Trail Guide to Learning - Paths of Exploration

[Ann@thebeach]

I really thought Winter Promise's Sea and Sky was what I was going to use this year ..... but ....

 

I HAD to read this thread. Then I just HAD to go over to Geomatters and check out Paths of Exploration. It looks great! I like that it has some LA included and notebooking AND geography!

 

Now I'm back to square one AGAIN. WP's Sea&Sky or Trail Guide to Learning?? My brain can't take much more.

 

Same here. I just had to put my own foot down and tell myself "just do it" in regards to S&S! I've had it for 2 yrs waiting for the right ages of my 2 oldest and I've spent the money so I'm just doing it.

 

Honestly, I've really had to commit to use what I have before buying more. I researched it all to death and know they are good programs so have to stop thinking "the grass is greener" KWIM?

 

I'm keeping this new program in mind for the future though since I have 2 youngers. ;)

[Osaubi]

For the people that are already using this program. How long on average does it take you go to through this each day? I read it takes appx 3-4hrs on average is that a good assesment?

 

Does anyone add anything besides math? For example latin, or world history?

 

Thanks I have been on their site every day drooling!:drool5:

[SophiaH]

Ladies,

 

We are also looking closely at this program (convention is tomorrow and GeoMatters will be there!). What would you recommend we do the year before beginning this program?? It is my understanding, after reading through the (awesome) samples, that the target grade is 3rd. My oldest is a rising 2nd grader so we are a year off from beginning something like this! I am drawn to the slower, deeper focus . . . I already feel rushed and I'm only a year into this home school thing!

 

I'm a tiny bit concerned about taking 3 years to study through American history. Is that what we'd be doing?? How does this approach fit into the big picture of studying through most of history with our children (i.e. giving proper weight and time to as much of history as possible)? How are other time periods, countries, cultures, etc. studied along the way, either before, during, or after POE? I am thinking that it may not be a good option for a larger family with a wider span of ages unless it can be done quite independently in the later elementary/middle school grades.

 

:D Just thinking out loud here . . . I'm enjoying this thread.

 

Since you're at your convention today, I'm sure you're getting your questions answered :), but for anyone else who is reading this thread, maybe I can help a little. What have you done with your rising 2nd grader for history? Ancients? I did SOTW 1 and 2 for 1st and 2nd grades respectively, and was looking for something more focused on early American history rather than an early modern "world" history. I think if you want to start POE in 3rd grade, doing the first two years of the four-year history cycle is perfect.

 

TGTL is set up to be 3 years of American history (POE for 3-5, POSettlement for 4-6, POProgress for 5-7--all with one year of wiggle room on either side of the target age), then the next three years will be world history (6-8, 7-9, 8-10) then for high school, Modern American History, Modern World History, and Government/Economics.

 

Join the yahoo group! There's lots of great information there.

 

For the people that are already using this program. How long on average does it take you go to through this each day? I read it takes appx 3-4hrs on average is that a good assesment?

 

Does anyone add anything besides math? For example latin, or world history?

 

Thanks I have been on their site every day drooling!:drool5:

 

This has been talked about some on the yahoo group also. I don't know from my own experience since we haven't started yet, but it looks like people are saying 2.5-3 hours a day is what it takes them not counting read-aloud/discussion or independent reading time.

 

I will be adding math, Latin, supplemental spelling (dd's weak area), and MCT. For fun, we might continue to dabble in a little French and Time Traveler's CDs (Colonial Life). I will also add in lots of additional reading (read-alouds and independent reading) just because that's our family's favorite part of school! But, I always tend to overdo it at the beginning of the year, and then scale back as needed until we find our groove.

[jvenice]

It takes us about 2 hours per day on just the main POE content. We spend more time on the independent reading and read alouds. It was interesting to hear my son talk to my husband on our trip home from vacation the other day. He knew how to read a map, told him what towns we had to pass through to go home, that we needed to head West in this town, North overall, etc. It was great. He did POE for 4th grade and we plan to continue with it every year. The younger students knew quite a bit just from having heard our conversations. They will begin with Columbus this year. We supplement POE with other things besides Math like I said in an earlier post, but that is because I am hyper when it comes to curriculum. Paths of Exploration is excellent in every way and I am delighted to have found it!

[Osaubi]

I noticed that the Christopher Colombus and the Johnny Appleseed look like religous books. How religous are they? Would they be to hard to substitute?

 

Getting ready to order tomorrow. I don't think those 2 books will keep me from ordering, but I would like to be prepared.

 

Thanks

[starwarsmomma]

I noticed that the Christopher Colombus and the Johnny Appleseed look like religous books. How religous are they? Would they be to hard to substitute?

 

Getting ready to order tomorrow. I don't think those 2 books will keep me from ordering, but I would like to be prepared.

 

Thanks

 

 

I have those here. Yes, they are "religious".. I'd almost desribe them as "historical religious"... because it talks about their personal faith, and how it shaped their decisions/actions. They're really good books!

 

Perhaps you can read them first and then decide what is best for your situation? You might be able to make it work?

 

I'd email them and ask for a substitution if that is an issue for you.

[krisperry]

I noticed that the Christopher Colombus and the Johnny Appleseed look like religous books. How religous are they? Would they be to hard to substitute?

 

Getting ready to order tomorrow. I don't think those 2 books will keep me from ordering, but I would like to be prepared.

 

Thanks

 

I'm a secular homeschooler. I find parts of them to be acceptable such as him going to church pn his birthday and hearing the sermon that he heard. Some is a "bit much" and I tend to edit that on the fly. Not hard to do really.

 

I found a couple of the narration passages to be pulled from the more Biblical parts. So I just quickly skimmed and found an alternate passage. Again, super easy.

[Osaubi]

I'm a secular homeschooler. I find parts of them to be acceptable such as him going to church pn his birthday and hearing the sermon that he heard. Some is a "bit much" and I tend to edit that on the fly. Not hard to do really.

 

I found a couple of the narration passages to be pulled from the more Biblical parts. So I just quickly skimmed and found an alternate passage. Again, super easy.

 

 

Thanks that is what I wanted to know. Woo Hoo! So excited to order this. Now I will be checking my mail box everyday! :auto:

[jvenice]

I have those here. Yes, they are "religious".. I'd almost desribe them as "historical religious"... because it talks about their personal faith, and how it shaped their decisions/actions. They're really good books!

 

Perhaps you can read them first and then decide what is best for your situation? You might be able to make it work?

 

I'd email them and ask for a substitution if that is an issue for you.

 

:iagree::iagree:

[mama26]

samples on the website, I guess I'm a little bothered that the Bible seems to be just tacked on as an extra rather than being an integral part of the curriculum.

 

If anyone has an answer or opinion on this, I would appreciate the input. This curriculum looks good to me, other than this concern.

 

Thanks

[Guest aquiverfull]

This looks so good!! I can't quit looking at it.. :D. Although, my 11 year old would fit into POS, we've already covered that time period and she really wants to do Ancient History so we'll be going with TOG YR 1.

 

However, I'm definitely going to keep this is mind for my younger girls. Those of you who have younger children, do you think it's best to start POE in 3rd and POS in 4th grade? If so, what do you plan to do for K-2nd to be ready to start these guides in 3rd grade?

 

Thanks!

[jvenice]

If it fits into your cycle of history, put both of your girls in POE. There are separate assignments for third, fourth, and fifth graders for each lesson. It makes it easy and you will do the same read alouds, etc. for both. If you could do POS, I would make it work. We used Veritas and SOTW for Ancients since it wasn't available yet. Best of luck to you. I hope you have as good of an experience with this as we have. JW

[mommyagain]

This looks so good!! I can't quit looking at it.. :D. Although, my 11 year old would fit into POS, we've already covered that time period and she really wants to do Ancient History so we'll be going with TOG YR 1.

 

However, I'm definitely going to keep this is mind for my younger girls. Those of you who have younger children, do you think it's best to start POE in 3rd and POS in 4th grade? If so, what do you plan to do for K-2nd to be ready to start these guides in 3rd grade?

 

Thanks!

:lol::lol:I KNEW I'd find you here!!:lol::lol:

You could do Galloping the Globe for 1st and 2nd. There's enough there to spread out over 2 yrs.

[Guest aquiverfull]

:lol::lol:I KNEW I'd find you here!!:lol::lol:

You could do Galloping the Globe for 1st and 2nd. There's enough there to spread out over 2 yrs.

 

 

:lol::lol: It's somehow not really that funny. Knowing I've got more choices to add to the confusion....Ok well maybe it is that funny. :D

I just can't stay away from the samples. I was trying to stay out of this thread, but I really love the looks of this program. I am hopeless. ;)

 

As far as what to do for 1st and 2nd, GTG was in my mind, although I never thought about spreading it out over 2 years. I like that idea. I was also thinking about possibly doing WP's Animals and their World, or maybe even MFW Adventures. The only thing with MFW Adventures is that it's also American history. Knowing TGTL is going to be 3 years of American history, I don't know if doing MFW Adventures before doing TGTL would be overkill on American history or not. At least, I have a little while to figure it all out. Hopefully there will be more reviews of TGTL by then as well.

Edited July 12, 2010 by aquiverfull

[mommyagain]

I laugh because we're in the same boat :D!

I'm looking forward to more reviews, also. I was thinking of doing TGTL instead of MFW Adventures. I was going to delay Adventures a year until a had a 2nd grader and a 3rd grader anyway, so they could both also do TGTL. If I do GTG in 2nd, then I could skip ECC also, but I'm not sure whether I want to do that or not. Ahhhhh.........decisions!!! I think the only way I could do everything that interests me is to do something completely different with each kid:lol:!

[Guest aquiverfull]

I laugh because we're in the same boat :D!

I'm looking forward to more reviews, also. I was thinking of doing TGTL instead of MFW Adventures. I was going to delay Adventures a year until a had a 2nd grader and a 3rd grader anyway, so they could both also do TGTL. If I do GTG in 2nd, then I could skip ECC also, but I'm not sure whether I want to do that or not. Ahhhhh.........decisions!!! I think the only way I could do everything that interests me is to do something completely different with each kid:lol:!

 

At least I'm not alone in all my indecisiveness. :lol:

Hmmm.. maybe we can plan this so we can do this program at the same time.:D

 

And don't think I haven't considered doing something different with each kid. :lol: Well not really seriously, but it did cross my mind. :D

[SophiaH]

This looks so good!! I can't quit looking at it.. :D. Although, my 11 year old would fit into POS, we've already covered that time period and she really wants to do Ancient History so we'll be going with TOG YR 1.

 

However, I'm definitely going to keep this is mind for my younger girls. Those of you who have younger children, do you think it's best to start POE in 3rd and POS in 4th grade? If so, what do you plan to do for K-2nd to be ready to start these guides in 3rd grade?

 

Thanks!

 

Hi Kelli,

 

I'm not even going to say anything about you ditching the VP! ;) I know how frustrating all of this can be!!! Well, in any case, it's good to 'see' you again! :)

 

As you know, I did TOG-lite for 1st and 2nd and if you wanted to do TOG Year 1 with dd11 this year, I don't see why you couldn't just tack on the little ones with some recommended picture books and call it good. By doing TOG 1 and 2 over the next two years, you would be leading right into the time period of POE. Then dd11 would be in 8th grade, no? She could then do POE with the middle school supplement if you wanted to keep them together for a year.

 

My ds6 will be doing K/1st work and he will be tagging along a little bit with big sis, while having his own ancient time period read-alouds via the Tanglewood schedule. I had a number of the books already from our TOG ancient year. They will also be listening to SOTW on audiobook--SOTW 1 for brother and SOTW 3 for sis. Although they listen to them all constantly so I don't really have to "assign" audiobooks--they'll hear it at some point. Dd8 loves read alouds so she'll want to listen in to ds6's read aloud period (good review), and Ds6 does whatever dd8 does so he'll get lots of good American history! :) It's all part of my evil plan! :D

[Guest aquiverfull]

Hi Heather! :) Good to talk with you again as well.

 

Yes, we won't even mention VP...lol. ;) And I already printed out all those worksheets. :glare:

Thanks for some examples of how it could work out for my girls. I didn't even realize they had a middle school supplement for TGTL. That's good to know. :) The only problem with TOG is that I'm not sure I want to do those time periods with my little ones. Mostly because of the mythology/false gods,etc. However, as soon as I get TOG unit 1, I'm going to see if I can include them by doing the Bible things and leaving out a lot of the history for them. I'm not sure if that will be possible not having seen TOG. But TOG lite for them, might be the plan.

 

I'm not even sure if TOG will work out. I'm getting cold feet and I haven't even bought it yet. As you know, I had decided against it earlier this year. Since my husband chose this from the samples, I have to at least give it a try. And it will help get it out of my head (since it's something that has been calling to me for a while) if it doesn't work out. As we discussed before, I'm still struggling with breadth vs. depth. I share your feeling that history has been "a mile wide and an inch deep." I think that's why TGTL looks so alluring to me and also why I feel a little scared about TOG. TOG definitely seems to cover a lot. I feel like we need more now that my dd is 11. But TOG might be too much. I think we'll also be trying to do it "lite" for now. I don't think I'd even consider TOG if I only had my little ones. And I'm only getting one unit at first to make sure this is for us.

 

Your evil plan sounds great! :D So you're sorta keeping your kids on their own history cycle? But having them do some things together a little too? I like that. I'm always struggling with planning how they'll each get a perfect history cycle. I know they won't if I keep them together. But it seems like keeping them together will be easier on me. Plus, I also struggle with the whole 4 year cycle as well. I don't know.

 

I'm glad you found something that looks so good. I hope you and your children have a great year with POE. :)

[Cherryanne]

Anyone willing to give an update? I'm wondering how many people have stuck with this program. I just discovered this curriculum today and I'm very intrigued. :)

[mommyagain]

Anyone willing to give an update? I'm wondering how many people have stuck with this program. I just discovered this curriculum today and I'm very intrigued. :)

You might find this thread helpful.:) http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=223479&highlight=Trail+Guide+Learning

[Cherryanne]

Thank you! :)

[Guest aquiverfull]

Anyone willing to give an update? I'm wondering how many people have stuck with this program. I just discovered this curriculum today and I'm very intrigued. :)

 

We started this past fall. We completed the first book (volume 1) but decided not to continue on with Volume 2. I just felt that it moved too slow for us and there were not enough books. We added many more books and during the last unit we sped it up and completed it within 3 weeks. We had to drop some activities to make that happen. I just didn't care to spend 6 weeks on one topic. The second thing I didn't care for was it's unit study approach instead of being strictly chronological.

 

Just a few days ago, I considered picking Volume 2 back up but then as I was looking through it, I decided not too. I really want to have more of a Charlotte Mason education in our homeschool and I realized that POE just doesn't fit that bill. In the second Volume narration is completely stopped and something they call "Reflective Writing" is put in it's place. That is nothing more than answering a set of questions in complete sentences. There were other areas in which I felt that is was not very CM.

 

Ok sorry, that may have been more than you wanted to know. I don't even know if you're interested in a CM education.

 

I believe there are others who started the program and switched to something else, if you search the past threads you should find those posts.

[Cherryanne]

Thank you very Kelli! Your review is really helpful!

[Guest ClarinetMom]

Sorry to revive a dead topic here, but a month into school I am drooling over the Trail Guide catalog wondering why I didn't know about it before and whether or not I could switch to it next year.

 

I am just wondering, though, what it does not cover - I like to spend some time on earlier explorers such as the Vikings, St. Brendan, Magellan, Vasco de Gama, Marco Polo, etc. We also have a collection of D'Aulaire biographies and I don't see those in the book stack.

 

A am curious to know what approach the spelling takes - does it just pull out random words or is it a sequential program based on spelling/phonics rules?

 

I would love to be aware of potential drawbacks before formulating a plan in my mind to transition to it next year!

[Berta]

I'm going to revive this topic because I am very interested in this curriculum for my 8 yr old rising 3rd grader. She loves history and this looks like a good fit for us. Does anyone have any updates to add? Does anyone have the complete set for sale?