Why do you buy history curricula?

[serendipitous journey]

I haven't had -- and don't have, won't have until tomorrow -- time to read the other replies yet, so I hope this isn't too disjunct ...

 

I bought my original history curriculum because I was starting out in Well Trained Mind: that was SOTW.

 

However, I answered "other" because I took the thread title [perhaps too?] literally: I buy curricula, plural, b/c my older child detests history and I want him to like it.

 

So far our best successes have been Ambleside Online's history suggestions for Year 1 esp; Galore Park's Junior History 1; and Connect the Thoughts at the 7-8 year old level.

 

ETA: this thread is ancient! good grief! {chagrin}

[Amy M]

I also thought that SOTW counted as a history curriculum. I thought using any textbook for history is a curriculum, whether it comes from PHP or ABeka; and that doing your own, was just piecing together your own snippets from lots of different resources. I'm certainly not able to do that. I guess there is a difference between simply using a textbook + planning your other outside resources, and using a textbook + all the outside resources already planned out for you. I'm using SOTW with AG this year--so why did I get the AG?

1. It's a cheap price for a wealth of help, not in scheduling, but in resources, such as...
   
2. Narration helps. I had never heard of narration until a couple of years ago, and I wasn't sure how to do it.
   
3. We also use the maps and coloring pages, so the already put-together student sheets are a big help.
   
4. We don't really use the literature lists right now, but I do see that as a big plus. (I could probably do this on my own for one child, though, with all of the lists out there.)
   
5. I was intrigued by the idea of hands-on activities being planned out for me. I am creatively-challenged.
   

 

Next year and beyond, I'm going with MFW. I chose that for several reasons. It is so much more than history; it includes a full Bible and science program integrated with the history, as well as art and music, and I can use it for all of my children. It includes the maps, timelines, and hands-on activities with prep lists for materials. It includes more than just SOTW, which I wanted, but also other spines that I wanted to try, but would have gone nuts trying to schedule right (speaking as a newbie). It integrates church history. The literature lists are a compilation of choices from all of the best lists for different age levels.

 

Basically what most of that is saying, is that it saves me time and gives me the assurance of a great program. I suppose I could try to organize all of that myself, but why would I want to? :) Sounds stressful. Another factor--I'm not in the States. If I had access to a good library and just one child, I might organize it all myself. Trying to do that for 4 children, planning 4 years in advance for the times I'm in the States to buy our personal library is beyond my ken. The side of me that enjoys organization can still go nuts making book lists from our own library to use with MFW, though. ;)

[Hunter]

This is a super old thread and the OP hasn't been here in three years, but I buy history curricula because I'm a curriculum-addict, plain and simple. :D

 

 

:lol: I usually notice when a thread is old. I didn't notice this time when I also posted.

[Walking-Iris]

 

:lol: I usually notice when a thread is old. I didn't notice this time when I also posted.

 

 

Good grief. :leaving: (BTW Hunter I have been going through the Core Knowledge books from the very 1st one to the end (I have up to the 5th grade one) in order, just the history sections, and my oldest is interested in history for the first time ever!!! I think he's healed of his SOTW hate and I may be able to do other things with him now that he sees history as interesting. The spiral way it is written really helps him. I just ignored the "grades" and started at the beginning and began reading. He is really talking and narrating and remembering key details and ideas and ASKING for history. I'm glad I took your advice from all your posts about these books and started using this untouched resource on my shelf.)

[boscopup]

REALLY! :confused1:

 

I'm not trying to be confrontational or negative in any way. It's just that from my experiences it's the norm for lower income moms not to buy history curriculum, and only purchase limited curriculum for the 3Rs.

 

Moms with nontraditional world views and alternative religions feel forced to write and peace together their own curriculum.

 

Some moms just like to write.

 

I don't know. I just...have seen a whole lot of NOT buying history curricula from people that are so anti-unschooling that they are downright rude about it.

 

Am I just so weird, I'm seeing more weird than normal? :lol:

 

:lol: I agree with you Hunter that it's not just unschoolers who don't use a history curriculum. Many who are definitely NOT unschoolers do not use a history curriculum, but they still do history. They may be more child led for history studies, or they put together their own unit studies, etc. And it's not just low income folks. Many folks who could afford a history curriculum still like to put it together themselves.

[briansmama]

I bought the Beautiful Feet Guide for Early American History this year and realized that I was paying for comprehension questions and memory work, in addition to the Booklist. I really only wanted to Booklist so now I use CM Help's free curriculum (Booklist) for history.

 

It really depends on what you want to do with history- do you want activities/maps/comprehension questions all put together for you? Or do you want a great Booklist? I realized that a Booklist was all I needed (though I do use MapTrek for historical maps to go with our literature readings).

[briansmama]

 

 

:lol: I agree with you Hunter that it's not just unschoolers who don't use a history curriculum. Many who are definitely NOT unschoolers do not use a history curriculum, but they still do history. They may be more child led for history studies, or they put together their own unit studies, etc. And it's not just low income folks. Many folks who could afford a history curriculum still like to put it together themselves.

 

 

Very true in our case- we are not unschoolers (we are CM'ers) and I simply don't care for reading comprehension questions and coloring worksheets (neither do my dc). All I need is a quality Booklist, and my dc learn so much narrating from their readings. We certainly don't need to pay for a curriculum for that, even though we budgeted for one. Instead, I use the funds for other fun things, like extra field trips, interesting kits/craft/art supplies, etc.

[swellmomma]

REALLY! :confused1:

 

I'm not trying to be confrontational or negative in any way. It's just that from my experiences it's the norm for lower income moms not to buy history curriculum, and only purchase limited curriculum for the 3Rs.

 

Moms with nontraditional world views and alternative religions feel forced to write and peace together their own curriculum.

 

Some moms just like to write.

 

I don't know. I just...have seen a whole lot of NOT buying history curricula from people that are so anti-unschooling that they are downright rude about it.

 

Am I just so weird, I'm seeing more weird than normal? :lol:

 

My irl experience is that. My irl experience in Alberta is that it is harder to find families that teach history at all let alone with a curriculum. The vast majority of homeschoolers I have ever met are unschoolers, and they don't use any curric at all beyond the occasional walmart math workbook. Any homeschooler I have met that actually teaches history whether with curric or livingbooks etc but who actively teaches it, is definitely not an unschooler. AND because it is Alberta and they got the same public school upbringing I did generally speaking, they also got the shoddy Canadian history instruction growing up I got. SO the Canadian history curriculum is most certainly purchased and used by pretty much any homeschooling Albertan that is not unschooling that I have met irl.

 

As for income brackets, I have been the lowest income of any homeschooler I have met irl too in this province. But that does not come into play because we are given funding for buying homeschool resources.

 

I am sure that there is those that teach by the seat of their pants and put together their own plan using historical fiction or whatever but I have not met them irl teaching Canadian or Albertan history that way. They generally pick up a Donna Ward package or at the very least modern history through canadian eyes which is not a formal curriculum but is a guidebook of what books/chapters to read when based on a chronological study of Canadian history. It is up the user to chose which books to use and get them, it is not a packaged curric in that way. But also do consider it a form of curriculum (much like AO) because the hardest work is done for you which is the actual researching and selecting which books out there are best to use etc. It's just not a boxed curric.

[Hunter]

My irl experience is that. My irl experience in Alberta is that it is harder to find families that teach history at all let alone with a curriculum. The vast majority of homeschoolers I have ever met are unschoolers, and they don't use any curric at all beyond the occasional walmart math workbook.

 

 

Ahhh! I was assuming you were having some type of IRL experience that is completely different than the one I have been having over the past few decades here in the Northeast USA. I've been observing homeschoolers HERE since the early 80s, and many of my e-mail interactions are often with people who live more on the fringe, all over the globe. I attract people from all sorts of alternative lifestyles. :lol:

 

There is a whole world of homeschoolers that don't fall into the norm of Alberta homeschoolers. :lol: TRUST ME! :smilielol5: . I'm not laughing at you! I'm just laughing at the range of people I have known, and delighting in the diversity.

[Hunter]

 

 

Good grief. :leaving: (BTW Hunter I have been going through the Core Knowledge books from the very 1st one to the end (I have up to the 5th grade one) in order, just the history sections, and my oldest is interested in history for the first time ever!!! I think he's healed of his SOTW hate and I may be able to do other things with him now that he sees history as interesting. The spiral way it is written really helps him. I just ignored the "grades" and started at the beginning and began reading. He is really talking and narrating and remembering key details and ideas and ASKING for history. I'm glad I took your advice from all your posts about these books and started using this untouched resource on my shelf.)

 

 

My OCD brain just loves these books. They just make so much sense in a world that feels so unpredictable and large and unnecessarily complicated. I'm so glad your son is liking them.

 

I agree to ignore the grade levels. The original set is all the information we need to know most, set into a sequence that makes sense, but is not lined up with typical public school topics taught in the grade numbers on the covers. The series is meant to be read start to finish.

[hsmom2011]

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