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Why will I like History Odyssey level 2?


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I want to use this, but I have never used anything but SOTW. We are heading into 6th grade and I feel like I need a break. At the same time, this is new to me.

 

This past year (5th grade, ancient history), I figured out all the readings (I used the TOC from SOTW1 as my guide) and had him write out the 6 facts from the Useborne Encyclopedia, then I assigned a reading on a subject from Human Odyssesy or an Oxford press book or another book I picked out. I had him do a narration of a sub-chapter or chapter one day and do a one point outline of a different sub-chapter or section another day. Occasionally I would have him read a historical fiction book and write up a 5 or 6 sentence narration when he was done.

 

Why do I want to use History Odyssey this year? I am tired of figuring out the reading myself. I like how HO gives specific things to focus on such as writing a brief biography or definition. I never did that sort of thing. I just picked a sub-chapter in Human Odyssey.

 

If I don't use HO I envision myself doing the exact same thing next year only requiring a two level outline. I am not sure that is enough at this point. It seemed great for 5th grade, I am not so sure it is good enough for 6th. But, maybe it is just fine and I don't know it.

 

So, will HO ask a bit more of my son than I have been asking? Will it provide a bit more of a challenge? Or, will it just be unnecessary? Am I reinventing the wheel? I have found that my kids do very well with TWTM methods. I don't think they are "the best" but they work for us.

 

FTR, my son is also doing CPO earth and space, Lively Latin 2, Singapore math 6, SYRWTL Spanish, ALL and WWS, logic, piano and flute. I say this because maybe I am already asking enough of him skill wise and same old, same old in history will get the job done and save me 35$.

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Have you downloaded the generous HO trial Pandia Press offers? I would think that would help you figure out if it will do what you want it to do and free up your time.

 

I like that HO seems to take the ideas that SWB lays out for logic stage history and turns them into actual plans and assignments, written to the student. My 5th grader did HO2 Ancients and I think it has been a good year.

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Human odyssey is a book. Specifically, a text book used in a world history class offered by K12. I have nothing to do with K12, but I use the book.

 

So, History Odyssey is this:

http://www.pandiapress.com/history_odyssy.htm

 

I have used the book Human Odyssey as a resource for last year's Ancient History year. I am trying to decide if Pandia Press History Odyssey is the history curriculum I want to use for next years Medieval history.

 

I know, it is silly confusing, isn't it? I mess it up all the time. :lol:

 

Oh, and let's not forget there is a different history book out there called Human Odyssey but it's not the K12 book. AAAH!

 

And yes, History Odyssey does provide specific assignments. But I provided specific assignments. But these look like different specific assignments from what I would think of.

 

oraetstudia: what made this year good for you with HO? Are you going to use it again this year?

 

I notice at the back of the 'try before you buy' PDF there is a large list of books she calls "suggested resources" It is pretty big. Does she 'suggest' when to use those 'suggested' resources? Or does the teacher just add them in as desired?

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If you think you will be able to hand over HO and let your kids use it as it is (or at least with only slight modifications ;)) then it might be very helpful. If you are going to do a lot of changing and planning anyway, then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I am tired of figuring out the reading myself
There isn't much reading scheduled. And the recommended resources aren't planned out, although they are split up by section and in order by time and region, not in alphabetical order.

 

Why don't you use the free weeks and see if you like it, it wouldn't be hard to order the rest of it once you know if it works for you.

 

If I don't use HO I envision myself doing the exact same thing next year only requiring a two level outline.

My plan is to have my 6th grader start with two level outlines and change to three level outlines before the year is out. But if you are using WWS, then you can just change his assignments as he has learned the skills in WWS.

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oraetstudia: what made this year good for you with HO? Are you going to use it again this year?

 

 

Not having to come up with all the assignments and resources myself was a big thumbs up for HO, in my opinion. I did tweak it some, but I found that to be very easy with the pdf file. Sometimes I didn't buy the book they suggested because I had something similar and sometimes I wanted to change the assignment slightly or combine two lessons and with the pdf file, I could cut and paste the original assignment into a Word document and revise it as I saw necessary. Then I could print out just the assignments I wanted my son to complete each week as we went.

 

The danger for me was mostly not in checking in on his work often enough. Sometimes I got slack and then so did he. Not that he wasn't doing the assignments, but the detail and quality would slip. So even though it is written to the student, at least for us, it wasn't all hands off.

 

Now as for next year -- I am not exactly doing HO. I would, but for two reasons. (a) We're Catholic, and for the Middle Ages/Reformation I want to pull in more Catholic resources and saint stories (b) I've decided it would be better if all of my kids were working on the same stuff at the same time. This past year my youngers did SOTW, but again I want something more Catholic for this coming year, and while HO2 Ancients and SOTW Ancients covered a lot of the same things, I think it would be even better if they covered them at the same time.

 

So....I took HO and plans from another Catholic mom on here and all the gazillion books I have and have been writing my own HO-esque plans for both levels. It's taking far longer than I thought it would and I sure did love the ease of last year when I didn't mess with the pre-written plans too much.

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I started out inventing my own curriculum for DS10 and DS7, using Usborne, lots of library books, an atlas, a globe, a hand-drawn wall-map, a homemade timeline, and lots of homemade activities.

 

We switched to HO because I got sick of staying up until 1am every night planning it all out.

 

DS10 is using level2 ancients, and DS1 is in level1 ancients. DS7 still uses the wall homemade timeline because it is easier for him (and yes, to the PP, a 7YO absolutely can grasp a timeline and gets a lot out of it! We don't memorize any of it; we just observe the relationships that evolve kind of like a graph, as we have 1 civ per line, and you watch places rising and falling at different times).

 

I love the mapping and the pre-printed timeline from Pandia, though it's in a different format from ours (it maps all people on one line, inventions on another). I have no trouble looking up books on Amazon (just browse the Pandia suggested titles, and they'll pop up as recommendations). I would also browse the "You Wouldn't Want to Be A ..." and Jeanne Bendick series, Padric Colum's "Children's Homer" and Penelope Liveley's "In Search of A Homeland.". Look up "Tales of Egypt" "Cat of Bubastes" "I am Spartapuss," add in Tales of Spider, Hittite Warrior, and a few others, Look over the suggestions Amazon starts making for you and head to the library!

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My son went through all 4 of the level 2 HO books. We subbed out some of the novels, especially once we got to the modern era, and he'd often choose to do summaries instead of the creative activities, but otherwise used it without tweaking. I loved that he could work on it independently, though I also tended to fall behind on checking his work, which sometimes meant that the stuff he didn't like to do as much (the maps in particular) didn't get done in a timely way.

 

However, by far the best thing about HO is that it combines writing, literature, and history into one curriculum. We use Rod and Staff for grammar but didn't do any other writing programs and now, in high school, my kid can handle any writing assignment that's thrown at him with ease. She does a great job gradually teaching students how to write for school, from teaching them how to outline in HO1 to writing essays and research reports in HO4.

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I want to use this, but I have never used anything but SOTW. We are heading into 6th grade and I feel like I need a break. At the same time, this is new to me.

 

This past year (5th grade, ancient history), I figured out all the readings (I used the TOC from SOTW1 as my guide) and had him write out the 6 facts from the Useborne Encyclopedia, then I assigned a reading on a subject from Human Odyssesy or an Oxford press book or another book I picked out. I had him do a narration of a sub-chapter or chapter one day and do a one point outline of a different sub-chapter or section another day. Occasionally I would have him read a historical fiction book and write up a 5 or 6 sentence narration when he was done.

 

Why do I want to use History Odyssey this year? I am tired of figuring out the reading myself. I like how HO gives specific things to focus on such as writing a brief biography or definition. I never did that sort of thing. I just picked a sub-chapter in Human Odyssey.

 

If I don't use HO I envision myself doing the exact same thing next year only requiring a two level outline. I am not sure that is enough at this point. It seemed great for 5th grade, I am not so sure it is good enough for 6th. But, maybe it is just fine and I don't know it.

 

So, will HO ask a bit more of my son than I have been asking? Will it provide a bit more of a challenge? Or, will it just be unnecessary? Am I reinventing the wheel? I have found that my kids do very well with TWTM methods. I don't think they are "the best" but they work for us.

 

FTR, my son is also doing CPO earth and space, Lively Latin 2, Singapore math 6, SYRWTL Spanish, ALL and WWS, logic, piano and flute. I say this because maybe I am already asking enough of him skill wise and same old, same old in history will get the job done and save me 35$.

 

I'm curious as to why you didn't use the k12 teacher/student pages for Human Odyssey? I've never seen them myself, so I'm not sure what's included. I imagine they would have a schedule to build on, though, that would make planning easier?

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I'm curious as to why you didn't use the k12 teacher/student pages for Human Odyssey? I've never seen them myself, so I'm not sure what's included. I imagine they would have a schedule to build on, though, that would make planning easier?

 

Sadly, no schedule in the K12 guides. They are arranged in order, but the schedule is supposed to come from the online class. Many of the activities are also online, not in the guides. The guides do have a lot of good stuff, but you need to sift and sort through it and figure out for yourself what's useful and what's busywork and how to schedule it (if you are not signed up for the course, which I do not plan to do :)). The teacher guides are pretty much answers to the student pages.

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Sadly, no schedule in the K12 guides. They are arranged in order, but the schedule is supposed to come from the online class. Many of the activities are also online, not in the guides. The guides do have a lot of good stuff, but you need to sift and sort through it and figure out for yourself what's useful and what's busywork and how to schedule it (if you are not signed up for the course, which I do not plan to do :)). The teacher guides are pretty much answers to the student pages.

 

Oh -- that's really disappointing!

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