Which History Program

[OregonNative]

Why did you choose what you did?

[thowell]

This year we chose Truth Quest American History. I wanted the flexibility to pick and chose what books to use and what projects to do. It gives me a great spring board to work from. I will say that next year I may think of switching to something that is more open and go but I haven't decided. My girls love all the reading and projects it is just taking us forever!!!!

Edited October 3, 2010 by thowell
still can't seem to type!

[Researcher]

History Odyssey

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I chose MOH because of the Biblical foundation and chronological order. I also really love the style of the author. I used VP History with my older children (no MOH then) and will be using the cards with MOH as a visual and for additional literature since I already have them.

[Guest lahmeh]

I'm about to order this. It's looks wonderful!

http://queenhomeschool.com/productpages/History/livingworldhistoryframe.html

[kimsclan]

SOTW. Ease of use so we could do all the things I never get to, easy to combine ages and beef it up for olders.

[lisabelle]

I chose History Odyssey. History is one of those subjects where I feel like my knowledge is very scattershot and I wanted to give the ds (11) something really well-organized. HO has a daily checklist of activities; ds can really work very independently, though I do the reading beforehand so we can discuss what he's read and I can ensure he's getting the key points out of his reading. Also, I liked the wide variety of texts used. Not just history texts, but some of the great literature of the time, and fiction set during that time. I spent a fortune--I bought every one of the recommended texts new--but it *feels* like a really well-rounded approach. The activities include mapping, summarizing, outlining, essays and other things.

[MyLittleWonders]

We use History Odyssey - I like that it's secular and uses both the Usborne Encyclopedia and SOTW. I also like that it focuses on map work and dictionary work rather than crafts (I'm not a crafty person ;) ). I do buy the student pages from the SOTW activity book for coloring pages while reading, but we follow the scope & sequence of History Odyssey.

[Whereneverever]

SOTW- it seemed most age appropriate.

[Veritaserum]

We chose SOTW1 because it is secular, inexpensive, and very easy to use. :)

[Roxy Roller]

TOG Year 1(Upper and Lower Grammar) - I love that I can pick and choose what I want to use, and where I want the focus to be each week. The resource lists are huge, so I don't have to go looking for something else. It is preparing me for D and R levels ahead of time, so I won't be lost when the time comes. Most of all, history gets done, the kids are loving it and learning so much.

 

Edited to add: I must also mention that since SOTW is listed as an alternate resource, occasionally I will use it, if I prefer the way it lays out the material.

Edited October 3, 2010 by Roxy Roller

[coffeefreak]

We have tried MOH, VP, Beautiful Feet, Konos, and Sonlight. We are currently using MFW and we love it. I can combine both my kids into one time period, it is all planned out for me, and it is Biblically based. It has hands on activities as well as reading. Add to that the great books they choose (SOTW is one of them), and it's a winner for us.

 

Blessings!

Dorinda

[renabeth]

Using Child's History of the World by Hillyer....Love it! I wish I had done this before. I used Beautiful Feet Early American History last year and the kids liked it and so did I...but I wasn't as sure about their other programs. You might check it out.

Edited October 3, 2010 by renabeth

[In the Rain]

We chose SOTW because a good friend was using and enjoying it.

[sagira]

We chose SOTW1 because it is secular, inexpensive, and very easy to use. :)

 

I agree. I also love the narrative, and ds' imagination has been sparked and History is his favorite subject!

[OregonNative]

This year we chose Truth Quest American History. I wanted the flexibility to pick and chose what books to use and what projects to do. It gives me a great spring board to work from. I will say that next year I may think of switching to something that is more open and go but I haven't decided. My girls love all the reading and projects it is just taking us forever!!!!

 

Do you use it with an add'l spine?

[OregonNative]

Using Child's History of the World by Hillyer....Love it! I wish I had done this before. I used Beautiful Feet Early American History last year and the kids liked it and so did I...but I wasn't as sure about their other programs. You might check it out.

 

I have this book from SL Core 1. How are you using it?

[SnowWhite]

We chose WinterPromise- because I loved the looks of the visually appealing books and the hands on activities. I also loved the way the LA tied in with the history themes. If I ever change programs, we may go to Truthquest in which case I will still use many WP items in our study.

[mom31257]

:lurk5: I'm hoping to find some good recommendations. I have a ds that will be 3rd next year. and we could start the history cycle again. He did Ancients with MOH 1 while in Kindergarten. I chose it because it was recommended if you have a wide age range of kids. I used Usborne IL World history to cover the rest of the major events in world history during his 1st grade year. I'm putting together his American history study this year.

[Denise Allen]

SOTW for younger grades. LOVED it! The book made my kids love history and want to learn more. The oldest two are 13 & 11 now. We loved the activity pack and the weekly maps. They learned & have remembered so much geography. We tried MOH and just didn't like it. Didn't think it said much. There were some interesting things throughout, but I thought it was not nearly enough to use alone.

[KrissiK]

I chose SOTW. It's great for my age kids, the stories are interesting, it's very easy to use.

[Maverick_Mom]

We are using Sonlight Core 6 this year. This is our second go-round with ancient history; having used SL Core 3 (American History, part 1) a few years ago, I thought we would enjoy using SL again. I also liked the fact that it uses SOTW.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as I'd hoped. When we did ancient history before, we used Biblioplan (which also uses SOTW) and supplemented with some additional fiction and nonfiction. Then for the Middle Ages/Renaissance, we used SOTW plus as many of the recommended titles as we could find (which was a lot). That was probably the best year ever. What I'm missing with SL is all those other titles (the ones recommended in the SOTW Ancients Activity Guide), which honestly we just don't have time to read this year. I guess that's not really a problem with SL, per se -- it's just that SL is very full and doesn't lend itself (at least here) to much supplementing as SOTW did.

 

I think that if I've learned anything from this, it's that I prefer to use a greater number and variety of shorter books than fewer works that are longer.

[mystika1]

I beat myself up searching for a history curriculum. I read tons of reviews and just went crazy searching threads for ideas.

I chose SOTW

I really like SOTW because it is really easy to use, inexpensive(I did get the AG), engaging and the activities in the guide are really fun for my dd. I also wanted something doable. I like reading from 1 book not a little chapter from one book then another from a different book and then yet another.(yada, yada) It is history that gets done and not pushed aside. I get overwhelmed easily and needed something simple and effective. I have never been an Usborne Books fan as they seem comic book like or too busy looking for me. I know lots of people who like that but it doesn't work for us. A lot of people say that SOTW is secular but it does have some bible references in it. It is not heavy on bible though. This was done on purpose as it suits both secular and non secular families.

 

I came very close to getting MOH instead but put the sample chapters side by side, and showed m husband. After reading the chapters aloud we knew right away that SOTW was written in a way that would grab my dd's attention. MOH seemed more to fit an older child. Maybe you could print out samples like we did and see which one would fit better.:001_smile:

 

HTH,

 

Penny

[Closeacademy]

In K/1st we started with SOTW and it was good/iffy sometimes. Then we tried TOG and burned out. We went back to SOTW but didn't care for all the death and war. We wanted something that was about the building up of society not just all about the wars.

 

So I decided to dive into Oak Meadow. This was the best decision ever. My 2nd grader is doing social studies but she loves it. My 5th grader is having fun with American history and looking forward to doing the ancients in the spring with OM6.

 

4-year, chronological history did not work here.:001_smile:

[mommyto4]

I love the CD -- I don't have to read it to the kids; we can listen together! I also like the activities, maps... it's all there.

And it works for my first grader and third grader.

[Researcher]

We use History Odyssey - I like that it's secular and uses both the Usborne Encyclopedia and SOTW. I also like that it focuses on map work and dictionary work rather than crafts (I'm not a crafty person ;) ). I do buy the student pages from the SOTW activity book for coloring pages while reading, but we follow the scope & sequence of History Odyssey.

 

 

This sounds very similar to why we use HO instead of SOTW. We do sometimes use the coloring pages from SOTW AG, but only when it is of interest to DS. He prefers the dictionary work & maps in HO.

 

The only thing I don't care for in HO is that it is not in purely chronological order. It seems to use geographical then chronological order. I'm about to change this by lining up the HO lessons in a different sequence. I don't know that it bothers DS but it drives me batty!

[ScoutTN]

We are going to use SOTW along with the VP cards and memory songs.

SOTW seemed best for younger ones. We are supplementing to add in more biblical history.

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[Verity]

We use History Odyssey - I like that it's secular and uses both the Usborne Encyclopedia and SOTW. I also like that it focuses on map work and dictionary work rather than crafts (I'm not a crafty person ;) ). I do buy the student pages from the SOTW activity book for coloring pages while reading, but we follow the scope & sequence of History Odyssey.

 

Ditto. We are religious but I've found that I prefer more secular curriculum, I do the religious connections and teaching here. History Odyssey is great for pick and choose but easy and uses SotW and at higher levels Kingfisher History Encyclopedia.

Good luck with your choice!

[patchfire]

I chose Story of the World primarily because of its simplicity. I want my children to enjoy history and to have an excellent exposure to it, but I did not want history to 'take over,' especially in the early elementary years.

 

I chose it a second time because of its ease of use, the narrative voice, and that it makes it possible and even somewhat easy to build skills along with the content. :)

[Capt_Uhura]

I chose SOTW1 for my 2nd grader. It's easy to implement with the freebie workbook I have.

 

For my 5th grader, I chose History Odyssey. I think it will help us w/ transitioning to a WTM-style history. we are using K12 HO as a spine along w/ it's teacher/student pages for writing assignments etc.

[Classically Minded]

We love Story of the World!! :lol:

[TKDmom]

I chose SL, because I needed something that was all scheduled out, and I liked having all the books on my shelf ready to go. When we first started homeschooling, we used SOTW, but it was too hard on me to go to the library for add'l books (I was pregnant and any extra work was too hard).

 

While I love SL, I am starting to want more freedom to design my own studies, so I'll be going back to SOTW for my youngers next year, and incorporate SL books along with anything else that looks interesting.

[MyLittleWonders]

This sounds very similar to why we use HO instead of SOTW. We do sometimes use the coloring pages from SOTW AG, but only when it is of interest to DS. He prefers the dictionary work & maps in HO.

 

The only thing I don't care for in HO is that it is not in purely chronological order. It seems to use geographical then chronological order. I'm about to change this by lining up the HO lessons in a different sequence. I don't know that it bothers DS but it drives me batty!

 

The not-quite-chronological flow of HO is the only thing that has bugged me too. I debated changing the order of the lessons so it followed the chapter order of SOTW but then burned out and decided to just stick with it as written. But I do wish it went chronologically (I know why it doesn't so maybe I wish the Usborne Encyclopedia was written chronologically ;) ).

[JennW in SoCal]

Ummmm. Never used a history program. Story of the World didn't come out until my kids were older, and I've never liked most prepackaged curricula.

 

Instead we read all kinds of books. In the elementary years we read Mythology and origin stories from around the world, children's versions of Gilgamesh, The Iliad and Odyssey and of some Asian epics. We read lots of historical fiction, some from the Sonlight list, but mostly just books I found in the library or by searching the internet. We did crafts and projects, we did games, I printed out maps, and we watched some terrific documentaries. We went to museums and to reenactments.

 

Middle school and high school were in essence the same thing, just on a progressively more advanced level. More reading, more map work with the addition of research topics and essays. We had Kingfisher on the shelf, and referred to it along with other history encyclopedias. I really like the Great Books approach for history in high school, as described in the WTM. I've chosen a mix of great and pretty darn good books, and the course counts for both history AND literature.

 

The best thing about paving your own path through history is that you can make it as rigorous, as secular or religious as you want.

[Guest]

Here's another vote for "none." I have an Aspie whose tolerance for history was, when she was younger, pretty well confined to historical fiction, activities, maps, and field trips; so that's what we did.

 

I was astonished at the high quality of the books we discovered. For example, there's a series called The Lady Grace diaries based on the Elizabethan era, and the social history in it is so well-researched that my dd learned, at about age eight or nine, things I didn't encounter until grad school. There's nothing finer written about US history than Johnny Tremain (the author used "leftover" material from her research for an adult book on Paul Revere).

 

One year history came from the American Girl books. We read the short fiction and historical mysteries, cooked from (now out of print) books with recipes from the time period, did crafts from a book that centered on each girl (also out of print, but still floating around on the internet), had a party for dd's dolls, acted out scenes from the books, and went on associated field trips. I still remember the dolls, faces painted with crayon, throwing tea over a model wooden sailboat for the Boston Tea Party. We then researched all the other tea parties that happened up and down the coast, musing on why only the Boston party became infamous (savvy media relations on the Bostoners' part).

 

Much of our history was planned in this fashion; but a lot of it -- more than most people would perhaps feel comfortable with -- came from material dd encountered unexpectedly in regular old books she was reading for fun and became curious about. We would track down information about what caught her eye, sometimes just a paragraph or two and sometimes weeks' worth of primary source materials, photographs, documentaries, and artifacts. Some of this was conventional political history, but much of it was cultural, economic, artistic, technological, or somehow outside the mainstream of what a textbook or program would cover. Ironically, through this material dd probably discovered much more about the nature of ruling, warfare, and empire than she would have through a standard history book.

 

It is absolutely stunning to me how much was learned -- learned thoroughly, remembered, slotted into a mental timeline, combined with other information -- over the years.

Edited October 4, 2010 by Guest

[TechWife]

We use History Odyssey! Love it, love it, love it! We were using SL, but the program lacked in depth, the Christian content was sparse and the IG's were pitiful. After I read the most recent edition of TWTM, I was planning how & what to add to SL to make it fit our needs and a friend showed me History Odyssey. It had everything I was thinking of adding to SL and none of what I was thinking of dropping from SL.

 

I use some of the Christian resources from MFW and AO to round out the program. It is much easier to add the Christian content that I want to cover to this secular program than it is to modify SL.

[robsiew]

We are using SOTW now and love it. History is one of our favorite subjects. It's simple and everything gets done here... reading, narration, map work and even projects every 1-2 weeks.

 

I am considering TOG, just not sure when to start it. We are in SOTW2 right now. I would like to use TOG for logic stage, but I think it's more than what we need right now in grammar. I would switch to include more bible and I love the teacher notes in TOG. I think it would help guide me through logic and rhetoric well.

[Guest]

I've decided to save SOTW until my children are a little older. Out of the choices you listed, I think I would go with MOH for younger children, but I have never tried it.

 

We are using A Beka for my 4th grader, and CLP and R&S for my 2nd grader this year. Next year, my oldest will continue with A Beka, and my dd will use either R&S or CLE.

 

I will eventually fit SOTW in there somewhere... just not sure where and when.

[NCJessieRN]

We use My Father's World and LOVE it! I know in year 2 of the history cycle they use SOTW.

[Julie]

My Fathers World, I like the book selection and the fact that my student will have read the entire Bible cover to cover 3 times before graduation.

[Jami]

I put us in the "Other" category. :) It's possible "history program" is too formal a term for what we've done so far.

 

We listen to the SOTW audiobooks, we read from Ambleside's list for biographies and narrative history books, I use Veritas Press cards to give the kids a general outline for events that we're reading about. We also read from Child's History of the World and the Withrow History Lives Church history books. Basically I choose what period we're in, this year it's the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation and then gather the books that I think will best bring that period alive. But I want books that are excellent literature in their own right, not just because they fit into a historical period. I don't make everything line up neatly, the kids do a great job of connecting dots on their own.

[Mommamia]

I'm about to order this. It's looks wonderful!

http://queenhomeschool.com/productpages/History/livingworldhistoryframe.html

 

It is!

[Mandy in TN]

I have used SOTW1 (elementary child), Kingfisher (lower middle school child), Walch's World History 1 (upper middle school or lower high school as a spine with other lit) , and Omnibus (jr/sr high) to cover ancients.

 

We tried MOH2 and found it to be dry as toast. The writing just wasn't as engaging as SOTW. It wasn't as straight forward as Kingfisher. The built-in review and work wasn't as effective as Walch. It wasn't as indepth as Omnibus.

 

The only reason I can think of to choose MOH over the others is the Biblical timeline/ worldview may would make it a good choice for some families with fifth to eight graders.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[MerryAtHope]

I chose MOH because of the Biblical foundation and chronological order. I also really love the style of the author.

 

This, and I like the activities, quizzes, challenge cards, timeline activities etc... all laid out for different ages that we can pick and choose from.

 

I do supplement with books from SL and other places, but MOH is our spine & we really enjoy it.

 

Merry :-)

[Hannah]

We've just started a second rotation using SOTW. I'm beefing it up with suggestions from WTM for my 5th grader (additional reading, Kingfisher, etc).

 

We have a history club once a week with 2 other families. The moms take turns in preparing the activities. We've been doing this for more than 4 years now and it works very well. The only drawback is that we take more than a year to finish a book because of interruptions in other's schedules. The positives for me are that we all go to a lot of trouble to prepare the activities and as each mom has different craft skills the children benefit from well prepared and varied lessons. I would not be as consistent in doing the activities just for my own children. They also get to work in a group and look forward to the social time.

 

We do mapwork and memory work at home and we have a timeline on the wall. These are available at the file sections of this yahoo group.

 

We listen to the SOTW CD's in the car in addition to the reading and that adds to the experience.

For my oldest, I've found many of the recommended books from WTM on CD and we listen to those in the car also.

 

ETA: I didn't really say why I like SOTW! I like the story format, its very easy to use (especially with the additional CD's and AG), my children love the activities and its easy to beef up for an older student.

Edited October 5, 2010 by Hannah

[kalphs]

Introduction to World History: A Child's History of the World

Why: Dd loved the way V.M. Hillyer presents the material in story format. Plus at the time Calvert published an interactive book on cd-rom which was great!

 

World Geography/Cultures: Galloping the Globe

A well rounded curriculum which was thorougly enjoyable for our entire family.

 

US History: Beautiful Feet Early American History Primary and Intermediate

American Girl

Dh chose BF because he loves the layout/scope and sequence. Dd loves it because of the book selection.

Dd and I chose to do the American Girl series because it allows you to explore the history/culture of the time period through the eyes of a girl.

Edited October 5, 2010 by kalphs

[kewb]

We use History Odyssey - I like that it's secular and uses both the Usborne Encyclopedia and SOTW. I also like that it focuses on map work and dictionary work rather than crafts (I'm not a crafty person ;) ).

 

Same here. I also like the thorough book lists and the fact that my oldest can do the program fairly independently.

[Amy in KS]

Other. I've used SL, MFW, and SOTW. I'm currently using the self-paced Veritas Press online course. I can't tell you how much it has helped our homeschool. It's thorough, presents the info in an interesting manner, does a good job of reviewing previous work (cumulative, rather than just a topic a week), I don't have to plan it, and my daughter LOVES it. It's pricey, but worth it!

[Ellie]

KONOS. I love the focus on godly character traits, and that everything except English and math skills is centered on those character traits--responsibility, wisdom, courage, inquisitiveness, obedience, and the rest.