Does anyone use Konos? Or any other curriculum based on virtues?

[Janeway]

I know very little about Konos other than that it is supposed to be unit studies based on virtues. I also do not know what else is out there about virtues. I would love any feed back or information, etc. I have already been to the Konos website.

[....]

We used volume 1 and 2 a LONG time ago...like when we first started homeschooling.  It's not exactly fresh in my mind, but I'll try to dust the cobwebs off my memories of Konos and see if I can give you any info.

They did enjoy it a lot.  I used it with two kinesthetic learners.  We would get a huge stack of library books to go with each unit.  We would watch videos online explaining different concepts.  We did tons of projects, field trips, dissections, etc.  I have an older edition, so some of the activities were a little "dated".  One unit told us to build a fire in our backyard (Lol).  Um...maybe not.  I had a hard time finding some of their suggested books, but it was really easy to find stuff that our library had as substitutes.  We flew through it much faster than I expected.  So, I guess you can spend as much time or as little time as you want on a unit.  I would usually use Konos as a foundation and then take off on my own - add my own books, do some science kits from Home Science Tools, etc.  

Some of the units were a little odd and we skipped several.  I can't quite remember, but it seemed like there was a unit on sheep (maybe I'm imagining that).  

It was time-consuming for me to plan and put everything together.  Plus, going to the library and picking out 20 books on one subject, planning projects, etc.  So, yes, it was time-consuming.

Konos taught me how to put unit studies together for my kids.  After Konos, I became very good at building my own unit studies using literature.  We did unit studies for years.  It was the best homeschooling method for my two oldest, who are kinesthetic learners.       

[Ellie]

2 hours ago, Janeway said:

I know very little about Konos other than that it is supposed to be unit studies based on virtues. I also do not know what else is out there about virtues. I would love any feed back or information, etc. I have already been to the Konos website.

Well, no, it's a unit study based on godly character traits. :-) Some Christians might call those "virtues," but it's better if you use the vocabulary that the author does. :-)

I loved KONOS. It worked best for me to do two KONOS days a week (instead of a few KONOS activities each day); I was able to make a general yearly plan, and then it took an evening to plan each month as it came up. We did Volume 2, which is the only one that is written for the character traits to be done in the order they appear in the book, as it is a chronological study of American history (beginning with the early scientists, then the early explorers, and so on). If you're interested, I can tell you how I planned.

My only regret with KONOS is that all three volumes were not yet written when I started hsing, so that I couldn't do all of them. :-)

[PeterPan]

I've got the three volumes, but somehow we've always been distracted by other things and not actually done anything with them. I got them to use with my ds who has ASD + SLDs. Who knows, maybe Ellie would say he's coming into the perfect stage, lol, dunno.

[mama25angels]

I have never used Kronos so, I can't say anything about it but, I did want to recommend looking at Shiveracademy, she posted a unit study on her blog using the book of virtues.  I have not used it either but will be using it this year.  Hth!

[kristin0713]

I used Konos when my kids were younger and those were great years.  As a PP mentioned, some activities and many books are a little outdated so be prepared to modify, but that is pretty easy to do.  The thing about Konos is that you will be doing a TON of planning and implementing. I did use two of the all-in-one lesson plan books (Attentiveness and Obedience) and those were a bit more planned out but I still felt like I needed to sit and write all my plans and certainly gather all the materials for the hands-on stuff. The authors have not updated the curriculum at all so it has a very traditional, old-school homeschool feel.  Everything today is soooooo much more open-and-go which is NOT the case with Konos.  Personally, I enjoyed the planning and it allowed me to tailor it all to my kids' needs.  But as they got older, I wanted things that were easier to implement.