SOTW or TOG?

Discussion in 'Homeschooling' started by Birbitt, Jan 17, 2010.

  1. Birbitt

    Birbitt New Member

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    I am starting to look into what I'll be buying in the next month or two for school next year and while my 5yo loves FIAR I just don't think it will be enough for him and my 6yo next year. I was looking at Story of The World and Tapestry of Grace online and I like both of them. It seems TOG uses more books though than SOTW or am I just not seeing a resource list for SOTW? If you have used one or both of these can you tell me what you liked and/or didn't like about them? I'll be teaching a modified 1/2nd grade (depending on which subject) so I prefer something that can be used together and just have a few modifications.
     
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  3. Lindina

    Lindina Active Member

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    Beyond FIAR?

    Sorry, I haven't used any of these, so I can't advise.
     
  4. Sue May

    Sue May New Member

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    We have not used TOG or SOTW. What is SOTW?

    Have you looked into My Father's World? I have not used it but wish I did. It looks great.
     
  5. dalynnrmc

    dalynnrmc New Member

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    Check out Illuminations by Bright Ideas Press, the publisher of The Mystery of History. ACK - looks like the ILM page isn't working! I can post more info if you want. I can post TONS of info, if ya want. ;)

    MoH is biblical history right alongside world history. ILM jumps from it and creates a language arts program, including literature studies with guides comparable to pandia press. It also schedules grammar, spelling, science, vocabulary, geography, and I'm probably leaving out something... but if you only use it for the literature guides, it's totally worth it. ;)

    Again, I've more info (than you could ever possibly want or need :p ) If you want it!
     
  6. Birbitt

    Birbitt New Member

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    hmm, never heard of Mystery of History or Illuminations and their website doesn't like me...could you tell me more about it and what it's like? wish I could get the website to work so I could see sample.
     
  7. amylynn

    amylynn New Member

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    I love SOTW! Both of my kids find it very interesting and they love all the activities in the Activity book. That's where all the book lists are, btw. They are listed in each chapter, both non-fiction and fiction books to go with each subject.
     
  8. Birbitt

    Birbitt New Member

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    amylynn, how many additional books beside the activity book and the main book do I need to use the program, and are the books I need easy to find in the library or would I need to buy them?
     
  9. alegnacb

    alegnacb New Member

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    Sotw, tog, & moh

    We've used both. We used TOG for grades 8, 5 & 1. We used it for nine weeks, and we all hated it. There was so much for me to read from the teacher's pages just to be ready for each week's lesson. I rarely got through the reading, even though it was history and I love history. Anyway, my kids have always been homeschooled, and we have used lots of different curricula, but TOG was the only curriculum my kids begged me to sell (so that I wouldn't be tempted to pull it out again to use?).

    We used SOTW for grades 2 & 5, I think. My boys thought it was okay, but they loved Mystery of History, which we were using at the same time. We used MOH 1 not long after it was first published, so the extras weren't available then. I hope to use it with my younger kids in a couple of years and get the lapbooks to go with it.

    You need to buy books for TOG, so it can get expensive. You need to have specific books with it (or at least find ones that have similar info). You need the books at specific times, so buying books works much better than depending on the library having the books when you need them.

    You don't *need* any other books to use SOTW (or MOH). If you like to have supplemental books, then you may want to buy some books or use books from the library. Unless you have an awesome local library, you may have a difficult time finding the specific books that are listed, but that doesn't mean you can't find other books that are just as good.

    I used FIAR with ds#1 when he was in kindergarten. I didn't continue with it into first grade, because I didn't think it went deep enough. I wish the free lapbooks at Homeschool Share had been available then. If I had kids of younger-elementary age again, I would try FIAR with lapbooks.
     
  10. Birbitt

    Birbitt New Member

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    Thank you for that information, how many other books are recommended with MOH and SOTW?
     
  11. Bry's-Gal

    Bry's-Gal New Member

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    I'm considering that one for my kids. How easy are the books to find and is there much prep work for the teacher?
     
  12. seekingmyLord

    seekingmyLord Active Member

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    Birbitt, both SOTW and MOH are pretty complete within themselves.

    Of the two, I think you might like Mystery of History more because it has much more Biblical history in it. Originally five books were planned in the series, but I see that has been changed to four. The possible downside is that the first three have been published spanning something like seven years between the first to the third one, but then she is homeschooling as well and we all know how time consuming that can be.

    Other resources, if you like a literature approach Christina Miller's All Through the Ages and Beautiful Feet guides are also very good and Christian based.
     
  13. Birbitt

    Birbitt New Member

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    Thank you seeking! I am going to check a couple of local Christian book stores to see if they have a copy I can look at!
     
  14. jenlaw31

    jenlaw31 New Member

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    We just started using SOTW and so far we like it. My kids are interested in the stories and don't dread history anymore :D I liked that I could use it for both my 6 + 11 y/o dd's at the same time, and also it is fairly inexpensive with not much else to buy. I just bought the textbook and skipped on the activity book. I think they might also offer tests, but I am not sure. There are 4 books total, but you do not need to buy all of them at once. It will probley take the school year to finish the first book. The lessons are short (3-4 pages on average) and I will read it outloud to them. Afterward I will ask them some questions about what I read to make sure they understand. I also will try to get some books from the library to go along with the lesson. For example we are reading about Ancient Egypt, so I got some books on Cleopatra, King Tut and the Great Pyramid.

    You should try to find one used on ebay or another used book source and give it a try. If you don't like it you are not out alot of money, wish I could say the same thing for the BJU reading program I bought :roll:
     
  15. amylynn

    amylynn New Member

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    Sorry, I just saw this. There are about 8 books suggested for each chapter, 4 fiction and 4 nonfiction. I've been able to find almost all of them at the library. It also tells you whether the books are "read aloud" books or "read independently" books. I would definitely recommend the activity guide, I think it's very inexpensive for what you get, is very user friendly, and round out the curriculum nicely.

    Here's how I do it. On library day I open the activity guide and write down the books I'll need for 2 weeks ( or 2 chapters).

    Monday we read one section from the book together, out loud. Then we open the activity guide and go through the review question to make sure she's retaining what we're reading. Then she does a quick narration of the section. Then she does the map page and reads 2-3 of the books we checked out. (This counts for reading time too).

    Wednesday we read the other section from the chapter and do the review questions and the narration again. Then she does a coloring page from the activity book and reads some more of the books.

    Friday we do any additional activities or projects on the topic. (Dress up, plays, models, experiements, ect). The book suggests lots of fun projects and crafts at the end of each chapter.

    The only prep work I do is checking out books and skimming through the projects to see if we want to do any of them. Super easy!
     
  16. dalynnrmc

    dalynnrmc New Member

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    For MOH, there are too many recommended books to read them all. Read the ones you can find and don't worry about the others. Or, find a program that uses MOH as the spine and use their book list (namely Winter Promise or Illuminations - not meaning to use the curriculum, but just find out what books they use).

    And yes, MOH still lacks its 4th and final volume, but if you haven't started the sequence yet it should be out by the time you get there. They're guessing 3 1/2 years gap to publish this one, and it's been almost one of those already.


    That said, the worldview of MOH was really what won us over to it, and what keeps us sitting there. We'll probably go with (or supplement with) the Christine Miller series for high school.

    What helped me decide all of this was simply looking at the samples (Christianbook.com has fantastic samples) and the Tables of Contents of each of these three options. (Meaning SOTW, MOH, and the Millers. I also considered Biblioplan and Truthquest. TOG was on my list but for the price I couldn't glance twice.)
     
  17. rhi

    rhi New Member

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    I really like SOTW, even my older kids read since it appeals to them since it's in story form and they really learn more that way. I had a mini quiz with my youngest dd last week about one of her chapters and she really soaked it in and knew what she was talking about. We don't use the activity book because they find them boring since they are so much older. We also supplement and do extra projects to really learn the subjects.
     

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