What is your favorite History program ?

[TracyR]

We've been finishing up CHOW with the Calvert 4 and my daughters have both enjoyed this book .
I've been looking at both SOTW and MOH . Both look great .
I maybe leaning more toward SOTW but not 100% positive yet .
I want to add more to our history since my daughters are always wanting to learn more and hear things from a different perspective . I haven't decided wether I'm sticking with Calvert anymore either . Just in those beginning stages of what to do for next year . :tongue_smilie:
Just wondering what everyone else's families have enjoyed .

[OnTheBrink]

My dd, who enjoyed CHOW, is loving MOH right now. She didn't much care for SOTW.

[Retrocutie]

Newbie here, but what is CHOW and MOH again?:001_huh:

[Tami]

It's laid-back literature approach is pefect for my hippie dippy personality. The high quality of the books appeals to the Academic in me. Just love TruthQuest, and have used it for years.

We also love the Edupress Hands on Heritage Activity books.

[Rhesa]

Newbie here, but what is CHOW and MOH again?:001_huh:

CHOW= Child's History of the World (Hillyer)

MOH= Mystery of History

[Carol in Cal.]

This curriculum has hooked my DD on history, which she now says is her favorite subject! (Via the CD's it has hooked DH, too. Very nice.)

We use a lot of supplemental books but don't do many projects. Hardly any, in fact. We also use the maps and coloring pages and tests in the AG.

We tie some, but not all, of our literature to our history reading.

I find it slightly short of where I want to be for US history, but have struggled to find an appropriate supplement that is as engaging as SOTW. I had high hopes for All American History, but ended up not liking it nearly as much as I thought I would. Story of the 13 Colonies and Story of the Great Republic are probably the closest to fitting in here. We are mostly using a large collection of supplemental books, and some little unit studies strung together, to fill in the US history gap.

[pixelroper]

I find it slightly short of where I want to be for US history, but have struggled to find an appropriate supplement that is as engaging as SOTW. I had high hopes for All American History, but ended up not liking it nearly as much as I thought I would. Story of the 13 Colonies and Story of the Great Republic are probably the closest to fitting in here.

same here SotW trying to add more Amer. Hist.
I was going to try the Grueber Amer. Hist. next year. Using Artner's Guide from Memoria Press to supplement with living history and it seems to be working well.

[Mrs Mungo]

We've been finishing up CHOW with the Calvert 4 and my daughters have both enjoyed this book .
I've been looking at both SOTW and MOH . Both look great .
I maybe leaning more toward SOTW but not 100% positive yet .
I want to add more to our history since my daughters are always wanting to learn more and hear things from a different perspective . I haven't decided wether I'm sticking with Calvert anymore either . Just in those beginning stages of what to do for next year . :tongue_smilie:
Just wondering what everyone else's families have enjoyed .

Would you be starting with Ancients in SOTW? If so, I wouldn't do it. It's too young imo. I'd go with MOH or History Odyssey. If I used SOTW at all it would be as a supplement, not a spine at that age.

[Lisawa]

We've been finishing up CHOW with the Calvert 4 and my daughters have both enjoyed this book .
I've been looking at both SOTW and MOH . Both look great .
I maybe leaning more toward SOTW but not 100% positive yet .
I want to add more to our history since my daughters are always wanting to learn more and hear things from a different perspective . I haven't decided wether I'm sticking with Calvert anymore either . Just in those beginning stages of what to do for next year . :tongue_smilie:
Just wondering what everyone else's families have enjoyed .


I'll say it :D...... we love Tapestry of Grace.... its more than just history though....

[Mrs Mungo]

Newbie here, but what is CHOW and MOH again?:001_huh:

wtmviolet has a very helpful page with homeschooling acronyms. I bookmarked it when she posted it:

http://home.tx.rr.com/cnd/herweb/home_school_abbreviations.htm#hsabbr

I *still* refer to the list sometimes and I've been around a long time!

[Sue G in PA]

MOH is unabashedly Christian in its view. It is classical in its approach which jives well w/ the WTM. SOTW is secular. Which do you prefer? You can easily use MOH as a "spine" and add in the SOTW for the great stories. We used MOH1 (are using I should say) and really enjoy it. SOTW is good, too...just different.

[WTMindy]

SOTW and loved them all. If I had to choose one thing from our 6 years of homeschooling to do again it would be SOTW!! For the second rotation we are using TOG and enjoying that too. We bring out SOTW for review to go along with the lessons we are studying.

[mom2mea]

is SOTW Ancients appropriate for a 6 yo and a 4 yo occasionally listening in? I'm sort of considering it for 1st grade.

[pixelroper]

Yes- IMO good idea to expose, some of the activities will be fun too.

[Kendra]

MOH for us. We did 4 years of VP and were greatly disappointed in its lack of world history emphasis during years 3 and 4. Switched to SOTW for our second 4-year cycle and really, really disliked year one. Switched to MOH and couldn't have been happier. Used years one and two, then used SOTW for years three and four by default. Sorely disappointed in its content but loved listening to Jim Weiss.

If you want a Christian worldview, Biblical history covered during the ancients, and the inclusion of Christians who made history, then MOH is definitely a better call. If not, I can't think of a better 4-year history than SOTW for a secular worldview.

We're on year one of our third 4-year cycle and are super happy to be back in MOH. My students using it this year are 7th grade, 5th grade, 3rd grade, and 1st grade. The 9th grader is using Omnibus III.

HTH-
Kendra

[Cadam]

We are My Father's World (mfwbooks.com) geeks. It's the perfect mix for us.

[chai]

We used SOTW through all 4 years. I think it is an excellent program, but I changed the order and added in other books as well.

is SOTW Ancients appropriate for a 6 yo and a 4 yo occasionally listening in? I'm sort of considering it for 1st grade.

SOTW Ancients is written for 1st graders so it is absolutely appropriate for this age. I would definitely add in other materials if you are using it with a 4th and 5th grader.

[Linda in NM]

Trisms--gives my 13-year-old son the chance to control some of his own studies...he loves the research component in HistoryMakers, especially about inventions.

[jellybean]

SOTW and CHOW

[Jenny in Atl]

I have not found a favorite, yet. We love history so much in our house that we want to read/study many views. We've enjoyed SOTW, HO (level 2), SL, and Susan Strauss-Art's Ancients/Renaissance series. We might try Trisms HM next year... still struggling over that and SL 7

[one l michele]

after Calvert, this has been such a breath of fresh air!

[ABQmom]

What turns my kids on about history is reading lots of good books about the people who lived the times. I've used Beautiful Feet, Truthquest, Biblioplan, and have even written my own curriculum from www.abookintime.com We like SOTW in small doses--by that I mean that we don't read the entire book, but pick and choose chapters that interest us. We don't like CHOW so much.

[LisaTheresa]

Sonlight and Story of the World. The Story of the World audiobooks have been worth their weight in gold to us. My son has listened to these cd's many, many times over the last few years.

Lisa

[mcconnellboys]

SOTW for us, too! But we always add a lot more in, including History of US for American studies, etc.

Regena

[Mom2boys]

SOTW for us.

[Ali in OR]

Biblioplan here.

We use SOTW as part of Biblioplan and enjoy it. I prefer Biblioplan's order of study to SOTW's, staying with one culture at a time (particularly in year 1). It also adds much more Bible history. As someone mentioned above, we really enjoy learning by reading great books. Biblioplan has readers for different age groups plus a family read aloud, plus some reference books. Very rich history course.

[K in MI]

My favorite is A World of Adventure, though it isn't just history. AWOA is a unit study that includes everything but math.

http://www.learning-adventures.org/

[Laurie in VA]

Biblioplan (http://www.biblioplan.net/)here as well! I absolutely love it, and so do my DDs. We use The Child's Story Bible, SOTW and Usborne's IL World History along with it as spines, and then either check out from the library or purchase the weekly reading selections. I plan to stick with Biblioplan throughout DD's Grammar stage.

[Stacy in NJ]

I find it slightly short of where I want to be for US history, but have struggled to find an appropriate supplement that is as engaging as SOTW. I had high hopes for All American History, but ended up not liking it nearly as much as I thought I would. Story of the 13 Colonies and Story of the Great Republic are probably the closest to fitting in here. We are mostly using a large collection of supplemental books, and some little unit studies strung together, to fill in the US history gap.


You might want to look into the Landmark books. They're a great way to supplement with depth.:001_smile:

[Stacy in NJ]

is SOTW Ancients appropriate for a 6 yo and a 4 yo occasionally listening in? I'm sort of considering it for 1st grade.

yep, just right.

[Donna A.]

My Father's World for us. It schedules both secular and Christian texts, including SOTW vol. 2, 3 and 4 in the upper levels. They don't use SOTW vol. 1, though. In Creation to the Greeks, the Bible is the spine. Then there are over 400 additional *optional* titles in the Book Basket list in the back of the TMs.

[Donna T.]

Well, I have a new favorite! I have used MFW and SL in the past. I love both of them! However, I don't need a complete curriculum like you get with MFW. We like something else for science in particular. SL is great but I have children who are three years a part in age. SL doesn't work so well with children with that age span unless you teach two cores at once. Something I prefer not to do.

Long story short... we have been using The Mystery of History and The Story of the World together. I started out coordinating them on my own with some help from Paula's Archives (schedules). But, I finally remembered that I have always intended on looking further into Biblioplan. I had just been waiting until we started this new cycle through history. Biblioplan is really just what I needed!

It schedules MOH, SOTW, the Bible, various readers and read-alouds (I'll be using those as mostly read alouds though... even the readers), the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia, the Kingfisher Encyclopedia, Victor Journey through the Bible and lots more.

It really reminds me of MFW except it's just history. It's like MFW in that it integrates the Bible thoroughly. I am really excited about it. I like all the books they have scheduled and I like that there is no commentary. Frankly, I get tired of some of the commentary that I come across. We like to get our info. from books without alot of additional commentary.

So, that's my new favorite... Biblioplan. But it's so good because it pulls together other wonderful resources and gives you a workable plan to get through it all. You can teach all of your children with the one guide. It is easy to make sure you are meeting the needs of all of your children. There are recommendations for various ages and assignments that are clearly meant for when you want to go more in-depth on a topic. They are optional, depending on the age of your children. There is even a high school supplement.

[Mary in NJ]

SOTW has worked well for our family.:thumbup:

Joyfully,
Mary