Hating Human Odyssey K12 Vol 1!

[Cakes]

I need ideas on how to make HO work for us. It is dry and boring, the lessons are not that concise and I appear to be missing an online element, which I assume is thru K12.

 

Other's have provided companion reading lists to go along with HO, but being a new homeschooler, I am not quite sure how to structure the addition of reading historical fiction along with the lessons. I don't see how we would get through enough of the HO book if we were also adding in more reading.

Can someone paint me a picture?

 

At this point it is just a grind through it curriculum for us. DD 12 and I both dislike it immensely. HELP!

 

[Starr]

If you are new to homeschooling I would drop it and do The Story of the World with supplemental reading/writing/timeline. While it is written so younger children can read it there is a wonderful overview of world history and it's not boring.

[deerforest]

We are using it but I think the lessons are quite concise. However, we are also using the full World in Ancient Times set from OUP that I think is much more engaging and richer in detail and content.

 

I read aloud from the OUP set because I love it, and DD reads the Human Odyssey selections on her own. I mix in assigned reading from other fiction and non-fiction sources. Plus we listen to audio books (Great Courses) and relevant videos from loads of sources. We also do projects and work together to create a final project. She also uses Critical Thinking History Detective. We discuss everything together too.

 

We spend at least an hour on history 5 days a week, and it's one of her favorite subjects. It definitely wouldn't be if she just read the bits in Human Odyssey.

[Another Lynn]

I need ideas on how to make HO work for us. It is dry and boring, the lessons are not that concise and I appear to be missing an online element, which I assume is thru K12.

 

Other's have provided companion reading lists to go along with HO, but being a new homeschooler, I am not quite sure how to structure the addition of reading historical fiction along with the lessons. I don't see how we would get through enough of the HO book if we were also adding in more reading.

Can someone paint me a picture?

 

At this point it is just a grind through it curriculum for us. DD 12 and I both dislike it immensely. HELP!

 

I owned it once and quickly resold it.  I'm not sure why it gets recommended so much here.  It seemed dry and boring to me too. 

 

[Wildiris]

I am using The Human Odyssey K12 with DD-11, 6th grade. I do have the student and teacher pages, but we do not use them. Instead, I have dd take notes on her reading one day. On the following day I have her write a summary from her notes. I do not have her take notes in outline form. We tried doing this, but she did not like it. I read over DD's notes and summary and read the chapter looking for missing information she should have included. I also have her working on a 3-D timeline. My purpose with this course is to teach reading, note taking, and summarizing. I am not interested in tackling synthesis essays for this course. We are in the beginning stages of working on synthesis in English. I do not add extra historical fiction or outside reading because I want to keep a "big picture" of history going. Extra reading stops this "big picture" flow; however, we do add geography. 

 

OUP World in Ancient Times looks interesting. Critical Thinking History Detective seems too dry for us. 

[serendipitous journey]

We are using it but I think the lessons are quite concise. However, we are also using the full World in Ancient Times set from OUP that I think is much more engaging and richer in detail and content.

 

I read aloud from the OUP set because I love it, and DD reads the Human Odyssey selections on her own. I mix in assigned reading from other fiction and non-fiction sources. Plus we listen to audio books (Great Courses) and relevant videos from loads of sources. We also do projects and work together to create a final project. She also uses Critical Thinking History Detective. We discuss everything together too.

 

We spend at least an hour on history 5 days a week, and it's one of her favorite subjects. It definitely wouldn't be if she just read the bits in Human Odyssey.

 

I hope this isn't derailing!  but I am looking at including HO, OUP and Great Courses in our 5th grade ancients next year, and am wondering which courses you are using with your 5th grader?  does the level of these seem fine?  do y'all do any prep work -- look over course notes &c? 

 

[BusyMom5]

I got Pandia Press History Odyssey, and my kids are all really enjoying it!  I got HO from K-12 as a read-along instead of the one suggested by Pandia Press.  My kids really like the History Pockets, and I've been amazed at all they have retained.  We also have SOTW, and it would be good, too, even for a 6th grader.  I am a first-timer, too, and liked the way History Odyssey laid it all out for me "read this- define these words- write a summary on this, ect."  I do not do all the extra reading, we enjoy history, but have not liked some of the books suggested. 

[Momling]

We used it along with history portfolio, historical fiction, primary sources, historical cooking and documentaries.

[mc26]

I got Pandia Press History Odyssey, and my kids are all really enjoying it! I got HO from K-12 as a read-along instead of the one suggested by Pandia Press. My kids really like the History Pockets, and I've been amazed at all they have retained. We also have SOTW, and it would be good, too, even for a 6th grader. I am a first-timer, too, and liked the way History Odyssey laid it all out for me "read this- define these words- write a summary on this, ect." I do not do all the extra reading, we enjoy history, but have not liked some of the books suggested.

Same here!

[EKS]

I owned it once and quickly resold it.  I'm not sure why it gets recommended so much here.  It seemed dry and boring to me too. 

 

 

Interesting.  I've read all three volumes out loud--twice--and I found it to be excellent both times.  However, I never used K12's lessons with them.

[g1234]

Interesting.  I've read all three volumes out loud--twice--and I found it to be excellent both times.  However, I never used K12's lessons with them.

 

Us, too.  It is being quite a hit with my 7th-grader.  So glad we heard about this one.

[FriedClams]

My kids are loving it, but that could be a case of different kids, different likes.

 

We use Sonlight as our spine/main history program. We are using Core W, which recommends the use of A Children's History of the World. It was super easy for my kids, so we supplemented SOTW, and then HO. They read a chapter of HO that pertains to the Sonlight time we're studying and follow the reading list for the additional reading. I'd guess they read 2-4 pages of an encyclopedia for overview, the chapter of HO, and maybe 3-4 chapters of other reading a day.

 

Please, even if it works for 99% of the people here, if it's a bomb for YOUR kid, let it go. There are a 1000 ways to learn history and the only one that is right is the one that works for you!

[g1234]

My kids are loving it, but that could be a case of different kids, different likes.

---

Please, even if it works for 99% of the people here, if it's a bomb for YOUR kid, let it go. There are a 1000 ways to learn history and the only one that is right is the one that works for you!

 

Oh, absolutely.  I wouldn't want my comment to be taken to mean there's something wrong with you if you don't like it.  My goodness, there are a lot of things people here love that would never work for us!  I hope you find something that works well for you.  I'm sure you will.

[MinivanMom]

We have loved it, but we are history lovers here. We've found it to be a very readable text, but we are just using the text on its own, not the K12 course. We follow this general pattern:

 

Over the weekend: Give dd the new literature book that ties in with the chapters she's studying that week.

Monday: Read chapter and add any important people, events, or discoveries to her timeline.

Tuesday: Outline chapter. I look over the outline and we discuss the main points/themes.

Wednesday: Read the next chapter and add to her timeline.

Thursday: Outline chapter, I check it, and we discuss.

Friday: We discuss the literature book she read that week.

 

We treat the introductions and conclusions at the beginning and end of each unit as a chapter (for outlining and discussing). At the end of each unit we take a week to discuss the big themes of that unit and to study primary source documents. We have been using Primary Source: Documents in Global History Vol.1 to 1650 for primary sources. I don't assign these; I always let dd choose which primary sources she is interested in studying. At this rate we wind up finishing the book with about 6-7 weeks to spare, so we use 3 weeks at the end of the first two units to write a research paper and 3 weeks at the end of the school year to do a big hands-on type project.

[ondreeuh]

I used HO 1 last year with the k12 course (paid for independently, so we weren't on any schedule). The online component includes online quizzes, geography work, writing assignments, etc. It's FULL and was toooo much for my pokey son. He went from enjoying history to hating it because the class was too much. Now that we are doing HO 2, I have stopped using the online portion. We actually did the first two units via k12 because I still had time on my subscription (we finished HO 1 in less than a year, so we started level 2 on the same subscription) but now that we're nearing the end of our subscription I have decided to not renew it. The teacher's pages have discussion questions (and answers!) if you use the "reading guide" section. It also breaks down the reading to 2-3 lessons per chapter. I now read the day's lessons with my son and ask hm the questions, and we discuss ... It's been awesome. I make writing assignments for each chapter to make sure he really synethsizes the important information. Last chapter he compared Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia and wrote a little compare/contrast paper. This chapter he is writing a personal narrative from the perspective of a boy living in

Thomas Moore's Utopia.

 

Before you give up on it, try making the book work for you. The teacher pages (Intermediate World History A) are usually available on Amazon. I even have an extra set.

[deerforest]

I hope this isn't derailing!  but I am looking at including HO, OUP and Great Courses in our 5th grade ancients next year, and am wondering which courses you are using with your 5th grader?  does the level of these seem fine?  do y'all do any prep work -- look over course notes &c? 

 

 

We listen to them together (just the audio because I got them using Audible credits) and I will often stop them to discuss, but I don't do any prep work (other than whatever other reading we're doing) nor do I require her to create any output from them. She is very engaged with them and really enjoys them, and they are a fabulous launching point for our discussions. Here are the ones we've been using:

 

The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

History of Science: Antiquity to 1700

History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective

 

We tried this series too, but it was too academic and not nearly as engaging so I shelved it for now: Origin of Civilization 

 

We have used a lot of Great Courses like this for other subjects too, and we both really enjoy them. 

 

Hope this helps!

[SparklyUnicorn]

I owned it once and quickly resold it.  I'm not sure why it gets recommended so much here.  It seemed dry and boring to me too. 

 

 

I wondered the same thing.  I've only seen it, but did not buy it.  I thought it looked like a fairly typical public school textbook (which I avoid like the plague for history). 

[Crimson Wife]

We like the HO textbooks (they have the narrative flavor of SOTW but age-appropriate for middle school) but didn't like the K12 student pages. I used Critical Thinking WHD when we needed a work sample for the charter school but mostly we do TWTM style history work. However, this is the same kid who enjoyed the KHE so bear that in mind.

 

History at Our House gets good reviews if you want something non-textbook based.

[redsquirrel]

We also use the book only, and don't bother with the student pages. In general, I find K12 to be heavy on the busy work, and uninspiring. But as a middle grades text, if you like text, it isn't bad.

 

I did use Human Odyssey and the Oxford series for ancient history and it was a great year. I mostly do history as it is described in TWTM, with narration and outlining. I align our literature and toss in some documentaries, throw in some History Detective and Hakims Story of Us, and call it good.

 

If it is the specific text you don't like then there are others, such as the series from Oxford University Press. If you don't like using textbooks then you might check out TWTM 3rd ed to see how SWB suggests doing history without textbooks. It does require a history encyclopedia and a well stocked library with weekly trips. But is is inexpensive and is a great way to cover both writing and history.

[sagira]

We use K12 HO as a supplement to Dorothy Mills' Ancient books - World, Greeks, Romans. Ds11 thought SOTW was too "young" for him, which I found surprising. This kid, like me, leans toward the immature. He likes reading from HO on his own. It's easy to outline from, so he uses it for that purpose. The sections are clearly defined, and he chooses one small subheader to outline so far. We are working toward doing a whole chapter by next year. I read the DM books aloud, and we both enjoy them.