Jen+4DC

[Capt_Uhura]

Hi Jen! In another thread you talked about combining HO Ancients and SOTW1 and that worked for you and that next year you'll use SOTW and K12 Human Odyssey and follow WTM recs. I just wanted to see if you wanted to elaborate any further on how things went this year and why you're switching next year. I'm on the same road as you but I'm a few car lengths behind. :lol: or perhaps a few miles behind you.

 

I'm expecting my K12 Human Odyssey book next week. My boys are studying Ancient India in an outside class. I've done up to Ancient China previously w/ my 4th grader (then 3rd grader) but then this year started HSing my 1st grader so I decided to get them together on history and my 4th grader said he didn't mind doing the first part of Ancients again. So my current plan is to do SOTW1+Ag+(and trying Ancient Explorations written by posters here) on the History Odyssey level 2 Ancients schedule. I figure if that works well, I might be ready to go ala WTM on my own but History Odyssey seemed like a good way to get our feet wet w/ keeping a history notebook. I am substituting Human Odyssey for Story of Mankind.

 

Not sure what my question is but I'm happy to read anything you can add.

 

Capt_uhura

[Capt_Uhura]

bump

[Jen+4dc]

Capt_Uhra, Happy Easter! I'd be glad to respond to this but we are out the door right now.....just wanted to let you know I finally saw it and I'll write back later today!:D

[Capt_Uhura]

OK! Something else to ponder. I got a cheap, appears to have been in a fire, student pages for K12 Human Odyssey. For the price ($5?) I'll definitely get use out of it! Sometimes I think I make things too difficult. :001_huh:

 

Capt_Uhura

[Jen+4dc]

I'm not sure exactly what you want to hear:confused:. I was so surprised this morning to see my name on a thread;).

 

Anyway, I'm happy to tell you what we've done this year. I also have a schedule on my computer that I'd be happy to send you if you pm me your email address (I don't know how to do attachments through the pm system).

 

So, at the beginning of the year I bought HO level 1 & 2 planning to use those then discovered that they didn't line up chronologically. So, I spent some time lining the lessons up. I matched the level 1 lessons to the level 2 lessons, following the chronology of level 2. It didn't take me long to decide I didn't like level 1 and I basically dropped it. I used the books I had purchased for it (like Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors, etc). I found it was easier to just look through the SOTW chapters and AG (which I already owned) and line it up to go with HO Level 2. Since this is my olders first exposure to Ancients (they both started in ps) I decided to have them sit in on SOTW with ds7. Dd4 sits in just because she wants to.:)

 

Lining up SOTW with HO Level 2 has worked for the most part. What I have done is to begin our history lessons with all 4 dc and first we read the SOTW chapter (or chapter portion) then do the narration questions orally. I give dd4 the first chance to answer then ds7 (SOTW is really for him). Then, I send the olders off to do their HO lesson while ds7 gives me a narration for the SOTW section which I write down for him (he writes in other subjects...).

 

(This applies to me and my situation only, I'm not trying to bash any curriculum or tell anyone what to do! You asked what I do and why so......use what you like and discard the rest).

 

I learned a couple of things this year:

 

1) I'm just not that impressed with History Odyssey. It seems like I spent money to have someone write out the recommendations from WTM and apply them to individual page spreads in KFH and align them by geographic area rather than chronologically. I can do that myself.

 

2) HO give the kids assignments ("include this in your timeline section, write a 1 level outline on these pages and file in your summaries section, take a trip to the library and research Alexander the Great and write a report about him for your men & women section," etc. etc.) But, there's no real instruction on HOW to do the assignments.:001_huh: There's no answer key for the teacher and no examples of what an outline should look like or what a biographical report should look like. This has been hard to teach from.

 

3) The lessons on the literature selections say something like this: "Begin reading Greek Myths today. Try and read 2 chapters a day until you're done. Be sure to put your summaries in the religion/mythology section of your binder." :eek: There's no reading comprehension questions, no discussion questions, nothing. What, exactly, are they supposed to be learning by this assignment?? And, do they wait until they have finished this book before moving on to the next assignment?:confused1:

 

4) I really do enjoy planning history. I've tweaked all year and added in a lot (the literature suggestions in HO were good but there weren't nearly enough, imho). But, I think regardless of what I buy (I used SL core 3 and then core 4 the first two year I hsed and I added in literature to that!) I will still tweak and add to, that's just the kind of teacher I am and I can't help myself:tongue_smilie:.

 

5) The kids seem to do okay understanding going from region to region rather than chronologically, but I think I would prefer a chronological approach.

 

So, I think I'm going to spend the summer lining up K12's Human Odyssey (which I really like) with SOTW Middle Ages using WTM recommendations for literature. Next year we'll do that with IEW Medieval Based writing lessons (we've been doing SWI B this year) and writing assignments based on SWB's writing lectures. (Man I wish she'd just come out with the logic stage writing program already!) I think I'm going to try to mesh literature/writing/history all together next year and see if I can't get the kids doing more writing that relates to their literature and history and take less time overall because writing is a "seperate" subject, kwim?

 

Let me know if I can answer any more questions or if you want my schedule line-up of SOTW chapters and KFH pages with the HO level 2 Ancients lessons (no use reinventing the wheel, it took a long time!).

 

Okay, I really hope these ramblings were in some way useful to you!! Ancients has been a lot of fun this year, we are going to spend this week doing a couple projects on Greece and finishing up reading about it in the K12 book and then it's off to Rome!:D

Edited April 5, 2010 by Jen+4dc

[Capt_Uhura]

Jen - for not knowing what I was asking, you did an excellent job! :001_smile: I need time to reflect on your post and will respond later.

 

quick comments:

 

Your point 1) - yep I get that. I thought HO would be a good way to get my feet wet with WTM style history which I like the sound of but sounds daunting. Things are hectic right now and a do the next thing is more likely to get done. :001_smile:

 

Your point 2) - I've read that from others and I recall reading at Pandia Press they are coming out with a teacher manual to help w/ outlining etc.

 

your point 4) I enjoy planning history....but I seem to be stuck in the planning phase. :001_huh:

 

more later....

Edited April 5, 2010 by Capt_Uhura

[Jen+4dc]

Jen - for not knowing what I was asking, you did an excellent job! :001_smile: I need time to reflect on your post and will respond later.

 

quick comments:

 

Your point 1) - yep I get that. I thought HO would be a good way to get my feet wet with WTM style history which I like the sound of but sounds daunting. Things are hectic right now and a do the next thing is more likely to get done. :001_smile:

 

Your point 2) - I've read that from others and I recall reading at Pandia Press they are coming out with a teacher manual to help w/ outlining etc.

 

your point 4) I enjoy planning history....but I seem to be stuck in the planning phase. :001_huh:

 

more later....

 

Your #1 - that's exactly why I tried HO! Now I feel much more confident that I could actually do it, and do it well (or at least well enough!:tongue_smilie:)

 

Your #2 - Wow, that would really help me! I would probably buy it for next year if they had a decent teacher's manual. This year I've felt like if I'm going to keep referring back to WTM for instructions on outlining and literature suggestions/questions and such, why bother buying a program? Although, HO has helped to actually get.it.done. by having something already laid out for me.

 

Your #4 - I think I sometimes enjoy the planning more than the doing;). I'm hoping if I get all the planning done over the summer then next year I can sit back and enjoy history with my kids. We all love reading aloud and discussing. Plus, if I made it, instead of paying good money for it, then I feel better about skipping or hurrying through or slowing down as family needs and dc interest-level dictates.

 

Another thing I realized this year about me and my teaching style: I just like workbooks for certain things. I just don't care enough about vocab or spelling to spend a ton of time planning it. So, we'll be switching to more workbooky "do-the-next-thing" stuff for LA and math (which I hate teaching!) so I can concentrate my effort on the things I enjoy and things where the kids are really struggling instead of planning out every subject for every kid. It's all well and good to find just the right program to fit each dc's learning style, but realistically, I'll be schooling 4 next year and if it doesn't work for mom's teaching style, it just isn't going to work for our family.:rolleyes:

 

Okay, enough random thoughts.:D

 

HTH

[Jen+4dc]

:lurk5:

Have been considering a similar plan with HO middle ages level 2 and SOTW next year, but not sure we'd like HO. This is helpful.

 

Pandia Press has a big chunk of the lessons available as a free try-before-you-buy on their website of the all HO levels. (Just in case you haven't seen these!) Most people I've read on these boards really like HO Level 2 Middle Ages.

[Capt_Uhura]

jen, I just read your siggyy......oh man!!!!! I'm struggling with a DS9, DS7 and a DD3! You have FOUR to HS next year. WOW!

 

you see, last year (my 1st year HSing my then 3rd grader after a rough PS experience) was tough and I really needed the summer to decompress. Plus I was denial about pulling my then Ker out as well and having two to HS plus a toddler. THIS summer, after a much better year (but house is on the market and may be having a house built and therefore a move in the summer) I'd like to spend PLANNING so I can spend the school year actually DOING rather than planning as I am now and having us completely and utterly stalled on history. Plus I tend to bite off more than I can chew and then choke on it. We are required to do Am. Hist every year but no world history. So in my HSing plans, I stupidly scheduled both. 3rd quarter is over and I haven't even touched American history (well I did a bit but not to the depth I wanted). The boys are taking an outside course on Ancient India (DS9 did Ancient Greece last Fall) so at least something is being done.

 

Anyhow, my thoughts are that DS9 needs more challenge. He loves history and science. I want to increase his critical thinking in history. I love the K12 Human Odyssey book. I've read my friend's copy and mine will be delivered on Wednesday. I purchased 5 weeks ago, had 1 order canceled, then the 2nd order never arrived and is now in claim's division at half.com. So that has set us back a month since I want to use that as our spine.

 

I am doing the Try before you buy History Odyssey. I just got quite used copies of Human Odyssey Teacher and Student pages. I'm actually thinking that w/ HO and WTM 2009 edition might be all I need. I would have to sit down and write my own plans. I. need. plans. No plans? Doesn't get done. It's been so crazy around here for months that I don't even have time for my Sunday night planning. That's when things got done. I've been battling health issues....unexplained fatigue coupled w/ explained fatigue (chronic anemia).....anyhow.....

 

jen you have helped me IMMENSELY. please keep those random thoughts coming as they are helping me to formulate my thoughts. I'll re-read this thread tomorrow.

 

THANK YOU sincerely!

Capt_Uhura