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Elementary History & Encouragement


mschroeder7216
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Hello all :) 

I have been on this forum many times reading wonderful advice, but this is my first time posting myself. I have two kids--7 year old boy and 9 year old girl--that I homeschool. We just started back in August. Last semester was very relaxed and unstructured. After the holidays though I wanted to get on a schedule with more structured curriculum, but we are 9 days in and I feel like I'm failing. I had read a bunch about TOG and found the first year used at a great deal so I bought it. I got it in the mail today an it is so overwhelming! In everything I read beforehand, I guess I missed that there wasn't actually a laid out lesson plan. So now I feel like I wasted last semester, and I'm going to end up wasting this semester, and I'm failing my kids...and that whole rabbit-hole/destruction-tunnel that moms can get sucked in to. My husband is very supportive and tells me I'm not failing and blah blah... but I'm at a loss. If I could get some advice, I'd be super grateful! 

1. For TOG users, is it easy enough to not be overwhelmed and create a lesson plan?

 

2. For non-TOG users, here's what I'm looking for in a history-type curriculum...

•history, geography, bible all-in-one

•daily lesson plans included or available (Monday you do this, Tuesday do this, etc.)

•affordable

 

Really just any encouragement would be well received. Today has not been a good day for momma. 

 

Thank you all <3 

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I haven't used TOG, but I would imagine someone has a day by day lesson breakdown for it. I don't do Bible, we just use SOTW and do whatever extra stuff from the activity guide sounds good. My 10 year old doesn't remember anything from the first two years of history, so I figure just do what is interesting and fun for your family for elementary content areas.

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I'm not familiar with ToG, but can you make a basic template of a lesson plan? 

 

We do Story Of The World with the activity guide.  Our lesson template this year is usually based on 1 chapter, 4 days a week.

 

Day 1: Introduce section 1 (and light activity)

Day 2: narration, mapwork.

Day 3: section 2 (review map, add if necessary)

Day 4: activity

 

It works mostly.  This week we have 4 sections in the chapter, so each day is an activity and narration.  And some chapters are light so we stick two of them in one week.  But the above keeps us on a good rhythm so we don't stray too far and it's easy to "plug and play".

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Hugs, momma! I'd think going from no/low structure to high structure quickly would be a recipe for disaster in my house. I'd have mutiny. (We're already high structure so my kids are used to it, but I ramp them up to it over a couple of years.)

 

What's your world view? Christian, leaning what way theologically?

 

I can think of a couple programs (Biblioplan comes to mind), but instead of going to something completely packaged, I agree with the other posters that maybe just finding a history book to read through for the rest of the year might be best.

 

I'm familiar enough with TOG to shudder at the complexity and hugeness of it. Had a friend who tried it because the idea was so appealing. I'm sure it works for some, but way too much work for the ages of your two!!

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I find SOTW to be the most concise and easy to follow with. For year one, you can read it alongside a Bible story book. With my first, I actually did all the work of looking up dates and figuring out which Bible stories correspond with which periods in SOTW. With my second, I winged it. For volume 2 and beyond, I pair SOTW with Trial and Triumph. 

 

There are actually book recommendations in the SOTW activity guide for Bible stories, when one is relevant to the passage. 

 

I don't have personal experience with TOG. I looked at it, and it looked like too much work and too much money. But if you've already invested a lot, I would encourage figuring out how to make what you've already paid for work for you before buying another curriculum. 

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I find SOTW to be the most concise and easy to follow with. For year one, you can read it alongside a Bible story book. With my first, I actually did all the work of looking up dates and figuring out which Bible stories correspond with which periods in SOTW. With my second, I winged it. For volume 2 and beyond, I pair SOTW with Trial and Triumph.

 

There are actually book recommendations in the SOTW activity guide for Bible stories, when one is relevant to the passage.

 

I don't have personal experience with TOG. I looked at it, and it looked like too much work and too much money. But if you've already invested a lot, I would encourage figuring out how to make what you've already paid for work for you before buying another curriculum.

I just want to second the suggestion of pairing SOTW with the Trial and Triumph, etc, series. I've been using it in medeival and early modern and it's so powerful to see those stories in light of surrounding history. It's led us on a John Bunyan rabbit trail to a Pilgrim's Progress unit study this month and that has been so good.

 

That said, I haven't used TOG, but I might try making a simple schedule as a pp suggested. If you switch, something like SOTW is really easy to do in a routine, with reading, colouring, map work, added literature from the AG, an activity.

Edited by indigoellen@gmail.com
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We use SOTW...if you went with that with those ages I would do a subchapter a day, not a chapter a day.  You can still get it done in a year that way if you're consistent.

 

It only has a few Bible stories included (Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and the Birth and Death of Jesus)...and it's secular enough that people who are not Christian use it all the time, so I don't know if it's what you're looking for.  (It does I feel treat the Christian stories with respect and introduce them in a way that doesn't negate their truth, but those are the only place where the Bible/God is mentioned).

 

I added in other stories from a children's Bible...and here's how I integrated them with SOTW chapters:

 

http://imaginativehomeschool.blogspot.com/2017/06/story-of-world-bible-integration-old.html

 

(That's just Old Testament....I'll be adding New Testament soon).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello all :)

I have been on this forum many times reading wonderful advice, but this is my first time posting myself. I have two kids--7 year old boy and 9 year old girl--that I homeschool. We just started back in August. Last semester was very relaxed and unstructured. After the holidays though I wanted to get on a schedule with more structured curriculum, but we are 9 days in and I feel like I'm failing. I had read a bunch about TOG and found the first year used at a great deal so I bought it. I got it in the mail today an it is so overwhelming! In everything I read beforehand, I guess I missed that there wasn't actually a laid out lesson plan. So now I feel like I wasted last semester, and I'm going to end up wasting this semester, and I'm failing my kids...and that whole rabbit-hole/destruction-tunnel that moms can get sucked in to. My husband is very supportive and tells me I'm not failing and blah blah... but I'm at a loss. If I could get some advice, I'd be super grateful! 

 

It is awesome that your husband is so supportive! Yay for you! When I started homeschooling, it was nearly impossible to shake "this is what school should look like" and I am willing to bet that is where your feelings of "wasting the semester" are coming from. You have given your kids the gift of being able to learn at home and not be subjected to constant testing and all the other downsides of public school. It has taken me some time, but through experience and hanging out on these boards, my expectations of "what school should look like" have grown less clear-cut and a bit more fuzzy. There are lots of people who skip a formal history curriculum at these ages, and their kids turn out fine. It will take some time for you to figure out what is going to work best for you and your kids and that is definitely not "wasted time."

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