SOTW and Veritas Press History?

[A home for their hearts]

I'm trying to decide on history for us for next year. I want to study ancients with all my dc. I had decided on SOTW for my ds7 and then found Veritas Press, and fell in love with their book selection! We have never used VP, but I'm really leaning towards using it. I don't want to do the self-paced. How well with OTAE and NTGR mesh with SOTW? Should I just ditch SOTW and use VP? Could I do the two years of VP in one year? I really don't want to do it in 2 years but maybe that wouldn't be that big of a deal?

 

I'm planning on using Classical House of Learning Literature for my older two. Is this going to be too much to try to pull together?

 

Opinions, ideas and suggestions are all welcome!

[SilverMoon]

A home for their hearts said:

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[ByGrace3]

We did some integration of the two programs this year. We used SOTW as our spine, added in the VP cards where they fit, as well as some of the lit choices. VP filled a void for us this year where SOTW was lacking in a lot of the Biblical history. We used the CD as well for the timeline songs (but not faithfully) and even added in some of the VP projects here and there as there were several things fleshed out much more in VP. Looking back for first grade, I think I would swap them and make the VP cards my spine, line up SOTW with those and not read all of SOTW, but that is just me, ;) there was too much breadth, not enough depth. I think if we would have used more of the VP cards as a review tool, my dd would be walking away from this year with more. In fact, now that I type that out, I think we will spend some extra time with the cards this summer. :)

 

A few other things. VP in its entirety is a little dry to me. It is a lot of writing and worksheets. What we did use, we did as oral discussions. Even the back of the cards was pretty wordy and dry. I keep saying I am going to write up one line summaries to use the cards more for review. :tongue_smilie: The projects in the SOTW AG were better ime. The lit in VP is definitely the highlight, as well as the cards.

 

That said, I think I would have been perfectly happy using VP as a spine just picking and choosing and adding SOTW and AG. However, you can certainly use SOTW and add in the parts of VP that work for you. Here is the site that lines up the VP cards with SOTW...but if I remember correctly it wasn't all right? If that is true, I do have a list lining up the cards for year one if you want.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[Meriwether]

We use VP as a spine and add in SOTW for things VP doesn't cover and and the activities. I agree that the SOTW activities are more interesting than the VP ones.

[A home for their hearts]

Thanks everyone for all the information you've been very helpful.

 

I keep hearing about worksheets with VP but I don't see where worksheets are mentioned in the catalog? Are the included in the TM?

[SilverMoon]

A home for their hearts said:

 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[Kathleen.]

We did some integration of the two programs this year. We used SOTW as our spine, added in the VP cards where they fit, as well as some of the lit choices. VP filled a void for us this year where SOTW was lacking in a lot of the Biblical history. We used the CD as well for the timeline songs (but not faithfully) and even added in some of the VP projects here and there as there were several things fleshed out much more in VP. Looking back for first grade, I think I would swap them and make the VP cards my spine, line up SOTW with those and not read all of SOTW, but that is just me, ;) there was too much breadth, not enough depth. I think if we would have used more of the VP cards as a review tool, my dd would be walking away from this year with more. In fact, now that I type that out, I think we will spend some extra time with the cards this summer. :)

 

A few other things. VP in its entirety is a little dry to me. It is a lot of writing and worksheets. What we did use, we did as oral discussions. Even the back of the cards was pretty wordy and dry. I keep saying I am going to write up one line summaries to use the cards more for review. :tongue_smilie: The projects in the SOTW AG were better ime. The lit in VP is definitely the highlight, as well as the cards.

 

That said, I think I would have been perfectly happy using VP as a spine just picking and choosing and adding SOTW and AG. However, you can certainly use SOTW and add in the parts of VP that work for you. Here is the site that lines up the VP cards with SOTW...but if I remember correctly it wasn't all right? If that is true, I do have a list lining up the cards for year one if you want.

 

I found the VP Teacher's Manual with cards for Explorers to 1815 and 1815 to Present for a really great price. I've never heard of these books but I couldn't resist them.

 

Could you post your list lining up the cards? Thanks :001_smile:

[ByGrace3]

I found the VP Teacher's Manual with cards for Explorers to 1815 and 1815 to Present for a really great price. I've never heard of these books but I couldn't resist them.

 

Could you post your list lining up the cards? Thanks :001_smile:

 

I would be happy to post it, but I only have it done for AE and NTGR. I think the link above should have for that year, hopefully it is right! :tongue_smilie:

[Elfknitter.#]

I know nothing about VP, but why not use CHOLL grammar since you're planning to use it with your older children?

[j_thurm]

Did you like the veritas press teacher's guide better or the Easy Classical schedule. What is the History scholars schedule? Thanks!

 

I've used both for several years now. :001_smile: VP is our main course, and SOTW is perfect for when there just doesn't seem to be a good story for the little crew. Each VP history set is designed to teach grades 2-6, in spite of the way they arranged their website. I've found it easy to include first graders, and I've strengthened it up for a seventh grader, too. Often they were handed the same paper as their assignment. The first grader would compose two sentence narrations with me helping every step of the way, while the seventh grader would write a 3 paragraph summary.

 

There are LOTS of scheduling options for VP, and SOTW. Paula's Archives has free schedules lining them up, and I think the elementary VP Yahoo group used to have a schedule for combining both ancients years into one. (I did that our first pass, and spread them out the second time. There really is enough meat in that OTAE course to last a whole year, easily, but you can leave parts out and get through it faster.) If you call VP you can get just the history Scholars schedule for... $49? I think. That will line up all those extra books and such for you. The paper catalog has the card numbers listed for each extra literature suggestion. And yet another option, Easy Classical sells history schedules lining up VP and SOTW, including read alouds and more.

 

We used the free Self-Paced sample month last year, but I have no interest in relying on it. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it, and they did learn from it, but I don't want computer based anything for these ages. I did the scheduling myself for years, and I'll be purchasing the Easy Classical schedule for my younger ones for fall. We had a detour into My Father's World this school year that turned out to be a big ole flop, but it did teach me I could get used to someone else doing all that scheduling work for me. :D (The older kids are going off on big kid literature studies, one with VP's Omnibus.)

 

I've glanced at CHOLL, but not enough to know how VP would mesh with it.

[SilverMoon]

j_thurm said:

 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[GalmiBorn]

Moon-

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I do have a question. I noticed on your signature that you use VPhistory and lit. Do you have your kids do ALL the lit they suggest for the year and the correlating guides? If so, how do you schedule it for them. It seems like an aweful lot of writing to me....

Thanks.

[SilverMoon]

GalmiBorn said:

 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[A home for their hearts]

Apples to oranges; I'll use both. :001_smile: I described the Teacher's Guide about four posts up from this one; it does not have a schedule in it and the Easy Classical schedule will not replace it. Scholars is a schedule you can buy straight from Veritas Press.

 

Easy Classical and Scholars are actual schedules where someone has gone through lining up card and page numbers, extra projects, read aloud literature and such for you. They are not necessary, but they do a lot of the grunt work for you. I chose Easy Classical over Scholars for Modern because it lines up the SOTW and Guerber books we already have and love. They both line up History of US, and the encyclopedias (and more) are already lined up on the actual VP cards. Scholars is a very good schedule, too, but I probably would have ended up trying to stick those other books in there on my own, which would have defeated the point of paying someone else to make a schedule for me. ;)

 

I have used VP history for years with just the teacher's guide, and thoroughly enjoyed making the schedule myself. That's when my oldest was in the first VP history cycle. This year I will have two kids too old for that cycle, two kids right in it, a tag-a-long preschooler, and a toddler getting peanut butter on the books. I will thoroughly enjoy paying someone else to do a bit of that work for me this year. :D

 

Do you use the geography and writing from Easy Classical as well?

[SilverMoon]

A home for their hearts said:

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon