SOTW versus Guerber books

[ahancock]

We are going to be entering the middle ages year of our history cycle next semester and I was wondering if anyone could give me a comparison of SOTW 2 versus The Story of the Middle Ages from Nothing New Press. We started out in SOTW 1 and liked it, but there were some things that got me away from using it. It jumped around a lot, and we switched to using Guerber's books. It seems to flow much better, but I wonder if my 7 year old boy will stay interested in the reading. SOTW is definitely geared towards younger kids. Anyway, I really need input here. I am definitely looking for a narrative history. I don't do well with programs like WP that tell you to: turn to this page in this book and read these 2 pages, then get this book and read this, then get this book, etc. All the books are way too much I, and it all becomes so disjointed to me, which is why I didn't like MFW. I have started several threads concerning the Guerber books and never get any input. Maybe not that many people have used them I am thinking. Sorry about the rambling, but opinions are desperately needed!!

[Cleopatra]

Well, I can at least attempt to help ...... :001_smile:

 

We used SOTW for grades 2-5 and have moved to the Guerber books for our second history rotation. Everything you said in your post is right: the SOTW books tend to jump around but with the Guerber books, the narrative flows more easily from one story to the next and there are references to people/places from previous stories, which also helps the flow.

 

I found in the earlier years, the understanding is not always there to piece it all together so SOTW seemed to work fine, even though it sometimes seemed disjointed (it bothered me more than my dd). I like using the Guerber books now that my dd is older because it's easy for her to summarize a story; I don't think this would have been the case when she was younger, and again, in this area, SOTW worked well since the stories are simpler. I always skipped the questions in SOTW and got books/novels which linked up to what we were studying and that REALLY seemed to cement the information.

 

I would go with whatever interests your ds most. At his age you just want to get him familiar with history and certain happening and dates. It's in the logic stage where they really start to put it all together.

 

HTH a little!

[Julie in MN]

I have started several threads concerning the Guerber books and never get any input. Maybe not that many people have used them I am thinking. Sorry about the rambling, but opinions are desperately needed!!

 

I am a MFW fan, so we probably don't choose the same things. I wouldn't answer except you're not getting much response.

 

I've had a couple of Guerber books. I haven't used them because:

 

1. As I read them, they seemed to cover very limited amounts of information, with coverage of several random stories about history. Nice stories, but I found myself thinking, "What about..."

2. You would need to cover several books every year in order to get through the entire history cycle in a reasonable amount of time. Plus you would need to fill in lots of gaps.

3. There is nothing close to modern history, and anything past middle ages is only about the USA.

4. I'm just not a person who likes textbooky-type reading, where the author is telling me her opinion of history and her interpretation of it. Well, especially in the young years when the author isn't expected to give supporting evidence or quote her sources.

5. To me, they would be nice extra stories, but didn't mesh to me because the tone and coverage seemed for very young children yet some of the content (constitution etc) seemed for a bit older children.

 

Maybe these are the very reasons that you will *love* Guerber! What I'd do is just buy one and read it for myself.

Julie

[Annabel Lee]

I'd use both! SOTW is lighter reading and takes less time, and you could align the topics from Guerbur as additional reading. Or do it the other way around; make Guerbur the main lesson & find the matching topic in SOTW for extra reading. Schedules to do this can be found under Paula's Archives at redshift.com. Sorry if that's no help.

 

In case you don't already know, & in case you haven't seen The Story of the Middle Ages to help compare, the old original Guerbur books are free online at Project Gutenburg. If it has to be either/or, which does your son enjoy most? He's pretty young, so I'd go with whatever sparks his interest. You can always include Guerbur later during logic stage.

[ahancock]

I appreciate all of the awesome replies. One thing that I failed to mention is that I am going to have a logic stage child. We are already reading The Story of The Romans and she loves it. I do not include my 6 year old, because we are working on the 3 r's and reading random library books. So, when we would start The Story of the Middle Ages, I would like to include him. SOTW is "too boring" for my advanced 4th grader. I really don't want to use 2 histories because I like to be on the same page. I like the idea of using both if the alternative means not being able to use Guerber. I am trying to get my daughter ready for logic stage, and she has started narrating Guerber, and does fine, (thanks to WWE) I guess that she and I could keep doing what we are doing, and I could read SOTW out loud to my son, and try to coordinate us being together.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We are going to be entering the middle ages year of our history cycle next semester and I was wondering if anyone could give me a comparison of SOTW 2 versus The Story of the Middle Ages from Nothing New Press. We started out in SOTW 1 and liked it, but there were some things that got me away from using it. It jumped around a lot, and we switched to using Guerber's books. It seems to flow much better, but I wonder if my 7 year old boy will stay interested in the reading. SOTW is definitely geared towards younger kids. Anyway, I really need input here. I am definitely looking for a narrative history. I don't do well with programs like WP that tell you to: turn to this page in this book and read these 2 pages, then get this book and read this, then get this book, etc. All the books are way too much I, and it all becomes so disjointed to me, which is why I didn't like MFW. I have started several threads concerning the Guerber books and never get any input. Maybe not that many people have used them I am thinking. Sorry about the rambling, but opinions are desperately needed!!

 

We're using both SOTW 2 and Guerber this year. I use SOTW 2 with my 6yob and 9yog, while my 11yo reads from Guerber independently. I personally love the Guerber books much better than SOTW (which we're using for the first time this year), but during the Middle Ages even the Guerber books can be a little jumpy at times because they are constantly switching back and forth between England, France, and Germany with side trips to the Byzantine empire and Palestine for the Crusades. As much as I love the Guerber books, I don't think the Middle Ages and Renaissance books will hold the interest of a 7yo boy. There is a lot of detail in them, way more than most LG students would want. I would go with SOTW 2. To make it less jumpy, you can drop the chapters on India, China, Africa, and the Americas and just focus on the ones covering Western civilization. HTH

[ahancock]

Deanna, with your 11-year-old, do you have her/him do independent written narrations or outlines? Do you combine your children for any activities? I am so glad to have met someone with a similar plan to mine. I really have been thinking that I will have to use both Guerber and SOTW also. I would love to know how you do it. Thanks for the opinion, I really value that coming from someone who has used both and loves Guerber. I guess that there is no way to have a completely smooth and nondisjointed history is there?

[AudreyTN]

:lurk5: Bumping.