talltexan Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I am enjoying using Sonlight right now for Kinder, but I am looking ahead at first grade and I see that SL uses CHOW. Is it as high quality as SOTW? I have read so many great things here about SOTW, but nothing about CHOW. Your opinions are appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2myboys Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 :bigear: I am also going to be using Sonlight next year and am curious to hear what others think about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morosophe Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I loved A Child's History of the World. It was extremely readable and interesting. I think it's a little lighter in content than Story of the World, but since you're supplementing with USBORNE and other resources, you still get plenty covered. (Plus, some of the stuff included in Story of the World seems a little random, if you ask me.) Sonlight does implement SOTW for their second run through world history. Let me give you a warning--Sonlight Core B (1) starts off very slow, with Usborne's People and Places of the World, which was my son's absolute least favorite resource. Feel free to actually do some of the activities it includes in order to spice it up, and don't even try to do any narrative activities with it--it's just too chaotic, in my opinion. (I wish I'd been confident enough to just read the introductory paragraph and have my son pick out the pictures he was actually interested in. It may have gone over a lot better that way.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I haven't used SOTW, but my kids love CHOW. Reading CHOW was one of the highlights of our day, and I also used it as a reward, such as I would read an extra chapter of CHOW as a special treat. It has made history the favorite subject at our house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almondbutterandjelly Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 My dd did not understand some of the archaic language in CHOW. She much preferred SOTW. It's written in more contemporary English. There's a lot to it, though, and it jumps around quite a bit. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't use either of them when my dd was so young. Maybe SOTW in middle or high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariasmommy Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 My dd and I really enjoyed CHOW when we did SL B and part of C (one of my regrets is that I got distracted trying out something else and never finished Core 2/C). She also listened to the SOTW 1 and 2 CDs and enjoyed them, as extra history. :) I learned things from CHOW I didn't know that enriched my cultrual/historical understanding. I did do some editing/explanation of the the first few chapters (which SL does not schedule) and Biblical references. I would recommed previewing it, though, as different people have different tastes. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warneral Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I loved A Child's History of the World. It was extremely readable and interesting. I think it's a little lighter in content than Story of the World, but since you're supplementing with USBORNE and other resources, you still get plenty covered. (Plus, some of the stuff included in Story of the World seems a little random, if you ask me.) Sonlight does implement SOTW for their second run through world history. Let me give you a warning--Sonlight Core B (1) starts off very slow, with Usborne's People and Places of the World, which was my son's absolute least favorite resource. Feel free to actually do some of the activities it includes in order to spice it up, and don't even try to do any narrative activities with it--it's just too chaotic, in my opinion. (I wish I'd been confident enough to just read the introductory paragraph and have my son pick out the pictures he was actually interested in. It may have gone over a lot better that way.) We are doing Core B right now. I wholeheartedly agree that Peoples of the World was unpleasant. In the future I'd probably just drop it or let the kids peruse it and ask questions from the pictures. I think the whole goal at this age is to find ways to spark interest in how people live and lived in our world. I wish we had more hands-on activities like some of the other programs offer. Sonlight has great literature, but I feel that the activities are what help cement what they learning into memory. Sonlight does provide a CD for extra activities but I don't have that. SOTW also has a activity guides which I *almost* purchased last night but changed my mind since I need to cut back on spending and buying more curriculum!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I liked SOTW much, much better than CHOW. I think Rebecca learned more from SOTW too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 DD states that she prefers CHOW over SOTW. I think the content is disperse enough that it would warrant using them both. It is the conversational tone of both that I find appealing. I feel that CHOW speaks more to the child. SOTW is story-like. CHOW is very talkie,talkie. LOL ( I am making up new vocabulary!) In this instance, it would certainly depend on your child. Did this help? I sure hope so. I am laughing at my abastract decsriptions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 My DD preferred CHOW to SOTW at age 5/6, so I think it's a YMMV situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kertie Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I haven't done more than look at the online samples of SOTW yet (plan on using it in the coming year), but I CANNOT STAND CHOW. Obviously, lots of people love it. Apparently I'm a freak:lol: because so many homeschool catalogs describe it as 'conversational' and even 'grandfatherly'. Personally, I thought it was condescending, and my son never tried to sneak it and read ahead, which is what he usually does. He didn't put up a fuss over it, though. We didn't even finish it because I couldn't read it without rolling my eyes. :rolleyes: Not very technical, I know, and frightfully judgmental of me;), but there's my freakish opinion anyway.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiztrezzLyn Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 We read from both. I think ds6 prefers CHoW, but he also likes SotW. He will listen to anything history related though so maybe it wouldn't matter what we read for history :) It's funny you say that, Kertie. I felt that way too about CHoW, but I got used to it I guess. My ds6 does giggle and such sometimes when we're reading that one, he finds it entertaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morosophe Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 I wish we had more hands-on activities like some of the other programs offer. Sonlight has great literature, but I feel that the activities are what help cement what they learning into memory. Sonlight does provide a CD for extra activities but I don't have that. SOTW also has a activity guides which I *almost* purchased last night but changed my mind since I need to cut back on spending and buying more curriculum!!! So, let me tempt you into buying more curriculum. Sorry, it's just that I was reading an ancient WTM forum thread on Sonlight today, and I discovered that Handle on the Arts has made activities e-books specifically intended to work with Sonlight (Cores A-C, it looks like). Here's the one for Core 1 (now known as B), for instance, which, according to its table of contents, has 66 projects. (That second link is a .pdf file, by the way.) It tells you which week (and even which day, although how that works with the five-day and four-day schedule options, who knows?) to do each project, and gives you the shopping list for the items required. (These range from "toilet paper tube" at the one extreme to "four yards white fabric" at the other, although the vast majority look extremely reasonable.) (I got all of this from the free sample.) And it's only twenty dollars! Wow, now I feel like a curriculum pusher. It's only twenty dollars, and it'll make you feel reeeeeeeeal good, man! I will say that I'm not buying this, because my son is just not that into arts and crafts, and I hate trying to figure out what to do with the detritus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talltexan Posted June 29, 2011 Author Share Posted June 29, 2011 Loving all this advice! Bumping to obtain more.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Look at Winter's Promise too. They have some really good books that I bought for hands-on history activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warneral Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 So, let me tempt you into buying more curriculum. Sorry, it's just that I was reading an ancient WTM forum thread on Sonlight today, and I discovered that Handle on the Arts has made activities e-books specifically intended to work with Sonlight (Cores A-C, it looks like). Here's the one for Core 1 (now known as B), for instance, which, according to its table of contents, has 66 projects. (That second link is a .pdf file, by the way.) It tells you which week (and even which day, although how that works with the five-day and four-day schedule options, who knows?) to do each project, and gives you the shopping list for the items required. (These range from "toilet paper tube" at the one extreme to "four yards white fabric" at the other, although the vast majority look extremely reasonable.) (I got all of this from the free sample.) And it's only twenty dollars! Wow, now I feel like a curriculum pusher. It's only twenty dollars, and it'll make you feel reeeeeeeeal good, man! I will say that I'm not buying this, because my son is just not that into arts and crafts, and I hate trying to figure out what to do with the detritus. sold! This is exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morosophe Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 sold! This is exactly what I'm looking for! Thank you :) You're very welcome! (I felt a little guilty about that post, since it was getting very off-topic, so that makes me feel a little better.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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