STOW or MoH

[bnwhitaker]

I have heard that STOW is better for younger students because the way it is written is more for their age group and MoH a

little older. 

 

My questions is,  If you were only going to go off of content do you think MoH actually has more?  Or does STOW have

better information than MoH?  

 

I feel like I see people liking STOW more that MoH, although I know they are both popoular.

 

Thank YOU, for any input :)

[calbear]

MOH is definitely older. I would use it 4th and up. Keep in mind Hobar has a distinctly Christian perspective which is something to be aware of. The interpretation that she has may or may not always jive with your particular theological persuasion. Vol 1 & 2 are friendly enough with youngers, but the reading level steps up between volumes. Vol 1 is around 3rd/4th grade reading level. By the time, you are at vol 4, it's 9th/10th reading level which is probably not great if you are targeting elementary aged kids and you are trying to do a single series through a history cycle.

SOTW is friendlier for younger children and older. It's secular, but Christian friendly. She wrote it to be done twice. 1-4, 5-8. The WTMA uses SOTW for the middle school history courses. Though the SWB says that volume four is best left for 4th and older because of the nature of the topics and the tone changes. If you look at the activity guides for SOTW 1 & 2, it is definitely friendlier to younger grades with more crafts/activities. SWB has history and literature selections for both youngers and olders. She notes the grade ranges for independent reading level as well as the read aloud level for all the selections.

I wouldn't say that one is necessarily better than the other. They each have their pros and cons. For example, SOTW in the tries to weave in more story so included relevent fables and myths in the volumes. It includes biblical history in the context of overall world history. SOTW does incorporate more US history in volumes 3 & 4 than MOH does. MOH tries to weave biblical and Christian history throughout.

So, it really depends on your personal goals. I actually believe in using multiple perspectives when studying history as you can see from my siggy. I run 3 programs concurrently that for us fills in where the others give lighter or no coverage. SOTW/K12 are secular so I run VP self-paced which is distinctly Christian Reformed. Then again, my kiddo really likes history, so there's that as well. I actually do have both and plan to do the MOH once I finish the SOTW loop. For MOH, I plan to run K12's Human Odyssey which is completely secular alongside. 



 

Edited July 4, 2016 by calbear

[poppy]

I don't think SOTW is secular, or at least, the first volume isn't.  It talks about other relgions as myths and then tells Old Testament stories as fact. I don't know if that bias continues in other books.

[Momto6inIN]

SOTW we listen to on CDs for fun. Even my older kids like the stories.

 

MOH I - III was our "spine" for 2 years. I would not use MOH if I just had younger ones, but it was really great for mixed levels to be taught together. Enough fodder for discussion for the older ones, and enough interesting facts and stories for the younger ones to be engaged and remember something. The reading level really does pick up quite a bit after Vol I, as PP said. In fact, I decided not to use Vol IV because it was just too advanced and too much reading for my younger ones, and by that point my older ones needed to focus more on US History.

 

Our next time through the history cycle, I will have a 1st and 5th grader, and I will probably go with SOTW, but then switch back to MOH when the youngest goes through the cycle again in middle school.