History Odyssey vs. just SOTW and the Activity Guide?

[happypamama]

So someone mentioned History Odyssey recently, and I started looking into it.  I love the looks of it for the middle grades.  I also liked the way it looks for the early grades, and I see that it (at least the modern history; I didn't look at the others) uses SOTW.  What's the difference between using HO and using SOTW plus the SOTW Activity Guide for the early grades?  Would I want both the HO guide AND the SOTW AG, or is that overkill?

[Coffeemama]

Both would be overkill. I used HO Ancients with my DC 4 years ago (grades 1&3) and then used SOTW with activity guide for Medieval. We liked both. One difference was HO used SOTW out of order. I have now switched back to HO level 2 for ancients with my 5th and 7th graders. I really like how all of the assignments are layed out and the literature and writing assignments are integrated. I really love the little boxes to check in HO.

[happypamama]

Thank you, Coffeemama. That is what I needed to know. I have SOTW but not the AG, and the HO e-book isn't that much more expensive than the AG, plus it looks like it might incorporate more chapter books, which would work so well for us next year. Kinda wish I didn't already have really good plans for this year. :)

[kristi26]

I've actually been looking at HO for ODS for next year in high school.  I think it would work really well for him, especially with all the little check boxes! He would know exactly what needed done each day.  But I agree with the PP that said that adding the SOTW AG to that as well would be overkill!

[dzingirl]

Just an FYI, Pandia Press usually has a 25% off sale in September I think. So you may want to use the free sample and wait for the sale to buy.

[Haiku]

We really hated HO. It sucked every bit of enjoyment out of history. There was way too much to do, and we felt like we were running from writing this paragraph to marking this on the timeline to making this list to coloring this map ... and more, all in the same lesson. I think HO is just waaaay too busy. I'd stick with SOTW and the AG.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

We loved HO here, we did the middle ages last year.  We pick and chose which activities to do, we didn't do everything.

[happypamama]

Just an FYI, Pandia Press usually has a 25% off sale in September I think. So you may want to use the free sample and wait for the sale to buy.

 

Thanks for this information; I did not know about that and am glad to have the heads-up!  The free sample is pretty large.  We are actually planning to use the Prairie Primer for history this year, since if we don't use it this year, I think DD will be too old for it.  But I also don't know if the later books in the series will appeal to my boys, so my goal is to use the first four or five of the books and see how it goes.  If we end up zipping through it, we could start HO later this school year, and that would be fine too, so there's no hurry to buy it.  It just looks cool. :)

 

TaratheLiberator, I do see what you mean about a lot of work possibly sucking out the enjoyment of history.  Good to keep that in mind.  I like the HO emphasis on writing, though, and we're a little weaker on that.  So I'm thinking I will try HO and just cut out anything that's too much.  I liked a lot of the stuff in the SOTW AG (at least for ancients), but mostly we ended up doing the maps and supplemental books; my kids tend not to like coloring sheets, and they're picky about projects.  I'd like to focus more on projects that let them share what they're learning, whether that's writing papers or preparing PowerPoint presentations or whatever.  Not sure if HO will be right for that or not, but with the free samples, we can try and see!

[kristi26]

We really hated HO. It sucked every bit of enjoyment out of history. There was way too much to do, and we felt like we were running from writing this paragraph to marking this on the timeline to making this list to coloring this map ... and more, all in the same lesson. I think HO is just waaaay too busy. I'd stick with SOTW and the AG.

 

I could be totally wrong, but I don't think you're supposed to do everything in one lesson in one day.  I think it's perfectly okay to take some time on a lesson.  For instance, I'm looking at the Early Modern level one sample and it only lists 20 lessons in the TOC.  That would imply to me that each lesson will take far more than a day.  Maybe that's why it was overwhelming?

[Haiku]

I could be totally wrong, but I don't think you're supposed to do everything in one lesson in one day.  I think it's perfectly okay to take some time on a lesson.  For instance, I'm looking at the Early Modern level one sample and it only lists 20 lessons in the TOC.  That would imply to me that each lesson will take far more than a day.  Maybe that's why it was overwhelming?

 

I know that each lesson isn't supposed to be done in one day. But I felt like we spent so much time trying to work on things for the 87 sections of the history notebook that we lacked a big picture. It was just a series of little assignments. I understand that the assignments were supposed to create the big picture, but for us, they just made it feel like scattered busywork. When my kids, who have always loved history, started griping about history, I knew that HO was not working for us.

[Annie Laurie]

I know that each lesson isn't supposed to be done in one day. But I felt like we spent so much time trying to work on things for the 87 sections of the history notebook that we lacked a big picture. It was just a series of little assignments. I understand that the assignments were supposed to create the big picture, but for us, they just made it feel like scattered busywork. When my kids, who have always loved history, started griping about history, I knew that HO was not working for us.

 

Which level did you try? Curious, because I keep looking at level 2, feeling like it would help us to write more or something, but at the same time instincitvely feeling like my kids would not like it.

[momma2three]

I bought both HO and the SotW Activity guide, and there's a lot of crossover between activities.  The mapwork is basically the same, and HO takes most of its arts and crafts stuff from other books but many of the activities are the same as in the AG (not, as in, "they just copy eachother": more like "build a ziggurat out of sugar cubes" is just kind of the obvious project when you're studying that).

 

I like the discussion questions and the coloring pages in the AG, and I intend to keep using those (were're still on week 1, so you can get back to me later, LOL), but I plan on following HO activities for the most part.  For 1st grade, I like the dictionary work.  I also prefer the order of HO, and that they make the religious-stories-as-fact chapters optional.  And as I planned out the year, those chapters actually occur right around when we'll be taking a Christmas vacation, and taking a few weeks off from formal schoolwork as we travel, and it seems a perfect time both seasonally and practically for us to offer up a bunch of religious stories in the Judeo-Christian tradition.  I don't know if they do that on purpose, but it works well.

 

Basically, if you have some extra money to burn on curriculum, and like coloring sheets and discussion questions, I think there's enough extra stuff in the AG.  I don't regret buying both.  But I think it's a totally complete Ancient History curriculum with TONS of projects and activities if you just use HO.

 

Also, I'm pretty sure Pandia Press stuff only goes on sale 1x per year, and that's in March.  At least, I'm pretty sure when they had the sale last spring they said "our only sale of the year!" 

 

I'm soooo impressed by the upper levels, and I can't wait until we get there.  I'm really tempted to buy the high school level for ME, and work through it myself!  My ancient history education is pretty pathetic, and doesn't extend beyond Greece and Rome.

[mamaraby]

We use HO - I like SOTW, but imo it's colored a bit on the Christian/Western/Great White Men of history. HO has some really good secondary resources that even that out a bit and make our history study more diverse. A number of the secondary resources I've found in level 1 are out of print, but you can either get them used on Amazon or find them at the library. There are quite a few books listed for each lesson and picking can be a little overwhelming, but like anything, use your editor's eye and knowledge of your child and adjust accordingly.

[momma2three]

Oh and I wanted to mention... Pandia Press as a "try before you buy" where you can download the first few lessons... it's actually a pretty substantial number though I can't remember exactly (6?  8?), including the maps.  So definitely download that and see how it works for you.

 

You do need the Evan-More History pockets, but they have a 3 day free trial for their Teacher Filebox program, and you can download all the pockets during this period.  The title of all of them is on the cover of the ebook, so just search for each pocket name.

[CAmomof4]

I actually think HO is a little more concise than the AG.  In my experience with Ancients, the SOTW AG gives you way more projects than HO.  I think the difference is that with the AG, people assume you aren't going to do all the possible assignments, but with HO they have those darn checkboxes, so it feels like you're supposed to do them all!  

 

Even though HO is out of order with the reading, I like it better because it tries to group the civilizations together.  For instance, it puts the Egypt stuff together, whereas if you read SOTW in order, you're jumping around from Egypt one week, then to Assyria, then back to Egypt, over to India, back to Egypt, etc.  It got a little confusing for my daughter to remember what part of the world we were talking about.

 

For those reasons, and because HO was designed to fit a little more neatly into the 36-week school year (actually there are 35 lessons I think, in Ancients), I am currently preferring HO.

[sagira]

We tried HO (free 10 weeks I believe) because of the jumping around in SOTW, but in reality jumping around in the SOTW book was too much for both ds9 and me. We decided we liked SOTW just the way it is, but this year we're adding a timeline so we can see chronologically where it all fits. I think this will help greatly. Ds is going to be 10 and finishing SOTW with Modern Age.

[happypamama]

We use HO - I like SOTW, but imo it's colored a bit on the Christian/Western/Great White Men of history. HO has some really good secondary resources that even that out a bit and make our history study more diverse. A number of the secondary resources I've found in level 1 are out of print, but you can either get them used on Amazon or find them at the library. There are quite a few books listed for each lesson and picking can be a little overwhelming, but like anything, use your editor's eye and knowledge of your child and adjust accordingly.

 

This is good to know.  I think some diversity will be good, especially for the upper grades.

Oh and I wanted to mention... Pandia Press as a "try before you buy" where you can download the first few lessons... it's actually a pretty substantial number though I can't remember exactly (6?  8?), including the maps.  So definitely download that and see how it works for you.

 

You do need the Evan-More History pockets, but they have a 3 day free trial for their Teacher Filebox program, and you can download all the pockets during this period.  The title of all of them is on the cover of the ebook, so just search for each pocket name.

 

Thank you for letting me know this!  I was indeed able to find the history pockets on Teacher Filebox, and they look great too.  I've done a lot of putting together my own history programs, but tbh, HO looks like it may agree with me, and I'm sure I can benefit from having it ready to go.  I'm really excited to try it out!

[kristi26]

Oh and I wanted to mention... Pandia Press as a "try before you buy" where you can download the first few lessons... it's actually a pretty substantial number though I can't remember exactly (6?  8?), including the maps.  So definitely download that and see how it works for you.

 

You do need the Evan-More History pockets, but they have a 3 day free trial for their Teacher Filebox program, and you can download all the pockets during this period.  The title of all of them is on the cover of the ebook, so just search for each pocket name.

 

Can you elaborate on this free trial thing?  Where is it? Can you cancel after the three days? That sounds awesome!!

[bpskowski]

I intend to use both HO and SOTW AG this year.  In ancients I used HO and SOTW.  By the end, I got annoyed that it jumped around in the chapters.  So, for 2nd and 3rd years I used SOTW with AG.  Then, I was getting annoyed that I was jumping back and forth around the globe.  This year I intend to use both.  We are doing modern and my ds is 4th grade.  With the HO I'm hoping he'll be able to do much of it independently (and check those little boxes off).  However, I got the SOTW AG because, SWB starts having them do outlines as well as narrations.  So, I will do the narrations and the outlining with him.

[momma2three]

Can you elaborate on this free trial thing?  Where is it? Can you cancel after the three days? That sounds awesome!!

 

If you go here: http://www.teacherfilebox.com, you can register.  You do have to give your CC number, but supposedly if you cancel within 3 days, you're not charged.  Of course, I forgot, but I'm taking advantage of it by downloading a bunch of other cool looking stuff while I can.  They have TONS of stuff, I may end up keeping it.  If you're thinking about it, homeschool buyers coop has 30% off an annual subscription... I kind of wish I had just gone for that.