I didn’t use Old World History, but you could still do the same thing with Old World History! For my family, buying all of the components for a single subject from Abeka got expensive quick! (And my oldest says its boring if you do Abeka the traditional way!)
What I do is buy just the book. Each chapter is broken down into comprehension check A, B, C, etc. Each of these comprehension checks has between 2-5 questions on the sections after the reading. What I do is type out all of the comprehension check questions and place them in a binder. We read one section a day and answer those questions for the day. In addition, for each reading we do a worksheet, coloring sheet, or other activity. For example, chapter 4 in our book is about the eastern states so after we answered the comprehension questions I printed the kids a blank U.S.A map page and had them color and label the eastern states, the ocean, Canada, and Mexico, and any other place that the text talked about. At the end of the chapter I created a packet for a little report about one of the Native American tribes that the chapter talked about. The packet had questions to answer that required some research and a box for coloring the type of homes that the specific tribe lived in and another page about the animals that are found in that particular area and how they were used by the Native Americans. This way we add in writing, geography, some ecology, and history!
I honestly think the binders I make are more fun than the complete Abeka history subject that Abeka provides! Many of the worksheets I either make or find easily online and print out. It does take quite a bit of time to type out questions or search and print info from online to correlate with the days reading, but I think its worth it. I can emphasize the important topics in the reading or turn something into an art projects for my more crafty daughter. (Today we read about totem poles and after we made our own totem poles and cut and glued them onto construction paper and then they took turns showing how their totem pole told a story. I think this way they will remember how the Indians made and carved totem poles and will remember the purpose they served.) Honestly, I think Abeka history and science can be a bit dry but this way my kids are excited to see what our worksheet or project will be about for the day and they pay attention to what I read! So far this year my kids have an awesome binder that is full of maps, reports, coloring pages, and worksheets that are interesting versus doing the same read, answer questions, test, type format. (I also save all my typed questions and make extra copies of all the worksheets we do so when my younger kids are old enough for New World History all I have to do is print and stick everything in a binder!) I do prepare everything for the quarter ahead of time so each day we are ready to go. I hope this helps!
Yes, I can see your reply! Thanks for taking you time to share! The binder is a great idea. I plan to study this subject with my there kids (10yo, 9yo, 6yo), and want to make it interesting. All your ideas are so helpful! Thank you very much!
We have just finished the second grade book. I didn’t use any visuals besides my own maps and our globe. There may be more of a need for visuals in the upper levels. For us the first and second grade history readers were enough though
can’t comment on MOH because we haven’t used it, but my likes for SOTW:
There is relatively little parental prep required once you get the flow of how the curriculum works and if you have the Activity Guide. Every 2 weeks or so, I scan ahead to what we’ll be covering in the coming weeks. I request a bunch of books related to that time period from the library and decide on any hands on activities we might do (and gather needed supplies).
My kids love history. SOTW makes it interesting and accessible rather than dry and fragmented.
Thanks for the reply. When you request books from the library a couple of weeks before you’ll need them, do you usually end up being able to keep them for the entire time you need them, or do they end up needing to be returned before you’re done with them? I am considering Tapestry of Grace, and if we decided to go with that, we’d have to use the library A LOT to save money. So I’m wondering how the logistics of this work when you need certain topics of books during certain weeks.
My local library allows books to be taken out for 3 weeks and you can renew up to 3 times. If another person requests the book, you are not allowed to renew, but that’s only happened to be a few times. Check you local library’s policies. The bigger problem for me has been that my local library does not participate in inter-library loan, so it does not have a fair number of the books listed in the SOTW’s supplemental reading list. This hasn’t been a crippling problem for us, since those books would have been “supplemental” anyway. However, I do end up buying some books online - usually used through amazon - if they look like a very good resource.
I haven’t used TOG but I did look through when I was researching curriculum. I would suggest getting a list of TOG’s required books, then going online to your local library to make sure they have most of the books you need, otherwise you’ll be buying a lot…
Also, TOG is very different from SOTW in the sense that TOG is a full curriculum, whereas SOTW is just history. For our family, we appreciate the flexibility we get from piecing together our curriculum (as opposed to using an all-in-one curriculum). However, TOG looks great if you appreciate the structure. It looks like your children are still young – I suggest not buying anything hugely expensive in your first year of homeschooling because it may take you a year to two to figure out your family’s “homeschool style.”
Yeah, I already have the preschool and kindergarten books for Heart of Dakota because I found them for a VERY good price. So we’re going to use those to start out with, and decide from there.
So far for History I really like Homeschool in the Woods materials, however, for Geography we have been using Expedition Earth and my children and I Love it!! Next will be Road Trip USA.
Thank you for your input! I have A History of US for the younger levels in my “shopping cart” and haven’t pushed the button yet! Still comparing history curriculum.
How has this been going? I was looking into Simply Charlotte Masons history not for next year but the year after. It looks like it will be good for multiple levels, also looks like it has a good booklist?
BiblioPlan (Ancients: Creation to the Fall of Rome) PLUS Mystery of the History (Creation to the Resurrection)
We are in first grade and will continue this history curriculum through the Fall of second grade. Activities we have added to this curriculum include: “archeology digs” (placing markers in the ground and making corresponding maps, drawing his “discoveries” on the map grids, etc.), making our own hieroglyphics, and tons more.
I like that Biblioplan has minimal preparation time for the reading portion. (under 5 minutes for the week) I add additional hands-on activities to make history come to life.
I really like Story of the World…the longer I use it the more I appreciate the way it’s written, how it draws my child in and how it weaves back and forth between the different cultures, showing how they affected each other. I also like how questions are interspersed in the text, which helps draw back in my short attention span learner, and how it refers back to things previously learned (built in gentle review).
I don’t like how little pictures there are and that they are all black and white…I supplement heavily with pictures from books from the library with better illustrations.
As a supplement, I really like “The Science of Ancient Egypt” (you can find it on Dr. Daves Science on Teachers Pay Teachers…it’s sort of an obscure resource but so good). And I also like the National Geographic Beginners World Atlas. My favorite library book for supplemental pictures for Volume 1 is The Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World (no, it’s not the same as the Kingfisher Encyclopedia of World History…it has different illustrations and text and really good full two page maps of each area covered. For supplemental youtube videos I really like Extra Credits History and TedEd (neither is comprehensive…but when they hit on a topic they cover it well).
K12-- it is the only one {and I have tried many} that my kids actually enjoy. I was tempted by Veritas Press Self-Paced, though. Really, I want both! Do you HAVE to buy the cards?
My husband likes the look of VP Self-Paced Omnibus for high school.
We’ve been using it for almost 7 years, and it’s been a wonderful fit for our family. 