SOTW 1 along with what for Christians

[LAmom]

I am hoping to use TOG when my kids are older. Seems like many use SOTW for younger years. Is there something that people use along with it to aid in a Christian perspective of history? Veritas? A certain book (besides the bible:)), etc.

 

I will have a 4th grader and a 2nd grader.

 

Or if you are a Christian, do you find that it is even necessary to add to SOTW?

 

Thanks.

[boscopup]

I haven't found it necessary. In logic stage, I'll add more correlation with Biblical history, but SOTW 1 mentioned Abraham, Joseph, and Jesus.

 

I had started out with Biblioplan Ancients, and that was too much, even for my advanced first grader (in 2nd grade, he's understood SOTW 4 just fine), but when we stopped trying to fit the whole Bible into a year, he started making connections on his own. Sometimes less is more!

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

We are doing MOH 1, SOTW Ancients, and Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament. I am doing MOH1 because my dd will be a 5th grader so you may or may not want to add that in.

[LAmom]

We are doing MOH 1, SOTW Ancients, and Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament. I am doing MOH1 because my dd will be a 5th grader so you may or may not want to add that in.

 

Can I ask why you decided to not continue with MFW using CTG? I see you are using ECC right now.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Can I ask why you decided to not continue with MFW using CTG? I see you are using ECC right now.

 

 

The ONLY reason was because I had to seriously cut our expenses down. We were going to spend more than double what we normally do in a year next year and I had to make major cuts. It was hard. I LOVE MFW! I actually almost teared up over it and my husband thought I lost my mind. I am ok with it now though because I looked a MFW and I looked at what we are doing and it will be very similar because I can find good lit to supplement with. Oh, I also forgot, we will also buy the 3 DVD sets that go with Diana Warings ancient history program. With all the above we are just over $150 (including the audio CD's for MOH and the study pack to go with Greenleaf.) That is a huge savings :001_smile:

[FishMama]

We started with SOTW nine years ago. About five years ago we switched to TOG classic which I loved. But those were borrowed and then I bought TOG redesign which I don't love as much. We ended up going back to SOTW for our second time through of Y4 since we didn't own the TOG version and I couldn't justify the expense.

 

(Just for reference, TOG recommends SOTW as an alternate spine just in different chapter order)

 

This year with 9th, 6th, 4th, 2nd, and K I'm finding TOG1 to be very overwhelming and quite honestly boring. So, I'm reevaluating everything. I just ordered SWB's Ancient History book for my 9th grader and we are going to switch midyear back to SOTW/AH.

 

I think it you are doing some kind of Bible study/Church History with your kids, using SOTW is fine. I read the Bible stories from SOTW1 straight from the Bible instead of SOTW.

 

Hope that helps!

[zenjenn]

Whether you are a Christian or not, I can't imagine doing SotW without supplemental materials. You'd just blaze through it.

 

SotW is a western civ worldview. Western civ history has a Judeo-Christian bent, and SotW is no exception.

 

SotW1 is predominately B.C. Exactly what kind of Christian supplementation would you do before Jesus existed? IIRC there are like 40-something chapters and Jesus is born in Chapter 38 or something like that.

 

Of course it is your prerogative to do what you'd like, but I can't help myself but to caution you against avoiding mythology and avoiding lessons about the ancient gods of Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. I've seen some Christians avoid this, or criticize SotW1 because study of these gods are included in the curriculum, really with about equal emphasis as Old Testament Bible stories.

 

IMO, there is no real understanding of Judeo-Christian thought OR history without understanding ancient pagan religion as well, and to avoid it as if it is anathema is to do a disservice to the student, IMO.

[LAmom]

I don't plan on avoiding mythology, studying pagan relgions, etc. I want my children to have a balanced view and ability to discern biblically according to the Scriptures. I have much ignorance when it comes to knowing what is taught in history in general and want to make sure I am presenting things properly. :tongue_smilie:

Edited January 14, 2012 by LAmom

[Walking-Iris]

I'm not affiliated with any one religion, but I was (still am for my own enjoyment) a student in college of comparative religions. We use SOTW1 and I think it presents history topics in a really effective way.

 

There's a really nice distinction between historical fact and Biblical "story" without undermining any one religion. It does come from a Judeo Christian worldview so I personally feel that non-Christians have more of a need to supplement in certain places than those of the Christian faith.

 

I think you'll be fine using SOTW as is.

[FairProspects]

I haven't found it necessary. In logic stage, I'll add more correlation with Biblical history, but SOTW 1 mentioned Abraham, Joseph, and Jesus.

 

I had started out with Biblioplan Ancients, and that was too much, even for my advanced first grader (in 2nd grade, he's understood SOTW 4 just fine), but when we stopped trying to fit the whole Bible into a year, he started making connections on his own. Sometimes less is more!

 

:iagree:This has been our experience as well.

[MyLittleBears]

Biblioplan maps it all out for you. It will tell you what books to use when and which event line up with what. It does also rearrange some of the SOTW chapters for this purpose. I agree it would be too much for grammar stage but it's perfect for logic and up.

[ByGrace3]

I did use the list that correlates Egermeier's Bible stories with the SOTW chapter. However, we don't read all the stories, I summarize them so we know they are happening at the same time. Also, I added in the VP cards because there was more Biblical content in the time frame there. We also pull from the VP TM when we use a card that the content is not covered in SOTW. It really has not been complicated to do this at all, and I am happy to have the extra Biblical content from VP.

 

ETA: We will be using Biblioplan next year to do this with SOTW 2 for church history.

[LAmom]

So if I added Veritas Press cards would I need the TM or is it all pretty self explanatory? Do you recommend the CDs? I haven't been able to see a good example of the cards (just the front of one) and can't find an audio sample fir the CDs.

[dsmama]

We're going to do Biblioplan next year for 4th and 1st grades for Ancients. I know one of the writers personally (disclaimer) and she has been awesome helping me this year navigate Year 3 w/Classical Conversations as well.

 

Also, as we do now, I will start each day reading a chapter from the Bible as the kids finish breakfast, color, write, play with cars, etc. This helps them settle down for school time. This year we're doing the Gospels. Next year we'll do Genesis and Exodus.

[2_girls_mommy]

Both of my kids did Rod and Staff 1st grade reading and phonics. It is all Bible, mostly old testament in first grade. It was a perfect fit to go along w/SOTW 1 IMO.

[Hedgehogs4]

We used SOTW for the early grades and now use TOG for UG / D level studies. I never felt the need to supplement. I think she gives Biblical accounts a very fair showing, and with the lessons my children already have had in the Biblical stuff, it all fell into place.

[Carol in Cal.]

I actually did use a Bible, and it was wonderful.

I was lucky to own the Concordia Self-Study Bible (NIV) from Concordia Publishing House. It has introductory essays before each book that outline the book and describe what happened when. I used those dates to intersperse the Bible with SOTW. Honestly, it made it so easy--just grab and go. Incidentally this particular study Bible is very conservative in commentary viewpoint, so it takes Genesis, for instance, seriously as history.

 

I started with the early chapters of Genesis, cut over to SOTW, cut back to Genesis for the patriarchal narratives at the right time, etc.

 

This was a very rich way to go.

 

It did take about 1 1/2 years, but elementary world history does not need to go fast, LOL!

 

For the historical stuff, I just interspersed it.

 

We took a little break from history to study some of the Wisdom literature, reading parts of Proverbs especially and relating them to a children's book about wisdom that I already owned. Likewise with the psalms--we took a break from history at King David's time and studied some of his writing. We also cut back over to the Psalms for "By the Rivers of Babylon".

 

In the New Testament, we took a little break to go over some teachings from the Epistles, like Eph 2 and I Cor 13 and I Cor 15. The whatsoever verses from Philippians were repeated pretty often. The only parts of the Revelation we covered were the liturgical pieces.

 

The only caution I would have is that in the prophets the order in the Bible is not chronological. That was the only part I really needed to plan ahead carefully. I looked at all of the introductory essays, and I think I wrote down the dates for each of the prophets on a separate sheet of paper so that I wouldn't miss one. Also, I hasten to add, we did not read all of all of the prophets. Excerpts were adequate, I felt, at that age.

 

Really, this is astonishingly easy to do. I encourage you to try it!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

So if I added Veritas Press cards would I need the TM or is it all pretty self explanatory? Do you recommend the CDs? I haven't been able to see a good example of the cards (just the front of one) and can't find an audio sample fir the CDs.

 

I would suggest the history cards (with the song) as a supplement to SOTW.

 

With VP and SOTW, you have two items that are both designed in part as a schedule through history. Trying to follow both or to merge them was a huge headache for me.

 

What I would suggest is to get just the CD and the cards and memorize the events. But do the bulk of your history reading from SOTW.

 

For supplemental good reading, you have either the books listed on the back of the VP cards, or the recommended readings in SOTW AG, or book searches from you library catalog system. You might even see if your church has a library with books for kids (ours has one in an odd corner of the church and I didn't even realize it was there for the first year we were attending).

 

FWIW, I had all of the VP history stuff once upon a time. I had the older, paperback bound editions of the TMs. I felt like they weren't really what I was looking for. They really seemed like classroom worksheets or homework for classroom kids more than good solid exploratory lessons for homeschoolers. They also had a lot of written work, which made sense, since VP schedules OT and Egypt at a higher grade than SOTW is often started (I think it's 3rd grade vs. a common use in 1st grade). So some of the expectations on reading and writing are higher than what worked for us.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Oh, one more thought. The CDs generally only have one song, that is the song for that set of cards. There is also a Presidents song which was on at least one of the CDs for the modern era.

 

I can still do the Rome/Greece/NT song and am really glad we memorized that. The other songs gave us a lot more trouble. Still not sure if that was lack of application and effort on our part or if the songs just didn't click with us.