked at this in a long time. WP has a reputation for more "hands-on" which would never get done here. If I remember right it uses MOH as a spine - while I like MOH's combo of Bible/Church/Secular history, I didn't care for the writing style (I only tried vol.1). The last time I looked at WP, in general, the books did not seem as "living" to me, especially after AO. But, man, do they put out a great catalog :D Tapestry of Grace - TOG should meet all my needs - great books, great worldview, multi-age, great discussion helps, etc. But I have year 1 on my shelf and just. could. not. do. it. I think going from topic to topic each week (with reading assignments based on that topic) feels like swinging through the history jungle from vine to vine - and the pace seems too fast to me. (I don't even mean how much is read or not - I just mean shifting gears every week). I prefer to march through time reading a (living) spine straight through, adding in living books (biographies, some historical fiction, etc.) in a very plodding way, letting our book selections bring it all to life (AO :001_smile:). That's *my* preference, which, of course, might not be yours.... but if you liked AO year 1, it might be yours after all. :D If you want everything, every day scheduled for you, then take a look at HOD's new RTR. Also, for another CM option, look at SimplyCharlotteMason. Lots of fun choices to think about! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudreyTN Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 We are going to study the same time period next school year. My plan is to use TruthQuest. I don't recall exactly what you were looking for in a program, but this is why I chose TruthQuest. In short: 1. I want subject headings well defined. 2. I want the designated chapters listed from the spines that I want to use. 3. Loose enough to be as deep or as shallow as we choose without feeling guilty. TruthQuest will guide me through all of the spines that I had been considering. Guerber/Miller books, SOTW, Famous Men, and Our Island Story. There's so much flexibility I can do what I want! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mystika1 Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 :001_smile:SimplyCharlotteMason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 15, 2010 Author Share Posted February 15, 2010 Have you also looked at Heart of Dakota's newest one? Resurrection to Reformation. There's some info on their site but numerous threads about the books that will be included in their forums. It looks awesome for a complete program. I'd like to see more about that program. Where can I find more info? On the HOD forums? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 15, 2010 Author Share Posted February 15, 2010 We are going to study the same time period next school year. My plan is to use TruthQuest. I don't recall exactly what you were looking for in a program, but this is why I chose TruthQuest. In short: 1. I want subject headings well defined. 2. I want the designated chapters listed from the spines that I want to use. 3. Loose enough to be as deep or as shallow as we choose without feeling guilty. TruthQuest will guide me through all of the spines that I had been considering. Guerber/Miller books, SOTW, Famous Men, and Our Island Story. There's so much flexibility I can do what I want! I think TruthQuest may be a bit too Christian for us, though I would need to look at it more closely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 15, 2010 Author Share Posted February 15, 2010 :001_smile:SimplyCharlotteMason You know, I don't really like SimplyCharlotteMason and I'm not sure why.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted February 15, 2010 Author Share Posted February 15, 2010 Well, I don't know about setting you straight, but here's my .02 Ambleside Online Year 2 - This is one of the AO years we loved best. The only book we didn't was Wind in the Willows - a book we likely would have encountered somewhere along the way, but just personally didn't like. Living Books Curriculum grade 4 - I was looking at this to see if it would work with a variety of ages as we are also looking at Middle Ages next year, but I think I've decided to use AO Yr2 with my youngers and maybe Diana Waring wtih my oldest... but I digress. A cheaper version of this would be LBC Middle Ages Guide if you don't want the whole 4th grade. You can see a sample lesson on their website, and I think a different sample lesson at Rainbow Resource. I think it uses the Synge book as its spine. The last time I tried Synge my oldest was 1st grade and I thought it a bit tough at the time, but you'd be fine with a 5th grader. You can read the Synge book online at Mainlesson.com if you want to sample it first. Veritas Press grade 4 - I've never used VP. I do like their cards. I'm sorry I can't give more of an opinion on what it would be like to use it week to week. I'm more of a pick a spine and march through. I do like to scan their catalog for book picks too! Winter Promise Quest for the Middle Ages - I haven't looked at this in a long time. WP has a reputation for more "hands-on" which would never get done here. If I remember right it uses MOH as a spine - while I like MOH's combo of Bible/Church/Secular history, I didn't care for the writing style (I only tried vol.1). The last time I looked at WP, in general, the books did not seem as "living" to me, especially after AO. But, man, do they put out a great catalog :D Tapestry of Grace - TOG should meet all my needs - great books, great worldview, multi-age, great discussion helps, etc. But I have year 1 on my shelf and just. could. not. do. it. I think going from topic to topic each week (with reading assignments based on that topic) feels like swinging through the history jungle from vine to vine - and the pace seems too fast to me. (I don't even mean how much is read or not - I just mean shifting gears every week). I prefer to march through time reading a (living) spine straight through, adding in living books (biographies, some historical fiction, etc.) in a very plodding way, letting our book selections bring it all to life (AO :001_smile:). That's *my* preference, which, of course, might not be yours.... but if you liked AO year 1, it might be yours after all. :D If you want everything, every day scheduled for you, then take a look at HOD's new RTR. Also, for another CM option, look at SimplyCharlotteMason. Lots of fun choices to think about! Well, my leaning is to do AO2 and add in books from other programs and some hands on ala Winter Promise. However, at that point, the schedule doesn't really help me any more and I find I really like having the AO schedule to use. I start to get lost and flail about if I'm not using a schedule. Also, I think I will overload us if I'm not careful. All this being said, I still don't have much of a clear idea of what a TOG year is like. What are their strengths? And Living Books Curriculum? I could just follow their booklist. Anybody know what their Instructor's Guides offer? And the same with Veritas Press. I'm just curious. I could of course use all these as booklists and just follow a CM approach. But, ahem, no, I know I need someone's curriculum to follow, at least as a baseline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicoryChick Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 I'd like to see more about that program. Where can I find more info? On the HOD forums? Yes. Go to the HOD Message Board/Main Board and type RTR in the search box! HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted February 15, 2010 Share Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) . Edited September 5, 2023 by SilverMoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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