Tell me what you love and/or hate about History Odyssey!

[Veritaserum]

I've been longing for a 4-year history cycle program that uses Story of the World and this looks really promising. I've read through the free 10 lessons posted on their website and I think it might be what I'm looking for. I guess I just want some of you to share your real life experiences with it to help me make up my mind. :tongue_smilie:

 

Oh, and if you know of another history program that uses Story of the World laid out and scheduled, I'd love to check it out as well.

 

Thanks! :)

[Mom-ninja.]

I like it. My complaint would be lack of time to get history done, but that is due to my life right now not the curriculum.

 

My boys do not like to color so I skip all the History Pocket activities and coloring books.

 

I'm not a fan of A Child's History of the World book. I usually skip those readings.

[MomZ]

I looked at this in depth too and am really curious to see what people say. I was very impressed with what I saw online.

 

:lurk5:

[Veritaserum]

I like it. My complaint would be lack of time to get history done, but that is due to my life right now not the curriculum.

 

My boys do not like to color so I skip all the History Pocket activities and coloring books.

 

I'm not a fan of A Child's History of the World book. I usually skip those readings.

 

Thanks for chiming in. We will be skipping CHOW as well (I recently sold our copy since we never used it and don't feel like buying it again). I figure between the Usborne encyclopedia and SOTW we should be pretty well covered. :)

 

My dd8 is most interested in the History Pockets. She loves any kind of crafty project. Having them scheduled will be good because I tend to avoid them. :tongue_smilie:

 

Anyone else want to chime in? :bigear:

[HollyBee]

:lurk5:

 

I'm interested in responses too, especially from anyone who has combined two levels with different kids.

 

Holly

[Sunshyne]

I use HO Level 2: Ancients with DS who is 10. I love that it encourages him to attempt to work independently, and teaches him how to record information and stay organized. He takes a great deal of pride in the way I've set up his notebook, and he works hard to keep it neat and orderly.

 

I think the program is very good at covering the important topics for this time period. I like the way it presents a rounded view of each topic every week. He learns about the people, the culture, the events.

 

Having said all of that, I also quickly figured out that I needed MORE. He asked for MORE. So, we simply go to the library every other week, and check out lots of books. I pick books from Sonlight and other popular reading lists, too. He always has several good nonfiction books laying around, and he's always reading some historical fiction. This part is simple, and makes the program truly complete for us.

 

Sometimes, I don't make him write the summary sentences for Kingfisher, unless it is asking for something specific. I have the red Kingfisher, and I sometimes don't even know what the correct answer would be, so we focus on the more direct questions: Write a few sentences about this specific topic or person... that kind of thing.

 

We read "The Story of Mankind" together. It's fun, and it gives us some things to discuss together. Amazon accidentally sent us two copies, and so I read aloud and he follows along in his book.

 

I'll post again and tell a bit more about how my first grader fits in to this puzzle...

 

I am no expert. I have been back at this for only about 7 weeks now (DS was in public school for a year), but HO is a great program that works perfectly for us. We do history MWF for about 45 min- 1 hour, and read daily. We're enjoying it and learning so much.

 

Hope this helps!

[Amy in TX]

We used Ancients, levels one and two this year. It's exactly what I wanted--a history program that uses SOTW and Kingfisher as spines, with all the planning done for me. It provides lots of outlining, researching, mapwork, and short report assignments.

 

I hope to use level three next year for Medieval as my dd starts high school.

 

The only negative (for me) is that I don't care for the other recommended spines, A Child's History of the World, and The Story of Mankind. But I've got several other ancient history reference works for kids that I was able to substitute with easily.

 

Amy

[Lovedtodeath]

I've been longing for a 4-year history cycle program that uses Story of the World and this looks really promising. I've read through the free 10 lessons posted on their website and I think it might be what I'm looking for. I guess I just want some of you to share your real life experiences with it to help me make up my mind. :tongue_smilie:

 

Oh, and if you know of another history program that uses Story of the World laid out and scheduled, I'd love to check it out as well.

 

Thanks! :)

 

What stage are you starting the cycle in? Are you starting with SOTW1?

 

I have seen some bad reviews for grammar stage. I could dig them up if it applies.

Edited March 31, 2009 by Lovedtodeath

[LunaLee]

I love HO. I used Level 2 Ancients and Middle Ages with 2 different dc. There's really not much that I could find fault with. I will tell you though that each level is different, like, there are no history pockets for the middle ages so if you wanted a hands on element you might have to supplement, which is fine because HO makes it very easy to do so. Also, there isn't a lot of reading comprehension with the book selections, so if that's something your looking for you'd also want to supplement. Most of the time the assignment is something like "Begin reading xxxx, make sure it's completed by lesson XXX" and that's about it. I think Level 2 does a very good job of taking what SWB suggests in the WTM and puts into easy to use lessons.

 

I think one of the main problems people have with it, especially in the grammar stage, is that they've used SOTW before and they are comparing the two. Well, they aren't really the same so I think that's why they are dissapointed. Also, HO is done geograpchically not chronologically. So in Ancients, let say, you are doing ALL of Ancient Egypt, before you move on to Africa and China. Some people like this, some don't. I often tell people that if you like SOTW and the AG then just stick with it, but HO does a good job of narrowing down all the suggestions for crafts and other books and and puts it in easy to do lessons.

[kzdaisy]

We are doing HO Ancients Level2 we love it. It helps my dd to be more independent.I don't feel overwhelmed by it.Karin

[arcara]

I don't have any experience with it, but I'm planning to start using it when my oldest is in 5th grade (year after next). I wanted to let people know that they author of the program told me that, at least with the middle school level and higher, they are written for the specific grade. For instance, a 5th grader would have A LOT of trouble with Early Modern, Level 2, because the writing assignments are written for an older student. Knowing this has helped me plan ahead appropriately!

 

I'm really encouraged by the posts saying that their older student has been able to be more independent with this. That's what I'm hoping for since I will have a lot of younger kiddos.

[*Kate*]

I'm bumping this up because I'd love to hear more reviews of this please.

[kewb]

I used it this year (levels 1 and 2 for the ancients) and have really enjoyed it. The kids also like it. However, due to my own scheduling inadequacies we did not get as far into it as I would have liked. We will not be finishing it this school year. That said, I do plan on using the Middle Ages next year because I do like the program.