Sue G in PA Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Continuing my quest to find a US History curriculum for our co-op that is inexpensive and can be used with multiple ages (age range I'm looking at is 3rd-8th). Our co-op director really wants our entire K-12th co-op to study American History next year. She's not budging. :/ The curriculum choices so far are expensive and have been met with a bunch of "I can't afford that"s from many of the Moms. We really need something that is affordable, preferably Christian worldview and "meaty" enough for middle school yet readable enough for upper elem. After many weeks of searching, I have landed on SOTW Vol. 3 and 4. I know it is World History and I know it isn't Christian worldview (providential). However, I also know that while it is not providential in its presentation, it is not anti-God or anti-Christian and that it is well-written. We would want to try our best to get through Vol. 3 and 4 in one year. How doable is this? I know it wouldn't be the optimal way, but can it be done? I'm honestly all out of ideas that are affordable. With SOTW, our 3rd-5th class and 6th-8th class can be on the "same page" while the High Schoolers use a more American History specific curriculum. What says the Hive? Yes? No? You're crazy? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 How much time do you have a week? Could the children and their parents be relied upon to do homework sreading? I would say SOTW is Christian just not shouty or preachy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebacabunch Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 SOTW is a world history. DOes your director want a strict American history? How often does your coop meet? We do about 2 chapter a week to finish 1 sotw in a school year. WHat are the ages? Have you looked at the history pockets? Those are fun and cover a good amount of US history. I guess it just depends on the frequency of meetings, age of kids, and length of each class. I would be hard pressed to cover all of sotw3 and 4 with just my 2 kids at home. It would be a very superficial glance at the curriculum. Are you supposed to go with just one curriculum? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted March 8, 2013 Author Share Posted March 8, 2013 Children/parents would do the assigned reading during the week. Friday (co-op day) would be used for activities based on the reading, group projects that couldn't be done at home, etc. We are hoping to keep the class more "project based" than worksheet/test/lecture based. Does that make sense? So, yes, the children would do the reading at home. I have a copy of SOTW 4 and checked out samples online for SOTW 3. It looks like we could do it if the children read 3 chapters each week. This is roughly the equivalent of the amount of reading they would be required to do in a text like Notgrass America The Beautiful, for example (this is the curriculum our director wants to use but it is not affordable more most of our families, esp. those with children in multiple age levels). I thought SOTW was more "neutral" as far as religious tendency but if it has to be "classified" it would certainly lean more Christian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted March 8, 2013 Author Share Posted March 8, 2013 We do NOT have to use just one curriculum. I believe the preference is to study specifically American History. Our classes are broken up like this: K-2, 3rd-5th, 6th-8th and high school. Many parents have children in multiple classes. For this reason we are trying to find a curriculum that is affordable and could possibly be used in more than one age range. The current "top pick" is Notgrass America the Beautiful for 6th-8th and A Child's Story of America for 3rd-5th and History Pockets/other activites for K-2. That leaves high school...another pricy curriculum most likely. Notgrass is nearly another $100 and something like BJU US History is $50. :/ That's a lot of $$ if you have a child in EACH of those grade levels. Anyway, I'm just trying to figure out a good compromise, if at all possible. Thanks for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebacabunch Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 I vote for history pockets. There are k through 3 books and 4 through 6 plus books. THe 1 book is meant to be used by a teacher to make copies for all of her students which would make the curriculum very affordable (1 book plus the cost of copies). The history pockets for 4th grade and up are actually pretty fantastic. They are challenging and fun. Have you looked at them? Again, it would be one book for the teacher plus the price of copies for the students. There are several for 4 to 6 plus that would be appropriate for the 3rd through 8th although I would put the k=3 together and the 4-6 together and the 7-8 together. Another option would be to just do the chapters in the sotw books that cover American history. If the kids each had their own sotw workbook and textbook it wouldn't be too terribly expensive. Only the teacher would need the activity guide because all of the maps, etc are in the student workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 What about Biblioplan? The Companion can be used for all ages. They schedule lit and read alouds for all ages, and have maps, worksheets, coloring pages, timeline, and tests. I think they have a coop package as well. ETA: the guide is split into world and US so you could do just US. ETA dos: sorry, I missed that it was ONE year of US. Sorry, BP would be two years... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocelotmom Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 It could possibly be divided up such that you're reading the whole thing at home, but focusing primarily on the chapters dealing with US history in the class. It might require some out-of-order reading if you want it divided up evenly (this isn't necessarily awkward - often there will be a bunch of chapters grouped together dealing with the same time period in different areas), and you might want to skip some chapters, or make them optional. Looking through the TOC of volume 3, approximately 14 of 42 chapters deal directly with US history. Maybe encourage the older students to read the whole thing for more context, while focusing on just the US portions for the younger ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 I think two volumes in one year is too much--especially for the elementary ages. Middle schoolers might be able to do it, depending on the child... Maybe Memoria's American history for the olders? And the States and Capitals for the youngers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyto2 Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Have you considered using the books Landmark history of the American People and a couple of the The Story of The USA books and doing a few chapters a week. And for around $50-60 per family, all ages could use it. It would be easier to make it through that than trying to do both SoTW. I think history pockets would work for the youngers as a supplement, but I don't think there is enough there to be a stand alone curriculum. (And if I understand you correctly, you are looking for a curriculum that you could read at home and do a reinforcing activity together once a week?!?) Another option would be to let everyone choose their own curriculum and focus on a famous person's biography from US history during co-op each week. Good luck! Let us know what you pick! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebacabunch Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Is the coop supposed to cover that subject completely? I don't have a coop here and thought it was a supplement. Sotw is so fantastic. I would hate to moosh it all into a 1 year span. That takes away a lot of the magic of the series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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