bfw0729 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) I cannot figure out which history and/or geography to use next school year (3rd and 4th graders). Ugh! I'm now leaning toward MFW ECC. I am currently using Mystery of History with the kids and we work on our "board" as a way to remember certain facts. They find it ok. I'm wanting to change history up and maybe start to incorporate more geography (world or us) for next year. Is it really that bad to not follow the four year history cycle by way of MOH or SOTW? I don't know a lot about MFW, but I'm guessing they have it designed so that we follow some type of cycle too. Does it confuse the children if we jump around each year? I'm hoping to cover the US states either the upcoming school year or the following. Whenever we do it, I want to incorporate US history too. The same idea would apply to world geography and learning world history simultaneously. Any good programs on either of these two? Help! Thoughts? Edited January 31, 2016 by bfw0729 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I don't know if any of this will answer your questions or not ;) but this is what we do. We do MOH Vol I, II, and III over 2 years. We don't do any of the mapping or other activities because my kids think they're lame. (They're kinda right. Lol) To cover geography, I have the middles do Trail Guide to World Geography over those 2 years. The youngers do culture studies of sorts with various books and Beginning Map Skills. The olders do some Seterra software. Once we hit MOH Vol IV we slow way way down and take 2 years to cover that one volume and add in lots of other US History stuff. It's kind of a "US History in World Context" instead of straight up world history or US History. The youngers learn their states and capitals with some free websites over those years and the middles do Trail Guide to US Geography. The olders don't really need US Geography by then and are using that extra time to dig in deep into the history side of things. We also add in Government and Economics during those 2 years. So it's still a 4 year cycle, but with tweaks. :) Hope that helps! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My4arrows Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 We used to use MFW (although we did skip ECC) and just switched to MOH. ECC does cover geography well (from what friends have told me) with good hands on experiences. For us we prefer MOH because we can add those hands on experiences when wanted and not be held to a schedule as MFW is. For example MOH 1 moves much more quickly than MFW CTG (comes after ECC and goes beginning of the 4 year cycle of history- 5 including ECC) and I was able to move at our pace, concentrating on places we wanted to explore more. For more geography we pull in other workbooks to work on mapping skills and other geography information. Personally I prefer doing history chronologically, but I think its preference, especially at a young age. If you plan on doing American history, I'd almost be inclined to do MOH 2 (if it suits your family) and then do American history following and then followed up by something like ECC. Or do an American history then ECC followed by a four year cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaceful Isle Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 My personal preference for that age is SOTW. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bookworm4 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Following. I was looking at both of these as well. I have also been debating on Expedition Earth either on it's own or somehow combined with MFW ECC (although that sounds like too much). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfw0729 Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 I think I may stick with MOH and include world geography on the side (Trail Guide to World Geography). This can be done next school year when they are in 3rd and 4th grade. Maybe when in 4th and 5th grade, we can work on US geography, while continuing with MOH? Same company can be used. Just curious, but the student workbooks for the Trail Guide offer workbooks for all three grade levels (elementary, middle, and high school). Can you work on the elementary notebook and repeat this curriculum using the high school notebook later on? All these cycles are making me dizzy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I think I may stick with MOH and include world geography on the side (Trail Guide to World Geography). This can be done next school year when they are in 3rd and 4th grade. Maybe when in 4th and 5th grade, we can work on US geography, while continuing with MOH? Same company can be used. Just curious, but the student workbooks for the Trail Guide offer workbooks for all three grade levels (elementary, middle, and high school). Can you work on the elementary notebook and repeat this curriculum using the high school notebook later on? All these cycles are making me dizzy. I personally am only having my kids do them during the middle-school years. But I have a friend who has gone through them with her kids twice at different levels, and yes that's how they're designed to be used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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