Winter Promise American History.... or ??

[DragonflyAcademy]

So, the "What did you think was working but wasn't" thread.. there were several mentions about Winter Promise.. which we are using this year for American History.. I'm doing American Story 1 and American Crossing 1 for 1st and 4th grade.

 

We are 3 weeks in.. the crafts are fun.. the kids like those.. for my 4th grader, it's a lot of independent reading from Time Traveler's CD print outs.. which is OK, but I wonder how much he's getting from them..? He already read 3 of the book study books in a week.. so I'm holding off on starting any more with him until we catch up with what the next selection is.

 

We are skipping the Art study and Character study...

 

I don't think the 50 States is much to do.. aside from reading about a State and doing some map work it seems fairly sparse.. and I had to double up States as only 36 were covered...

 

I added Story of US book 1 to correlate to what he was reading in TT..which asks questions etc..

 

For my first grader, there seems so little.. aside from her listening to me read from some passages..It seems a bit disjointed.. today was Magellan.. but she.. err.. I.. had to read more on the Hopi.. no end of that in sight.. the 3D maps etc are WAY over her ability to complete.. mostly I'm doing them..

 

 

So, I'm wondering if my wonderful American History year is already a bust.. and if so.. how to salvage it...??

 

Is there something else that knits together better for the grades my kids are?

 

 

it's really a shame.. I really wanted to like this program...

Edited September 8, 2010 by ChantyD3

[calandalsmom]

Disjointed seems to be the name of the game with WP.

 

I had better luck when I went horizontal rather than vertical on their schedule. Do you think that would help you?

[DragonflyAcademy]

Umm... I'm not following.. if I go horizontal we read just Time Travelers all week?? or do you mean something else..

[calandalsmom]

yes.

 

I have only used their science, LA and the Animal Worlds. But with Animal Worlds I felt like we'd read a page here and then switch books and just like we were jumping all over the place. So on Monday I might read 2-3 days worth of one selection and Tuesday try to do the same from another selection.

[twoxcell]

I have no experience with WP, but we are doing HOD Beyond this year, and it is going great.

[kokotg]

I gave up on most of the paper crafts pretty early in with WP. We wound up mostly just reading the books, and the next year I put together my own second half of American history, just picking out books I thought the kids would enjoy.

[calandalsmom]

I have no experience with WP, but we are doing HOD Beyond this year, and it is going great.

 

So with a post like this, are you suggesting she bought the wrong thing? Should switch?

 

 

I have heard mostly raves about WP's am hist programs. I think you can make it work for you given some time and fiddling.:)

[DragonflyAcademy]

What is HOD?

[twoxcell]

No I'm not suggesting she switch as that would be up to her. I was just answering her question about what other US history studies would be good for her dd's ages. HOD=Heart of Dakota :001_smile: Bigger could also work.

[crl]

HOD = Heart of Dakota

 

I too had bought WP American Story 1 to use with my 2nd grader. And I too do not care for the paper crafts or the disjointed feeling of the program. For example, today was scheduled to read about 2 explorers in "Explorations and Conquest", then the notebook page was a different explorer and the 3D map was the route of yet another explorer that looks like it would be studied later in the week. In fact today (in week 4) I gave up and packed it into the basement. I'll probably save some of the books since they are nice books. But we'll be switching to either Heart of Dakota or SOTW. Not sure which yet. While that doesn't help you, it does let you know that you aren't alone.

[Homeschooling6]

I liked WP :001_smile: American Story 1 was a good year.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

So, I'm wondering if my wonderful American History year is already a bust.. and if so.. how to salvage it...??

 

Is there something else that knits together better for the grades my kids are?

 

You can knit, I promise! :D When I was dissatisfied with the organization (or lack thereof) of AS1, I scrapped the TG and organized the books myself (and added many, many more). You can use the weekly themes to give yourself some structure. I'm relaxing into the previously petrifying notion that I don't need a program if I just line up a rich selection of books in chronological order. WP does give you some good books to work with and the TT cds are wonderful, although I personally would not rely on them alone for narrative history, as they can be somewhat dry compared to living books that you could find.

 

I always have two historic read-alouds going at a time, a biography and another spine book. I have not found an American history spine for the early years that is perfect for us, so I work on finding a really good spine for each era. We also have baskets of picture books and activity books that correspond to the era we're studying. We do mostly handicrafts and cooking projects in lieu of paper crafts.

 

Disjointed seems to be the name of the game with WP.

 

:iagree:

 

I own AW and AS1 and both felt incredibly disointed to me. After ordering AS1 and looking it over, I felt that it lacked flow but I convinced myself that it couldn't be that bad. So, I pulled out the first week's materials and sat DH down for lessons. We were less than impressed, for the same reasons you named. That's when I decided to scrap the TG.

 

I was personally irritated that such an expensive program would be so disjointed. After all, organization was what I was paying for...someone else to sit with a stack of 30 books making sure that when we were studying the Hopi that we were doing a Hopi craft and reading a Hopi legend, etc. I will not continue to pay for pretty M-F charts which only give the appearance of an organized presentation.

 

I too had bought WP American Story 1 to use with my 2nd grader. And I too do not care for the paper crafts or the disjointed feeling of the program. For example, today was scheduled to read about 2 explorers in "Explorations and Conquest", then the notebook page was a different explorer and the 3D map was the route of yet another explorer that looks like it would be studied later in the week.

 

know that you aren't alone.

 

:iagree: Exactly!!! Exactly my feelings about the schedule!

Edited September 8, 2010 by Alte Veste Academy

[siloam]

AS 1 worked well here. Not perfectly mostly because I had a serious history loving 4th grader who wanted more and it was before they had AC 1 & 2.

 

My kids loved the paper crafts. That said none of them liked the 3D maps, so I dropped them and just pull together my own mapping now and then.

 

We also do the readings vertically, reading from one book at a time, and doing all the readings for the week. Then the next day read a whole week of reading from the next book.

 

The disjointed thing didn't bother me, though. The overlap is typical of unit studies, and trying to coordinate so many different pieces of material. Eventually something gets stuck somewhere just because there is a hole and you have xyz material with no other place to go. You also inherently have overlap in a unit study.

 

I hope you can make it work for you. I don't do WP now because TOG works better in balancing my history loving oldest with the non-history lovers (the other three).

 

Heather

[Jilly]

I liked WP :001_smile: American Story 1 was a good year.

 

:iagree:My twins loved AS1. We did AS2, and they enjoyed that too.

[SnowWhite]

We have done both WinterPromise Amer Story 1 and Amer Story 2 and loved them. We did *not* do all the paper crafts. If you find you need "more" for your first grader, one way to beef it up is to get some of the LA readers (more if you already have those). We really LOVE the LA readers here and if I ever get braver and go schedule free (not there yet!) I will ALWAYS use WP's LA readers. There were also a lot of books in both Amer Story 1 and Amer Story 2 that I would have really hated to miss. Amer Story 1 gets a bit more interesting further in, with the Lewis and Clark resource and Pioneer Sampler. More than Moccasins is a great resource used all year.

 

I guess I must be super laid back because I don't find WP programs to be at all disjointed. Nor do I find them at all lacking in quantity of materials provided, but maybe that's because we always do the LA readers. For older children I can imagine doing the "One book, a whole week's readings" method of using the schedule grid, but for my 2nd and then 3rd grader the small increments (Charlotte Mason style) fit very well.

[DragonflyAcademy]

I started the process of meshing it with some other things tonight..sigh..

[DragonflyAcademy]

I have not found an American history spine for the early years that is perfect for us, so I work on finding a really good spine for each era.

 

 

 

Can you share some of your favorite books and handicrafts or cooking? I spent 8 hours yesterday.. some last night and some the wee hours of this morning when i could not sleep.. revamping History.. keeping many, but not all, the readers, reordering them.. I decided to use History Odyssey as a framework.. it seemed the most cost effective answer, considering how much I'd already spent..

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

Can you share some of your favorite books and handicrafts or cooking? I spent 8 hours yesterday.. some last night and some the wee hours of this morning when i could not sleep.. revamping History.. keeping many, but not all, the readers, reordering them.. I decided to use History Odyssey as a framework.. it seemed the most cost effective answer, considering how much I'd already spent..

 

I will try to do a short list and post it tonight. My long list is ridiculously long.

[mom2fiveboysnc]

Look up guest hollow's website. She tweaked it and eventually wrote her own American History fro

it. Also you can look up Jimmie's blog (sorry I can't provide links right now but both of these ladies had awesome ideas.

[Annie Laurie]

I'm using AS 1 and SL Core 3, we started last spring but took a summer break so we're on week 10 or so right now.

 

I think SL flows better but I actually like WP better at this point in time. I have used SL for a long time, and am just sick of constant historical fiction for some reason this year, and I usually like historical fiction. I like WP's selections for AS 1 a lot and I'm finding the reading load easier.

 

I tend to read the books in blocks instead of following the schedule. Crafts are optional, my kids are old enough to make them themselves.

 

I don't really have anything helpful to suggest, except to not worry about the schedule if it isn't working for you. Use it as a general guideline on how to order the books, but read them in a way that works for you. I only consult the schedule now and then, just to get an idea of what order to put things in and what the current unit is.

 

I think we as adults expect things that make sense to us, we want everything fleshed out and perfectly ordered, and we forget that this is just exposure for young kids. If they learn to like history and become interested in someone or something from history, and are being read to, then I think we're doing pretty good. (I'm talking younger kids here, grammar stage). I say this as someone who loves history but is a terrible history curriculum hopper because I'm never satisfied with history curriculum.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

Can you share some of your favorite books and handicrafts or cooking? I spent 8 hours yesterday.. some last night and some the wee hours of this morning when i could not sleep.. revamping History.. keeping many, but not all, the readers, reordering them.. I decided to use History Odyssey as a framework.. it seemed the most cost effective answer, considering how much I'd already spent..

 

OK, I am taking the coward's way out here as it is getting late and I have put off my own planning for next week. :tongue_smilie:

 

Here is a thread that lists virtually everything I used for my first year of American history last year. (Ironically, it is a thread soliciting book recommendations for the second half of American history. I didn't get quite as much help as I had hoped.) The list seems enormous but remember that I keep my bio and era/theme spine as read-alouds and everything else is in a book basket. For example, for the time we were studying Lewis and Clark, I read aloud daily from The Lewis and Clark Expedition and The Story of Thomas Jefferson. DS7 and DD read a ton on their own and I occasionally pick a gem that they have missed and read it aloud to all. I do like to read at least one picture book on every main theme to my little guy. :001_smile:

 

I don't think I put any handicrafts stuff on that list though. Odd. I am highly allergic to paper crafts but positively adore handicrafts. :D

 

Stuff that worked well for us last year... (and I'll link to my favorite books for these)

 

Native American study - We did the most realistic stuff from More Than Moccasins, including almost all re-enactment type things (story feather, story cloth, kids' games, etc.) and The Golden Book of Indian Crafts and Lore (this book has a Plains focus).

 

Colonial times - embroidery, quilling, knitting (For the Revolution, you can knit socks just like Martha Washington! I will admit not one of us excelled at this particular craft, to put it euphemistically.) :lol:

 

Pioneer times - leather crafts, wood carving, woodworking, pioneer doll quilts, gardening

 

If you hit the pioneers in the spring, you have set yourself up perfectly to start a garden so you can pretend to start out in your new home, even though most pioneers we read about seem to have traveled between spring and fall to avoid harsh winter weather. We also chose a guide specific to our state, although planting something from "back home" or using frost dates from your old home would surely be educational. Failure is always educational, right? :tongue_smilie:

 

If you are very interested in quilting, I would highly recommend American Doll Quilts by the same author as the pioneer quilt book above. It can be downloaded here for considerable savings. A fun thing to do is to have your kids start saving fabric scraps at the beginning of the year and keep back the clothes they are outgrowing. Then you can show them first-hand how the pioneers used and reused what they had.

 

Civil War - We made a lot of food (soldier rations were fun but not really enjoyable). :lol: They really just enjoyed a lot of pretend play for this time period. Next time through we'll combine some science with this, as there was some interesting stuff happening with submarines, the telegraph, morse code, etc.

 

For cooking, I found The American History cookbook. Love, love, love this book! It is dry for kids to look at but a priceless book for authenticity's sake and that's kind of what we're going for here. The U.S. History Cookbook is specifically for kids and will also serve reasonably well but I couldn't resist the first one and use more of those recipes.

 

OK, hope this helps! Once I freed myself from the irritation of not having a "perfect" curriculum delivered in a neat and tidy package, it started to be a lot of fun planning.

[DragonflyAcademy]

thank you!

[mom2fiveboysnc]

here is the link for jimmie's blog. she did extras to add to AS1

http://www.squidoo.com/WPAS1extras

 

and the link for guest hollow (although her booklists are rather intimidating! she has alot of resources but many of them are DVD's. I think most of her stuff she was able to get from her library.

 

http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/americanhistoryindex.html

 

both of these ladies have great ideas.

[sagira]

Thanks for this thread. I was building my own American History program for next year when I noticed that Winter Promise had many of the same books. However, being the planner that I am, I think I'm going to do it my way :001_smile: I also have Mara Pratt's American History Stories (series) to use as spines.