History Odyssey vs. Sonlight Core C (aka 2)

[shinyhappypeople]

I'm looking at HO - Middle Ages, Level 1.

 

I'm also looking at SL Core C (2nd half of world history).

 

If you've used one or both of these programs, will you weigh in? What did you like or dislike about the program?

[meet me in paris]

I have used many of the middle SL Cores with my older daughter and she loved them. I tried to use Core 1 (now B, I think) with my younger one and she hated it. I think the two cores are pretty similar - they jump around a lot, i.e. reading 1 or 2 pages from many many books a day. Usborne World History is the spine, and I find that book irritating. It's visually loud with little snippets of information.

 

We switched to HO Ancients and it was a much better fit. It's more of a notebooking format, which we also liked. With Cores 1 & 2 there's not much to "do" in terms of written work. You read the books and talk about them, but that's about it for history. With HO they are writing definitions, doing map work, and notebooking pages. She liked the activity guides that are scheduled, and she liked reading books like Magic Tree House that are listed in the resources.

 

One thing to consider is that SL covers it in 2 years, and HO covers it in 4. So, there's more depth in HO but it will take you longer.

 

Hope that helps!

[Hen]

I haven't used HO, but I have used Sonlight Core 2- and though I love SL and I've used cores 6.7, & 100 successfully and plan to use them for my younger kids..I did not like Core 2 and finally gave up on it. I kept trying to use it and kept at it for 1 1/2 years, I finally decided to just let it go. I didn't like how it jumped around to different spines, the Usborne book is hard to read aloud. I was disappointed in the Geography songs, many of them had outdated info or wrong info. I was happiest when I gave up and just started reading straight from A Child's History of the World and having the kids narrate from it.

 

just my thoughts...

[MerryAtHope]

We liked a lot of the books in Core 2, but I swapped out the spines for Mystery of History 2 (and then finished out the year with CHOW to bring us up to modern times). It did make for a full year to do it that way, and since Core 3 starts out time-wise about where MOH 2 leaves off, we probably could have just read the other SL books and not worried about filling in with a spine at their ages.

 

Core 2 also has a geography component that made it take longer than some of the other history cores--the Window on the World readings didn't seem to capture my kids at this age, though the pictures were great.

 

The read-alouds and readers worked very well for us. Overall I have some good memories from Core 2 but Cores PreK, 3, & 4 (D & E) were my favorite SL cores so far. Merry :-)

[Just Robyn]

I have been using HO Middle Ages level 1 this school year with my 3rd grader. I am a fan of HO (at least level one, no current opinion on level two because my kids are not there yet).

 

Positives

 

It schedules many things from which to choose: UILE, SOTW, CHOW, dictionary work, coloring pages, crafts/activities, suggested further reading, some additional copywork (just from time to time), mapwork

 

We end up with a great looking binder of notebooking pages. (We use notebooking pages which I've purchased and do written narrations.) My ds loves looking back through his binder to see all that he has done.

 

It is thorough.

 

Negatives

 

It is not chronological. Some of the readings from SOTW say things like "Remember when...?" Well, if we haven't read that chapter yet because we're not going in order, then no, we don't remember when....

 

The Treasure Chests are so-so. Of course you can choose to just not purchase/use them.

 

Neutral

 

After using Ancients without a timeline and Middle Ages with one, I recommend using a timeline (any timeline), and I wouldn't use HO again without one.

 

 

 

A week in our house with HO might look like this:

 

Monday - Read two pages of UILE and do a notebooking page about it. DS independently reads 1/5 of a related living book.

 

Tuesday - Look up charter (or whatever word) in the dictionary. Write the word and definition on a piece of paper and add it to the binder. DS independently reads 1/5 of a related living book.

 

Wednesday - Do mapwork. Put labeled and colored map in binder. DS independently reads 1/5 of a related living book.

 

Thursday - I read a portion of SOTW aloud while ds does a coloring page which is put in the binder. DS independently reads 1/5 of a related living book.

 

Friday - Do a craft. Take a picture of the craft and put it in the binder. DS finishes reading living book. DS may or may not do a written narration of the book, depending on the book.

 

This year, for middle ages, we only did one craft and that was because I was babysitting someone else's kids and I was trying to get some of our work done while keeping them included. (ETA: I guess we did two. I forgot about our illuminations.) Last year, for ancients, we did a lot of crafts and activities and we really enjoyed them. I decided not to do them this year just because of our particular current circumstances with regard to time and finances. I hope to do them when my middle ds gets to this time period.

[morosophe]

I'm not going to help here, but I would like to point out that History Odyssey is secular, and Sonlight is not. I don't know if that's a factor for you, or in which direction, but it's something to keep in mind.

 

Also, Usborne hasn't been the spine in Sonlight Core 1 (whoops, I mean B)--A Child's History of the World is the spine, and, as far as I can tell, Usborne is there to provide pretty pictures. I had a few problems with it, but I'm doing Core C next year, so they obviously weren't deal-breaking!

 

If you're interested in another Christian program, and particularly if you have more children coming along, there are a lot of people on these boards who really like Tapestry of Grace. Personally, I think it's way too fussy and expensive, but I'm planning on switching to Biblioplan, which is much more pared-down but still good for multiple kids, in a few years. Both of these programs also follow a four-year plan. (Biblioplan was specifically based on The Well-Trained Mind, much like History Odyssey, I believe.)