Is it easy to make Gather Round secular?

[alysee]

I understand there seems to be copywork and daily prayers which are easy to avoid but is this still a bad choice for secular homeschoolers?

[seemesew]

33 minutes ago, alysee said:

I understand there seems to be copywork and daily prayers which are easy to avoid but is this still a bad choice for secular homeschoolers?

I believe they have a sample unit on birds you can download and see for yourself! Its not well liked in this forum because it is more of an unschooling approach than classical so a lot of us feel it is not enough and too expensive to add to it what is needed.

[Janeway]

We are doing a Gather 'round unit study right now and I have mixed feelings. The information is nice and all, but then it is work sheets. My kids love Story of the World and we will just return to that after Christmas. 

[HomeAgain]

I think it's one of those where you have to decide if it's fitting what you're looking for.

There are other "gather round" style programs that you might look at and see how viable they are to make secular as well.  Learning Adventures was relatively easy (we skipped the bible lesson each day).  TRISMS has been on my radar.  FIAR moves up and down with kids' levels, and isn't onerous to tweak.  It's been redesigned lately to have a more open and go feel, too.

I know there are some that other people may remember, too.

[Lori D.]

3 hours ago, Lovinglife123 said:

...what is learning adventures?  ...

Learning Adventures is for grades 4-6. (I know it says for grades 4-8, but it's really too light and young for the typical 7th/8th grader). There are 3 year-long programs, each divided into several units, done as unit studies (so LA, Social Studies, and Science, and some Art are all focused on the same time period of history).

vol. 1 = A World of Adventure: Ancients & Medieval
unit 1 = Egypt
unit 2 = Greece
unit 3 = Rome
unit 4 = Middle Ages
unit 5 = Renaissance
unit 6 = Age of Exploration

vol. 2 = A New World of Adventure: U.S. History: Colonial and Revolutionary War
unit 1 = Into a New Land
unit 2 = Life in the Colonies
unit 3 = Revolution and Beyond

vol. 3 = Westward and Onward: U.S. History, 1800s
unit 1 = From Sea to Shining Sea
unit 2 = Over the Mountains
unit 3 = Battling on Land and Sea
unit 4 = Across the Nation
unit 5 = In the South
unit 6 = Deep in the Heart of Texas
unit 7 = Growing Tensions
unit 8 = Into the Midwest
unit 9 = Across the Plains and Beyond
unit 10 = Along the Trail

[HomeAgain]

What Lori said. 🙂  There are also some extension packets for 1-3rd grade.  We used vol 3: Westward and Onward and it was like a stripped down Sonlight approach.  The science was always lacking (it was usually a simple experiment and/or lecture) so we beefed that up, but everything centers around a literature book you can read aloud or have the kids read to themselves.  Each unit has one book, and honestly, some of the choices were unusual but appreciated.  I think that was the year he read Christie and Lassie, Come Home. 
It is in no way a rigorous program.  It was for a year where he needed shoring up and some fun.  We could always extend if/when we wanted to (Jackdaws got a lot of use that year, too), but we had 3 of us using it at the same time with different families and sharing ideas.

[Lori D.]

15 hours ago, Lovinglife123 said:

It sounds so much like five in a row.  

Learning Adventures (LA) and Five in a Row (FiaR) are both unit studies, but they are a bit different in approach -- at least the original ancients LA that I looked through.

FiaR is primarily for pre-school / kinder /early elementary grades (with 1 volume for grades 4-6 ages). It is unit study based around the books, and draws out information, study, and activities from the books.

LA is primarily for the late elementary ages, and it is history-based, and uses books as one of the resources for studying the time period and doing activities. As a result, there is more teaching info in the guide.

Edited December 23, 2021 by Lori D.

[Elizabeth86]

On 12/21/2021 at 4:25 PM, HomeAgain said:

I think it's one of those where you have to decide if it's fitting what you're looking for.

There are other "gather round" style programs that you might look at and see how viable they are to make secular as well.  Learning Adventures was relatively easy (we skipped the bible lesson each day).  TRISMS has been on my radar.  FIAR moves up and down with kids' levels, and isn't onerous to tweak.  It's been redesigned lately to have a more open and go feel, too.

I know there are some that other people may remember, too.

What is TRISMS?

[HomeAgain]

Just now, Elizabeth86 said:

What is TRISMS?

Sorry, I misspoke.

TRISMS is a unit study approach for middle/high school.  It is on my radar, but not for this.

I was thinking of KONOS, which is the granddaddy of homeschool unit studies for families. I've yet to get a close look at it to see how easy it would be to sort out the bible teaching from the academic material.

[ktgrok]

 It really depends on which unit. Like, you could easily do North American birds which was our favorite and make it secular. Some others not as much. Or at least you'd be skipping more.