Since DS6 finished his H&G and DS8 needs some more hours (and he's also running out of his current curriculum), I'm looking for something different for the Summer. I gave DS6 the choice of what he wanted to do (something different or move on to 2nd grade H&G) and he wanted something different. The three of us talked about MOH today and they are interested. I like that we can do it together, they liked the idea of learning about interesting people and places. So now my only dilemma is which supplemental materials to use. We're pretty much going to take about 4 1/2 months to work through Volume 1, but we won't be doing any other work (aside from math for DS8). I don't want to spoil their whole Summer doing hours of work a day, though. Do you think we can do 2 lessons a day, one morning, one afternoon, and only take about 2 hours? Also, which supplemental would you suggest for kiddos this young? I like the idea of the lapbook book. But what about the coloring pages? Or the audio CDs? Anything else I should consider or know?
Depends. Maybe you could read through two lessons on days one and two, then pick an activity on day three. Some of the mapping is a bit tedious with a kid that age, but I'm not sure you want to stop the mapping altogether. Also, do you plan on reading fiction books that go along with the time frame?
Do you plan on doing MoH just once, or do you plan to go back and do it again later? They're young. They'll be doing the "younger" activities in the book anyway. I see NO REASON for the younger crowd to be doing the worksheets and tests that come with the book (unless that's their learning style and what they prefer to be doing, of course). I would use them for the middle grades and then do research projects for high schoolers. At the younger age, I would limit yourself to the suggested activities for the youngers (some of which will be super fun, and you'll want to take all day to teach just one lesson, and some of which will either be skipped, or will take 2 minutes to do... like "think of someone you know who's facing the same challenge ____ faced, and say a prayer for them"). Mapping is important - to an extent. A lot of the things in the first book will center around one small section of the earth, so as long as they've already covered some basic geography, they'll be able to understand where things happened in relation to where they live and where other stories happened. If they don't understand the world view of geography yet, you'll probably be spinning your wheels with mapping. I plan to go much more in depth with that the second time around, but I'm making sure he knows generally where things are the first time around. We're doing history for only a few minutes a week right now. I expect to spend much, much more time on history the second time around. The timeline is important, for sure. That's the whole point of doing MoH the way it's done (chronologically). There are some specific dates (just a few) that the book will ask you to memorize, but the most important thing for the younger ones is to know which story came first if given a choice of 3-4 things that are several years apart. It's important to know which events were happening at the same time, so that they'll know what affect those events had on others. I think you could definitely get through it in 4.5 mos at this age. You wouldn't be able to at an older age, though, because you'd probably expect more assignments and would expect more depth than what the stories give you.
I figured on going over each volume at least twice, probably more. I thought it could be our recurring theme for the Summers. Which is why I thought the lapbooks would be good???? (Sorry, I think they call them folder books) Really? All day for a single lesson!? How do people who use it do other subjects? They haven't done any geography yet. Hmm. Ok. And I wasn't going to mess with the timeline first time around. Ok. I'll rethink that. I was thinking of doing it in one Summer the first time around, but when we revisit it, do a semester a Summer. Arg. Again, this is just so frustrating. I can't even begin to express how much I hate shopping for curriculum. That's why I just stick with what I know works for us. But this year... well.... So now I'm trying to decide what might work from here on out for the Summers.
Good points, 2littleboys! Though personally, I wouldn't worry about a timeline, either, but it's a matter of individual choice. If you decide yo DO want to read fiction, here's a list I posted MANY years ago! You'll find some great ideas for fiction that goes along with MOH 1! http://www.homeschoolspot.com/showthread.php?t=5108&highlight=ancient+history
I haven't done anything like that (ever... not just MoH). Lapbooking seems too much like scrapbooking to me, which is sooooooooooooo not my style or my son's style. We both hate that sort of thing. He'd much rather build the story using legos or act out the way a story might have gone as if he were retelling it in a play. Because most people only do 2-3 lessons per week, so they have time to do little bits of reinforcement here and there. When you do, for example, the ones about ancient Egypt, you'll want to wrap each other like mummies, make pyramids, write in heiroglyphs, talk about Joseph and Moses, and (my son's favorite) make and decorate a cake shaped like Egypt (which turned out dog-ugly, but tasted great :lol: ). If you want to throw in historical fiction on top of it, you'll be spending all day talking about Egypt. Some lessons take no time to do. You could do a 3 lesson set on the same day for some of them and then take all day on the more interesting ones. ... and a warning: book 1 is the easiest book. They get progressively harder and more detailed. It'll be harder and harder to fit them into a summer. If if makes you feel any better, though, I'll be doing the same thing just once. What I should've done was start in 1st grade doing a book per year so we could do all 4 books 3x by 12th. I didn't know about MoH in time, though, so we started this year for 2nd grade. I need to make up a year somewhere, and since book 1 is the easiest, I'll probably turn that one into a summer course at some point (or somehow accelerate to combine 1 & 2 in a 12 month school year.) I'll probably use a summer in middle/high school to devote entirely to American history and/or civics. I think it's important to pull them out, but I don't want to break up the momentum of MoH either.
I think I would focus on the stories & activities if my kids were those ages and I was only taking a summer. My kids liked to color while listening to me read so that's what I would spend money on if that appeals to yours. The folder books are new since I used MOH so I can't comment on those. We usually spent around an hour per lesson with activity but when we were short on time, we read 3 lessons and picked just one of the activities. We did the pre-tests & tests/quizzes verbally. The map work is easily done once per week if you think that is a fit for your kids. I think we skipped some of those with the 10 & unders. I wouldn't worry about the timeline at this point if you are trying to fit it all into a short time. I would only buy the audio cd if you need to put that on instead of reading aloud. (There is a place or two where she has a parent caution and now I don't remember if that is Vol 1 or 2) We enjoyed MOH so much - Vol 1 has always been our fave. I can't wait for Vol IV to come out.
I have the audio (he loves audio books), and I THINK I remember seeing just one place with a caution, but I may be mistaken. I'm pretty sure there was one.
About timelines....I wouldn't stress about doing them as detailed as the book describes, but I would think about a very gernalized timeline to introduce them to the concept and for a concrete visual to familiarize them with the concept of time progression. At that age, I'd keep it simple and fun...especially when the sun is out and calling their names.
I didn't read all of the posts, but I would suggest the coloring pages since they are so young. The reproducible CD is wonderful...we use that for everything we print pertaining to what is in the book. They would prob enjoy the lapbooking too! We are going to be doing Vol 2 next year. We did find some great resources to use with it at CurrClick by OHC Co-op for $.50 each. Oh, for easy, non stressful, timeline-ing- we LOVE Add-A-Century Timelines.
If you're still thinking about buying MoH, it'll be on sale at homeschool buyer's co-op very soon. Probably a couple of weeks. The rumor is 20% + smart points.
Hey, just another idea to throw out there, why not JUST read some good historical fiction/non-fiction out loud and independently and maybe having some light discussions about them. I don't see the need to have a lot or any paperwork, especially at young ages. This would also be very cheap-you could use only library books or buy some and use the library. YWAM has two series that are easy to read and are good for learning about people in the past. One is about Christian missionaries and the other series is about other important historical figures.
I have been doing MOH 1 with my 6,8, and 9 y/o this year. We usually do 1 lesson (sometimes 2) if we get behind 3 days a week. I don't have them do all the quizzes and w/s. We go over most of the questions orally just so I can see what they are retaining. It is amazing. Some of the stories I have found netflix streaming to be helpful. We also look up some of the places and things we're talking about online like stonehenge, the floating gardens, and the indian mounds. Usually just reading it and talking about it with them is enjoyable. We do a lot of the activities but that depends on the time we have and if we have everything needed. Sometimes I give them play doh to try to form something that we are reading about to give them something to do with their hands while I am reading. I did buy the Book of Time by Sonlight and we try to mark things down on the timeline but I do not stress over this either because they are still young. It just gets them use to visualizing one. I guess it ultimately depends on what you and your kiddos enjoy. I am not real creative and mine like workbooks. So this has been an enjoyable way to have history/bible without an additional workbook. I bought my book used on a forum and the timeline on Ebay.
I don't know if you bought it already...if so; for heaven sake don't read this. But my boys hated MOH. It was a fairly boring read and I think, vocabulary and style wise was not good for the littles. They did like some of the hands on activities - but that didn't make up for the general disinterest. We finally bailed at Roman history, where we switched to Simple Schooling. The guys DID like Greek stuff, which we did a lot of mythology. (I don't think there was much about Greek mythology in MOH) so if I remember right, I supplemented a lot with that. They also liked Sparta. (kind of war fiends these boys of mine...) So we have pretty much hopped through history from war to war; not what I set out to do, but it keeps their bloody interest.
I am using VOL 1 with my 5,7, and 2yo. We read the lessons a couple times a week, then at the end of the group of lessons we do what ever activities seem like fun for those lessons. I make note cards with some interesting facts about the lessons and we go over those, rotating them through our memory system. I will ask the kids what do you know about x and they will tell me back anything they remember, which is more each time the card is taken out, which is about once or twice a month. We also do a timeline. I am not really sure they are to interested in it. But I do think that them coloring the figure is helping. Because as we color them at the end of the week, we talk about what happened and how each one should be colored to show the significance of it. We will finish a semester in June, and I am thinking about switching to coloring pages instead. Keeping them in a folder for each kid so they can retell the story that goes with the pictures. We do the mapping, sorta. We look at the globe or some other map and look at what is going on where. It is helping, because the other day, my son saw a map and piped up and said look that purple spot is Egypt. But that doesn't take more then a few minutes a week.
I am planning on starting MOH Volume 1 with my children. We will start in Aug. or Sept. I am a textbook person, but sometimes we need variety, so MOH it is. Do you have to repeat the cycle? My kids are going to be in 5th, 3rd, and K next year, so my older children will not have time. I thought one time was enough. ??? We are probably going to try the notebooking. I also want to do the mapping and timeline, but I don't want anything to time intensive. How long does it take to do each of these things? What exactly does the notebooking, mapping, and timeline involve?
