SereneHome Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I am not really sure how to word my question, but here is what I don't understand. I looked at History Oddesey and it seems that all it does is just uses other curriculum and books and just tells you what to read when, etc. Is it all it is? And if so, the price seems kind of high. Bc if you buy that and then buy all other books that they recommend, you are in for hundreds of dollars. And!! one of the books they recommend is SOTW, which I thought was a curriculum in itself I am one of those HSers who actually like and need a lot of hand-holding and I like to be given a "map" of what to do so I like HO. But 1) the money aspect is certainly a consideration and 2) I guess I just don't understand the purpose...... So, am I missing something here? Help, please!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspasia Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I've wondered the same thing. I've looked at it a few times and I can't see much more than a schedule either. And that schedule has always seemed like a but much to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I can tell you that it is a guide for doing history in a classical way. They do rearrange SOTW so it's more of a geographical approach instead of straight chronological. I don't use it anymore because I wasn't fond of the jumping around in SOTW, but I don't think it's out of line price wise. I mean the author did put in a lot of work to put the order of reading together as well as researching additional book suggestions that will correspond. You're basically playing for lesson plans that lay it all out for you. For comparison let's look at Sonlight, It's mostly just a set of lesson plans telling you what pages to read out of what books with some questions to help guide discussions (at least in the lower levels), and they charge way more the Pandia Press for their IG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 One more thing to remember on the layout of HO, Each "lesson" in the lower levels is meant to cover more than 1 day. Usually 1-3 weeks actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 The reason I was surprised about the price is bc SOTW, which is really a whole curriculum is cheaper than that. But yes, of course, the author put work in HO and I respect that. I am new to HSing, so I guess I though that if "curriculum" was more of a "schedule" vs an actual text, it would be a bit cheaper. But in all fairness, they have a preview, so it's not like anyone is buying it blind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WahM Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 From my understanding it is similar to SOTW's Activity Guide. It's more than just scheduled readings, it also has activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I am not really sure how to word my question, but here is what I don't understand. I looked at History Oddesey and it seems that all it does is just uses other curriculum and books and just tells you what to read when, etc. Is it all it is? And if so, the price seems kind of high. Bc if you buy that and then buy all other books that they recommend, you are in for hundreds of dollars. And!! one of the books they recommend is SOTW, which I thought was a curriculum in itself I am one of those HSers who actually like and need a lot of hand-holding and I like to be given a "map" of what to do so I like HO. But 1) the money aspect is certainly a consideration and 2) I guess I just don't understand the purpose...... So, am I missing something here? Help, please!! We used the intermediate level and there is more than just a schedule of reading. There were writing assignments, timeline work, mapping, etc. It ended up not really working for us, but it wasn't just a reading schedule. It sounds like you are looking at the elementary level, though. I don't have any experience with that. There are a quite a lot of threads on History Odyssey on this forum. You can do a search and find lots of reviews that people have already written. (Make sure to spell it properly -- your post has a misspelling.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I don't consider SOTW a full curriculum in and of itself. I think of it more as a spine that you can use to organize your further studies. If you read through TWTM's history section she has you reading SOTW in addition to other reding and activities (map work, further reading, etc). Both HO and the SOTW AG do that additional work for you by gathering together suggested reading, activites, crafts, maps, etc. I like both the SOTW AG and HO. I think both have wonderful things to offer. IMO, HO tends to be slightly more diverse and less "great man of history" than SOTW. Either one, though, gives a good foundation. I've never paid full price for either one. Sign up for the Pandia email list and you'll get notification of their sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 Thanks for the responses. Yes, I was looking at Level 1. Makes a lot more sense now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kama Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 HO made a lot more sense to me when I found out that it came out before the SOTW activity guide. Some people still prefer it but they are similar in many ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I got HO for my logic stage kid. I thought it a little redundant for the first history cycle go-round since I was using SOTW. I'm using a seriously tweaked version of the Ancients for my 5th grader this year and am pleased. I added a lot more reading, didn't' do quite as much writing, since we already have a writing program, added some Jackdaws.... made it focus more on Western Civ than straight world history. It's not terribly recognizable now as HO, but it was a good starting point for me for the logic stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 We used it last year, and I purchased it on sale during March, maybe? It goes on sale, you just have to keep a look out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I try to buy Pandia Press stuff used if possible. (And I haven't found anything that compares to the beauty of their timelines.) I like HO. I decided to go with it this year (Ancients level 1) because I had a hard time actually scheduling and doing SOTW. I wanted some hand holding. My understanding of the HO schedule is that they are options, not a list that needs to be fully completed each week. I also think that the maps are a better quality than in the SOTW activity guide. And it's secular, so I appreciate having those booklists without the need to overly preview things like I had to do with SOTW booklists. No way would I think about buying all the books recommended. That's what I use the library and inter library system for. And even then I doubt it would be possible to read all the books recommended in HO. (or SOTW). I find SOTW to be the same in regards to what you get for the price. Yes, the SOTW texts are good. But the activity guide is little more than a list of recommended books, project ideas, and a glorified history coloring book. They work for us however, because I don't have time and don't want to take the time to research nonfiction history read alouds. I like having a list to take with me to the library. But to answer your question--yes it is a schedule of lesson plans. And no---you would not need to spend hundreds on the extra books to make it work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 hmm...may need to pick your brain on this one.... We are doing SOTW for the second time and adding in more reading. I'm getting kind of burnt out with it though. I would really like to try something new. I guess I don't like the choppiness of HO though. It's choppy because they try to do waaaay too much. Seriously. They try to cover the history of the world and I just decided that my kid, at this point doesn't need to know the history of the world. I've become more and more convinced that depth is more important than breadth. You can't do it all and do a good job. And you can't get a kid interested in a subject if you only spend 2 days on it, studying from an Encyclopedia. So, we spent a good month on Egyptian history. We studied the major Pharaohs in depth, did a Jackdaw on Tut, read Golden Goblet and Mara:Daughter of the Nile, among other things. Now, we're studying Greece and will do a thorough job on that, as well as Rome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TianXiaXueXiao Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 We used just HO Ancients 2 for the fall semester. I agree that it jumps around too much chronologically. I think it is a solid program but I would have preferred it to be organized chronologically. This semester we are doing MOH and completing activities in HO according to the schedule in MOH. I prefer the HO activities for the non-church related lessons in MOH, so the two programs offer a great balance. I think we will do the same thing next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 I've been using HO Early Modern Levels 1 and 2 with my 3rd and 6th graders this year, and I really, really like it. I mainly got it for my 3rd grader because I got it for my 6th grader as well, but I like that they can both complete the work mostly independently. I like that I don't have to plan it out or look up stuff or integrate SOTW/Usborne/etc. all on my own, because it's already done for me. All I had to do was to read through the plans and draw lines to indicate what I felt was a reasonable amount of work for each child to do each day -- like, for Level 1, I might indicate that one day's work is to read a couple of pages of Usborne, look up a vocabulary word, and do a map page. Another day's work might be to read a chapter of SOTW and write two facts he learned. Saved me so much time! We found that we didn't really do a lot of the projects from the SOTW AG, although the maps were worth the cost; my kids love arts and crafts but are really picky about what they do re: history-related crafts (like, they loved the making of clay tablets but don't want to turn pantyhose into wigs). I like that it has the older kids digging a bit more, as well as writing. At the 6th grade level, it's work -- DD has to think and integrate more than she did when she was younger, and tbh, having it written out means that she's actually getting that done. It's been very helpful to me that they can just open their notebooks and do their work, just asking me questions if they need. Also, since we're no longer reading SOTW aloud, I'm not learning along with them (which is a bummer), but my big kids are discussing the information with each other, which is really wonderful. I actually don't have a preference for the geographic vs. chronological approach -- neither is perfect, IMO, and both have their strengths. So far, we haven't gotten to a lot of non-European information, but I'm glad for a slightly broader perspective (in all fairness, I did think SOTW did a fairly good job of hitting Africa, Asia, and South America) than what I got in school. One thing I really like about HO is that it comes in PDF form, so it's easy to print multiple copies for multiple kids in the future. Actually, it does look like SOTW comes that way too now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 I'm glad posters are talking about HO level 2. I'm sort of at a lost how to proceed with my oldest. I really don't think he'll be happy to do any SOTW anything again. I may gently push him into reading the texts on his own time. We're doing American History at the moment. He really enjoys US history/geography/civics and I have a Holt Geography text I thought I would do with him. It is more cultural social studies and physical geography than world history. It would be a divergence from the history rotation, but I think he may enjoy it. I've also been toying with the idea of getting the K12 Human Odyssey texts. I'd like to use History Odyssey at the second level with him, but I wasn't really sure if I wanted to exclusively use older books such as the Van Loon Story of Mankind. I've read excerpts and I'm sure it's an interesting book, I just haven't ever liked the idea of using old books for content subjects as a main spine. So I'm torn. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 I think you could easily use something else instead of van Loon. DD likes van Loon okay, but she hasn't raved about it, kwim? I think it's a nice contrast to Kingfisher, but not the end all, be all. I don't think there is anything that DD has done that has absolutely needed van Loon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Maybe look at books by Dorothy Mills as a replacement for van Loon. I haven't done this myself but wish I'd thought of that last year. OP, what year were you looking at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted January 3, 2014 Author Share Posted January 3, 2014 Maybe look at books by Dorothy Mills as a replacement for van Loon. I haven't done this myself but wish I'd thought of that last year. OP, what year were you looking at? I was looking at Ancients level 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I don't think I mentioned this above, but I can tell you what we have found useful in Ancients Level 1. This was my second time doing Ancients. (used SOTW with oldest). I like having the SOTW texts and activity guides on hand. We haven't used Child's History of the World, and from my look at it I didn't feel it would be necessary. My 6 year old loves putting together his History Pockets book. And we use the Usborne encyclopedia. I have the Ancient Egyptians and their Neighbors book. Tried using it with my oldest. It just falls flat here. Nice to have around as a resource maybe, but to actually make regular consistent use of it---I haven't found it useful for that. The other "required resources" are anything but. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I'm glad posters are talking about HO level 2. I'm sort of at a lost how to proceed with my oldest. I really don't think he'll be happy to do any SOTW anything again. I may gently push him into reading the texts on his own time. We're doing American History at the moment. He really enjoys US history/geography/civics and I have a Holt Geography text I thought I would do with him. It is more cultural social studies and physical geography than world history. It would be a divergence from the history rotation, but I think he may enjoy it. I've also been toying with the idea of getting the K12 Human Odyssey texts. I'd like to use History Odyssey at the second level with him, but I wasn't really sure if I wanted to exclusively use older books such as the Van Loon Story of Mankind. I've read excerpts and I'm sure it's an interesting book, I just haven't ever liked the idea of using old books for content subjects as a main spine. So I'm torn. :) I have level 2 Ancients and Early Modern . You can look at them sometime when you're around. :) I do like level 2 more than level 1. I think you get more for what you pay. I do still buy used, though. I can't justify that much for a curriculum guide! But the level 2 guides are much more meaty. Mine uses Kingfisher and the Loon book is optional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I have level 2 Ancients and Early Modern . You can look at them sometime when you're around. :) I do like level 2 more than level 1. I think you get more for what you pay. I do still buy used, though. I can't justify that much for a curriculum guide! But the level 2 guides are much more meaty. Mine uses Kingfisher and the Loon book is optional. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I think my oldest would love the physical geography and it could tie in nicely with earth science. There's no way we can get through all of US history this year and he likes it so much I may just continue reading through the Hakim books and guides. For whatever reason he's engaged with US history, but just groans and zones out world history. Maybe Hakim needs to write a world history series! I'm intrigued with the K12 books as well. We find the SOTW texts a bit dry at times, and we love color!!! I'm not entirely counting out his dislike of SOTW in contributing to his dislike of history. I'm loving having his attention this year---finally! I am definitely more impressed with Pandia Press science than history at this point. And that likely did not help the OP make her choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 We also love Hakim and the Human Odyssey books (I have 1 & 3). If he's into US history, I'd just continue it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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