Have you used Konos HOW year 1

[dopeyfav]

I am very interested in using this and would like to hear any comments good or bad about this curriculum. Did your dc enjoy it or not? How time-consuming did you find it?

What additional resources did you use? What do you suggest? They have many resources listed and I wonder how many are necessary and which ones you recommend.

Thank you for your input.

[MomsintheGarden]

We used it with our two oldest and liked it. I'm not sure if I'll use it with the 5 youngers, though. I don't have time to write about it today, but will try to get to it very soon. Bump this up, please, if I don't post in a couple of days to remind me - thanks!

GardenMom

[MomsintheGarden]

It's been four years since I used this, so I am trying to brush the cobwebs out of my brain to remember how it went.

Here's what I liked about it:
- It's Christian in tone. I didn't have any quibbles with doctrine, YMMV.
- Great vocabulary study. The words are with each unit.
- It's nicely divided up into "doable" units.
- The timeline is nice.
- The mapwork is good, and fairly complete.

Here's what I didn't like about it or would change:
- The literature selections were not as challenging as TWTM.
- The timeline was wall-mounted, and large. It takes up too much space for us. I prefer to do a timeline in middle school, in book form, such as History Through the Ages.
- We combined KHOW study with other resources, such as TWTM and Greenleaf. I think it was overkill (not KHOW's fault!).
- After using KHOW, I prefer a comprehensive spine for a history text, such as World Civilizations: The Global Experience AP Edition by Stearns, et. al. We ended up using Spielvogel's Western Civilizations for later years in the high school, but it didn't cover all the world cultures.

That's all I can think of for now. If anything else pops into my head later, I'll post again.

BTW, I bought two copies of KHOW I because I used it for two students. It wasn't necessary, and I'd like to sell one (binder only, gently used). Let me know if you'd like to buy one.

HTH,
GardenMom

[dopeyfav]

GardenMom,

Thank you so much for the post.

Did you use Streams of Civilization and / or Picturesque Tales of Progress with KHOW? It has several references to both publications and I was wondering if it was necessary to have both.

I am concerned how many additional reference books I actually need to utilize the program, there seem to be sooooooo many!

Did your dc enjoy the program or not? Why or why not?

Thanks again.

[MomsintheGarden]

GardenMom,

Thank you so much for the post.

Did you use Streams of Civilization and / or Picturesque Tales of Progress with KHOW? It has several references to both publications and I was wondering if it was necessary to have both.

I am concerned how many additional reference books I actually need to utilize the program, there seem to be sooooooo many!

Did your dc enjoy the program or not? Why or why not?

Thanks again.

You're welcome!

Here are some answers:
- We used the first volume of Streams, but my two thought it was extremely boring. They absolutely hated that book. That's when we switched to Spielvogel. Dd thought World Civilizations was even better than Spielvogel. See if you can borrow Streams and see for yourself.

- We have and used Picturesque Tales of Progress. It's a beautiful set, but it's hard to find. I'm not sure if it's worth using or not. I think of it as more of a collector's item, not an up-to-date text. I find it disconcerting that a contemporary curriculum writer would emphasize using such an old, expensive set.

- My dc liked HOW well enough, but they also enjoyed history/literature study using the WTM/WEM. They didn't do the activities because they felt they were either too time consuming or too juvenile.

- I found the amount of reference books needed for HOW to be comparable to the number we used for WTM/WEM study. OTOH, I was nervous about high school studies back then, and went overboard with curriculum. When my younger children are old enough, I'll probably use the text portion of HOW and nothing else.

HTH,
GardenMom

[Kareni]

- We have and used Picturesque Tales of Progress. It's a beautiful set, but it's hard to find. I'm not sure if it's worth using or not. I think of it as more of a collector's item, not an up-to-date text. I find it disconcerting that a contemporary curriculum writer would emphasize using such an old, expensive set.



Picturesque Tales of Progress is a beautiful set of books; however, be aware that due to its age it also includes racial stereotyping. I had my daughter read some sections back in 7th and 8th grade, and we discussed how very dated some of its attitudes were.

Regards,
Kareni

[dopeyfav]

[quote=MomsintheGarden;791578]
- My dc liked HOW well enough, but they also enjoyed history/literature study using the WTM/WEM. They didn't do the activities because they felt they were either too time consuming or too juvenile.

What is WTM/WEM? I am not familiar.

I understand if I were to utilize HOW yr 1 & 2, they don't cover the Reformation to the Revolution - any suggestions for this time period with something comperable?

Thanks again.

[dopeyfav]

Sorry about the quote in my last post. I have never used that & obviously didn't do it properly.

Would someone mind telling me the proper way to quote?

Thanks so much.

[Kareni]

Sorry about the quote in my last post. I have never used that & obviously didn't do it properly.

Would someone mind telling me the proper way to quote?

Thanks so much.

If you wish to quote an entire post, simply click on the Quote icon in the lower right hand corner of the post. Then type your response beneath that.

If you wish to quote only part of the post, do the same as above and then erase what you do not wish to keep. However, you must keep the "[/QUOTE]" at the end of the section.

WTM stands for the Well-Trained Mind; WEM stands for the Well-Educated Mind. Both of these books are by Susan Wise Bauer who hosts this board.

Regards,
Kareni

[MomsintheGarden]

[quote=MomsintheGarden;791578]
I understand if I were to utilize HOW yr 1 & 2, they don't cover the Reformation to the Revolution - any suggestions for this time period with something comperable?

Thanks again.

KONOS HOW III was supposed to be coming "soon" when I first bought HOW I. It might be out sometime, maybe.

I encourage you to buy or borrow the Well-Trained Mind and consider using its recommendations for studying the time after the middle ages (or before). My ds, dd, and I really enjoyed being part of the "great conversation," reading the classics while learning about history.

Another option is Beautiful Feet. They have high school level study guide for US & World History:
http://www.bfbooks.com/s.nl/it.A/id.289/.f?sc=2&category=2

Other folks use Tapestry of Grace (TOG), the Omnibus curriculum produced by Veritas Press (VP), and several others. Still others write their own curriculum! Keep checking these boards - there is a lot of great information here.

GardenMom

[dopeyfav]

Thanks to everyone who has posted here, I really appreciate it.