Mushy1127 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Is it worth it? It doesn't get very good reviews on amazon.com. Any experience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deniseibase Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Well, there are four different activity books, and they all get between 3.5 to 5 stars on Amazon, which seems pretty good to me. We used SOTW 3 this year with the activity book - I thought it was worth it, it would have been more worth it if we had time to do more of the activities, but I still felt I got my money's worth. There are coloring pages, map work, review questions, narration suggestions, suggested outside readings and several activities or crafts for each chapter. We always did the maps and some of the outside readings (no one could do ALL of them unless history was all you did in your homeschool :) ), we often did the review questions and at least one of the activities, and almost never did the narrations or the coloring pages. In retrospect I wish I had forced my reluctant writer to do more of the narrations, it would have helped her. We will be doing SOTW4 next year for sixth grade, and plan on getting the Activity Book. This is the book that has the lowest overall score on Amazon, 3.5. A lot of the complaints seem to be that the format changes so much, the coloring pages were dropped (I think they were added back, or are available separately now, or something like that, to be honest since dd does not color I didn't care one way or the other :) ) and some outlining exercises for older kids were added in. This suits me fine since I'm using it with a sixth grader, and outlining practice will be welcome. This book is definitely more geared for the older student, but the expectation was never that this volume be used with kids younger than fourth grade - the twentieth century has some pretty dreadful bits, after all. YMMV, of course, but we liked it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osaubi Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 My kids love the activity book. We just finished STOW 2 today. The kids love the coloring pages and the maps. We don't always do the activities or read the optional books but I like the option of having something at my fingertips. I also just got done planning STOW 3 and I was excited about the projects that were listed in the activity guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise Allen Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Completely worth it!! The activity guides are what gave my kids a love for history (they are now going into 9th & 8th). The map work is terrific, they are filled with activity ideas, further reading ideas, etc. I personally wouldn't do SOTW without them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDR Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 We're finishing up SOTW1 with a first-grader, pre-schooler, and a 2-year-old who loves sitting in on history. For us it was well worth the money to have the book list, maps, coloring pages, recipes, and activity ideas. We'll use the AG again with SOTW 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 We LOVE them! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay3fer Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 I bought the activity book. I wasn't sure I wanted it and I still think we will definitely NOT get around to doing everything. I don't want to be a slave to the curriculum, but the activity book seemed like a great way to add a bit more interaction, and to give me a bit of guidance since this is my first time doing history. If you don't need the hand-holding or think you won't use it much, maybe skip it, but if you are not that experienced, I think it's valuable even if you don't use it every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitten18 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Definitely worth it. For SOTW1, I bought the AG from Amazon then ordered the PDF of the student pages from here. For SOTW2, I'm just going to order the PDF of the whole AG from here and print what I need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick_Mom Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 No idea what the issue is with the reviewers at Amazon. But I can't imagine using SOTW without the activity book. The narration prompts, the mapwork suggestions, the lists of additional books for both history and literature, the coloring pages ... they round out the main text and help expand the lessons. And that's not even counting the more "crafty" activities in the back of the book. Definitely worth it, IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Worth it. I use the narration leading questions, book lists, mapwork, and some of the activities. I usually just pick one activity per chapter to do, and we don't always even do that. But I like it for the narration and book lists helps, plus the mapwork. We were using Biblioplan, then I simplified and just used the SOTW AG to help guide us. It lists which pages of UILE to read along with SOTW, so my son will read that. He can do the mapwork on his own because it's written at the level that a first grader can do the work (Biblioplan maps were wonderful, but I had to do all the writing on those - he still learned, but it was mom-intensive). We get whatever books my library happens to have that are listed in the AG. And of course, we narrate each section of SOTW. I picked up the whole set used for dirt cheap, so now I just get the student pages PDF from PHP each year. I really like having the student pages on PDF. I highly recommend either getting the student pages PDF or just getting the whole AG on PDF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 It's the activity book that makes SOTW a curriculum. Definitely worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela13 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 We started SOTW1 this year without the activity book. I bought the activity book after a few chapters, and it is fantastic! We love it, and my kids love the review cards at the end which we printed and stuck to card. After each chapter they get a new card and its like collecting soccer cards for them! It is very user friendly. I just bought the audio cd's too and now my ds asks to listen to them over again, at night when he is in bed. They are a hit with my history obsessed son! Now if I could just get Apologia to bring out zoology on cd too... that would be great for my nature obsessed son!:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iquilt Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Another yes vote for the activity guide-very nice for adding depth to SOTW. We used 1, 2 and 3 along with the guides and we used a lot of the activities. I always ordered books from the library based on the guide. We colored almost all of the coloring sheets as dd9 was really into coloring then. The map work is very nice and we did many of the other activities, especially cooking! We switched to HO modern times for our oldest so as not to study the Nazi terrors and other horrible 20th century events with a 6 and 5 year old; my oldest did Modern times more on her own or just with me this year. We used Core 1 for ease of use in balancing the separation and we liked it but I am strongly considering SOTW 1 in the fall for dd7 and ds6 while dd10 studies ancients again but with outlining and more biographies. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyto4 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Definitely worth it! Great review questions, narration ideas, mapwork and activities! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jab300 Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Very worth it for us. My 10yo does the mapwork, my 6yo colors the pages and we all enjoy the craft suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivka Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 We use the SOTW 1 AG, but my opinion about it is more lukewarm. We do the mapwork and have done some of the projects, but a lot of them give me a "so what" feeling - they seem like a lot of effort with little educational payoff. I'm not very crafty, though. My daugher doesn't like coloring, so we skip over all of the coloring pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubrey Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 I love all 4 AGs. They're not PERFECT, but they're pretty wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewpeaceful Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 We're finishing up SOTW1 with a first-grader, pre-schooler, and a 2-year-old who loves sitting in on history. For us it was well worth the money to have the book list, maps, coloring pages, recipes, and activity ideas. We'll use the AG again with SOTW 2. :iagree: History would have been SUCH a drag without them. My kids are 9 and 6 and mostly enjoyed the coloring. I found the comprehension questions and training to be good practice and training for me. The activities, while we only did about 10 of them were great. The mapwork, while okay, was good for the intended age - it plants seeds that these places exist and where they are on the map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Definitely worth it. I think you could do it without it but it's so nice having the resource with everything there. One thing I remember when buying it is that even if you aren't using it all it's non-consumable so is very reasonable priced if you are using it for multiple kids. It's well-worth the money to me to have the booklists and maps alone. I also like having the questions there for the narrations. It's not essential and sometimes I do it without them but it does make it easier on me. We do the occasional project, more with SOTW 1 than 2 but if I had a child who was more into crafts I might have done more of them. Sometimes he wants to color but mostly he doesn't like coloring. It's still nice having the pages, and I've found that they also are good for my 4 yr old who does like to color to do while the older one is "doing school". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 I just have the first one and haven't started it yet. But I have been flipping through it trying to outline ahead and I love it and am pleased with the purchase. I don't know how much we'll get to but I'd rather have too many cool things to choose from than not have enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rootsong Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Love love love the AGs here. SOTW is one of my favorite curricula to teach from, period. Which includes the AG. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushy1127 Posted May 27, 2011 Author Share Posted May 27, 2011 Well! I am so glad I asked! I'll put it on the list for this year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gswhitfield21 Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 The Activity books are a huge help with narration. We do very few of the activities, but the coloring pages and maps are wonderful. Well worth it for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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