happynurse Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 MFW Creation to the Greeks is proving to be a bust around here. I hate the book hopping, we're bored, and most days it feels like we just read a Bible story with very little additional history tied in. I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if it gets better, but I'm an inch away from dropping it. I've added SOTW 1, but even then we're finding history dull. Not to mention my 2nd grader and K'er aren't remotely engaged and are a huge distraction. Can anyone advise? Last year we did Notgrass' Our Star Spangled Story and I loved that we just got history done and ticked the box. I don't know if I should just drop MFW completely (except for Science in the Beginning - we're loving that), and keep SOTW or just move on to another American history curriculum, like Notgrass. Ugh. My 5th grader has ADHD (as do I) and streamlined seems to work best for us. Thanks in advance for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 You sound like you might want to look at Curiosity Chronicles. Similar story format, photographs and pictures, and an audio book where it's a conversation. Streamlined, but more in-the-box interesting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mona Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 I did MFW CtG a long time ago with my two oldest kids and we loved doing all the activities. Measuring the Ark, Manna (popcorn) from Heaven, and making challah bread and Lentil Soup. We had to watch a few videos to learn how to braid the bread. We enjoyed the Patricia St. John books and added Rummy Roots (card game) to help learn Greek/Latin roots. My youngest probably would not like CtG though. He would find flipping through several books very boring. They used a couple different books back then, and I noticed that there is an Usborne Internet-linked history book now. Do those! My youngest (9yo) loves the internet-linked science books and your kids might enjoy the variety of links to learn about history. https://usborne.com/us/quicklinks/quicklink/world-history-ancient-to-modern?page=13 The activities in the pyramid science book are fun, too. Are you using the book list in the back of the TM? They are listed by reading level, early readers first to more advanced. They’re also divided by subjects by week. Maybe, you will have to use the TM as a buffet and pick and choose what to do. It will leave room for rabbit trails if you find something interesting. Or, try something else. I don’t have any recommendations for another curriculum. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenecho Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 (edited) If you get through Science in the Beginning quickly you can start on Science in the Ancient World (which starts in Ancient Greece), or, since it doesn't depend on the materials in the first book, you could just start incorporating some of those lessons when you get to that section of history, while still continuing to work through Science in the Beginning if you want to. Science in the Ancient World continues on into the middle ages. If you haven't gotten past the period that has chapters on Egypt, you might also like some of the Science of Ancient Egypt unit studies by Dr. Daves Science. I really liked their mummy one (we did it along with an egg mummy, which is an extra he sells but we just looked up the experiment online). The explanation of the science of how mummification works was really good and easy to read/understand. The units don't come with experiments, but I found that it wasn't hard to find ones to go with them (like for the Kilns and Metals one, I found several experiments on pennies that corresponded nicely to the science the units went over). https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Dr-Daves-Science/Category/Ancient-Egypt-Science-18898 Here's more ways to integrate science and history, if you're interested, since it seems like that's something your kids respond well to.http://imaginativehomeschool.blogspot.com/2017/08/resources-combining-history-and-science.html Also, if you do decide to just go forward with SOTW, but want to continue to add Biblical content, here's a Bible integration chart I made...http://imaginativehomeschool.blogspot.com/2017/06/story-of-world-bible-integration-old.html If you want to continue to add Christian content after the Biblical time period is finished, I highly suggest the History Lives series by Mindy and Brandon Withrow. It has short passages relating Church history, followed by historical fiction short stories about some important Christians from those historical periods. It's very well written and engaging. Edited August 30, 2022 by goldenecho 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helpdesk Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 If you want to use SOTW with an intermediate student, check out this article from our FAQ which gives you suggestions for leveling-up to the maturity level of a middle-grades student. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 Maybe switch to the Notgrass Our 50 States, since the Star Spangled Story worked well? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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