Middle School History Spine... ARRRGGGHHH!!! Help me decide!

[butterfly113]

We have a good overall foundational base of the four year cycle... so for 7th and 8th I am looking to go through an overview of world history, filling in gaps we may have missed along the way, cementing things, and making connections. I am looking to improve our discussions, work on writing skills, critical thinking etc... prepping for high school.

I have narrowed down to three spines...

 

1. MOH

2. Human Odyssey

3. Streams of Civilization

 

Whichever one I go with, we would go through all three volumes... (2 for Streams of Civilization)... over the course of 2 years.

 

I know that MOH is a biblical worldview, as well as Streams of Civ. Human Odyssey is secular. I like all three. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME??? Why can't I decide? Any thoughts or suggestions with BTDT to help steer me in one direction or another before it is steering off a cliff?!? lol :lol:

[Ann@thebeach]

Do you have a store or friend that has any of the books so you and your child can actually look through them? Maybe your child can decide for you :)

 

I often narrow it down to 2 choices and then let my son choose-more buy in that way!

[butterfly113]

We have looked at samples online for all three. We really like each of them and how they read. I am considering using Streams of Civ in high school... so I think it is safe to now say I am between MOH and Human Odyssey. Two completely different books/series... sigh......... :bigear:

[Chris in VA]

Not to throw a monkey wrench in there, but could you do 7th and 8th as only 2 years of world history (Ancient, Med/Ren) at the logic level, then do Early Modern in 9th using high school (rhetoric level) resources/spines, continuing with Modern in 10th, Ancient in 11, and Med/Ren in 12th (you can put government in there as a half-credit course if you just follow WTM)?

 

That way you wouldn't have to squeeze all the resources into 2 years.

 

Personally, I would use MOH for 7th and 8th. I'd supplement MOH to get more secular history in there, using Human Odyssey. I like the bible and church history the MOH has, very much so, but I do think they leave out certain important things.

 

For high school, Spielvogel was great--and so is SWB's stuff, but I'm not sure she'd be done with Early Mod yet (Med is done, and Ren will be out next year, so it's possible that Early Mod might be out in 2 years).

Edited August 7, 2012 by Chris in VA

[~Anna~]

I am using K12 Human Odyssey and Streams of Civilization for my 7th grader. I went with HO after reading so many good things about it. I had the Streams of Civilization because I found it for 25 cents at a curriculum sale and couldn't pass it up. I had read some negative things about it, so that's why I ended up with HO. But after I sat down and started reading it, I really liked Streams. So I decided to use both :-)

[Luckymama]

I think Human Odyssey rocks :D

[Halcyon]

I think Human Odyssey rocks :D

 

:iagree:

[Hoot]

We are doing Streams of Civilization this year at DS13's request. I already had it as a supplement for Geography. I was PLANNING on doing MOH but when DS saw them both he LOVED Streams of Civilization. He was kind of ambivalent about MOH.

 

It seems like there aren't many people doing Streams though, which is a bummer.

 

Personally, I am glad that DS chose Streams. I didn't love that MOH seemed to skim over a LOT of ancient history in favor of doing just the Biblical history. In addition to that, I really wasn't a fan of the activity book. It just felt too juvenile with lots of hands-on projects and stuff. DS would just not go for that and I would hate it. As for Human Odyssey, I haven't seen it - only previews online - but I really liked the look of it. The only thing I didn't like was that it was secular. Actually, I'm thinking that I'll get H.O. just to read through as a supplement if I can find it cheap enough.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon