SOTW vs. MOH

[2queens&1princenmyhouse]

I'm looking for opinions from those who have used both. I was all prepared to buy SOTW (like, it's in my Amazon cart) and then picked up MOH from the library. Now I like it too and I don't know which would be better. My girls are older (9 and 11) and would do the middle and older student activities in MOH, depending on the level of difficulty and amount of time we have. I have not seen an activity guide for SOTW-I've just read the book. I've read reviews that say SOTW activities are best for k-2 students-agree/disagree?

 

If it matters, we would work 2 days a week for approximately 1.5-2 hours each session. Both girls are excellent readers and could definitely read SOTW independently and from what I've read in MOH, they could read it as well. I don't necessarily think they would do everything independently, but having that option occasionally would be nice.

This is our first year homeschooling, so we would be starting with the ancients.

[joysworld]

IMO, the story style is far superior in SOTW. I bought both SOTW and MOH ancients, and ended up using SOTW exclusively. I taught it at a co-op, and there were several parents that switched their 3rd/4th grader from the older history class to my history class because of all the projects we did.

[mommyto2]

We are using MOH because of some things in SOTW that we disagree with. I don't like the fact that there are discrepancies between the Biblical accounts in SOTW and the actual Bible. Also there isn't a clear distinction between fact and myth in SOTW. I like how MOH reads, and that it will work for us for years to come because the activities for all ages. But that being said, there are lots of people that like SOTW. I hope you find what works best for your family.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

We use both using this schedule! After seeing how they really fit together I don't think I would ever do one or the other again! If you don't want to 'read' both you could buy audio CD's for one and the book for the other! I actually have the audio cd's and the book for MOH so I will probably have ds's listen to the cd's for that and dd read and outline from the book. We only have the SOTW book though so I will be reading that since I am combining 3 kids Ancients next year.

[2queens&1princenmyhouse]

We use both using this schedule! After seeing how they really fit together I don't think I would ever do one or the other again! If you don't want to 'read' both you could buy audio CD's for one and the book for the other! I actually have the audio cd's and the book for MOH so I will probably have ds's listen to the cd's for that and dd read and outline from the book. We only have the SOTW book though so I will be reading that since I am combining 3 kids Ancients next year.

 

Wow! I really like how the two are paired together. Can you share a bit more about how you do activities and additional literature? I'm thinking I would buy MOH and use SOTW audio (b/c our library carries the CDs, but nothing for MOH). Would it be worth it to buy SOTW AG for the activities, maps and lit selections or is MOH ok for that?

[blessedmom3]

I used both last year and loved them both! The main program was MOH and we just listened to SOTW cds. It work great. I have the activity book, but never used it. I simply preferred printable notebooks , my older child narrated short sentences about what we read and/or colored pics ( many you can find for free , but I used holdthatthought.com cds for that)

[ezrabean2005]

We tried both early on and I strongly prefer SOTW. I think it is a matter of personal preference, but for quite awhile it seemed to only be bible characters / biblical history. So the people on our timeline were only biblical characters. Some things I felt were pretty silly such as putting dinosaurs on the ark. I don't know if that is true, and I certainly didn't want my kids thinking that's what mom thinks.

 

It felt embarrassing, honestly when we had visitors over and they saw our timeline. I wanted more "world" history that had events outside of the bible happening. Things that would show I was teaching my kids more than about Noah, Moses, and Shem. Then my entire worldview of history changed as I learned more myself and I couldn't teach from MOH at all.

 

So, for me MOH was too lopsided. We switched to SOTW and I am much happier. The writing style is much better and I feel it is more balanced.

[ezrabean2005]

double post

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Wow! I really like how the two are paired together. Can you share a bit more about how you do activities and additional literature? I'm thinking I would buy MOH and use SOTW audio (b/c our library carries the CDs, but nothing for MOH). Would it be worth it to buy SOTW AG for the activities, maps and lit selections or is MOH ok for that?

 

 

I bought the AG used (but need to get another this go around due to an unfortunate accident :001_huh:) The first time through I just had both dd's and we basically did a mix of literature and maps. I used more of the MOH maps for some reason than the SOTW but I can't remember now why that was :lol: I chose lit based on how close the book would match up for the longest (with future lessons) but really you could do books from one or the other and they would match up just fine. We stuck closer to the MOH because that was more chronological that SOTW though. I am working right now on making a schedule again because I, like a dummy, didn't save it the first go around for some dumb reason. If you are interested when I am done I can send it to you so you can see what you think.

[2queens&1princenmyhouse]

I bought the AG used (but need to get another this go around due to an unfortunate accident :001_huh:) The first time through I just had both dd's and we basically did a mix of literature and maps. I used more of the MOH maps for some reason than the SOTW but I can't remember now why that was :lol: I chose lit based on how close the book would match up for the longest (with future lessons) but really you could do books from one or the other and they would match up just fine. We stuck closer to the MOH because that was more chronological that SOTW though. I am working right now on making a schedule again because I, like a dummy, didn't save it the first go around for some dumb reason. If you are interested when I am done I can send it to you so you can see what you think.

 

That would be great! I see no sense in reinventing the wheel! :tongue_smilie:

[2queens&1princenmyhouse]

I bought the AG used (but need to get another this go around due to an unfortunate accident :001_huh:) The first time through I just had both dd's and we basically did a mix of literature and maps. I used more of the MOH maps for some reason than the SOTW but I can't remember now why that was :lol: I chose lit based on how close the book would match up for the longest (with future lessons) but really you could do books from one or the other and they would match up just fine. We stuck closer to the MOH because that was more chronological that SOTW though. I am working right now on making a schedule again because I, like a dummy, didn't save it the first go around for some dumb reason. If you are interested when I am done I can send it to you so you can see what you think.

 

I would love to see your schedule when you are done! I see no sense in reinventing the wheel! :tongue_smilie:

[Angie in VA]

I used both last year and loved them both! The main program was MOH and we just listened to SOTW cds. It work great. I have the activity book, but never used it. I simply preferred printable notebooks , my older child narrated short sentences about what we read and/or colored pics ( many you can find for free , but I used holdthatthought.com cds for that)

 

This, but both on audio.

[scrappyhappymama]

We are Christians, so I am not opposed *at all* to Biblical stories as a component of ancient history.

 

One of the first programs I bought was Mystery of History, but I was not pleased at all with the overwhelming emphasis on the history of the Jews in comparison to the rest of the ancient cultures. I don't own it anymore, but I recall particularly that the Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures were covered very superficially while much more obscure Bible stories were included. For example, the story of Nehemiah was one week and so was Alexander the Great. I like the story of Nehemian, but I don't think in the overall scheme of history he had as much impact on the world as Alexander the Great. Plus, we do our own Bible story studies with our kids, so I was not relying on our history curriculum to do that job.

 

For me, I preferred our study of ancient history to incorporate the Bible stories we know, and to help my children understand that these events were contemporaneous with other ancient historical events and cultures. For our family, SOTW did a better job of this. We like lots of hands on activities, so we used the SOTW AG, but we also used History Odyssey, which uses SOTW as a spine but also incorporates other living books and activities.