Independent history programs?

[Alison in KY]

My daughter does better working by herself. She has a difficult time paying attention while I read aloud. I'm thinking about trying a program that she can read and answer questions by herself. We use a few PACES for science and she seems to enjoy them. Are there any other programs like PACES or Lifepacs that you would recommend for history?

[Sweetest]

How old is your daughter?

 

I'm planning on using History Odyssey (Ancients 2) next year with my dd (when she is in 6th grade). It is designed to be used independently at the second level. The first level requires more parental involvement, but it looks like a lot of the work is independent (especially in comparison to Sonlight, which is what I have been using!).

 

You can see samples of HO at Pandia Press

[Alison in KY]

She's just 9.

[Stacey in MA]

So I agree w/ the previous poster. After doing STOW Vol 1-4, for 5th grade history we did history the SWB way - no curric., just the Kingfisher encyclo., timeline notebook, etc., plus reference books and such. It was a HUGE leap from using such a guided curriculum as SOTW. But we made it work for that year. BUT, it was hugely time consuming (and I have 4 kids), so I searchd for something that would help. It was such a relief to discover History Odyssey! It covers history with ALMOST the same philosophy and format as the method SWB outlines in her book! I would say it is a touch lighter, but one can always add to that to make it "thicker", "meatier", or more in depth. Still, the exploration through the encyclopedia, the literature selections, the timeline, the summaries, even the sections of the notebook that you are guided to set up are just about the same as she lists in the WTM! So DS11 is doing Medieval L2 this year and it's going OK. It is still challenging, and still takes some "together-time" here and there, but now I can take a look, summarize what he needs to do, and send him on his way to do it. (It took a month or so for us learn the format clearly first - we worked together for a while.) So now we can ride out History Odyssey through Grade 10 (I believe) without having to learn a new format or style, and with it hopefully remaining reasonably independent. This is a big deal in this house! :-)

 

Anyway.... History Odyssey has three levels and cycles 4 years as in the trivium. Check out their web site to see if you can find what you're looking for:

 

http://www.pandiapress.com/history_odyssey.htm

 

FWIW, I have also been using this Memoria Press Classical Studies series to go along with our History Odyssey. This year we're using "Famous Men of the Middle Ages". The student book is just a text w/ a 2-3 page biographical summary of each of the rulers. Very handy! We do get additional reading from the library, but it's so nice to have all of these guys in one place, right on hand. There's a workbook page that the student can do that goes along w/ the reading, if you choose, but the reading alone is worth it. (I just plug in an MP biography and worksheet on various rulers, leaders, kings, etc., as they fit into the topics we're covering in H.O.):

 

http://www.memoriapress.com/descriptions/index_classical.htm

 

And since we're on medieval, we're also doing the lit. study of Robin Hood and really enjoying that as well:

http://www.memoriapress.com/descriptions/LiteratureGuides.html

 

 

 

GL and HTH!

Regards, Stacey

- Stacey in MA