cherryblossom Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Looking ahead to next year and trying to make a decision on what we'll do for 9th grade history. We will be finishing Sonlight's Core 100 which carries us through the modern era of history study. I'm not sure whether to go the TOG (Ancients) route, or Notgrass World History, or just go with a textbook from ABeka or BJU.:confused: What to do?!?!? Please feel free to offer up your suggestions and advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn&charles Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I think TOG is great. I also really like Winter Promise. They have some nice programs you can use for high school. I wouldn't go the textbook route because -for my kids- that would just kill all of the joy. They really like digging deeper with plenty of literature, activities, movies, etc. History is so much more fun to learn (for us) if it's rich with resources. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 We used SL 200 for 9th and are using SL 300 for 10th. I think 200 was a good study, but think that if I did it again, I would use it as a skeleton and add some Teaching company lectures and coordinate it with the Great Books readings. One could add in a World Religions unit as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Looking ahead to next year and trying to make a decision on what we'll do for 9th grade history. We will be finishing Sonlight's Core 100 which carries us through the modern era of history study. Have you decided against continuing with Sonlight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathie in VA Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 We will be finnished with SL core 100 also! I'm thinking of going back to Ancient time period for our 2nd cycle. Here's what I'm considering: VP's Omnibus I Streams of Civilizations I (there is a guide for this at Hewitt Homeschool that I'm considering using) or ?? Biblioplan? (forgot to check with Notgrass and Winterpromise) I'm still open to ideas. I like how SL had daily lesson plans... this really helped my kids. I've tried TOG classic but it didn't work for us. It seems we really do better with daily plans. I'd consider SL again but their topics don't fit what we are at. My younger son will be doing Ancients with Classical Conversations-Foundations cycle 1 next year (again) so I'm hoping to keep all of us on the same timeperiod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherryblossom Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 I am not certain if we'll continue with Core200. I thought we would begin with the Ancients again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherryblossom Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 Streams of Civilizations is one of my considerations as well. Have you viewed the Ancients Guide from Beautiful Feet? You can view samples at christianbook.com. I'll check out the one at Hewitt also. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherryblossom Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 Thanks for your recommendations. I've looked at TOG via their website several times and I feel overwhelmed trying to really wrap my brain around it! If I'm not mistaken WP uses MOH for their spine for the ancients which we used the last time we studied this period. Thanks again for your suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherryblossom Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 Thank you for your suggestions, Cynthia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in CA Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Thanks for your recommendations. I've looked at TOG via their website several times and I feel overwhelmed trying to really wrap my brain around it! If I'm not mistaken WP uses MOH for their spine for the ancients which we used the last time we studied this period. Thanks again for your suggestions. TOG is really not overwhelming once you put it into practice. I am a visual, easily overwhelmed person, and I find TOG extremely straight-forward and simple to use. Have you printed out their 3-week sample, gotten the books to go with it from the library, and tried it? That is what I did, and is what showed me how uncomplicated TOG really is. The overwhelming part at your stage would be jumping right into the Rhetoric level. That would be intimidating to me at first. But, a ninth grader does not have to do the RH level. Dialectic would be a fine start, I think. As for SL's high school cores....:tongue_smilie: My older boys used their Core 300 and 400. Core 400 was sooooooooo over our heads that even *I* struggled with understanding what I was reading. It is an entire year of Govt on steroids. Just too too much. Plus the American Lit portion had zero help for parents. If you want to discuss the books with your child, you have to read the books yourself. I was VERY disappointed and ended up using a combo of BJU's Am. Lit with HomeSat teacher (excellent) using our Core 400 Lit books. Core 300 was OK, but they keep changing the Spine, and I'm not sure I was comfortable with my son's reading book containing "F" words and such [He says it was an excellent book though]. What I definitely do NOT like about SL's high school Cores is their lack of independence. SL is written and created for parent involvement all the way through. You will not know what your child is learning unless you are doing the work with them as there are zero tests, or evaluations....thereby almost no work for you to keep in your child's high school records PROVING said work was done. Not one. single. test. Not one. single. quiz. There ARE student questions, but placed in the TM in such a way as to not be very useful at all...unless you want to type them all out and make your own worksheets. Again, SL is created for you, the parent/teacher to do the work with them and have discussion. The student questions are mainly for your discussion time. My boys also did NOT like John's writing assignments. All that to say, this is the main reason I moved to TOG for my youngest. I love, love, love that they provide great discussion & accountability questions. Literature worksheets. Evaluations (testing material) and extensive teacher's notes so we can have discussions without my daily doing the work with him. I also like that I now have records of what my son has done each week. And I have something concrete to GRADE. I have nothing, literally, nothing in my older boys' records proving we did SL history. It was also somewhat daunting trying to give grades on discussion alone. Personally, if TOG was not an option for me, I would choose a BJU textbook and add in extra books, before I would consider going the SL route again. BJU has a good text and you could very easily flesh it out with some great books, and it contains quizzes and tests which I, personally, think are important from middle school up. My measly two cents... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathie in VA Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Streams of Civilizations is one of my considerations as well. Have you viewed the Ancients Guide from Beautiful Feet? You can view samples at christianbook.com. I'll check out the one at Hewitt also. Thanks! hmm, I hadn't considered the BF in awhile. This looks interesting and it asks for much less time: about 2hrs, 3 days a week. However from what I'm seeing the Guide will sometimes have the kids read a book but not have any questions or anything to do with it. Yet it's still a possibility. It would allow more time for incuding other subjects like logic or just not filling the schedule to the rim. kwim? I wonder if anyone here has used this and can review it? I really like the "idea" of Omni because it kinda lines up with what my younger kids will be studying with their Foundations program (world history in 2 years, then Am history for one year). Yet, I can't seem to find what the estimated time requirement is for this. (of all things to lose :glare:) Notgrass is another possibility. I could use their World History for one year, then Gov history, then Am history(lining back up with our Foundations). However this curriculum asks for about 3 hrs a day, 5 days a week ... isn't that the same about Omni asks for?? If so then I'd rather do Omni as it seems to be more geared toward working on logic and rhetoric skills by including and stimulating discussion questions. (I could be very wrong here though) Since I considered Notgrass I just went back to look at SL core 300 (World Hist in 1 yr) but that (plus science, math, and LA) expects about 6-8 hrs a day from my kids and doesn't even include any time for Logic, Foreign Language, or an elective! Hmm, it's also for 10 grade+ and my kids will be in 8th and 9th so maybe this should wait for us. I'd love to use Truthquest books (I actually have all the Guerber books that they put out and we really like them) but we really do better with something laid out in a daily plan. Also I don't think it fits within our yearly plans. But it might be good for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Dd is going to do SWBs ancient history book for high school & adults next year (can't think of the title--we bought WEM in 2008, but plan to get this one in 2009. She hates history, but likes SWBs writing style (liked SOTW). That will be our spine. Since she's an aspiring scientist, we'll go light on the extra reading compared with what my history loving 10 yo will do when she gets there. But I think if we combine SWBs text as a spine with other readings we'll get a great history program for world history. From everything I've read, TOG would not be a good fit for my eldest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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