Questions about Biblioplan

[neesek]

I am working through my plans for history next year. My original plan was to do MFW CTG with my 3rd grader (We have done Adventures and ECC), but now I think I want to do something different as I just don't think CtG is going to be a good match for us.

 

For one thing, I want something like SOTW that both my 3rd and 1st grader can do together, that is written to their age level. CTG uses Streams of Civilization and I think that will just be too much. I do like the way CTG incorporates Bible, but it looks like Biblioplan does this also using the same resources (Victor Journey).

 

Here are my questions:

1. With all that in mind, does Biblioplan sound like a good fit for us?

 

2. Their website recommends a good story Bible or Bible. Is there one story Bible in particular that they recommend? I would prefer reading through a good story Bible with them. Is their reading plan set up with a plan for a story Bible or is it just Scripture references?

 

3. Is the SOTW AG included in their plan or is that something I would just add in as needed?

 

I have also looked at HO and VP, and can see myself using suggestions from both.

 

TIA

[WTMCassandra]

It sounds like a good fit to *me,* but I'm very fond of Biblioplan. Our favorite Bible story book of all (and the one I have found to be the most accurate), is Hurlbut's Story of the Bible. I've tried a lot of Bible story books, but I like this one the best. Biblioplan was written before SOTW came out, but they have revised Biblioplan to add it in. Biblioplan does not go in strict chronological order, so you sometimes read the SOTW chapters out of order. They don't list the AG, but I've found it easy to incorporate.

 

Frankly, when I've done all that, I can't imagine having time for VP too, although I've been known to add in some Sonlight books here and there. I also am adding Landmarks these days as the children grow older. This is more than enough for us. For geography I use SOTW AG and supplement from the Blackline Maps of World History. Now that we are beginning logic stage, I am doing a timeline with History Through the Ages figures on CD.

[Ali in OR]

If you haven't already done so, you might go to Biblioplan.net, click on the Ancient History, click on Table of Contents, and go to the sample provided for week 4. Maybe even print it out and go over it carefully. The "classtime" section schedules your reference materials--do not feel like you must do all of it. For instance, you wouldn't use both Kingfisher and Usborne probably, but choose 1 for you dc's ages. For week 4, the first listing is Bible-Genesis 37-40 (Josheph). We used a story bible last year (just one I had from when I was a kid in the 1970s). It really doesn't matter which--I would just choose a story bible you like. Biblioplan mentions a few Bible options for kids, but while choosing something like The Beginner's Bible may be good for getting a child to practice reading, a story bible does a much better job if you are doing it as a read aloud. I did find that I had to do a bit of planning here--I had to take their scripture chapters for the week, look in my bible to see how much it covered, then look in my story bible to see how many stories covered that section of scripture, then schedule them over the week. During the Nation of Israel unit, we were reading several Bible stories a day.

 

You will note from the sample that SOTW is scheduled for you. You will have some weeks like week 4 when you need to get through 2 (or even a little more) chapters of SOTW. Then you will have units like the Nation of Israel where SOTW doesn't have much and most weeks you aren't using it at all. And this was one reason we chose Biblioplan Ancients--it includes the biblical history that SOTW doesn't for what I think is a better history course.

 

With a first grader, we always used any bible, Usborne, SOTW, and Victor JTTB readings, though I must say I probably got a lot more out of Victor than my dd did. Neat book but not really a first grade book. We did not use Kingfisher, Famous Men books, or any other reference books. We used all of the K-2 readers. We did some family read alouds but found some (like Golden Goblet of week 4) were too far beyond a first grade level.

 

With a 3rd grader, you have the option of considering VP. I wanted to do Ancients in one year and their 2-year option is for 2nd and 3rd grade with book selections that most think are beyond those levels so it definitely didn't fit for a first grader doing it all in one year. I believe HO does not incorporate bible--look into that if that is important to you. We enjoy Biblioplan a lot. I really liked that it is scheduled to study one culture at a time, I like how biblical history is included, and I loved the book choices.

 

HTH!

[Alana in Canada]

Well, I'll throw this into the mix: Vos is our favourite Story Bible. It's correlated with SoTW over at Paula's archives. The page I've linked to has it lumped with CHoW--and there are other Bible's too.

[wtmviolet]

1. I think it probably would be a good fit, as long as you are wanting a curriculum that is strong on history through literature.

 

2. I second the "The Children's Story Bible" by Catherine F. Vos. The only thing I would change it in is to spread the pictures out so that the child has something to occupy his/her eyes.

 

3. The SOTW AG is not included, only SOTW. I haven't seen the AG, but I would guess that it would be easy to go from BP's SOTW reference to the AG.

 

For my complete BP review: http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/reviews/curriculum/reviews.aspx?id=475