summerreading Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Pandia press has 25% off this month. I'm thinking about Middle Ages level 2 for my 11 year old and have all the books except the textbook itself. Are you using it this year, if so how do you like it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc26 Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Not using it yet, but we are using Ancients Level 2 now and are planning on starting Middle Ages 2 when we finish. My 6th grader really likes History Odyssey, he is a box checking kind of kid. We didn't do much of the coordinating lit this year, but are planning to do it with Middle Ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerreading Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 Not using it yet, but we are using Ancients Level 2 now and are planning on starting Middle Ages 2 when we finish. My 6th grader really likes History Odyssey, he is a box checking kind of kid. We didn't do much of the coordinating lit this year, but are planning to do it with Middle Ages. great. Is each book for one whole year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Yes, Each level 2 is a whole year. We hated it except for creating the timeline as a comic strip. I still have that one. It is very dry and has zero guidence for you, as teacher Mom on what your child should be producing. It is also very easy for a slide through kid to do a slide through job. You have to keep up with what your kid is doing. I ended up tossing the entire thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliotterae Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 We have been using it this year and love it. We have had to skip a few assignments for lack of time or just because it seemed like a little too much sometimes, but overall we really like it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 We use it as a guide and it's fine. Instead of the encyclopedia, we mostly read a standard textbook, which of course provides lots more information. We skip the things like timelines and all the little summaries, but DS likes the maps and there are some decent worksheets. Nothing that a semi-motivated person couldn't make up on their own, but having it already done and not having to reinvent the wheel makes sense sometimes. Everything is laid out, it's totally open and go and expectations are clear. DS has enjoyed the supplemental reading--The Canterbury Tales especially. ;) But again, you could totally put a reading list together yourself instead. I'm undecided if we'll use it again next year or just pull together assignments from a textbook. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmstranger Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Yes, Each level 2 is a whole year. We hated it except for creating the timeline as a comic strip. I still have that one. It is very dry and has zero guidence for you, as teacher Mom on what your child should be producing. It is also very easy for a slide through kid to do a slide through job. You have to keep up with what your kid is doing. I ended up tossing the entire thing. I was just looking at the samples and this was my big concern...my kid finishes his work quickly and I'm afraid that if I'm not paying attention, he'll do that slide through job. Personally, I think I need to work on this b/c as he gets older, the curriculum will be written toward him and I'll need to be on top of what the expectations are. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerreading Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 We use it as a guide and it's fine. Instead of the encyclopedia, we mostly read a standard textbook, which of course provides lots more information. We skip the things like timelines and all the little summaries, but DS likes the maps and there are some decent worksheets. Nothing that a semi-motivated person couldn't make up on their own, but having it already done and not having to reinvent the wheel makes sense sometimes. Everything is laid out, it's totally open and go and expectations are clear. DS has enjoyed the supplemental reading--The Canterbury Tales especially. ;) But again, you could totally put a reading list together yourself instead. I'm undecided if we'll use it again next year or just pull together assignments from a textbook. Sorry, I didn't get a notification of more replies. Just seeing these now. It's good to know that you are still getting something out of it skipping the time lines and little summaries. ETA: I did go ahead and buy it, so we'll see. I might supplement with a bunch of movies, etc to make it seem more alive. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 We've been enjoying Crash Course videos as a supplement. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerreading Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 We've been enjoying Crash Course videos as a supplement Thanks! Looking at this YT channel now. I may save this for a day next week I want a big break. I can see the boys getting sucked into this. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Thanks! Looking at this YT channel now. I may save this for a day next week I want a big break. I can see the boys getting sucked into this. We usually watch while having lunch. We can get sucked in, too. :) He has a science series also--great info for middle to high school grades. Have fun! :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Middle Ages is the only Level 2 I have not seen yet, but I like the other three a lot. My rising fifth grader will use Ancients next year, and my rising eighth grader will use Modern. I think you should feel free to skip or shorten assignments if they're too much for your child. At least Early Modern and Modern have a lot of writing, and I'm guessing MA will have a fair amount too. The PP who said that it's written to the child, so you need to be careful to be on top of the work is correct, but the upside is that it's very independent, so it's really worked well for me as a busy mom with lots of littles. I really like how it gently steps up the note taking skills over the years and has the students digging into the "why" of history and connecting events to each other. We have largely liked the lit selections as well. We use Kingfisher Encyclopedia and the k12 Human Odyssey books (instead of Story of Mankind), and they have worked well. DD says both of those are good reads. (DS1 has not yet used them.). My kids love the map work and timelines, especially. You can download about ten lessons from Pandia Press to try before you buy. I recommend looking at that and seeing how it'll work for your family first. (And fwiw, ten lessons is more than ten days' worth of work for my kids. It's more like twenty or so.) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 We switched to Pandi Press history from the Classical Historian, and we are very pleased with that. The Classical Historian was a wonderful program and we liked it ( I still borrow essays topics from that curriculum, in fact), but it also required a bit more planning, something I'm not the best at. So by switching to Pandi Press history, the work gets done on time and it certainly Thorough, although not as deep as our previous curriculum. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quietchapel Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I am considering this for next year. I would like to add Sonlight's readers/read Alouds. Would that be too much? I appreciate how straightforward the program appears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I am considering this for next year. I would like to add Sonlight's readers/read Alouds. Would that be too much? I appreciate how straightforward the program appears. I don't know a lot about Sonlight, but History Odyssey has a lot of reading, around 8 historical fiction novels a year. What I generally do, since my kids aren't super fast readers, is to schedule the HO novels as their "literature" slot, for independent reading, and the map work/Kingfisher/timeline/worksheets/Human Odyssey/etc. as their "history" slot. So on a given day, DD might have a few pages of Kingfisher, a couple of summaries, and a couple chapters of Johnny Tremain. (If we hit a spot where she couldn't continue HO without finishing the novel, I'd have her double up and read four chapters of Johnny Tremain, but no other lit or history, until she finished.). I do have other lit I want them to read that isn't related to history, so that goes in the "lit" slot on days when there's no HO lit. If I wanted to add in Sonlight books, I'd probably use those as family readalouds or as audio books for the car, rather than independent reading (unless they wanted to read them in their free time). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quietchapel Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I don't know a lot about Sonlight, but History Odyssey has a lot of reading, around 8 historical fiction novels a year. What I generally do, since my kids aren't super fast readers, is to schedule the HO novels as their "literature" slot, for independent reading, and the map work/Kingfisher/timeline/worksheets/Human Odyssey/etc. as their "history" slot. So on a given day, DD might have a few pages of Kingfisher, a couple of summaries, and a couple chapters of Johnny Tremain. (If we hit a spot where she couldn't continue HO without finishing the novel, I'd have her double up and read four chapters of Johnny Tremain, but no other lit or history, until she finished.). I do have other lit I want them to read that isn't related to history, so that goes in the "lit" slot on days when there's no HO lit. If I wanted to add in Sonlight books, I'd probably use those as family readalouds or as audio books for the car, rather than independent reading (unless they wanted to read them in their free time). That was very helpful. Thank you so much. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quietchapel Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Would I want a seperate reading program with HO level 2? Prior to finding HO I was going to design my own course again, and was planning to use CLE or Seton reading. I don't want to add unnecessary work, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerreading Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 (And fwiw, ten lessons is more than ten days' worth of work for my kids. It's more like twenty or so.) I think Middle Ages has about 108 lessons, so I would imagine at some point combining or skipping here and there. Did you buy the timeline or make one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I think Middle Ages has about 108 lessons, so I would imagine at some point combining or skipping here and there. Did you buy the timeline or make one? Yeah, I'm not sure why they assign the lessons the way they do. Sometimes it'll say something like "Lesson 48: The Civil War, Part 1" and "Lesson 49: The Civil War, Part 2," but either is more than a full day of work for my kids. Maybe some people do history only a couple of times a week but in big blocks? Also, maybe they assume that you'll do all of Lesson 48 in one day but that you'll stop doing any of the lessons while you're reading a corresponding novel, which would get you closer to 180 days? At any rate, I largely ignore the less numbers and just take a few minutes before my children start each level to go through and mark what I feel is an appropriate amount of work for them each day, and that's what they go by, and it works quite well for us. I really love how easy to implement HO is! I made my own timeline since I knew I'd need it with multiple children, and we keep them in ProClicked booklets or 3-ring binders since we don't really have wall space for one. It's just a Word document, not fancy or anything, and it lacks a little of the grand scope sort of thing that a wall one would have, but it does the job, and as the kids add to their own, they're learning to see how things connect and all, and I'm happy with it. :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cottonwood Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 We are using Modern Level 2 and enjoy it. Because DDs LA curr is very meaty, we skip any essays or heavy LA type work as well. Even so, I anticipate it would take us more than a school year to complete for sure. There's a ton of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliotterae Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 We made an online timeline that we really like. We don't have the wall space for what I would like and I find the folding ones to be to constricting but using the free tiki tiki toki timeline we can add as much detail to each entry as we want. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerreading Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 We made an online timeline that we really like. We don't have the wall space for what I would like and I find the folding ones to be to constricting but using the free tiki tiki toki timeline we can add as much detail to each entry as we want. That looks great, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murrayshire Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 My 6th and 8th grader are using HO Middle Ages together. My 8th grader keeps my 6th grader in line, too. We don't do all the assignments and summaries. We always do the KF readings, Viking World, literature, etc. We replaced Story of Mankind book with Human Odyssey & love it! Crash course videos here as well.....amongst others! Girls are getting ready to dress up in Medieval costumes, handmade, and go to our homeschool Middle Ages party/feast! They really have gotten into their history this year. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithie Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 My 5th graders are using it this year. The HO novels are probably 75% of the total novels they'll be assigned this year, I just count them as "Literature" when they've got one going. I like it all right - but I don't think I'll use it next year. There's nothing wrong with it, but the aspects we are getting the most value from (outlining from KF, reading classic novels and The Story of Mankind) are not aspects that require a curriculum guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 We've used Houghton Mifflin Across The Centuries series textbooks to supplement, but I'm not finding one for Early Modern. Does anyone have another in depth, secular textbook suggestion? Eta by secular I mean written with a secular inclusive worldview, not free of religion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summerreading Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 My 5th graders are using it this year. The HO novels are probably 75% of the total novels they'll be assigned this year, I just count them as "Literature" when they've got one going. I like it all right - but I don't think I'll use it next year. There's nothing wrong with it, but the aspects we are getting the most value from (outlining from KF, reading classic novels and The Story of Mankind) are not aspects that require a curriculum guide. I see what you're saying. I have so much going on right now, I think I still really like the idea of checkmarks. Plus dh hovers a little worrying about following a set out guide so i can just show him, see it's done. Plus I think it's helping DS with some basic study skills and something literature based, so it seems a good fit for now that easy to supplement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmstranger Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I love reading how you all use HO...or don't use some of it. I am soooo indecisive and thought I had eliminated this one, but just revisited it today! Ugh!! :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliotterae Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 To date, it is the one curriculum choice I have not at least momentarily questioned my choice over. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmstranger Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Ok, I went ahead about bought History Odyseey while it's on sale this month. You have all been very helpful. I don't see myself using every single assignment, but I can tweak it to have it work for my kids. :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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