Help!! thinking of ditching MOH vol.1, what else is out there?

[Angie]

Hi, I'm a frazzled mom new to homeschooling. My 9th grader is on week 7 of MOH vol1. She loves learning ancient history, it was her choice because she wanted to learn about ancient Egypt and Greek mythology (we start ancient Egypt next week)......BUT:

*I don't feel confident that its enough work worth high school credit. I follow the websites advice for high school level, but my crazy schedule limits the time I have to really research and "add" things to beef it up. I live in a town with little resources....the library is a huge fail for us. We can never find what we are looking for. This is all new to me so I need something already planned out. She's breezing through all the lessons, activities and assignments. Its all a piece of cake for her (which of course, she does not mind). She's an advanced 9th grader so I dont feel this is enough of a challenge.

 

Is there something else I can pick up this late in the game to finish the year? I need something she can do independently. I don't mind overseeing her work and discussion time...I just can't piece anything together and hunt down outside resources. Is there such a thing? Inexpensive? Already planned out? It doesnt have to be a full year of ancients.

 

I love how Apologias biology is laid out. We basically check things off the syllabus as she completes it. Love that the study guide and tests are included...is there such a thing for history?

TIA

[Sweet Home Alabama]

You might research Biblioplan and History Odyssey (Pandia Press).  

My Father's World is very open and go; it is costly but wonderful.

[Angie]

Thank you, I just looked at Biblioplan....looks exactly like what I need.

 

Can anyone give me pros and cons for high school level?

I know "easy" isn't necessarily bad but is it challenging enough for an advanced 9th grader? How's the work load?

I like that I can still integrate MOH. Are there any tests or quizzes?

Sorry...lots of questions =)

[Sweet Home Alabama]

1Togo uses Biblioplan and is good to answer questions about it.  If you do a search for "Biblioplan"  on the high school board, there are plenty of threads you can read...

 

Here is one I saw  that references using Biblioplan and MoH:

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/463896-biblioplan-if-i-use-moh-is-the-companion-cool-history-etc-just-overkill/?view=findpost&p=4861983&hl=%2Bbiblioplan

[Angie]

Oh that link is helpful, thank you. Going to do a search now =)

[bugs]

Could you use MOH and add some "great books" to the reading?  This web site provides a good list: http://www.thegreatbooks.com/courses/ancient.  You can also do a search in this forum for some lists that others have used. LoriD has provided some awesome lists.

[Angie]

Hmmm, I have never heard of great books. I took a peek and I don't get it =( but I could be on information overload. As long as it doesn't require me to plan...I'll definitely take a closer look. Thank you

[Angie]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with Biblioplan. I do have a question on the Lit part so hopefully someone who use will see this post and shed some light for me. I downloaded the 3 week sample. The family guide shows a note in the Lit section "see annotated book list.....blah blah" for all 3 weeks. Not sure what its referring to but I did view the Yr1 Advanced book list.

So my question is; Does my student pick any Lit book and we just have to plug that in to the schedule? Or does it eventually schedule Lit that goes along with the lessons?

I've scanned this forum for answers, the only thing I read so far was that the student can choose any book from the list.

If someone can share how that works it will help me out tremendously. =)

[TechWife]

Look at My Father's World. It is a wonderful program and everything is planned out for you. Ninth grade is Ancients. It includes history, English & Bible. If you need to, you could purchase the planning guide and then get the rest of the books from the library. 

 

 

[betancourt6]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with Biblioplan. I do have a question on the Lit part so hopefully someone who use will see this post and shed some light for me. I downloaded the 3 week sample. The family guide shows a note in the Lit section "see annotated book list.....blah blah" for all 3 weeks. Not sure what its referring to but I did view the Yr1 Advanced book list.

So my question is; Does my student pick any Lit book and we just have to plug that in to the schedule? Or does it eventually schedule Lit that goes along with the lessons?

I've scanned this forum for answers, the only thing I read so far was that the student can choose any book from the list.

If someone can share how that works it will help me out tremendously. =)

Hi Angie! I was in the same "boat" that you are in, and finally was able to narrow it down to 2 choices: Biblioplan or Illuminations. We used MoH 1 last year and are just finishing up MoH 2 to begin volume 3 before Christmas. Our children are in 9th, 7th, and 4th grades, and I had the same concerns as far as high school credits. Illuminations is from Bright Ideas Press (MoH publishers) and was created specifically to use with MoH, along with other subjects. It is a great program that includes literature suggestions and guides for grades 3-8 and high school. I was also able to get my hands on Biblioplan Year 2, since it utilizes MoH 2 & 3. I love that BP also has the book lists and literature suggestions, especially for high school. The annotated book list is in the Family Guide, though I don't believe they included it in the free 3-week sample. I had purchased the Ancients Year 1 Family Guide, but am not currently using it. If you haven't purchased it from BP just yet, let me know and I can explain it to you via email. My email is below also. I'm really leaning towards BP, but am still deciding on both. We do love MoH, so it's a win-win either way, since they both use MoH in these programs. By the way, Bright Ideas Press will be having an after Thanksgiving Day sale, if you'd like to check out Illuminations. That would probably be a great way to save money. Either way, both programs are excellent!

 

Blessings, Jackie

the betancourt 6 {at} gmail dot com

[coffeefreak]

Jackie and I have been talking all semester via e-mail about this (Hi Jackie! :seeya: )  My Ancient History switch was last year, and I went from MOH to Beautiful Feet.  We LOVE Beautiful Feet Ancients.  I love the price, I love the ease of use (open and go), and I love that my daughter can do it independently. OH, and I love that it is 2 credits, history and literature. Here's the link to the program: http://bfbooks.com/Literature-Packs/Ancient-History-Packs  And here's the link to the credit breakdown:  http://bfbooks.com/What-credits-am-I-able-to-award-my-high-school-student-if-he-uses-BFB

 

 If you've already decided to go with Biblioplan, ignore me, but I decided to pop in and throw one more option in there if you were still on the fence.

 

Blessings!

Dorinda

[txhomemom]

In case anyone wants to know more about the annotated book list for high school with Biblioplan, I just recently purchased the ancients family guide and as an example, in the first unit they list: The Book of Genesis, A Case for a Creator (Strobel), Paradise Lost (Milton), The Epic of Gilgamesh (Sandars), Greenleaf Guide to Ancient Literature, and Eye of the Oracle (Davis).

 

There are also links on their website to the books used which take you to Amazon or Christianbook. Here is an example of what would be on the annotated book list for high school for the entire ancients year: Biblioplan Grades 8-12

 

So far, we have not started officially using Biblioplan yet (I have a 9th grader), just purchased the family guide so I could decide for sure if it was the right choice for us. With the free sample they give you and the family guide you can try it out for the first 3 weeks and see if it works or not. Some of the pluses I see so far with Biblioplan: nice booklists for all ages with great descriptive information about the books, suggestions for additional movies, books for projects, or audio recordings, the options of using several different spines, the companion guide which could be used as a spine by itself, and the inclusion of mapwork and questions that are already organized by weeks. I also love that they have ebook versions of everything and that you can click on their booklist links to get to amazon and order books.

 

I did find a few minor mistakes in the family guide, I may find more when I begin using it, nothing to keep me from using it, but the perfectionist in me wants to go in and correct the mistakes. We probably won't use any of their writing ideas because they only give one topic to pick from and my dd usually likes to come up with her own ideas.

 

As far as earning high school credit for world history, my dd will be doing the following to earn credit: reading 1-2 books from the annotated book list per unit, completing the maps each week and the cool history questions, reading the companion for each unit, and we will be adding in other reading and projects along the way (we have a lot of additional books on egypt, greece, etc). If this does not end up being enough to keep my dd busy, then I will readjust later, but for now this is the plan.

 

I am short on time as well, so to get organized I bought plastic file folder type boxes from the container store and use a different box for each subject. Actually, I had to get two for history since there is so much to put in there. Here is a link to the bins: Container Store Multipurpose Bin

 

I put in the bin everything needed for history, the Biblioplan guide, and any books, activity books, historical books, whatever went with the topic for the unit we were on. The first one I put together has books pertaining to egypt and mesopotamia. I also set up bins for english/language arts with books/workbooks pertaining to grammar, writing, and literature. I have another one for math, one for science, and one for electives. I decided to go with the bins over a cart with drawers because we typically homeschool in various rooms in the house and I needed something easy to transport. Whatever subject we are working on we just grab the bin and go.

[1Togo]

I don't have time to read all the posts, but I see that someone mentioned we use Biblioplan.  We do, and it is a perfect fit for us.  Our schedule looks like this:

 

Monday - Companion & Cool History

Tuesday - Cool History

Wednesday - Cool History

Thursday - Maps & Study

Friday - Timeline & Study

 

For Year 1, the workload was lighter, so dd could do the Cool History in two days, and history/geo was a four day schedule.  For Year 11, it is five days.  As regards literature, the Family Guide provides suggestions for reading and literature for all ages.  You choose the books and what you want to do with them; i.e. just read, use a study guide, write papers, etc.  We used Smarr lit guides for Year 1, and Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings for Year 2 ( currently finishing this).   We floundered around with classical history approaches before using BP, so we are only going to get through three years - Year 1, 2, and 4.  We've already done a lot with Early American history, so we are skipping Year 3.  I wish we could have done all four years.

 

As regards credits, I am giving the following:

 

World History - 1 credit for Years 1 & 2

World Geography - 1 credit for Years 1 & 2

Modern History - 1 credit for Year 4

Bible - 1 credit each year because dd does more than read the scheduled Bible; i.e. various study materials.

Literature, which is part of English - 1 credit each year because dd does more than read the books; i.e. Smarr guides, etc.

 

For these credits, the daily schedule has a time slot for history/geo (about 1 hour), Bible (about 1 hour) and literature (1 hour plus).   We do other work as part of English (specific writing instruction, grammar review, timed writing prep), so English, like math, science, and Latin, takes an hour plus. 

 

I really like the flexible structure we have with BP.  BP provides the spine, maps, tests and assignments for history/geo, and then we choose what we want for Bible and literature.  

 

Hth,

 

1togo

 

Adding this about organization using Year 1 as an example:

 

Since I am working with only one high school student, who works independently, organization is a snap.  I print the family guide for my teacher binder and check off things as we go.  Dd has a large binder for World History I with labeled dividers for each of the BP chapters; i.e. Creation, Egypt/Noah, Sumer/Babel, etc.  All related work for that chapter; i.e. Cool History, maps, literature, and Bible are put in this binder after the Unit tests  are finished.  Unit tests are put in the front of the big binder.  This binder gets full and is difficult to manage for daily work, so dd also has a smaller binder for her in-progress history/geography.  I print the Cool History and maps for one full unit and put them in the smaller binder.  When she completes a unit and takes the tests, she puts all of her work in the big binder in the appropriate sections.  I buy the blended bundles with a printed Companion (too big to print) and pdf files for everything else.

 

Using this system, you will have four binders at the end of high school that contain history/geo, Bible, and literature.  Dd likes to save everything, but needs help with organization, so this works for us. 

[Angie]

Hi Angie! I was in the same "boat" that you are in, and finally was able to narrow it down to 2 choices: Biblioplan or Illuminations. We used MoH 1 last year and are just finishing up MoH 2 to begin volume 3 before Christmas. Our children are in 9th, 7th, and 4th grades, and I had the same concerns as far as high school credits. Illuminations is from Bright Ideas Press (MoH publishers) and was created specifically to use with MoH, along with other subjects. It is a great program that includes literature suggestions and guides for grades 3-8 and high school. I was also able to get my hands on Biblioplan Year 2, since it utilizes MoH 2 & 3. I love that BP also has the book lists and literature suggestions, especially for high school. The annotated book list is in the Family Guide, though I don't believe they included it in the free 3-week sample. I had purchased the Ancients Year 1 Family Guide, but am not currently using it. If you haven't purchased it from BP just yet, let me know and I can explain it to you via email. My email is below also. I'm really leaning towards BP, but am still deciding on both. We do love MoH, so it's a win-win either way, since they both use MoH in these programs. By the way, Bright Ideas Press will be having an after Thanksgiving Day sale, if you'd like to check out Illuminations. That would probably be a great way to save money. Either way, both programs are excellent!

 

Blessings, Jackie

the betancourt 6 {at} gmail dot com

 

Hi Jackie...sorry I'm late to respond, its been crazy around here. But I too have been bouncing around between BP and Illuminations. I really thought I would have purchased one of them by Black Friday.....but, our finances took a big hit. I have no funds at the moment to buy any curriculum =( I'm so bummed. I'm praying for a miracle because I would really love to keep her going. She's only finished the 1st quarter. I actually was just sitting down to figure how to move forward for now and decided to check the forum.

I'm definitely going to keep your email, thank you...I'll be in touch

[Angie]

In case anyone wants to know more about the annotated book list for high school with Biblioplan, I just recently purchased the ancients family guide and as an example, in the first unit they list: The Book of Genesis, A Case for a Creator (Strobel), Paradise Lost (Milton), The Epic of Gilgamesh (Sandars), Greenleaf Guide to Ancient Literature, and Eye of the Oracle (Davis).

 

There are also links on their website to the books used which take you to Amazon or Christianbook. Here is an example of what would be on the annotated book list for high school for the entire ancients year: Biblioplan Grades 8-12

 

So far, we have not started officially using Biblioplan yet (I have a 9th grader), just purchased the family guide so I could decide for sure if it was the right choice for us. With the free sample they give you and the family guide you can try it out for the first 3 weeks and see if it works or not. Some of the pluses I see so far with Biblioplan: nice booklists for all ages with great descriptive information about the books, suggestions for additional movies, books for projects, or audio recordings, the options of using several different spines, the companion guide which could be used as a spine by itself, and the inclusion of mapwork and questions that are already organized by weeks. I also love that they have ebook versions of everything and that you can click on their booklist links to get to amazon and order books.

 

I did find a few minor mistakes in the family guide, I may find more when I begin using it, nothing to keep me from using it, but the perfectionist in me wants to go in and correct the mistakes. We probably won't use any of their writing ideas because they only give one topic to pick from and my dd usually likes to come up with her own ideas.

 

As far as earning high school credit for world history, my dd will be doing the following to earn credit: reading 1-2 books from the annotated book list per unit, completing the maps each week and the cool history questions, reading the companion for each unit, and we will be adding in other reading and projects along the way (we have a lot of additional books on egypt, greece, etc). If this does not end up being enough to keep my dd busy, then I will readjust later, but for now this is the plan.

 

I am short on time as well, so to get organized I bought plastic file folder type boxes from the container store and use a different box for each subject. Actually, I had to get two for history since there is so much to put in there. Here is a link to the bins: Container Store Multipurpose Bin

 

I put in the bin everything needed for history, the Biblioplan guide, and any books, activity books, historical books, whatever went with the topic for the unit we were on. The first one I put together has books pertaining to egypt and mesopotamia. I also set up bins for english/language arts with books/workbooks pertaining to grammar, writing, and literature. I have another one for math, one for science, and one for electives. I decided to go with the bins over a cart with drawers because we typically homeschool in various rooms in the house and I needed something easy to transport. Whatever subject we are working on we just grab the bin and go.

I love the bin idea. I need to be more organized like that. Thanks for giving me more insight on the book list

[Angie]

I don't have time to read all the posts, but I see that someone mentioned we use Biblioplan. We do, and it is a perfect for us. Our schedule looks like this:

 

Monday - Companion & Cool History

Tuesday - Cool History

Wednesday - Cool History

Thursday - Maps & Study

Friday - Timeline & Study

 

For Year 1, the workload was lighter, so dd could do the Cool History in two days, and history/geo was a four day schedule. For Year 11, it is five days. As regards literature, the Family Guide provides suggestions for reading and literature for all ages. You choose the books and what you want to do with them; i.e. just read, use a study guide, write papers, etc. We used Smarr lit guides for Year 1, and Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings for Year 2 ( currently finishing this). We floundered around with classical history approaches before using BP, so we are only going to get through three years - Year 1, 2, and 4. We've already done a lot with Early American history, so we are skipping Year 3. I wish we could have done all four years.

 

As regards credits, I am giving the following:

 

World History - 1 credit for Years 1 & 2

World Geography - 1 credit for Years 1 & 2

Modern History - 1 credit for Year 4

Bible - 1 credit each year because dd does more than read the scheduled Bible; i.e. various study materials.

Literature, which is part of English - 1 credit each year because dd does more than read the books; i.e. Smarr guides, etc.

 

For these credits, the daily schedule has a time slot for history/geo (about 1 hour), Bible (about 1 hour) and literature (1 hour plus). We do other work as part of English (specific writing instruction, grammar review, timed writing prep), so English, like math, science, and Latin, takes an hour plus.

 

I really like the flexible structure we have with BP. BP provides the spine, maps, tests and assignments for history/geo, and then we choose what we want for Bible and literature.

 

Hth,

 

1togo

 

Adding this about organization using Year 1 as an example:

 

Since I am working with only one high school student, who works independently, organization is a snap. I print the family guide for my teacher binder and check off things as we go. Dd has a large binder for World History I with labeled dividers for each of the BP chapters; i.e. Creation, Egypt/Noah, Sumer/Babel, etc. All related work for that chapter; i.e. Cool History, maps, literature, and Bible are put in this binder after the Unit tests are finished. Unit tests are put in the front of the big binder. This binder gets full and is difficult to manage for daily work, so dd also has a smaller binder for her in-progress history/geography. I print the Cool History and maps for one full unit and put them in the smaller binder. When she completes a unit and takes the tests, she puts all of her work in the big binder in the appropriate sections. I buy the blended bundles with a printed Companion (too big to print) and pdf files for everything else.

 

Using this system, you will have four binders at the end of high school that contain history/geo, Bible, and literature. Dd likes to save everything, but needs help with organization, so this works for us.

Wow, thanks for breaking down your schedule. I love to see how others are managing their days.

What time does she start her day? And how many hours a day of school does she do?

Right now my girl is taking English Honors and Geometry with FLVS and it is A LOT of work so she hasnt been able to fit in a LOT of time for History, Literature reading and Biology. She just finished the 1st quarter of MOH, and module 5 in Apologias Biology. With the online classes taking up so much time and extra curricular activities there just doesn't seem to be enough time in a day

[MerryAtHope]

Wow, thanks for breaking down your schedule. I love to see how others are managing their days.

What time does she start her day? And how many hours a day of school does she do?

Right now my girl is taking English Honors and Geometry with FLVS and it is A LOT of work so she hasnt been able to fit in a LOT of time for History, Literature reading and Biology. She just finished the 1st quarter of MOH, and module 5 in Apologias Biology. With the online classes taking up so much time and extra curricular activities there just doesn't seem to be enough time in a day

 

If she is doing a lot of other harder classes, I don't think it's such a bad thing to let one subject be easier. MOH does increase in length and difficulty as you progress in the levels, so it will become less of an issue. Options for you:

 

1--set a time limit for her to work on MOH. We do an hour per day for a credit, aiming for 150-180 hours of work for the year. If she's working about that much now, then let her be and keep going as you are. If she's not working that much, then have her spend more time delving into topics online to learn more about them. For example, she can learn about more Pharaohs, look at more examples of Egyptian art online or at the library--have her learn how to research instead of thinking you need to do it all

 

BTW, here's a fun link talking about how the plagues in Exodus were against the gods of Egypt.

 

2--add a spine text such as the Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (I think there may be 2 with similar titles--you want the one geared toward high school, not elem.). Beautiful resource, the pictures add a lot to the studies, and it has more information on each of the cultures. We have also enjoyed adding in the Famous Men books. (Famous Men of Ancient Greece, Famous Men of Ancient Rome, etc...)

 

3--double up. Have her do MOH 1 and 2 this year, because it's easy to read 2 MOH 1 lessons in a day. Then she could do MOH 3 for 10th grade, MOH 4 in 11th, and have 12th for either US history, government, or whatever else you might want to cover.

 

I like to combine MOH with Sonlight, and if you are interested in that, here's more on what we've done.

 

HTH some! I think you can find a way to bump it up so that it's enough without totally changing everything. Illuminations and Biblioplan are good suggestions too.

 

Merry :-)

[Angie]

If she is doing a lot of other harder classes, I don't think it's such a bad thing to let one subject be easier. MOH does increase in length and difficulty as you progress in the levels, so it will become less of an issue. Options for you:

 

1--set a time limit for her to work on MOH. We do an hour per day for a credit, aiming for 150-180 hours of work for the year. If she's working about that much now, then let be and keep going as you are. If she's not working that much, then have her spend more time delving into topics online to learn more about them. For example, she can learn about more Pharaohs, look at more examples of Egyptian art online or at the library--have her learn how to research instead of thinking you need to do it all

 

BTW, here's a fun link talking about how the plagues in Exodus were against the gods of Egypt.

 

2--add a spine text such as the Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (I think there may be 2 with similar titles--you want the one geared toward high school, not elem.). Beautiful resource, the pictures add a lot to the studies, and it has more information on each of the cultures. We have also enjoyed adding in the Famous Men books. (Famous Men of Ancient Greece, Famous Men of Ancient Rome, etc...)

 

3--double up. Have her do MOH 1 and 2 this year, because it's easy to read 2 MOH 1 lessons in a day. Then she could do MOH 3 for 10th grade, MOH 4 in 11th, and have 12th for either US history, government, or whatever else you might want to cover.

 

I like to combine MOH with Sonlight, and if you are interested in that, here's more on what we've done.

 

HTH some! I think you can find a way to bump it up so that it's enough without totally changing everything. Illuminations and Biblioplan are good suggestions too.

 

Merry :-)

You know Merry I was thinking the same thing. That it may not be so bad to have history a little easier. I have been finding articles, documentaries and free lessons to add to MOH lessons. And I have even added lessons to expand on topics that interest her. For instance, I found some great lessons on PBS online for Ancient Egypt. I also have her answer one in-depth essay question from each group of 3 lessons, and she does 1-2 "older students" activity for every 3 lesson, plus mapping and memory cards. I was burned out on planning since I have a crazy schedule. But I just decided to have her take this month off for just History so I can plan out more lessons for her since I have to hold off on any purchases. I have her reading the Iliad for now. She's only finished the 1 st quarter of MOH so I don't know if we can squeeze in MOH2.

[Angie]

If she is doing a lot of other harder classes, I don't think it's such a bad thing to let one subject be easier. MOH does increase in length and difficulty as you progress in the levels, so it will become less of an issue. Options for you:

 

1--set a time limit for her to work MOH. We do an er day for a credit, aiming for 150-180 hours of work for the year. If she's working about that much now, then let her be and keep going as you are. If she's not working that much, then have her spend more time delving into topics online to learn more about them. For example, she can learn about more Pharaohs, look at more examples of Egyptian art online or at the library--have her learn how to research instead of thinking you need to do it all

 

BTW, here's a fun link talking about how the plagues in Exodus were against the gods of Egypt.

 

2--add a spine text such as the Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (I think there may be 2 with similar titles--you want the one geared toward high school, not elem.). Beautiful resource, the pictures add a lot to the studies, and it has more information on each of the cultures. We have also enjoyed adding in the Famous Men books. (Famous Men of Ancient Greece, Famous Men of Ancient Rome, etc...)

 

3--double up. Have her do MOH 1 and 2 this year, because it's easy to read 2 MOH 1 lessons in a day. Then she could do MOH 3 for 10th grade, MOH 4 in 11th, and have 12th for either US history, government, or whatever else you might want to cover.

 

I like to combine MOH with Sonlight, and if you are interested in that, here's more on what we've done.

 

HTH some! I think you can find a way to bump it up so that it's enough without totally changing everything. Illuminations and Biblioplan are good suggestions too.

 

Merry :-)

Oh Merry, I've read your blog back when I was deciding to use MOH or not. (I left a comment). Your post was helpful in making my decision.

Here's where I'm at today, I hope you all don't mind me thinking out loud here. maybe someone can tell me what they think:

EDITED

UPDATE!!!!!: Im going to have her finish vol1 and if a miracle happens where I can get the BP I'll add it in. I'm going to schedule her to finish out the volume in 18 weeks. That's 6 lessons a week: read 3 MOH lessons & any readings I can include from Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and other sources on Mondays, 1 lesson activity+memory cards+mapping on Tuesdays, 3 more lessons + KFE/ others on Thursday, quiz on Fridays. She'll also be reading 20 minutes a day from a main literature source (ex. Iliad). How's that sound?

I also have her answering any activity questions in depth. My problem is I don't know how to grade essay questions. Any tips?

Anyway, sorry to sound all over the place. But its helped coming on the forum to work out my thoughts. I'm grateful to you ladies who have participated with me lol

I promise I'm feeling less frantic now

[betancourt6]

This is a wonderfully helpful thread, I'm going to come back and read it all this evening!

[MerryAtHope]

Sounds good! I look at the essays as a process--they'll learn more over time how to research and write them. I mainly focus on the history content. If they are engaged, learning new things, showing interest and attempting to do a good job--that's worth an A in my book. If needed, work on writing skills outside of history class, if that's an area of struggle. I don't take off for that for young highschool students especially (though some college profs will, and I want to eventually prepare for that). 

[Angie]

nds good! I look at the essays as a process--they'll learn more over time how to research and write them. I mainly focus on the history content. If they are engaged, learning new things, showing interest and attempting to do a good job--that's worth an A in my book. If needed, work on writing skills outside of history class, if that's an area of struggle. I don't take off for that for young highschool students especially (though some college profs will, and I want to eventually prepare for that).

Ok then I'll stick to the essay questions and not worry about grading it too much. I like to read her answers to see how much she knows. She's a great writer, she's a note taker and will do her research, and she includes a lot of content. She's working on writing skills in her English Honors class....that's one of the online classes so that's covered.

[betancourt6]

I don't have time to read all the posts, but I see that someone mentioned we use Biblioplan.  We do, and it is a perfect fit for us.  Our schedule looks like this:

 

Monday - Companion & Cool History

Tuesday - Cool History

Wednesday - Cool History

Thursday - Maps & Study

Friday - Timeline & Study

 

For Year 1, the workload was lighter, so dd could do the Cool History in two days, and history/geo was a four day schedule.  For Year 11, it is five days.  As regards literature, the Family Guide provides suggestions for reading and literature for all ages.  You choose the books and what you want to do with them; i.e. just read, use a study guide, write papers, etc.  We used Smarr lit guides for Year 1, and Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings for Year 2 ( currently finishing this).   We floundered around with classical history approaches before using BP, so we are only going to get through three years - Year 1, 2, and 4.  We've already done a lot with Early American history, so we are skipping Year 3.  I wish we could have done all four years.

 

As regards credits, I am giving the following:

 

World History - 1 credit for Years 1 & 2

World Geography - 1 credit for Years 1 & 2

Modern History - 1 credit for Year 4

Bible - 1 credit each year because dd does more than read the scheduled Bible; i.e. various study materials.

Literature, which is part of English - 1 credit each year because dd does more than read the books; i.e. Smarr guides, etc.

 

For these credits, the daily schedule has a time slot for history/geo (about 1 hour), Bible (about 1 hour) and literature (1 hour plus).   We do other work as part of English (specific writing instruction, grammar review, timed writing prep), so English, like math, science, and Latin, takes an hour plus. 

 

I really like the flexible structure we have with BP.  BP provides the spine, maps, tests and assignments for history/geo, and then we choose what we want for Bible and literature.  

 

Hth,

 

1togo

 

Adding this about organization using Year 1 as an example:

 

Since I am working with only one high school student, who works independently, organization is a snap.  I print the family guide for my teacher binder and check off things as we go.  Dd has a large binder for World History I with labeled dividers for each of the BP chapters; i.e. Creation, Egypt/Noah, Sumer/Babel, etc.  All related work for that chapter; i.e. Cool History, maps, literature, and Bible are put in this binder after the Unit tests  are finished.  Unit tests are put in the front of the big binder.  This binder gets full and is difficult to manage for daily work, so dd also has a smaller binder for her in-progress history/geography.  I print the Cool History and maps for one full unit and put them in the smaller binder.  When she completes a unit and takes the tests, she puts all of her work in the big binder in the appropriate sections.  I buy the blended bundles with a printed Companion (too big to print) and pdf files for everything else.

 

Using this system, you will have four binders at the end of high school that contain history/geo, Bible, and literature.  Dd likes to save everything, but needs help with organization, so this works for us. 

 

[betancourt6]

This is excellent and oh-so-helpful, 1togo! I was wondering how we were going to organize it all, and you've made it pretty plain and simple. I have Year 2 in eBook format, but will most likely get Year 3 for next year in blended format, since I agree that the companion is way too big to print on my own. Since we've used it before, I am adding the literature guides from Illuminations Year 3 (Bright Ideas Press) for my 9th grade daughter. The only reason I decided to add those is because we used Illuminations last year and really enjoyed the guides. Some of the guides are sold separately on the BIP website, but it was way more cost effective to get the year of Illum. instead of purchasing the guides alone. I also use their lesson plans for a couple of the other subjects, like writing and English from the Roots Up. I will say that Biblioplan is more than enough by way of History and Literature, for sure. My daughter just liked the literature selection that Illum. offered for this particular year. We will have to re-visit this for next fall. We are quite new to BP, but have really enjoyed it so far and love the quality of the curricula. The customer service is outstanding, which is a big thing in my book!

[mom@shiloh]

 I'm using MOH III right now, but have been considering using either Illuminations or Biblioplan next year. I'd like things to be tied together a bit better and I'd like some ideas for discussion questions for high school. So, some questions:

 

MOH IV hasn't been published yet.  Any news on when that will be available?  Same with Biblioplan Year 3.  I wanted to use it for this year, but it didn't come out.  If I use it for next year, how will that fit in after MOH III?  

 

Can anyone do a comparison of Illuminations and Biblioplan in terms of high school discussion questions?

 

It seemed to me that Illuminations was more of a complete program, incorporating LA and maybe science as well.  Is that true?

 

Would you use a separate LA/English class for either BP of Illuminations or is it complete?  

 

TIA

[MerryAtHope]

 

MOH IV hasn't been published yet.  Any news on when that will be available?  

 

Last I heard, it's on schedule to be out in time for the next school year (2014/2015). REALLY hoping it is!!

 

Merry :-)

[betancourt6]

Hi there!

I asked BiblioPlan about year 3 and she said that it should be ready by Spring/Summer 2014. As for Illuminations, I'm not sure when they will be adjusting their years to correlate with MoH IV. I am going to send them an email and will let you all know what I hear. With BP, MoH II & III are used in year 2, then MoH III remains in year 3. When I asked Julia at BP if/when they would integrate MoH IV in the next year, she said they didn't have a time frame yet. I would think that I could just add it into the lesson plans as we go through it.

 

Since we've used some of Illuminations previously, I will say that they do a great job of putting together the various subjects. However, you are pretty much paying for the lesson plans and literature guides, both as downloads to print. The lesson plans correlate with the curricula they suggest to use, which is purchased separately. The main similarities between BP and Illuminations is the suggested literature and guides. They both offer some great reading suggestions, as well as clearly mentioning that a high school student needs to pair a reading book with a literature guide to obtain a literature credit, depending on how many are completed throughout the school year.

 

Beautiful Feet was also suggested (hey Dorinda!!!), and I also agree that it is well laid out. I was able to get my hands on the Ancients guide recently and really like it. I decided not to use it only because I wanted all 3 of our homeschooling children working from the same curricula together. I may revisit BF next fall. ;-)

[mom@shiloh]

Thanks for the information.  I just feel out of step.  I was planning on Biblioplan III for this year, but since it wasn't ready, we  went with MOH III.  Now BP will be ready, but we'll be finished with MOH III.  It sounds like MOH IV will be ready, buit BP won't have it incorporated yet.  Your post made me remember why I decided against Illuminations (we need an acronym for that) -- it doesn't lend itself well to multiple ages, a definite hill to die on for me.  

 

I was looking at BF as well, but that seems like another curriculum that doesn't span multiple ages.  Is that right?  I'll have 4th through 10th next year.  

[betancourt6]

I totally agree about an acronym for Illuminations, LOL! :-P

As for Beautiful Feet, it was my understanding that it can work for middle school and high school children, just not sure on the littles. I know they do carry elementary curricula, though. Check out their website. Another reason I was a bit hesitant on BF Ancients is the amount of required reading that was Greek Mythology. I do want our children to know about it, just not so much of a focus on it. Other than that, BF seems like a great History and Literature program. I read a great article recently about why it's important to have a variety of books to read when studying History. The link is below. If you scroll towards the bottom of the article, you'll find the author's addendum to her review of MoH. Hope this helps someone!

 

http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/history.htm

[mom@shiloh]

Thanks for that link.  I do remember reading that in the past, and I think she did a good job of explaining the different options.  I also appreciated her caution in using just MOH without adding in living books.  That is the direction we've gone this year and I've missed the read-alouds and extra books.  It was a conscious decision on my part though because we've always been history-heavy, and this year I've needed to find a place to cut back because of other goings-on in our lives.  

 

I did some more investigating and researching and I think we will go with BP 3 for next year.  MOH III goes through the 1600's and BP 3 starts about there so there shouldn't be too much overlap.