Opinions please. Combining SOTW or ??

[BlessedMom]

with MOH or Egermeier's story Bible for 1st grade.

Have you done either of these two together? Was it hard to do with a 1st grader?
Which of the two programs would be most workable?

I know many have said that MOH is too advanced for 1st grade. I don't want to overwhelm my child.

Can you tell me anything about Grueber's, The Story of the Ancient World?



Is there another option that is more appropriate for 1st grade? I don't want a guide where I have to search out all the reading materials. I want something somewhat stand alone that I can add reading materials to as I see fit.

I am wanting to lay a foundation for ancient history from a Christian perspective, but I just can't seem to locate what I am wanting.

Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[3blessingmom]

Here is a link that might help you. http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/SOTWmenu.htm

I have just researched myself into circles on the same topic:lol: My grand plan is SOTW1 for history and Greenleaf Guide to OT for Bible. The two will not match up perfectly, but will compliment each other (I hope:tongue_smilie:). I chose Greenleaf Guide to OT b/c the actual Bible is the text. I chose SOTW b/c it can stand alone for 1st grade, but the AG has plenty of recommended readings and activities when we have the time/interest. Plus, I have noticed that just about every curriculum uses SOTW in their booklist.

I can't speak from experience, but I get the idea that the Guerber books might be better suited for older dc, and are geared for a 6yr rotation through history. SOTW is a 4yr rotation.

hth

[3lilreds in NC]

You might want to take a look at MFW 1st grade (http://www.mfwbooks.com/1st.htm). It's a complete curriculum, so you might not need all of it, but it takes you through the Bible (ancient history) in a year. The student reads a Bible reader, and narrate the stories for you and then illustrate their own Bible notebook. You make a timeline, and do some pretty neat projects to go along with it. I would think you could incorporate SOTW pretty easily, to get a broader picture of ancient history, if you wanted.

HTH!

[siloam]

I did all 3 in 1st, though we did the SOTW on audio, and not on a schedule. I actually did SL Core 1 and added MOH to it and replaced the Bible with Egermeier's because I didn't think my children were ready for reading out of a real Bible that SL schedules.

I don't think any of them are a problem for a 1st grader, as long as your child is fine with chapter books. If you have an extra wiggly, or very visual child then you might have a problem.

Grueber's texts tends to have older language. I didn't use the text you sited but we are currently using Story of the Great Republic and have used Story of the Thirteen Colonies, and it is a bit much for the little kids. Kind of like MOH 2. As much as I love MOH and think volume 1 is fine for younger kids, there is a big jump in volume and detail between volume 1 and 2. Now my oldest adored MOH and loves history, so she did fine with volume 2 in 2nd, but I don't think that is typical.

Ok that said I wouldn't consider MOH a Bible program. Yes it does cover Biblical events, but it is sporadic. Have you seen the TOC? The samples? If you can swing it then I would do all 3. The story format of SOTW is nice and engaging for children and my oldest 2 listened to them 3 times in one year by choice. (And my 2nd dd is NOT a history lover.)

The other text that I like for that age is Time Traveler by Usborne. It isn't Christian, so you might have the occasional 10,000 year reference, but it is engaging for younger kids and brings in the visual element with limited content.

Let me know if you have additional questions or need links to the MOH samples.

Heather

[JaneGrey]

On MoH:
I wouldn't absolutely say that MoH is too much for a 1st grader. (I'm one of the people who responded to your other thread about MoH.) The language isn't necessarily too difficult for that age. There is just a lot of information in the book.

It may, however, be the best thing for you with some modification. I'm wondering if that's what I should have done.

SOTW + Bible
Even looking back, I wouldn't have done this because I really don't think SOTW has enough information. However, this is definitely workable. SOTW would be an easier read and the information is organized for a younger child. As an earlier poster mentioned, someone at Paula's Archives has indicated how to get Egermeier's to work with SOTW. However (having pored over those charts), I think SOTW1 + a story Bible/the Bible ends up more disjointed than MoH+the Bible/story Bible because of the "holes" in SOTW1.

MoH + Bible
MoH has all Biblical and non-Biblical figures in chronological order. As long as you don't mind reading ahead and organizing the information for your child into digestible pieces, it seems the way to go. (For example, maybe you'll decide to leave out Asia, India and Africa or to lump those all together at the end of the school year.) With MoH, it would be easy to add in any Bible story book. Really, you could just consider MoH your roadmap. You wouldn't even necessarily have to read the snippets to your child. You could just supplement with whatever you find on that subject in the library.

However, MoH cycles through history in five years. You'd just have to work around that.

On Guerber:
I haven't seen the Guerber ancients but we've got Guerber's Greeks and Romans, which were part of our 1st grade year. My 1st grader reading Guerber. However, it is dense. I got these instead of the Famous Men series -- at least for Greece and Rome -- because I thought it offered clearer connections between the chapters. (I think there was a Guerber sample online.) Plus, the Greenleaf Greek book seemed to be about the Greek gods, and I already have d'Aulaire's book on Greek myths.

Search the threads for Guerber's ancient world book because I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that someone thought it wasn't very good/useful. I wasn't interested in purchasing it.

On Greenleaf Guide to OT:
I have this and it is a great book. However, I have some cautions about including this in your 1st grade history plan. First of all, it wouldn't give you complete OT history: it only goes up to book of Nehemiah, so you won't get the major and minor prophets. Second, I don't think it's necessary if you use MoH. The Greenleaf book provides some questions for study on a particular passage.

[BlessedMom]

Thank you ladies. Your responses have been wonderful & more than helpful.
I am going to do a little more research about some of your suggestions & then try to make a decision.

Thank you again for being so helpful & informative.

Bless you.

[OhElizabeth]

Have you looked at Veritas Press? It sounds like what you want and would get you there more easily. VP OTAE (Old Testament/Ancient Egypt) integrates the major biblical events with the secular but makes it easy for you. I agree, having MOH, that it's way too much for a 1st grader. You can do it, but what happens is you have to slow down and they retain less. When you try to cover less, it lets them see the big picture more easily and they retain more. No, Guerber is way overkill for that age too (have that). I would either do VP or SOTW with Egermeir added in using the online schedule. Just so you know, there's a great yahoo group for VP where you could see schedules, see how others are doing it, etc. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vp_elementary With the VP cards you do one card per week as your main topic and fill in books, etc. to cover it. The VP catalog lists tons of options and of course SOTW would work as a reading for the topics too.

[BlessedMom]

Elizabeth,

Thank you for your response & for the suggestions. Could you please tell me more about VP ? Is it just a guide where I would need to supplement with other materials? I am really not wanting to have to track down a lot of other resources to implement a program. What are the VP cards?

Thanks again, I will look forward to your response.

[BlessedMom]

bump

[OhElizabeth]

Sorry, I didn't see your response! The VP history has the cards and an enhanced cd with tm and memory song. On the VP website you can see how the history program works, what the cards are like, etc. You do one card per week and the spine resources are listed on the back. Then the catalog lists tons more books, with numbers for what card they correspond to. The tm gives you worksheets, activities, writing assignments, etc. It's one of those things you can use a number of ways, which is why it's nice to post on the yahoo group. Some people do it exactly as written. Some people flex it and make it fit to their spine. It can be pretty much whatever you want. It's especially great for multi-level teaching, because you can make one chart, list out the card for each week, the resources you have, plug in extra books you have access to, select the worksheets, projects, etc. you want to do, and you're good to go. In the files of the yahoo group people have uploaded schedules they've made, etc., that would give you a sense of directions you could go with it.

[BlessedMom]

Elizabeth,

Thank you so much for all the very helpful information you have provided.

I appreciate your time.

Blessings.