My boys will be in 3rd and 4th this coming school year, and I'm trying to decide which history curriculum to go with. We used Abeka last year, and while it was educational, it certainly wasn't fun or exciting. So tell me what have you used and enjoyed?
story of the world by Susan Wise Bauer. My girls are 3rd and 4th and they both enjoy it.we in book #2 now.
Love, love, love Mystery of History!!! We just finished Vol. 3. My kids have such an understanding of history from it!!!
We just read really good books. I pull ideas from Sonlight, Guest Hollow, Truthquest (I think that is the one), Beautiful Feet, and any other source I can find. I really don't want a workbook nor too much writing in our history. I want it to be a fun and relaxing time. There are these books by David C. King American kids in history, we add those in for our activities other than that it is a lot of great books.
I'm pretty much like JoAnna when it comes to history, but we use The Complete Book of United States History as our spine. Middleschool is planned the same way only using The Complete Book of World History as our spine. It takes us several years to get through them. Oh and I add in hands on crafts and activities as much as possible.
I agree with Mystery of History, though we also liked Story of the World! So either one is great! They have the same basic plan you read, you do activies from an activiy book, there is optional extra stuff to do and its not boring! WOW! That is the key right there my kid loves history! He will even sit and watch history on PBS by choice over cartoons at times because these two have totally brough it to life for us! The writers of these two curriculums make history real to the kids, explaining a lot of whys and whens, without just the facts type of info was a wonderful idea!
I didn't care for MOH...we are doing living books (older kids though) MOH is very heavy on bible history...which is fine if that is what you want, but I felt like it gave the other "big" civilizations the short shrift...like Egypt and India and China.
goodnsimple did you check otu story of the world then? It has a view of the other religions beginings that I had not known, as they did not teach things like that in public schools back then I did not even know some of them exisited. I found it quite interesting.
Dd loves using Sonlight's selection of books. This year she has really enjoyed using Usborn's Time Travler and World History book. You might also want to look at Homeschool in the Woods. They really make history fun.
oh yeah I might mention I am using standard devients and my own stuff for history this year, lol, we are doing a higher level than you but it could be used for younger grades, you can check standard devients on line, but the idea is to watch videos of places and study history from literature as well as travel guides for geographical sites to study.. my idea is to make it fun h/g class this year!
I recently purchased Mystery of History and can't wait to receive it! Last year I put our history together and it was great. The previous years we used A Beka but changed for the same reasons.
I put my own stuff together with good books and activities. Here is an example of what we did when we studied Native Americans.
I am just finishing up the year with a 3rd & 5th Grader. We used Abeka US History (4th Grade) as our core. We ONLY used the Textbook. Each section we did the Checkups and used the chapter checkup as sort of a "test" not really, but I tried to let them do it BEFORE we discussed the answers. THEN...we used the Sonlight Readers list from Core 3 and Core 4 and picked ones that went witht hat time in history. It was a GREaT history year, my kids have loved it.
OOOO...there's also Homeschool in the Woods Time Traveler Series. Those are very cool...but beware...they are MORE than just History.
Drive thru History videos!! of course, it may be because momma has a little crush on the host! I know, not the best reason. we do alot of PBS, Dear America books,stuff like that.
I started with Lifepacs and reading history themed story books, Rod and Staff, Heart of Dakota guides, A Beka, Story of the World and now My Father's World. Lifepacs were great for a first timer homeschooler. It was social studies not history like we do now. I would add books related to the topics. I tried SOTW but it just wasn't working for us. We are currently listening to the books on tape. Rod and Staff just didn't fit and A Beka is a good read and answer and you can add books from the library or get the TM (never bought the TM's). I enjoyed the HOD guides most of all except the Little Hearts guide. I am going with My Fathers World Exploring Cultures and Countries (or it's Exploring Countries and Cultures) in the fall because I am going to attempt to teach my 5,6 and 10 year together for history.
Jackie...what did you do for the timelines for MOH? We will be doing it next year for the first time and timelines are intimidating to me...lol! I want to get Homeschool in the Woods Timeline CD, but you have to buy the whole set to get it on CD. Even with my discount it is expensive. Homeschool in the Woods makes WONDERFUL history unit studies to compliment history curriculums: http://heartsathomekids.com/store/index.php?main_page=page&id=28
