Is there anything like SL or TOG but secular?

[chrissymama]

Thanks!

[Veritaserum]

Not that I've seen. I follow TWTM recommendations for books. I pre-read them and create questions, summaries, and activities, and correlate them to our history studies. I started doing this because I couldn't find anything that was 4-year history cycle and secular.

 

History Odyssey (Pandia Press) is the closest I've seen. It is secular.

[TracyR]

If memory serves me right there are SL's on yahoo that use it secularly.

 

Not sure what grade your looking for but have you looked at Winter Promise?

[chrissymama]

Have you tried History Odyssey? I was just looking at it online, and it looks close.

 

I wish there was something just like TOG (what I've seen of it anyway) but secular. Sigh.

[DarlaS]

I think Core Knowledge might come the closest, but to put it on a user-friendly Sonlight like schedule, you are more or less on your own.

[melmichigan]

Isn't there also a Secular TOG group? Both SL and TOG have been relatively simple to secularize in my experience, but I could certainly understand wanting secular to begin with. I haven't found anything secular at the depth and rigor of TOG, hopefully it is a growing market in homeschooling. :)

Edited March 20, 2011 by melmichigan

[Veritaserum]

Have you tried History Odyssey? I was just looking at it online, and it looks close.

 

I wish there was something just like TOG (what I've seen of it anyway) but secular. Sigh.

 

We tried two of the samples. You can download the first 10 weeks for free. Those were both level 1. I haven't looked closely at the other levels.

 

I like reading a lot of literature. I liked the one year we tried Sonlight, but it got annoying to secularize. HO doesn't have enough literature included, IMO. I also prefer to use SOTW with the SOTW activity guide instead of History Pockets (scheduled for HO level 1). I get extra non-fiction books from the library.

 

In the back of my mind I think I'm planning to use HO level 3 for high school. I'll probably still add more lit. I haven't ruled out HO level 2 (still adding more lit) for my oldest. We did straight up WTM history this year. HO may save a bit of planning. It's written to the student, so that may help my dd move toward being more independent.

[Mom0012]

I think you could use SL secularly pretty easily. I know others have done it. The bible portion of SL is scheduled on the main IG, but the books are sold separately, so you could just skip those and any missionary stories and it would be secular.

 

Lisa

[Alyeska]

I think you could use SL secularly pretty easily. I know others have done it. The bible portion of SL is scheduled on the main IG, but the books are sold separately, so you could just skip those and any missionary stories and it would be secular.

 

Lisa

 

 

:iagree: It is very easy to secularize Sonlight. From the cores I have used, P3/4 through core 4, NONE have biblically integrated history.

[txhomemom]

I have been looking for the same thing. You could definitely use either TOG or SL in a secular manner. I just bought a used copy of TRISMS History Makers and it reminds me a lot of TOG but it is pretty much all secular. There are vocabulary words, lists of books to read, mapping, other activities, language arts, writing, etc. The main difference is that TRISMS is not scheduled as much like SL and TOG. There are things to do each day, but the readings and research can be scheduled or completed as you fit them in. It has a much more flexible schedule. For instance, SL or TOG might say read a certain book this week or read 2 chapters of a certain book, but TRISMS just has a list of books to choose from and then you read them at your own pace. Of course, some people just tweak TOG and pick the books they want to read which works well too, but TOG overwhelmed me with all the details, teacher's notes, etc...it was just too much for my brain. I feel like TRISMS is a trimmed down version of that. It gives you the framework and somewhat guides you, but you decide on what direction to go with the rest of your studies. It is much better for someone like me who is easily overwhelmed by details.

 

Edited: I just realized that you have younger kids and TRISMS does not cover that, but you might want to look at Oak Meadow.

[chrissymama]

I have heard that it is easy to make SL secular, but when reading the catalog, it doesn't sound like it to me. We were reading the description of Core 1+2, and a lot of it seemed VERY slanted towards a Christian world view. My husband, particularly, was not thrilled with it.

 

I'm going to search and see if I can find yahoo groups for secular SL and TOG. Thanks!

[Heather in VA]

If you are willing to do American history you might take a look at the Paths of Exploration by Geomatters.

[GnomeyNewt]

Most of the "schedule it for you" type curriculum I have found, are christian based. I have seriously gotten over looking for just "secular" curriculum for history subjects and just looked for what I thought would work for us, than looked at how much work would be involved to switch out any books. I have only gone into depth with Sonlight and WinterPromise, and both seemed pretty easy to secularize. They both only include a handful of books, that I would not want to read based on the religious content. Typically I don't read 100% of what is scheduled anyway, so it works out just fine that way. I have had success for 2 years in a row with WinterPromise so far.

[Mom in High Heels]

History Odyssey. We use it in conjunction with the SOTW AG, so we have loads of lit options and activities.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Does SL provide literature guides for the assigned reading that includes summaries, vocabulary, comprehension and discussion questions with suggested answers?

 

Also is it easier to secularize TOG or SL?

 

Lastly which is meatier-SL or TOG?:D

[Joy at Home]

Does SL provide literature guides for the assigned reading that includes summaries, vocabulary, comprehension and discussion questions with suggested answers?

 

Also is it easier to secularize TOG or SL?

 

Lastly which is meatier-SL or TOG?:D

 

 

I used SL for six years before TOG. IMHO: meatier - TOG; easier to secularize - SL.

 

SL does have a lit guide for each book with vocab, questions, etc, but I found the questions very superficial and more accountability type questions. Each reader/read-aloud/history book has it's own guide, and I never did get very good and juggling all the different guides and keeping on top of things. This was not a big deal in the younger years, but as we progressed to Cores 6 and 7 I felt that, although dd was READING lots of information, there was no real interaction and discussion about the information.

 

TOG is neatly set up by week with clear objectives for each learning level. There are abundant questions, both accounability and thinking. The teachers notes are priceless and, combined with some reading from the schedule, gives me what I need to have very meaningful discussions with dd.

 

Now that I'm thinking about it, priscilla, having just finished Year 4, I have to say I don't think it would be difficult at all to use it secularly. Of course there is a worldview component you could easily skip over, and you may have to weed out some questions regarding worldview/history, but that should not be difficult.

 

Now, Year 1 would probably be a different story and maybe others can chime in, but even then I think it can be done.

 

I think there might be a yahoo group that uses TOG secularly.

 

good luck,

lisa

[chrissymama]

I decided to go with TOG, mainly because it looks to be MUCH easier to use with both my school aged kids. I bought Year 1, and I really don't think it is going to be very hard to make it secular. The Units have very VERY religious sounding names, but as far as I've gotten into it so far (which isn't very far tbh) the actual meat of the program does not seem to be religiously based. As a pp stated, yes, the worldview portion is, but we will just either skip that or do as much as suits us (we are Christian). I will have 1 LG and 1 UG student in the fall. I am very excited!

[melmichigan]

I decided to go with TOG, mainly because it looks to be MUCH easier to use with both my school aged kids. I bought Year 1, and I really don't think it is going to be very hard to make it secular. The Units have very VERY religious sounding names, but as far as I've gotten into it so far (which isn't very far tbh) the actual meat of the program does not seem to be religiously based. As a pp stated, yes, the worldview portion is, but we will just either skip that or do as much as suits us (we are Christian). I will have 1 LG and 1 UG student in the fall. I am very excited!

 

If you can secularize Y1 then I don't think you would have any trouble with the following years. Y1 is the heaviest when it comes to Bible worked into history (I wonder if that will change with the big update they are planning for that year plan for the 2012 school year?) I moved into TOG in Y1U4, I haven't had any problem with Y2, and am working on my planning for Y3. I would love to hear how it goes with Y1 if you'd be willing to share over the coming school year. :)

[Researcher]

History Odyssey. We use it in conjunction with the SOTW AG, so we have loads of lit options and activities.

 

This is what we do. I can use the reading list from HO & SOTW together and it seems to give us plenty of choices.

[chrissymama]

If you can secularize Y1 then I don't think you would have any trouble with the following years. Y1 is the heaviest when it comes to Bible worked into history (I wonder if that will change with the big update they are planning for that year plan for the 2012 school year?) I moved into TOG in Y1U4, I haven't had any problem with Y2, and am working on my planning for Y3. I would love to hear how it goes with Y1 if you'd be willing to share over the coming school year. :)

 

I will definitely keep you posted!

[AppleGreen]

I decided to go with TOG, mainly because it looks to be MUCH easier to use with both my school aged kids. I bought Year 1, and I really don't think it is going to be very hard to make it secular. The Units have very VERY religious sounding names, but as far as I've gotten into it so far (which isn't very far tbh) the actual meat of the program does not seem to be religiously based. As a pp stated, yes, the worldview portion is, but we will just either skip that or do as much as suits us (we are Christian). I will have 1 LG and 1 UG student in the fall. I am very excited!

 

:iagree: From what I have seen it doesn't look too hard to secularize. I don't want to have to tweak a curriculum that I pay that much for, BUT I really do like the depth of TOG and we love history. We will have a 5th, 2nd grader and K, who lives to sit in with us, next year and I have been struggling with how to keep them together. Of course this is totally subject to change, I do have STOW and K12 HO sitting on the shelves. We've used STOW and may do that again...but, but... I so like the completeness of TOG and that it is laid out for me to pick and choose. Creating my own thing just isn't realistic, although I love it, there are too many little people and other things i need to do!

 

Anyway, I have very much appreciated this conversation! :)