History Odyssey & R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Questions

[hands-on-mama]

Thoughts on these programs. They look like they could fit the bill of what I need. I am looking at the Ancients and Life Science to use with my 1st and 3rd grader. They seem scheduled out per week maybe but I'm not certain. It looks like I can just schedule each week as I want as opposed to how we have done with MFW and HOD. Is that correct? 

 

What do you think of these programs? I am looking for something fun for my girls. :)

[happypamama]

I haven't used the Life Science, although I'm strongly considering it for my K and 2nd graders next year (mostly for the 2nd, but K can come along for the fun stuff), and I haven't used the ancient or medieval level 1, but I have used the modern and early modern level 1s and several of the level 2s. I really like this program a lot for older kids. I love how it teaches outlining and note taking and how it gets them to ask "why." I love that it is a gradual transition with a little step up each year. Most of the suggested accompanying literature has been really good, and level 1 uses SOTW as the spine. I feel that HO is a very solid history program, and as they get older, it is a very independent program (for better or for worse).

 

That being said, I'm not sure it's the most fun program. If you like to do projects and read a lot of supplemental books, especially picture books, I would probably get the SOTW activity guide for ancients and use that instead. I had the AGs for ancients and medieval before I found HO, and I have just stuck with those for my younger children. HO has a few hands-on projects but not a lot.

 

Re: HO scheduling. It's a little uneven sometimes. Like, a "lesson" will have the pages to read, maps to do, timeline, and any suggested writing or hands-on projects. It might be a day's worth of work, or it might be a week's worth, and for a really big event (like WW1), it might have multiple lessons on the topic. I usually go through and draw lines to show what I feel is a day's worth of work for my children, even if it doesn't match up with the lesson numbers given in HO. And sometimes we play it by ear -- a child is really on fire one day and whips through a bunch of stuff, or an assignment is harder than anticipated and needs more days. But, it's a lot easier for me than completely starting from scratch, and I feel that it's been an excellent value for me.

 

ETA: It would be very easy to start on a Monday with reading the SOTW chapter, and then if everyone's having a great day and wants to continue, do the map page that day too. Or if it's a busy day, save the map page for Tuesday. With elementary students who aren't working independently, we just do the next thing on the list until our time for history is up, whether that's a short time or a long time. If we were to get "behind" (not really any such thing for little ones, IMO), we'd just prioritize history for a bit, or we'd skip supplemental stuff and projects (or use the supplemental books as evening readalouds or car audio books).

Edited March 6, 2016 by happypamama

[redsquirrel]

They are great, I have use the Pandia Press science when my kids were little and it was fun, very doable.

 

I've never seen the point of the history though, and I did try the samples.  If you have SOTW and the activity guide, I felt like we were all set. You read a couple times a week, do the map work, toss in an extra book if you feel like it or you can find it at  your library, do an activity every now and again if it looks fun and doable, and you are done.  But, you don't HAVE to read the extra book or do the activities etc.  I like the help with the narration in the Activity guide, those were key for us.

 

there is nothing wrong with Pandia Press, lots of people really like it. It comes down to personal preference.

 

Pandia Press gives a very generous sample, something I commend them for.  I think it is 10 lessons, so maybe 2-3 weeks of use? I strongly suggest you hold off on buying and actually USE the samples with your kids and see if it clicks. IME, that was just enough of a sample to know if it was going to work for us or not. Reading the sample didn't do it for us, using it did.

[hands-on-mama]

They are great, I have use the Pandia Press science when my kids were little and it was fun, very doable.

 

I've never seen the point of the history though, and I did try the samples.  If you have SOTW and the activity guide, I felt like we were all set. You read a couple times a week, do the map work, toss in an extra book if you feel like it or you can find it at  your library, do an activity every now and again if it looks fun and doable, and you are done.  But, you don't HAVE to read the extra book or do the activities etc.  I like the help with the narration in the Activity guide, those were key for us.

 

there is nothing wrong with Pandia Press, lots of people really like it. It comes down to personal preference.

 

Pandia Press gives a very generous sample, something I commend them for.  I think it is 10 lessons, so maybe 2-3 weeks of use? I strongly suggest you hold off on buying and actually USE the samples with your kids and see if it clicks. IME, that was just enough of a sample to know if it was going to work for us or not. Reading the sample didn't do it for us, using it did.

 

 

Thank you! This is very helpful. I'm going to look through some more and see if I have everything to try out the samples. SOTW seems like it might be easier for us though. We have enjoyed Adventures this year but my oldest is really wanting to do ancients. I also would like something that doesn't necessarily need me to do history every single day. We just have a lot going on lately.

[3 ladybugs]

We have used both, but now just use HO. The science just wasn't a good fit for us. Things were not laid out well. So you would do a whole bunch of lessons then on the last lesson you are told to do something that will take a month (observation). Maybe if you are one to read the last page of a book before you do read the whole book, it would be good for you, but it wasn't really for us. We did earth and space so I am not sure if life science would be the same or not. 

 

History Odyssey we started out with when we first started piecing together something. Before this we would doing Calvert homeschool (pre-K and K). It is the ONLY thing that has made it through every cut we have made over the years. The ONLY thing. I am not one to keep something that isn't working but this does work WELL. It is fun, engaging, and my son is learning a TON from it. The lessons are not spelled out for you completely like other programs (do this on Monday, this on Tuesday and so on), but they are well done and teach well. Also they group things differently then they do in SOTW even if they use SOTW. 

 

My son is now on Early Modern and is doing well with the program. Things change a bit at this level (more writing) but it is still a great program. I don't see us stopping it unless things really change in the Logic stage for the worse. I just don't see that happening though. 

[Coco_Clark]

I've used REAL science life and earth at this point. I thought both were very do-able. Labs/demonstrations didn't take a ton of weird ingredients, had clear instructions, and actually WORKED, and the schedule was layed out in a way that made sense. Life we did science 2x a week, alternating days w/ history. Earth we did science daily for 1-2 weeks, alternating weeks with history. It fit easily into both these schedules.

 

It doesn't provide a ton of teaching, outside the demonstrations and labs. But it does include a great picture book list, most of which we were able to find at the library. When we couldn't we subbed, or used a science encyclopedia (dk).

 

I have not used any of the history materials.

[hands-on-mama]

I've used REAL science life and earth at this point. I thought both were very do-able. Labs/demonstrations didn't take a ton of weird ingredients, had clear instructions, and actually WORKED, and the schedule was layed out in a way that made sense. Life we did science 2x a week, alternating days w/ history. Earth we did science daily for 1-2 weeks, alternating weeks with history. It fit easily into both these schedules.

 

It doesn't provide a ton of teaching, outside the demonstrations and labs. But it does include a great picture book list, most of which we were able to find at the library. When we couldn't we subbed, or used a science encyclopedia (dk).

 

I have not used any of the history materials.

 

 

This kind of sounds like what I want for science at this point. I love using picture books to teach science! We might just give it a shot. Worst case-we hate it. Best case-we love it. :)