Abbeygurl4 Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Biblioplan seems like it would be easier to combine a 4th and 8th grader and I like the layout. I like the Cool Histories but I don't like the timeline figures or the maps. Truthquest seems to be more age specific and I would probably cater to my older child and let my younger one tag along. BUT, I like the looks of the timeline figures, maps and notebooking add ons. Does one have more of a Sonlight feel, i.e. a lot of historical fiction? I love Sonlight, but I want more notebooking and and a little smaller of a guide. Is one more flexible than the other? Is one more open and go? Anything I need to be aware of with either curriculum? Any good TWTM threads I've missed on the two guides? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 The only major issue I've come across with TruthQuest is that there are far more lessons than time to cover them. And lessons will have sub-categories. For example, there may be 74 lessons in the book but one lesson might be "King Henry VIII" and under that it will list every single one of his wives and all the books you can use, the major players surrounding Henry including religious and historical figures, and Henry himself. You could spend weeks just on that one lesson. Pacing was our biggest struggle. So much information and so little time. We spent a year covering the Middle Ages and another year on the Renaissance/Reformation. I bought TruthQuest Age of America I and realized almost immediately that there is no way we could get through that book in a year. Unfortunately, I need to get through that time period in a year so we've decided to use something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom&nana Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 (edited) I agree with Daisy. TQ has a very detailed booklist. It is easy to get bogged down. I have TQ American History for Young Students 1 and TQ Beginnings/Old Testament/Ancient Egypt. In the past I tried to use TQ AHFYS 1 and I could not get a good pace, we would have been way more than one year with the topics they have listed in the guide. I have a difficult time knowing what to eliminate. I'm not very good with decision making, so TQ AHFYS 1 was hard to implement. This year I've been using the TQ Beginnings guide. It's great. We have really loved the commentary and I've been using it along with MFW CTG. So I'm only using a small part of the TQ booklist but I'm using all the commentary and letting it guide us instead of MFW CTG. We will most likely not finish it this year. It's more Bible than anything though, so I'm ok with using it for Bible next year. But I will use something else for History. As much as I like TQ, I am not good with making my own schedule and staying on track. I don't know what I'm going to use next year. I am considering SL and Biblioplan though. I think BP would be much easier to implement than TQ, since most of it is scheduled for you. I have read past reviews that it uses many of the books that SL uses. I believe it's scheduled for 3 days a week, so you may or may not like that. I like to do history 5 days a week. ETA: Oh forgot to answer your question. Yes, TQ does list books that are fiction and non-fiction. It will also list movies and activity books sometimes. You can see different samples of the guides on Christianbook, Exodusbooks, and the TQ site. Edited February 19, 2012 by mom&nana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeygurl4 Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 As much as I like TQ, I am not good with making my own schedule and staying on track. I don't know what I'm going to use next year. I am considering SL and Biblioplan though. I think BP would be much easier to implement than TQ, since most of it is scheduled for you. I have read past reviews that it uses many of the books that SL uses. I believe it's scheduled for 3 days a week, so you may or may not like that. I like to do history 5 days a week. That is REALLY good to know! I'm the same way and do NOT like making my own schedule and keeping myself on track. I need it in print in front of me. I little wiggle room is good :) Do you think you could use BP with MFW? We are using MFW RtR, but I really don't like the book basket. I need books listed and assigned so that they will be read. My library doesn't carry enough of the books either so I'd rather buy them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeygurl4 Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 The only major issue I've come across with TruthQuest is that there are far more lessons than time to cover them. And lessons will have sub-categories. For example, there may be 74 lessons in the book but one lesson might be "King Henry VIII" and under that it will list every single one of his wives and all the books you can use, the major players surrounding Henry including religious and historical figures, and Henry himself. You could spend weeks just on that one lesson. Pacing was our biggest struggle. So much information and so little time. We spent a year covering the Middle Ages and another year on the Renaissance/Reformation. I bought TruthQuest Age of America I and realized almost immediately that there is no way we could get through that book in a year. Unfortunately, I need to get through that time period in a year so we've decided to use something else. That's probably a bad thing for me. Too many choices and rabbit trails are not good for an ADD mom like me :tongue_smilie: Thank you for letting me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narrow Gate Academy Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Biblioplan seems like it would be easier to combine a 4th and 8th grader and I like the layout. I like the Cool Histories but I don't like the timeline figures or the maps. Truthquest seems to be more age specific and I would probably cater to my older child and let my younger one tag along. BUT, I like the looks of the timeline figures, maps and notebooking add ons. The commentary in the older guides is more age specific, but the book list includes all levels. We are using AOR 1 right now. I have my 5th and 7th read the commentary and discuss some parts of it with them. There are generally plenty of elementary level books that I can choose from for my 2nd grader as well. Does one have more of a Sonlight feel, i.e. a lot of historical fiction? I love Sonlight, but I want more notebooking and and a little smaller of a guide. The truthquest booklist for each topic lists general books first, then topic specific books, and then historical fiction. Not all topics have books in all three groups. Is one more flexible than the other? Is one more open and go? Anything I need to be aware of with either curriculum? Any good TWTM threads I've missed on the two guides? TruthQuest would definitely be more flexible. BP is probably more open and go. As far as scheduling, if you want to move quickly through TruthQuest then you'll want to choose a spine book or two. Let the spine be your primary reading and just check out additional library books for a book basket. We tend to cover 2-4 topics or subtopics a week. The girls outline topics that have 1 chapter in our spine and summarize topics that have more than one chapter or are covered by a separate library books like Haydn and Mozart last week. We started AOR 1 at the beginning of the year and are currently on topic 66, so we will not only finish AOR 1 but also part of AOR 2 this year. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom&nana Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 That is REALLY good to know! I'm the same way and do NOT like making my own schedule and keeping myself on track. I need it in print in front of me. I little wiggle room is good :) Do you think you could use BP with MFW? We are using MFW RtR, but I really don't like the book basket. I need books listed and assigned so that they will be read. My library doesn't carry enough of the books either so I'd rather buy them. For us MFW CTG seems pretty light, but we aren't doing the Deluxe package. I haven't really cared for the Book basket either, and I'm not good at regular library trips. I'm not sure if BP would help you there since I haven't used BP. I don't know if BP really schedules the literature. In looking at the samples, it just gives suggestions for books by grade. So you might actually have to figure out how much your child would read and when. Maybe someone who uses BP could help to answer that. In case you didn't know BP will let you request a 3 week sample for Ancients and Modern. On that page you can also see links to samples of everything else. That might help you to get a better feel for it. MFW RTR and BP both use SOTW and I think the Cool History has questions based upon SOTW, so that could add something to your MFW study. I like TQ for the commentary. The Beginnings guide has wonderful commentary that has led to many wonderful conversations between my dd and I. So I'm considering having those guides for the commentary alone and adding it to whatever we decide to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 BP does schedule the literature. I agree with Narrow Gate, I think BP would be considered more open and go, but TQ is more flexible. There have been a few people on the board who use TQ and BP together, much the same way the other poster uses MFW CTG and TQ. They let BP drive the schedule and add the TQ commentary to the schedule and add any books they like, just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeygurl4 Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 BP does schedule the literature. I agree with Narrow Gate, I think BP would be considered more open and go, but TQ is more flexible. There have been a few people on the board who use TQ and BP together, much the same way the other poster uses MFW CTG and TQ. They let BP drive the schedule and add the TQ commentary to the schedule and add any books they like, just a thought. Do you think using TQ Ancient Rome with MFW RtR would be a viable option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeygurl4 Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 The commentary in the older guides is more age specific, but the book list includes all levels. We are using AOR 1 right now. I have my 5th and 7th read the commentary and discuss some parts of it with them. There are generally plenty of elementary level books that I can choose from for my 2nd grader as well. The truthquest booklist for each topic lists general books first, then topic specific books, and then historical fiction. Not all topics have books in all three groups. TruthQuest would definitely be more flexible. BP is probably more open and go. As far as scheduling, if you want to move quickly through TruthQuest then you'll want to choose a spine book or two. Let the spine be your primary reading and just check out additional library books for a book basket. We tend to cover 2-4 topics or subtopics a week. The girls outline topics that have 1 chapter in our spine and summarize topics that have more than one chapter or are covered by a separate library books like Haydn and Mozart last week. We started AOR 1 at the beginning of the year and are currently on topic 66, so we will not only finish AOR 1 but also part of AOR 2 this year. HTH Have you used any of the A Journey Through Learning items with TQ? I'm wondering if the Binder-Builder or Notebook would be useful. I think the MFW notebook pages are a little lacking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Do you think using TQ Ancient Rome with MFW RtR would be a viable option? I think it would Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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