History for next year... basing off of classical conversations?

[staceyobu]

I wasn't sure if we would like classical conversations this year or not, but we've really enjoyed it so far. I'm considering history choices for next year and would consider basing it off of the history sentences.

 

Here's my dilemma...

 

I LOVE the idea of basing a curriculum off the sentences, but finding library books to correspond with what we are doing always seems trickier than I think. I've tried to do that with the science stuff this year... never can seem to find a decent book for a kindergartner on biomes, the food chain, etc. They are either too old looking, checked out, or it just takes me two hours to find a good one. There is something so satisfyingly easy about pulling a Sonlight book off the shelf... even if it makes CC supplemental instead of a "spine".

 

I've considered trying to find a good history spine to match the CC timeline, like SOTW. But, next year is the last year of the CC rotation, which I'm assuming would put us in SOTW 3 and 4, which would probably be too hard for a first grader, right?

 

Does anyone have advice for this?

[Staceyshoe]

This is our first year in CC, but I think next year is actually American history. We're planning to find an Amer history curriculum that's a good match for us, and I am assuming that the history sentences will correspond nicely. Cycle 2 seems to be the most difficult if you're trying to match your history curriculum with CC.

[SonshineLearner]

I would suggest that yes, if you're doing America History as Cycle 3 is... that you do that... I think that cycle 1 is a great year to have a Geography year..... on one of the times through Cycles... and Cycle 2 for Medieval.... :)

and another time through Cycle one could be Ancient..

:)

[dsmama]

I'm doing CC this year (my first w/CC) and we are doing SOTW2. I just couldn't match up everything, I so I thought that Medieval and Renassiance history would be good.

 

For next year, which is American history, I am looking at either MFW Adventures or Heart of Dakota (Beyond and Bigger are both American history oriented). My oldest will be in 3rd grade then.

 

We'll get world history later -- it would be a lot for a younger child to absorb along with CC.

[Missouri Okie]

I am a CCer with a kindergartner this year. I haven't had too much trouble finding books to correspond with CC cycle 2 science, history or geography this year, but I've been preparing a list for a year. Here's my blog where I list what we've read. If you're a week behind us, maybe you can find some sources there. It ain't much as blogs go but could help since we're in the same boat. I haven't blogged yet for week 5 but will on Monday. A couple of the books we read for week 5 were Joan of Arc the Lily Maid by Margaret Hodges and The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader (excellent for migration, adaption and hibernation). I think the Homeschoolshare site has good activities associated with that book. We also read aloud The Apple and The Arrow, which is a Sonlight kindergarten-level book set in the Alps (we may reread it again when we do Switzerland in geography).

 

Next year, I plan on finding living books that correspond to the history, geography and science memory work. That means somewhat of a departure from SOTW, but I think that books about American history at a first grade level (whether read-alouds or independent reads)will be easy to find.

[Brenda in FL]

For science - try looking for books from the "Let's Read And Find Out About Science" series.

 

The spaceship earth book was all about the natural cycles. There are several astronomy titles in the series.

[Beth in SW WA]

I'm having luck matching our CC history with SOTW 2, OIS chapters and Kingfisher.

 

Next year we will do American with Beautiful Feet to go along with CC.

[Amy in KS]

I did MFW Adventures with a 2nd and Ker for cycle 3. It worked well. I also like The Complete Book of American History. It has a narrative style and is very inexpensive.

[staceyobu]

I did MFW Adventures with a 2nd and Ker for cycle 3. It worked well. I also like The Complete Book of American History. It has a narrative style and is very inexpensive.

 

Hmm... the MFW Adventures might work well for next year. Then we could maybe come back with Core 1 of Sonlight for cycle 1 the next year. I should go to bed before I start the endless cycle of curriculum pros and cons!!

[Hedgehogs4]

Cycle 3 American History is loads of fun. We've been through that before, and there are so many resources to draw from, IMO, you barely need a curriculum.

[AngelBee]

:lurk5:

[dsmama]

I posted earlier about HOD and MFW Adv. I also just learned about this program, which sounds really neat and easy to implement/supplement.

 

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

 

Samples here: http://angela-odellfamily.blogspot.com/search/label/Book%20samples

 

There is also Guesthollow, which had a nice American program as well (free!).

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