Is the AG necessary for SOTW?

[~Victoria~]

I saw that a sale is going to be going on at Peace Hill Press and I am thinking about getting the pdf AG to go with SOTW.  My question is if it is necessary.  I see TONS of activities listed online (my son will be in 1st grade next year).  My main interest is in the map work, but I wonder if I can't just come up with it myself and get the student pages pdf.  I don't know.

 

Also, do you think getting the book in pdf format is smart?  I have a kindle and could use it on there.  Any thoughts?

[Amy M]

If you just get SOTW without the AG, you only get the text info. you don't get narration helps and review questions, coloring pages, instructions for the maps, (I wouldn't try to do the maps without the AG), hands on activity suggestions and instructions, or supplemental book lists. I really like the AG!

 

ETA: forgot your other ?. The PDF is smart, because then you can read all of it on your kindle, and print out students sheets rather than copying them. You just can't resell it, if that matters at all to you.

[ocelotmom]

It's definitely not necessary. Good as a resource, but the textbooks stand on their own. I had one when we first started using it, and I found we were mainly just using it for the booklists (which are great, but there are lots of similar resources free online), so I didn't buy the others.

 

However, if I was going to buy it, I think I'd definitely buy the PDF so I could print things out. Maybe we would have used it more if getting copies of the student pages had been that easy.

[GreenKitty]

I don't feel it's not necessary, but I always bought them. My kids like to color.

[ErinE]

I like them. They aren't necessary, but the maps, book lists, questions, and activities are nice to have. SOTW1-3 also have coloring pages (SOTW4 coloring pages are sold separately).

[ByGrace3]

They may not be "necessary" but u can't imagine doing SOTW without them. You could, but it would be a lot of work to pull together what SWB has already done for you. The price of the AG is definitely worth it IMHO. :)

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

We used the AG extensively.  Get it, photocopy pages, then resell used.  That way it's not a big loss if you only use some of it.

[boscopup]

Necessary? No. Nice to have? Yes. I felt it was worth it to have it even though we didn't use the activities. I used the narration questions, map work, and book lists. I could have put that stuff together on my own for free, except it would have taken a lot more time. I felt like the AG was worth having.

[GoVanGogh]

I bought the AG for SOTW1, but passed it along to someone else.

My child hates to color and do crafty activities. He does well with narrations without prompts.

I don't do well with book lists. I feel like we need to read every book and our library is small and never had any of the books, which meant that I was always tempted to buy books. I found I did better just browsing our library for books they did have.

 

I bought the test book for the rest of SOTW. We have used for volumes two and three and will be using volume four next year.

 

My answer: it depends on your child and your homeschool. AG was a waste of money for us. But we love the test books.

[~Victoria~]

Thanks for all the responses :)  I may start without it and if I find that it is a nuisance to find activities or book lists online then I'll grab it up. 

 

Do any of you have the sotw book on your kindle?  I like the tidiness of having books on my kindle rather than stacked on a shelf... thinking of doing fll and wwe on my kindle as well.

[Farrar]

I didn't have it for SOTW1 and felt like I was missing out so I bought it for SOTW2. It made me like SOTW less. So I vote not necessary, though the maps are nice to have. Everything else was not worth it for me personally. I think the book lists are excellent, but in the end, I only used them a few times because I always just checked out whatever my own good library had, which was almost always something. I thought the "craft" ideas were terrible and that was the main thing I wanted it for. We didn't use the review questions and did our own method for narrations. I could have used the coloring pages for SOTW1, but my kids had outgrown them by 2, so I didn't need those at all.

 

Basically, what I'm saying is that I think it really comes down to your own teaching style. It's essential for some, but not for everyone.

[chelsmm]

For us, not necessary and not really used.  My kids love the stories.  I read the text and then we also have the audio that the kids sometimes listen to for fun.  I have never even looked at the book lists.  I just search through my library system about a week in advance.  My library system is great and has tons of amazing books.  I don't do the narrations because we do narrations for WWE, and my kids just don't love it.  For us, history is extra and fun, and I don't want to make it too schooly.  We do some random crafty projects.  I tend to find ideas on the internet though.  We do use the maps.  My dd likes them enough.  DS doesn't want to do the mapwork and I usually just give him the map for his notebook and that's it.  He loves maps but has hand control issues so the map work is hard for him.  My dd does the coloring pages.  DS usually doesn't.  SO really, it wasn't worth it for our family.  I love the audio books though.  They are worth it for us.  My kids know the chapters inside and out because they listen to them over and over. 

[PentecostalMom]

I didn't have it for SOTW1 and felt like I was missing out so I bought it for SOTW2. It made me like SOTW less. So I vote not necessary, though the maps are nice to have. Everything else was not worth it for me personally. I think the book lists are excellent, but in the end, I only used them a few times because I always just checked out whatever my own good library had, which was almost always something. I thought the "craft" ideas were terrible and that was the main thing I wanted it for. We didn't use the review questions and did our own method for narrations. I could have used the coloring pages for SOTW1, but my kids had outgrown them by 2, so I didn't need those at all.

 

Basically, what I'm saying is that I think it really comes down to your own teaching style. It's essential for some, but not for everyone.

 

Do you mind sharing what you didn't like about the crafts?

[Farrar]

Do you mind sharing what you didn't like about the crafts?

At least in SOTW2, they were very cut and paste or make a paper puppet show about the thing... stuff like that. There was one that was a make a castle craft that was just cutting out a printable and taping it together. I was like, come on, if we're going to do a castle, we'll be making it with leftover boxes and looking at castle design and how inner and outer walls were made and so forth (which we did). There were a few good ideas in there and I've heard that SOTW1 has the best craft ideas, but overall it just wasn't for me. I think if people want to do SOTW in a really crafty way, they'll get more creative ideas from books like those Laurie Carlson ones or the Kaleidescope Kids series.

[Chris in VA]

I loved it--used the maps, narration prompts, questions, sometimes the coloring pages, the encyclopedia pages, the book lists, the games, the crafts, the review cards.... :D  It's rich. I liked the games and the simulations in SOTW 2, also. 

 

I will say a great resource to add to it is the cards from yahoo group Hannahs homeschool helps. 

[RootAnn]

I bought the test book for the rest of SOTW. We have used for volumes two and three and will be using volume four next year.

 

My answer: it depends on your child and your homeschool. AG was a waste of money for us. But we love the test books.

 

I like how people have been sharing what their kids are like & what they are like -- and thus what types of products work for them and which ones were a waste. For example, I've used the AG extensively for SOTW1-3 (skipped 4 in favor of a US history year) & we are back around to 2 again. It is a Must Have for us. My kids love coloring, adore it when I can slip an activity into our schedule (cooking, craft, or a game idea), and the girls look forward to the maps. Even ds#1 likes to try to answer the review questions.

 

The test book, on the other hand, was a complete bust in our house. The questions were too picky and served as a source of stress the one year we used them. Complete waste of money for us.

 

So, if you want to know if they might be good for you, check how people use the different items (audio, AG, test book) and see how it matches your family. If you don't have kids who like to color, if you don't have time for the extra activities (or don't like the type that are included OR feel you can find better yourself), and if you don't need the book lists -- skip the AG.

 

If you are a lapbooker, there are lapbooking materials for SOTW 1 & 2 and someone is working on 3 right now.

[Farrar]

I like how people have been sharing what their kids are like & what they are like -- and thus what types of products work for them and which ones were a waste.

I agree. One of SOTW's greatest strengths IMO is how flexible it is - how it's easy to use it in so many ways.

[Hunter]

All I have are the Kindle books.

 

If I had little ones, and money was unlimited, I'd want the audios and coloring pages. My youngest spent many hours listening to the Bible on audio (cassette tapes back then :lol: ) and coloring pages that went along with the scripture he was listening to. I can imagine that I would enjoy doing the same thing with SOTW. And it's all 40% off and instant gratification of an instant download, today.

 

But I am being responsible and not buying anything. I don't NEED anything. And when I don't do one thing, I do another thing that in the long term will be as good, and maybe better.

 

So, it's all good, for those that buy today and those that don't buy today. We'll all use what we have, and the sun will rise tomorrow on all of us.

[~Victoria~]

I will get the pdf of the ag today for sure.  Now I am wondering about ffl and wwe for my kindle.  I have to turn it sideways to get the text larger...

[Roadrunner]

We use maps and some coloring pages. I wish in addition to summary questions the book had some analytical questions, so I could differentiate for my kids. I have student pages for volumes 1 and 2, but probably won't get them for other volumes.

[Susie in CA]

We loved, loved, loved SOTW with the activity guide! Is it necessary? No, it isn't. But for us, it is what made history fun! In the early years grade 1, 2 and 3 we started out doing the projects and then read the stories in the book followed by the maps and additional reading. It took us 2 years to get through SOTW 1. But it was so much fun!

 

We didn't really use the questions or the narrations. Instead we chose which activities and books we liked and focused on that. My boys did not care for paper crafts so we skipped those. We did, however, all projects involving clay or cooking. :-)