Looking towards this fall: Cannot decide on history

[melissamomof5]

So we are 1/2 way through Notgrass America the Beautiful right now. I would hope we could finish it by fall, but I just don't know for sure. For background, we did MFW CTG and RTR and then came to Notgrass last year to just do American History. So, my middle kids have never had any early or modern history outside of American History. My grade school kids will be 3rd, 6th, and 8th. I also will have a 10th grader who will probably do Notgrass Am History for high school.

 

My ideas for this fall are:

1. Simply Charlotte Mason doing their Year 6 guide that would cover about 1850-modern American and World History. I love the looks of SCM, but I don't love that it's a 6 year cycle.

2. Simply Charlotte Mason doing their Year 1 guide. I love the Bible being the spine, but again, a 6 year cycle. Eeks. Maybe it's a little late in the game for us to do that.

3. Notgrass Uncle Sam & You with my two middle gals and BF Early American Primary with my 3rd grader. I already have US&Y textbooks and about half of the BF books & guide. But, I'm afraid US&Y will be so dry. I like that Notgrass is a "get-er-done" history, but what will they really remember? Will they enjoy it and be inspired by it? I like Notgrass, but sometimes the facts they include and the barrage of dates is overwhelming and unnecessary, in my opinion.

4. Biblioplan Year 3 with the 3 middles to cover American History in light of World History. I don't mind doing this one, but I don't know about it since my will-be 8th grader would only get year 3 before high school.

5. Biblioplan year 4 with the 3 middles for the same reason as above. I like this idea and think it could be fun and interesting for all 3 of my middle kids.

6. Biblioplan year 1 just to start back at the beginning. Ah, what's not to love about a clean slate. :P However, with this plan, my will-be 8th grader will just have to move on to world history in 9th grade. 

7. Totally just go simple and only use Mystery of History.

 

See my dilemma! lol I can't even decide what time period I want to cover let alone which curriculum. Maybe it'd be easier if I could at least narrow that one down.

 

p.s. I know this isn't the high school board, but if I could wrap my brain around how to assign credits, I also would be open to using Biblioplan for my high school students. So that could definitely be a benefit to that one. 

[nixpix5]

Well...I don't know how much help I can be but I will say SCM history is ok, but not the best. Before I did biblioplan I started with SCM Egypt and it felt truncated and clunky. I periodically would use it for something but it wasn't my favorite. 

We use and love Biblioplan and you could use Mystery of History as your textbook since it is scheduled in biblioplan. We use SOTW with it along with the journey bible and other references. There are lots of options for biblioplan. It is flexible which is why I love it. It schedules reading for various age groups through high school so I know it can be used for high school I just wouldn't know what that would look like for credit. The schedule of books is smorgasbord so you don't have to do them all. We would choose a few extra per week. 

 

[melissamomof5]

14 hours ago, nixpix5 said:

Well...I don't know how much help I can be but I will say SCM history is ok, but not the best. Before I did biblioplan I started with SCM Egypt and it felt truncated and clunky. I periodically would use it for something but it wasn't my favorite. 

We use and love Biblioplan and you could use Mystery of History as your textbook since it is scheduled in biblioplan. We use SOTW with it along with the journey bible and other references. There are lots of options for biblioplan. It is flexible which is why I love it. It schedules reading for various age groups through high school so I know it can be used for high school I just wouldn't know what that would look like for credit. The schedule of books is smorgasbord so you don't have to do them all. We would choose a few extra per week. 

 

Oh thank you for the feedback :) What years of Biblioplan have you used? Where do you think we should start?

I forgot one other idea, my 3rd daughter, who will be 6th grade this fall would be happy to do Masterbooks World's Story Vol I. She enjoys doing her work alone, which makes me sad, but I also understand. 

[nixpix5]

41 minutes ago, melissamomof5 said:

Oh thank you for the feedback :) What years of Biblioplan have you used? Where do you think we should start?

I forgot one other idea, my 3rd daughter, who will be 6th grade this fall would be happy to do Masterbooks World's Story Vol I. She enjoys doing her work alone, which makes me sad, but I also understand. 

I haven't heard of Masterbooks...sounds intriguing :)

We have done Ancients and Middle ages part way through (and will finish next year) and have early modern on the shelf and we will use it the year after. You could use the additional resources but you don't have to...they have add on options for crafts, maps, deeper questions, their own textbook and so forth. For a high school student I probably would but since we use SOTW as a spine I just use the activity guide most of the time. Like I said, super flexible. She also schedules some extras like audio books, veritas press cards, movies etc if you went to add in even more. Again, optional but I love to have someone else think things through so thoroughly for me :)

As far as where to start...that is a tough one. If it was just your younger ones I would probably say Ancients because I like your clean slate idea ;) Plus who just doesn't adore studying that time period. 

However, since you have a soon to be high school student who hasn't had any US history I am not sure...to be honest, most public school kids don't get much history until middle school anyway but I am such a history lover my kids probably get too much history. You could always start at Ancients and have your older student read some well chosen US history literature that covers a swath of time points. 

Hopefully someone jumps in who has been in a similar position with some good advice here. 

[Holly]

We have used SCM (Egypt, Middle Ages, & Early Modern guides).  We currently use Biblioplan.  One issue I had with SCM is that I wanted more in depth for my high school student.  We enjoyed Stories of America/the Nations, but we wanted more stories and more depth.  With BP, my younger ones (7th & under) use SOTW for their spine and my oldest is going through the BP Companion.  It's been a good amount of reading for their ages. We've really enjoyed the recommended books and there is tons to pick from (which could be overwhelming for some).

One thing we've done is separate out the ancient history.  We are doing a multiple stranded history approach.  So we have Biblical history, ancient history, and modern history spread out over a 4 year cycle.  A Delectable Education has some information on one way to do this.  We love our history broken up into multiple categories! 

Here is what we are currently doing:

Bible (evening devotion time): We are reading through the Bible.  We are up to Romans, and I'm not sure what we'll do after this. We may just start back over or we may find a Bible program to use.

Ancient History (this is scheduled as part of our daily literature time): 2nd & 5th grader are using MP's D'Aulaire's Greek Myths book & guide and my 7th & 9th graders are reading MP's The Story of the Ancient Greeks and will follow that with the Iliad & the Odyssey.  We are loving these books!  We plan on continuing with MP's Classical Studies books for ancient history.

Modern History (3 days per week): I plan to use BP Year 2-4 over four years.  That gives us an extra year for more readings, videos, and projects when we are interested in a topic. I hope this gives you some ideas! 

[melissamomof5]

2 hours ago, Holly said:

We have used SCM (Egypt, Middle Ages, & Early Modern guides).  We currently use Biblioplan.  One issue I had with SCM is that I wanted more in depth for my high school student.  We enjoyed Stories of America/the Nations, but we wanted more stories and more depth.  With BP, my younger ones (7th & under) use SOTW for their spine and my oldest is going through the BP Companion.  It's been a good amount of reading for their ages. We've really enjoyed the recommended books and there is tons to pick from (which could be overwhelming for some).

One thing we've done is separate out the ancient history.  We are doing a multiple stranded history approach.  So we have Biblical history, ancient history, and modern history spread out over a 4 year cycle.  A Delectable Education has some information on one way to do this.  We love our history broken up into multiple categories! 

Here is what we are currently doing:

Bible (evening devotion time): We are reading through the Bible.  We are up to Romans, and I'm not sure what we'll do after this. We may just start back over or we may find a Bible program to use.

Ancient History (this is scheduled as part of our daily literature time): 2nd & 5th grader are using MP's D'Aulaire's Greek Myths book & guide and my 7th & 9th graders are reading MP's The Story of the Ancient Greeks and will follow that with the Iliad & the Odyssey.  We are loving these books!  We plan on continuing with MP's Classical Studies books for ancient history.

Modern History (3 days per week): I plan to use BP Year 2-4 over four years.  That gives us an extra year for more readings, videos, and projects when we are interested in a topic. I hope this gives you some ideas! 

Thank you! I love your ideas.

[jaredluvsjoanie]

I just want to say that one of my daughters did Uncle Sam and You as a 7th grader and loved it. She remembered information well, the material was interesting, the literature was engaging, learning the history of various holidays was enjoyable, and the activities were fun. All in all, thumbs up!

 

[ByGrace3]

We are big Biblioplan fans! We have used years 2 and 3 . . . we will do year 4 next year if we don't take a year off for geography studies. I love how you can do all ages of BP at different levels and have a family read aloud. It's been a great fit for us. 

[Ellie]

On 4/16/2018 at 12:55 PM, melissamomof5 said:

7. Totally just go simple and only use Mystery of History.

I love simple. :-)