SOTW Activity Guide or History Pockets or other

[OK Family]

I love our SOTW, we are doing volume 2 this world. I don't have too much time for activities but would like to start doing some. Is it worth it to spend money on the activity guide or would history pockets be better. My son is 7 and I have been trying to see which history pocket would best coincide.?

[Satori]

We have both. We use the Activity Guide all the time. History Pockets? Never touched.

[redsquirrel]

IMO, history pockets cannot touch the activity guide. No way.

[Mom in High Heels]

We used History Pockets for SOTW1 (we had the AG too), but other than the ones for the US, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of HP for the middle ages and SOTW2 (which we are currently using). I think that's too bad because there is loads of cool stuff they could use from the MA. I suppose I could make my own, but who has time for that??? I have the IG, but rarely do any of the projects. I'm pregnant and lazy right now. :D

 

You might want to look at History Portfolio though. It's hands on. Indy likes it (and it is made to coordinate with SOTW as well as other history programs), though I personally find it a bit thin to be considered a "full curriculum." We do have the Junior version though. The regular version (for 5th grade and above) look much meatier. We've changed a few things in it though to include small booklets (which I pasted over some of the word searches-Indy finds these boring) from our trips to various castles and other medieval places. Indy likes to work on it while I read from SOTW.

HTH!

[Cindyz]

We use both and really like both. We use the activity guide for narrations, and the student pages (coloring and mapping pages, etc). We usually don't do the hands on activities listed in the activity guide. We're just not into doing things like mummifying a chicken or building a model of the nile river. They look cool when other people do them, but for us, they just seem like a mess and the time could be spent better elsewhere. For hands on activities, we prefer the history pockets. I think they help to create a lasting memory and the kids are left with a keepsake to show off and also to help them remember as well. I like creating things that we can look back on and keep and show off to the grandparents, etc.

[Classically Minded]

We love the activity guide AND we also use History Pockets. I like having both and dd LOVES the paper dolls that come in the History Pockets. We are using the History Pockets for Ancient Civilizations Grades 1-3. I got the PDF from Evan Moor's website and only print out what we want to use.

 

However, I did just come across Figures in Motion on Peace Hill Press' website last night, and it has way more of the paper dolls than History Pockets does:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/figures-in-motion.html

[~Kirsten~]

I think the Activity Guide is definitely the better value. We really enjoy the coloring pages and maps (my daughter) and the review questions and library book lists (me). It enhances the whole experience for us and is worth every penny. The activities, actually, are the least valuable part to me. We do one every 3 or 4 chapters, so I do use that aspect, too, but a super motivated and organized person could probably find a correlating activity online for each chapter, if that's all you wanted. I'd never, ever bother, of course. :D But I'm just sayin', one could.

 

We have one history pocket (this year we're in the ancient world), and it's a decent supplement. I don't really like it all that much, but then, I'm not really a crafty, lap book kind of person, and my daughter doesn't seem to be, either. She seems to prefer the regular old coloring pages from the AG, and I find the actual information in the pocket less...informative, I guess, than I expected. It's certainly a more put-together project to show off than most of the activities we've done (and easier to show than our mummified hen), so if you're a lap booking person, that's a simple way to reinforce some of the ideas. But then again, that probably won't work as well outside of ancients and early modern, given how few history pockets there are.

 

HTH a bit!

[Mom in High Heels]

You also might think about doing some lapbooks. Indy loves lapbooking (which is probably why he likes the History Portfolio so well). There are loads of premade books you can purchase, but I prefer to just get the free templates that are available online and search for photos, drawings, etc. for Indy to use in them. He did a dinosaur lapbook in 1st grade and he STILL loves to look at it (it' s been almost 3 years since he made that one). Homeschool Share has loads and loads of templates and ideas.

 

If you are doing SOTW2, here are some from homeschool share that you might like:

Using Magic Tree House research guide (this one is cool, but a bit advanced-you could just use some of the components though)

Using Marguerite Makes a Book

 

Robin Hood

 

The Plague

 

Explorers (this is actually a unit study, but you could use components of it to make a lapbook)

 

 

 

These are bit more simplistic:

 

Knights (there are 2 levels here, so you could pick whichever is best)

 

Explorers (Columbus, Cortez)

 

 

You can also finds loads of MA stuff here (though some of the links don't work).

Edited February 17, 2011 by Mom in High Heels

[susesmiles]

Thanks Ladies for all the info on the activity guide. I hadn't even considered using it until I began reading about it on here a few days ago :)

[KrissiK]

Well, in my opinion, get the AG. It has such a variety of activities. History Pockets.... we did that once. It sounded like a neat concept, but we got bogged down in the cut-&-paste and didn't really retain much content.

[RobinM]

I started this thread a few days ago.... some of the responses may be helpful.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245651&highlight=biblioplan

 

:)