History Help, please!

[3Rivers]

I can't seem to settle on anything for history, and I do this every stinkin' year.

 

The mornings will be filled with:

Bible

Spanish

Language Artsm, including spelling

Handwriting

Math

piano practice

 

To be quite honest, that is a full schedule right there.

I would like to find a history program that does not consume the rest of the day because we also have other extras in there plus outside lessons and sports.

 

I'm thinking about alternating history and science, i.e. 1-2 weeks history, then 1-2 weeks science. I think we can progress better that way and enjoy it more.

 

I want history (and science) to be "reward" subjects where we can get into enjoyable books and maybe a few projects/activities. I have yet to do this, though. :glare:

 

I've looked at MFW and was almost ready to buy it, but I'm not in love with their TM. I might like it better if I could divide out the history, so the weekly grid is too busy for my taste. But it does definitely seem like it would meet the needs of each age group quite well.

 

I've also looked at sonlight and do love their books. My kids remember those stories and tell me how much they love them...but then if I don't do the timelines and mapping (which we always had such trouble getting around to) then their only history is coming primarily from fiction...which....I have reservation about but I'm not sure...plus I wonder if Sonlight could really take us into highschool...

 

 

I've looked at Truthquest but I don't hear a lot of rave reviews about it and it seems more vague than either SL or MFW but I like the idea of a central text that weaves a spiritual perspective in with history.

 

Omnibus seems intimidating and too difficult to blend with the younger kids.

 

Veritas press.....hasn't grabbed me but maybe I need to look again..

 

I want quality books, fun, choices whether to do the crafts or not...and just a history/literature/geog. blend because I'm all set with the other subjects.

 

So tell me...

"THIS SOUNDS JUST LIKE _______________________" (fill in the blank.) :)

[truebluexf]

Winterpromise might be a really nice fit, and it works well across the different age groups.

[Guest]

:bigear:

[Sebastian (a lady)]

We're using Sonlight 6 for Ancients. Core 6 actually goes all the way into the Middle Ages, but I'm stretching it out a bit. It does have good fiction titles, both as readers and read alouds. But it also uses SOTW and one of the Usborne Encyclopedias of World History, so there is non ficton there too.

 

There were about 18 weeks covering the ancients. What we do is do all of the Sonlight weeks for a civilization (Egypt, Greece and Rome) and then take a break from the Sonlight schedule and instead the kids have to research a topic and write about it.

 

Writing was one of our weak areas this year. Started with getting a couple paragraphs on Egypt. They were horrible. Had to be rewritten several times. But we're in our writing segment on Greece right now and I'm getting much better work. We've moved to longer paragraphs. Next week will be compare and contrast papers and then the last one for Greece will be a five paragraph essay. When we hit Rome, I'll be assigning an actual research paper.

 

This has worked great for me. The Sonlight schedule gives me a basic schedule so that I don't get off track and spend four weeks on the social and political ramifications of Vesuvius :lol: and it gives the kids a lot of background knowledge. But the research/writing weeks give the kids a window in which to read about what in the culture interests them. One of the favorite books was this one about biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world.

 

FWIW, I am mostly doing the Sonlight with my 5th and 6th grader. The 2nd grader is a tag along, because his focus is on mastering reading. But he's still getting the read alouds and a lot of the books from the VP catalog that we had from our previous swing through history. But I'm not trying to do a separate core with him (Well actually, I sort of was, but it wasn't adding anything because the civilizations were off just enough that it had my head spinning. So it is easier for me to add books on his level but stay with the pacing that I'm using for the olders than to try to do two different cores.)

 

I should probably also say that we are doing the readings, read alouds (mostly) and Bible reading (but not the Bible extra books). We generally just use the schedule and don't do mapping or timeline (although I'm thinking of starting up timeline). The value I get out of Sonlight is having that schedule done for me, even if I do a few subs to replace books that we've already read or prefer (like Black Ships Before Troy instead of Cooleridge's The Trojan War, just because we have the one and not the other).

Edited May 12, 2010 by Sebastian (a lady)

[3Rivers]

Sebastian, do you use SL Language Arts, too?

[Chloe]

:lurk5:

[JudoMom]

I can't seem to settle on anything for history, and I do this every stinkin' year.

 

The mornings will be filled with:

Bible

Spanish

Language Artsm, including spelling

Handwriting

Math

piano practice

 

To be quite honest, that is a full schedule right there.

I would like to find a history program that does not consume the rest of the day because we also have other extras in there plus outside lessons and sports.

 

I'm thinking about alternating history and science, i.e. 1-2 weeks history, then 1-2 weeks science. I think we can progress better that way and enjoy it more.

 

I want history (and science) to be "reward" subjects where we can get into enjoyable books and maybe a few projects/activities. I have yet to do this, though. :glare:

 

I've looked at MFW and was almost ready to buy it, but I'm not in love with their TM. I might like it better if I could divide out the history, so the weekly grid is too busy for my taste. But it does definitely seem like it would meet the needs of each age group quite well.

 

I've also looked at sonlight and do love their books. My kids remember those stories and tell me how much they love them...but then if I don't do the timelines and mapping (which we always had such trouble getting around to) then their only history is coming primarily from fiction...which....I have reservation about but I'm not sure...plus I wonder if Sonlight could really take us into highschool...

 

 

I've looked at Truthquest but I don't hear a lot of rave reviews about it and it seems more vague than either SL or MFW but I like the idea of a central text that weaves a spiritual perspective in with history.

 

Omnibus seems intimidating and too difficult to blend with the younger kids.

 

Veritas press.....hasn't grabbed me but maybe I need to look again..

 

I want quality books, fun, choices whether to do the crafts or not...and just a history/literature/geog. blend because I'm all set with the other subjects.

 

So tell me...

"THIS SOUNDS JUST LIKE _______________________" (fill in the blank.) :)

 

Biblioplan!

 

I love, love, love Biblioplan. It's a three day a week schedule. You can pick and choose how much to do. It's easy to combine all ages. It uses SOTW, so you can use the activity guide for projects.

[Momof1plustwins]

MOH is easy to do and quite pleasant. We read our lesson, then I have my son tell me 3 things he remembers from the lesson which we write in our memory book. Sometimes we do the suggested activity at the end of the lesson. Then after 3 lessons we make the timeline figures as per the authors instructions and there is usually a map activity.

 

We started out with Sonlight which uses CHOW. This book was way too dry for our taste, so I found a schedule which incorporates MOH into the sonlight schedule and it's great. I also prefer making our own timeline figures with MOH as opposed to using the premade (although prettier) figures. I like how we have to add our own little details to the figs which I think will help them remember better.

[3Rivers]

Biblioplan looks interesting, and very do-able. It looks like a streamlined version of TOG mixed with Sonlight. Hmmm I may have to think about that.

What do you think are the differences between Biblioplan and Sonlight?

 

Re: MOH: I was SO hoping volume 4 would be out for American History but alas....otherwise I am sure I would have been doing that. I am considering MOH for the following year when we start over in the cycle.

I'm wondering if MOH could be combined with Sonlight, either Core 5 or 6...Surely Core 6 but I kinda wanted to do Core 5. Hmmmm we'll see.

[michelle l]

Keep going pleeeaaaase! I'm still undecided on history. :001_rolleyes:

 

:bigear:

 

We're doing SL and even though I like the books I HATE the spines (Core 3), and would love something we wouldn't have to to EVERY DAY. It just sucks up so much of our time.

 

To OP: I think trying to do SL the way you want to do history would put you constantly behind in their schedule. There is a daily grid and a lot of reading, so if you skipped two weeks I think it would be really hard to get it all in. Just my very newbie opinion.

[3Rivers]

Good point, Michelle.

I think the saving grace of that is that my DD is a true bibliovore. When she runs out of books she reads the encyclopedias so she could actually read the entire SL collection in a week or two, maybe less. :tongue_smilie:

 

We may hit a snag with my second child, though. I will probably have to tailor it to him anyway.

 

The nice thing with SL is that I can use it as a menu rather than a strict schedule...if I personally can live with that. hmmmm What is it about Sonlight that keeps drawing me in? Resistance is futile. :lol:

 

Ideally, I think I would want a spine that I like and then Sonlight's amazing books and reading schedule to keep me on track...which I just might do...and back I go into the endless spiral...

 

In my mind I keep telling myself that history should be simple. It's just history..it should be enjoyable...it's just history...it's just history...:tongue_smilie: