kristinannie Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I found this on another forum and I would love to hear some reviews. Connecting with History It uses the same history cycle as SOTW, but uses a different booklist for each level (K-3, 4-6, etc). It seems like a great way to combine kids all the way through. It almost seems like a mix between Sonlight and SOTW, but from a Catholic perspective. I would love to hear any experiences anyone has had with this program! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandty Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 :bigear: Haven't heard of it, but will be looking at it later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted May 10, 2011 Author Share Posted May 10, 2011 I spent some more time looking at it and it doesn't have the narratives that SOTW has. It has a basic framework and comes with a lot of books to read aloud. It looks more like Sonlight in that respect. I was really interested in Sonlight because I love living books, but as a Catholic there were books I would skip in every Core. I looked up a lot of the K-3 level books under Ancients and they had great reviews on Amazon. It is definitely promising. Level 2 is supposed to be much better than level 1 according to the reviewers. Anyway, it is nice to have a new choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I haven't used it, but it's on my list of stuff to check out at my local Catholic home ed conference in June! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquinas Academy Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I haven't bought it because I'm kind of afraid of packaged history curricula, but I can't help but think that it would make my life easier. :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oraetstudia Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I keep looking at it and thinking it would cost me a fortune to implement. Maybe I need to buy the main guide and look it over more thoroughly. I hear good things about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuateMama Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I bought the first one, and I haven't studied it in great detail yet, but it seems to be more like lesson plans. It has a list of books and resources for each age grouping and breaks it down into weekly plans. It breaks down the grades a little differently than WTM does, not starting grammar stage in first grade. Since we are just dabbling in K right now, I got some of the books and we are starting slowly, just doing reading and phonics and music every day, and everything else is done for fun, when the kids need something to keep them entertained. I think it will be more useful to me when the kids are ready for more formal schooling. And I think the 2nd one will be more useful in terms of resources, since Catholics have more issues with the curricula when studying medieval/renaissance. If you are looking more for lists of living books, there is a 2 book series called Keeping It Catholic, and the 2nd one is only about history, with lists of books for the different time periods. I think that is one of my favorite resources so far, since the Catholic perspective is very important to me. (We are on the more traditional side and attend an FSSP parish.) There are some old Catholic history textbooks that are reviewed in the history volume of KIC that I think you could use as read-alouds, similar to how you would use SOTW. We will be using some of those when we cover the Reformation era. I'm just getting started at this, so I'm by no means an expert, but my college degree is in history so this is my favorite part of the curriculum. You can get the KIC books from Adoremus books online--they are published by Neumann Press. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyhappyjoyjoy Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I have. I use it with SOTW 1 and the MODG idea of illustrating the Bible. I have had to put history on the backburner and we are still around Joshua, but I do like the combination of everything I've done. It is going to take us two years to do Vol 1. I have promised to write a list of how I've gone back and forth between both programs eventually. I still will; I just don't have the time now. I've suggested to other people to utilize your library for books for Vol 1, and save your money to purchase the books for vol 2. Most libraries books galore on Ancient history. Few libraries will have books about the saints such as Augustine came to Kent, etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted May 12, 2011 Author Share Posted May 12, 2011 I bought the first one, and I haven't studied it in great detail yet, but it seems to be more like lesson plans. It has a list of books and resources for each age grouping and breaks it down into weekly plans. It breaks down the grades a little differently than WTM does, not starting grammar stage in first grade. Since we are just dabbling in K right now, I got some of the books and we are starting slowly, just doing reading and phonics and music every day, and everything else is done for fun, when the kids need something to keep them entertained. I think it will be more useful to me when the kids are ready for more formal schooling. And I think the 2nd one will be more useful in terms of resources, since Catholics have more issues with the curricula when studying medieval/renaissance. If you are looking more for lists of living books, there is a 2 book series called Keeping It Catholic, and the 2nd one is only about history, with lists of books for the different time periods. I think that is one of my favorite resources so far, since the Catholic perspective is very important to me. (We are on the more traditional side and attend an FSSP parish.) There are some old Catholic history textbooks that are reviewed in the history volume of KIC that I think you could use as read-alouds, similar to how you would use SOTW. We will be using some of those when we cover the Reformation era. I'm just getting started at this, so I'm by no means an expert, but my college degree is in history so this is my favorite part of the curriculum. You can get the KIC books from Adoremus books online--they are published by Neumann Press. Thanks for sharing this. I will definitely look into KIC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracetherese Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I have. I use it with SOTW 1 and the MODG idea of illustrating the Bible. I have had to put history on the backburner and we are still around Joshua, but I do like the combination of everything I've done. It is going to take us two years to do Vol 1. I have promised to write a list of how I've gone back and forth between both programs eventually. I still will; I just don't have the time now. I've suggested to other people to utilize your library for books for Vol 1, and save your money to purchase the books for vol 2. Most libraries books galore on Ancient history. Few libraries will have books about the saints such as Augustine came to Kent, etc.... I'm also combining them. I found someone else had posted (on their blog) a schedule of sorts for how to use them together and I modified that. We're not finishing it all this year either. I really like both programs and I think that they work pretty well in conjunction. I think that SOTW gives you more to do with beginners, especially beginners who aren't reading on their own. The library is a must for all the books, but I've also had luck finding the books at thrift stores or used books sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosesinsummer Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 For those of you who use it with SOTW, what does Connecting with History have/add that SOTW doesn't? How important is it to do Jeff Cavin's Bible Timeline to do CWH Volume 1 with your kids? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WIS0320 Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 I have. I use it with SOTW 1 and the MODG idea of illustrating the Bible. I have had to put history on the backburner and we are still around Joshua, but I do like the combination of everything I've done. It is going to take us two years to do Vol 1. I have promised to write a list of how I've gone back and forth between both programs eventually. I still will; I just don't have the time now. I've suggested to other people to utilize your library for books for Vol 1, and save your money to purchase the books for vol 2. Most libraries books galore on Ancient history. Few libraries will have books about the saints such as Augustine came to Kent, etc.... I'm very interested in how you've put SOTW and CWH together. I am unfamiliar with MODG illustrating the Bible but that sounds like a neat way to learn Bible history! Off to go look for it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyhappyjoyjoy Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 I'm very interested in how you've put SOTW and CWH together. I am unfamiliar with MODG illustrating the Bible but that sounds like a neat way to learn Bible history! Off to go look for it... MODG is Mother of Divine Grace and illustrating/narrating the Bible is part of the Kindergarten Syllabus. I am still intending to write about how I combined these 2 programs, but I don't have time yet. I will do it eventually. We are on a break from anything teacher intensive, because I am unusually busy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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