Question about History Odyssey Level 3

[Pam in MA]

I'm interested in using History Odyssey for upper level history, but I was wondering if anyone has tried using a different spine that J. M. Roberts "New History of the World", which I'm not sure I'm too keen on.

I've created my own curriculum for history this year, using Spielvogel's "Human Odyssey" and my plan very much follows the same method as HO. I thought I could save myself two months' work of planning by using HO and just aligning it with Spielvogel, which my kids really like.

Any insight anyone has on this would be appreciated. I guess I could also create my own and take a bunch of ideas from HO, but then I'd still be buying it. . .

[Nicole M]

We switched pretty early on to Human Odyssey from the Roberts book. I would read the Roberts, which is very dense, and then my son would read Spielvogel. Roberts gave me some ideas, a foundation for discussion.

I will not use Level 3 Ancients with my next son. I found it to be simply too difficult. If there were a mechanism built in to allow the teaching parent more access, a road in to the work, so that s/he could act as a guide, then sure I would. I personally think it's unwise to let a child go solo with material this difficult.

That said, I do like the level 2 materials, and am using it with my younger son. I supplement with lots of other readings, though.