Weaver or Monarch Curriculum - SOS

[Cara in Ky]

What are your experiences with the Weaver Curriculum from SOS? If I understand correctly I can teach the kids a group lesson and then have individual assignments.

I like a lot of what I have read on the Monarch Curriculum as well.

Opinions?

[Cara in Ky]

Anyone??????

[LinRTX]

I don't know about Monarch, but I used Weaver for years (before there were purchased by this company). I loved the program and used it until my oldest was in 7th. At that time my youngest was starting kindergarten and I had too large an age span to make the unit study method work for me.

 

I absolutely loved teaching with Weaver and fell my youngest did not have the same foundation. HTH

 

Linda

[sunflowerlady]

Hi, Cara. I have not used the Weaver curriculum, but I have used the SOS (Switched on Schoolhouse) computer based curriculum. I only used it once for Bible when dd was in about fourth grade.

 

Alpha Omega Publications sells the Weaver unit study curriculum as well as SOS and Lifepacs. If you can get to a homeschool fair or convention this spring or summer where they have a display, you could check them out in person. I have seen the Weaver in person, and it is a huge binder. Huge.:D Of course, that makes sense because it can be used be different levels and it includes most subjects.

 

You might be able to see samples on the Alpha Omega site or CBD site.

 

As for the SOS, we liked it fairly well. We may use it again this coming school year for a few subjects. There is some work involved for the parent because you go in and enter school dates and you may need to go in and check some assignments.

 

I hope you can get more info.:001_smile:

[Beth S]

I absolutely loved teaching with Weaver.

 

I agree!

 

We used the Weaver for K-4th grade (before it was bought out by A-O--1996-2000 or so). Loved it. Especially Kindergarten. We really established a love for learning and MY version of it worked great for our kids. Kindergarten is an expanded study of the 7 days of Creation, exploring literally all living things.

 

As our oldest was entering 4th grade, I was beginning to notice some gaps in the Weaver sequence. And dh brought home the newly-published WTM book. We wrapped up the Weaver cycle, turned to a more cyclical History/Science rotation.

 

Weaver taught me how to make our own unit studies and how to incorporate the age gap . . . so I was able to expand and progress into the Renaissance, etc. on my own.

 

It requires teacher prep, but it also gave me lots of joy in teaching our kids while they were younger. (Our kids are now 20, 18, 16, 13 and 9.)

 

Obviously it's a Christian curriculum, which integrates History, Bible, English, Geography, Science, and a little Math. They have add-ons for 7th grade +, but it really didn't seem like a full college-prep curriculum for us.

[Cara in Ky]

Thanks to all for your input!

[Ellie]

Alpha Omega publishes the Weaver; SOS/Monarch does not. :-)

 

The Weaver is a unit study. You cover all subjects (except math and English skills) while going through the Bible chronologically.

 

I preferred KONOS over the Weaver, but that's just me. There are many happy Weaver users. Unit studies are different from getting a stack of books and sitting your dc to work through them. :)

[Cara in Ky]

What is KONOS???

Thanks for the correction.

[Ellie]

KONOS is a unit study based on godly character traits such as trustworthiness, orderliness, and responsibility. KONOS and the Weaver were the first two products written by and for homeschoolers, back in the 80s. ;-)

 

KONOS has lots of permutations now, but I still prefer the three original volumes. You do Bible, history, geography, science, arts and crafts, drama, literature, all while studying kings and queens, Louis Braille, the Pilgrims, Daniel Boone, and more. :)

 

P.S. The site works better on Mozilla than on Explorer. It might work better on Chrome, too, but I don't have that. :)