Any advice for me in these categories?
Thank you!
History, Social studies suggestions?
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Any advice for me in these categories?
Thank you!
CeAnne @ Sanctus Simplicitus says
Bible history for the little ones (up to 3rd grade). The stories from A Catholic Mother’s Helper, bible Lessons ( Newton Horan) or the Highway to Heaven Series are great! And from Our Lady of Victory the Living in God series also.
When they hit 4th grade the Land of Our Lady series is wonderful! They have been reprinted by Neumann press and worth every penny 🙂
Joanna says
For the high school aged kid, this isn’t a curriculum but a really great book I recommend is called “Lies My Teacher Told Me.” It takes a really good look at the flaws in the way our educational system teaches history and presents some really good ideas for ways to approach it.
KitchenKop says
I just requested it, thanks Joanna. 🙂
Kelly
Colette says
Love catholic Heritage Curriculums(CHC) History and MODG has some great history texts too (but a little more dated). I love tying catholic heritage into our history, and they both do well.
PS My oldest is going into 5th.
Stacy says
Tapestry of Grace! I love that the whole family can work on the same concepts at their own level. Teacher discussions are laid out well.
We listened to The Story of the World on cd to supplement when they were younger/non-readers.
Peggy says
This is one area where you can REALLY accomodate learning styles, and you don’t necessarily need a curriculum to do it. Watch a travelogue video about France. Map it. Discuss the politics. Eat French food. Learn a bunch of Bible verses in French. Talk about DeGaulle, Napoleon, Mitterand et al. Find ten things America has adopted from the French culture. Read something aloud from a French author, read something else that took place in France. Find places in the US where French is spoken, or is part of a product label. Find out why. Then, pick another country or region.
Becky says
We use Sonlight – it covers Bible, history, and LA. Story of the World or Mystery of History as the “spine”, then LOTS of readers.
We add geography, though. Used Around the World in 180 Days, and liked it.
IC says
The Bible!
The Child’s History of the World by Hillyer, former schoolmaster of Calvert School. Beautifully written and an excellent read aloud for the ancients especially. It is old enough to find the full text for free.
I chose this after looking at SOTW. The writing style was poor and as a Catholic I didn’t want to have to do the heavy editing required starting with the 2nd volume.
The DYOCC book has many living history book recommendations that my kids have loved. This also exposes readers to a wide variety of literary styles by award winning authors.
KitchenKop says
You said, “as a Catholic I didn’t want to have to do the heavy editing required starting with the 2nd volume” – do you mean because the book has some info that conflicts with Catholic teaching?
Thanks!
Kelly
Our Small Hours says
I second, third or whatever Story of the World. We love it. I read the lesson while they color the worksheet. It’s one subject that we do together, all three ages.
Jill says
I will 3rd the Story of the World recommendation! Loved that one! We took 5 years to get through the 4 volumes, but if you use the activity books that go with them, you could easily stretch it out even further, in my opinion, because there is so much you can choose from to enrich each chapter. The first volume is written at a younger elementary school level, and each volume is written at a more advanced level until the 4th level, which is thicker, more detailed and complex, and written at a good middle school age level. I love how it’s not obsessed with U.S. history, but truly a chronological journey from world history from beginning till modern times.
For middle/high school we switched to Sonlight, which we also loved, and ties in the literature/language arts to the history/social studies. Sonlight is also more internationally focused, rather than U.S. focused. Each “core” (year package of literature/history/language arts) is centered around a theme, whether it’s world history (two of the cores use Story of the World over a 2 year period–without the activity books), U.S. history, 20th century world history, Eastern Hemisphere countries/cultures/history, etc… They all come with a huge instructor’s guide and includes discussion guides for literature and history, though we didn’t use those consistently beyond just the schedule (confession!), and language arts assignments.
Both Story of the World and Sonlight are dynamic, interesting approaches to history that don’t use dry, boring textbooks. One of the cool things about homeschooling is that you have access to a lot of really great material that public school kids don’t get to use–and if you find yourself not liking something, you can always ditch it and use something else!
3kidswild says
My son is a strong visual learner so we used Time 4 Learning for both Social Studies & Language Arts. It’s computer based self paced online classes. It gives the parent a suggested curriculm. It also keeps track of grades. You pay a monthly fee for using it. We did 7th grade Social Studies for our 8th grade year because it matched up to what the public school was doing for 8th grade (early American history). We’re planning to use it again (finishing up their 7th grade lessons) for 9th grade (civil war – present).
Sara says
I would second the vote for Story of the World. Excellent content, easy to read and the accompanying activities are wonderful. I would also recommend “Mystery of History” by Linda Hobar. It is also a great way of going through history classically. The activities provided are great as well. I have learned SO MUCH by using these two curricula. So excited for you!
Amanda says
For your younger ones, Story of the World is an interesting history series told in narrative form. There is an activity guide that goes along with each volume that has map work, coloring pages, questions, narration guides, hands-on projects that correspond, and additional books to read if you want.
A very interesting and engaging set of history books on ancient history (that include primary source material too!) for the middle school grades is The World in Ancient Times published by Oxford University Press. (There is a middle ages set too.) There are student and teacher guides, but those are geared towards the classroom setting. You can work through these with outlining, summarizing, and timelining.