ktgrok Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Anyone using this yet? HOw easy is it to actually implement and plan? Any hands on stuff, or just read and respond in their notebook? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 Ok, looks like there are hands on activities in one of the books you would use. And lots of video links for visual learners. Interesting.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librarymama Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 I purchased it, but haven't implemented it yet. I am not sure how I will use it. It is a massive wall of text to read through. From what I have gathered so far, a typical schedule would be to do one lesson per week with the readings and activities done over the course of the week. There is a gentle, standard and advanced pathway with assigned spines. Additionally, there is a huge list of additional books for those who want to dig deeper. As you go through each lesson you will find assigned readings, suggested additional readings and suggested read alouds, links to multimedia such as YouTube videos and websites for more information, and activity suggestions. Activities seem to be things like craft suggestions from the A Kid's Guide to Latino History and A Kid's Guide to Native American History, mapping, recipes, further research topics, etc. The student also keeps a notebook. Overall this curriculum mainly seems to be a curated list of resources on the history of the US, however the resources suggested are less Eurocentric than those in many other US history curricula out there. The way it is presented is a bit overwhelming because it is trying to be a one size fits all curriculum. That said, I can definitely find a place for this even if I don't use it as scheduled because there are just so many good resources linked throughout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librarymama Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 Another thing -- there is no way I could hand this to my 8th grader and expect him to figure out what to do. I don't think it is designed to be that way, but it makes my eyes cross so I know my son lose his mind trying to work through it. I definitely see this as the type of curriculum that you work through together, though I am sure there are some extremely independent and mature older students who could do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librarymama Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 1 minute ago, kand said: This is how it feels to me. I love the idea of it, but it seems like I would need to take the teacher's guide and then write all new plans based on it in order to streamline it, in which case it makes the point of buying the guide in the first placer no longer seem worth it for me (because I would be buying it to make things easier for me). I do really like what they are doing though and am interested to hear how people are liking their materials. Yes, exactly! I would have to basically write out all my son's lessons for him separately. I may end up sprinkling bits of the curriculum into his work throughout the year, but it is definitely not an open and go for an independent child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scbusf Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 We will be using it this year in conjunction with Build Your Library Level 5. Some of the books overlap. ROV is definitely a huge wall of text to sort through. I just printed it yesterday and I'm diving in this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gck21 Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 For those of you who are using it, did you find any good reviews? I am interested to hear how other people have used it. I have downloaded the sample at least 3 times! I am trying to put together a beginning American history for my K and 2nd, but I think we are just going to read books in roughly chronological order because I can't find what I am looking for already put together. The idea for this curriculum sounded so good, but I was concerned that (at least for the youngest grouping), there seemed to be only 3 spines, 2 of which were activity books. I know there are more books recommended in the guide, but I couldn't figure out if the heart of the program was crafts and activities or literature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scbusf Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 It's fairly new, so there aren't a ton of reviews yet. My kids are older than yours, but my impression of the curriculum is that it really can be what you want it to be. There are activities/crafts and there are tons of books recommended. You get full booklist once you purchase. Only the spines are listed in the sample. But really, you can choose if you wanted to do more activities, or more videos (lots of clickable links included), or read more picture books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted August 1, 2020 Author Share Posted August 1, 2020 4 hours ago, gck21 said: For those of you who are using it, did you find any good reviews? I am interested to hear how other people have used it. I have downloaded the sample at least 3 times! I am trying to put together a beginning American history for my K and 2nd, but I think we are just going to read books in roughly chronological order because I can't find what I am looking for already put together. The idea for this curriculum sounded so good, but I was concerned that (at least for the youngest grouping), there seemed to be only 3 spines, 2 of which were activity books. I know there are more books recommended in the guide, but I couldn't figure out if the heart of the program was crafts and activities or literature. I'm looking at a sample of A Kid's Guide to Native American History, and it definitely isn't just crafts/activities. There is information, then craft, then more information, then a craft, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Jessica* Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 I don’t have any insight, but I’m using it with my 3rd grader this year. We start school tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hs03842 Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 (edited) - Edited December 9, 2020 by JoyKM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 My kids are teens, and I'm not even homeschooling, and I want to buy this. It looks very cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah0000 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 I'm interested in this as well. The content looks great but I cannot, will not, don't wanna write out lesson plans for my older kid. It would be awesome if the author, or someone, separated out the levels so an independent kid could follow along independently. So we personally went with Beautiful Feet for now (History of Science, not comparable content) because my third grader can follow that manual on his own. Still a great balance of literature, notebooking, and hands on stuff but I only have to glance over his shoulder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 I looked over and over this because we are doing US History this year. Then I looked over to BYL again, the 5th grade level of US History has been rewritten and it also gives the multicultural perspective. I decided against both as I'm terrible at following schedules and pick and choose anyway. So, fwiw anyone looking for multicultural US history perspective River of Voices is not the only option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnwife Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 4 minutes ago, soror said: I looked over and over this because we are doing US History this year. Then I looked over to BYL again, the 5th grade level of US History has been rewritten and it also gives the multicultural perspective. I decided against both as I'm terrible at following schedules and pick and choose anyway. So, fwiw anyone looking for multicultural US history perspective River of Voices is not the only option. So, uh, what did you go with? (if you don't mind sharing...I am also terrible at schedules for stuff like this.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Just now, barnwife said: So, uh, what did you go with? (if you don't mind sharing...I am also terrible at schedules for stuff like this.) I'm sticking with Hakim for a spine, the condensed as that is what I have, I'm using books from BYL and a hodge podge of others- some picture books, very little historical fiction, NF from varied sources. I have the Before 1491 that RoV uses as one of its first spines as I used it with my ds but I'm doing US history now with DD2-5th and Dd3- 2nd- it is too much for them. Likewise I'm skipping some of the books suggested by BYL as they are a lot deeper than they are ready for. I went through and read reviews and looked at samples of all the ones I don't have to pick the ones I thought would fit best. It is totally different than what I did with my son and my older daughter. I went really heavy with ds and light with dd1, I'm trying to find that balance with these 2. I only plan 6 weeks at a time and have been getting my bearings this first session (we finish week 6 next week). I started out using The Complete Book of US History as our spine but I went to Hakim as I wanted more detail. I don't care for the bits and pieces of so many different books at one time like BYL or RoV does, it drives me nuts. So, I'm keeping to 1 spine and supplementing with 1 book at a time, I don't want to be reading 3 or 4 different books at a time it feels too disjointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hs03842 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) - Edited December 9, 2020 by JoyKM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, JoyKM said: What are your favorite things about her series? I'm looking at it for when my kids are in middle school (and I hope to change up some of the way we do school) and am thinking to start snapping up volumes used. I find it engaging for a textbook, easy to read and understand. And it isn't whitewashed to the degree a lot of US history is in many books (especially hs books). Edited August 5, 2020 by soror 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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