We are trying Lifepacs this year and my 5th grader really likes the other subjects, but history has totally got him down. The material is very dry and it's like fact, fact, fact, fact, which I think must be very hard to learn from. He naturally is great at memorizing movies, music, books, poems, and he loves to read. He loves random info (example: would probably easy remember for years what Christopher Columbus's favorite color is. stuff like that) History was his favorite subject in the past, so I hate that he isn't enjoying it (or doing well). Based on this, does anyone have a good suggestion for new history curriculum? By the way, it's a big deal for me to break out of the 'box set' LOL. Thank you so much!
My boys love Mystery of History. Each lesson is read like a story, then there are activity suggestions for each age group (harder activities/research for older kids), quizzes, timeline ideas, etc. MOH is written chronologically, so level 1 is creation-resurrection, level 2 (which we are on) is early church to the middle ages, and so on. My kids love it so much they ask for it at night when we read books. You might want to check it out.
We are doing Story of the World, and it is awesome! It comes with a reading book (at his age he could read it himself-I have to read it to my 3rd grader), a test book, and an activity book. We are also doing a timeline book (no wall space) along with it. Oh, and you REALLY should get Usborne Book of World History too. It has all kinds of cool info that he would LOVE, and the activity book tells you which pages to read with which chapter Let me know if you are interested? I have a bunch of websites that go with the timeline we are doing.
LOL I just read the post above mine (cmreed4822). It sounds like MOH is alot like SOTW. It also is written chronologically. We are on the first book now. The really good thing about the 4 volumes of books is that you can start them at any age/grade and depending on the the child get as much into it as you want. I forgot to say that I got a bunch of reader books to go with different people/places/events in time (George Washington, Pompeii, Ancient Eygpt, etc)
The history books in this collection are very interesting and for all age levels. Best 50 clams you'll ever spend. http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/o/back.php
I agree with Lifepacs. I SO wanted them to work with my son, but he was almost in tears. Then I decided to check out the lesson he was on and I was flabbergasted, it was so boring and dry. I know that a lot of people use curriculum for history, but it can be done without a curriculum. You can simply read to him and have him read interesting history stories (non-fiction and good fiction). You don't really have to make it like a "school" class.
We do Sonlight because I love the idea of reinforcing what we are learning in history through literature. Story of the World and Mysteries of History are both supposed to be good books too.
