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Anyone use "A Living History of Our World"?
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by Angela O’Dell that Queen Homeschool publishes? I haven’t seen it mentioned it much elsewhere. Anyone have any experience with it? Thanks!
I used Volume 1 with my 8- and 6-year-old girls this year, along with several living books from TQ to round it out. My 8-year-old used the journal, which I feel is integral to the program, and my K’er just listened in and sometimes illustrateed her “narrations” (she’s quite young). We really loved ALHOW and have considered using Volume 4, The Story of the Ancients, as the spine for Mods 1 & 2. Still thinking on it … let me know what specific questions you might have.
We used the first volume this year for my 3rd grade son. I wasn’t as happy with it as many have been; I think it’s really hard to get a book that will include what you need for the age-span this targets. Although it’s told in conversational tone, I felt it threw a lot of information at the kids and wasn’t really told in story form. We ended up using it more as a guide as to which subjects to cover, and pulling out the books I had used years ago from Beautiful Feet’s American History elementary package – the wonderful D’Aulaire books and many others. For this particular learner, who needs a true story and a little color to keep things interesting, this was a much better choice. I think I’d feel better about it as a spine for an older child, but I’d still prefer living books.
Sorry, clarification – by “true story” I mean truly in story form, not in conversational form. I’ve noticed other homeschooling books taking a conversational tone, like Mystery of History, but to me, it still is a textbook told in more casual style, and not a living book. Don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s my take. However, the gal who loaned it to us loved it.
Blessings,
Aimee
I was using volume 1 with my dd8 this year. I thought I was going to really like it but I have to agree with Evergreen that it wasn’t really a story. It was facts put together in a narrative format instead of a textbook format. Then I ended up running across SCM’s Stories of America and Stories of the Nations. We haven’t started using them yet but they seem to be more in story form than ALHW.
Aimee,
I have heard that said as well about MOH so I chose not to use it. How would you say SCM history is written? I am one click away from ordering it for next year
We have used it for 2 years now and plan to continue next year with the 3rd American history book 1900 – present. I add in lots of historical fiction and biographies for them to read. My kids were 5th,6th and 7th grades this year. I personally love the tone of the writing. I am looking forward to using it all the way through high school. She has assignments for all ages of kids. Love it!
I think it may depend on how much you like the tone of the writer. I liked MOH for many reasons, then hated it for the same reasons. I’m not crazy about the “facts put together in a narrative format instead of a textbook format” as Hiddenjewel stated.
SCM is a guide, most of the books chosen are chapter books/biographies. The spines may be written in a narrative style, but the actual books used for ind. reading are picture/ch. books, which I love, especially for history.
Thanks everyone for your replies. It is very helpful. For those that are using it, how much is a Christian worldview integrated into her writing?
Also, do you use the optional books the author suggests or schedule your own read-alouds or additional books?
I’m trying to decide between the SCM guide for Modern times and ALHOW for my 6yo, 9yo, and 13yo. Having a coordinating notebook is a big plus to me for ALHOW. We are using Apologia science with coordinating notebooks and love it! However, Stories of the Nations and Stories of America scheduled with the other living books with SCM guide looks like a great option. Love the living books Sonya has picked out that module!
We are having another baby this summer and moving halfway through the schoolyear, so I want history to be enjoyable, yet doable this year. 🙂
Thanks for any input! 🙂
I haven’t used the SCM history books so I can’t compare the two, but I can say that while having a book with notebook appealed to me, it didn’t work out the way I hoped. I really wanted to go deeper with some important figures than ALHOW allowed, and some we skipped altogether, so we have a notebook with lots of blank spots. I prefer the way Beautiful Feet Early American History schedules notebooking (and you could easily do this with the SCM books), having the child draw from and copy some of the text, or give a narration the parent or child could record, in a composition notebook. This also allows you to follow the child’s interests if they’re more fascinated with one part of the story or another, making their own connections rather than the ones we decide they should make.
From what I’ve seen, I prefer the types of books BF and SCM choose over ALHOW; but this is what works best for my particular children and what I like, and I know others find completely different things best for them.
Blessings,
Aimee
I use SCM guides and we create our own notebook from notebooking and lapbook pages. Love the simplicity and thoroughness of SCM and feel really accomplished when we do more than suggested in the guides (like cool notebook pages or extra topical books). I like that better then empty notebook pages or stressful fill in the check off list boxes. =) The SCM guides also tell you what section of the Bible to read and allows you to choose how to teach the doctrine. Their books are excellent. Haven’t found one we haven’t enjoyed yet.
We tried the journal with ALHOW and the jr notebook with Apologia and it was a mess … just too much writing and the idea behind both is similar, so for us doing both the ALHOW journal and Apoloigia notebook is excessive. I do prefer the simplicity and organic quality to the SCM guides over ALHOW, and Sonya’s book selections always seem to shine for us, yet my girls thoroughly enjoyed Angela’s chapter book selections that went along with ALHOW Volume 1. The Christian worldview in ALHOW is woven into everything about the series … it cannot be extracted. I loved that about it, but I also at times wanted something slightly more neutral yet still decidely Christian so that more of *our* beliefs could be presented first, from me versus from a text. I think like so many things you may just need to give it a whirl … on her website she has a generous sample of several of the volumes that might help you in your decision, too. Something that resonates with me is that Angela is such a good-hearted, dear friend and mother, so I trust her works and I there is a safety to using it, for me, but you know, there is no truly perfect curriculum out there. 🙂
I purchased the ALHOW Journal because someone had told me it wasn’t enough without it. I should have gone with my gut and done my own thing and let dd come up with how she wanted to reinforce the lesson.
I like the idea of adding notebooking or lapbooking to the SCM Guide. There are several premade lapbook companies if you don’t want to make up your own.
There is also the option of History Portfolios to run alongside whatever history program you are using. Or you can just make journal pages yourself.
We’re using it this year for afterschooling with my 6 YO. We’ve tried quite a few history programs (SOTW, samples pages of MOH, Elemental History’s Adventures in America, CHOW) and like this one best. I would prefer for it to be a little more of a story and DD kind of lost interest in the War for Independence, but I think she’ll be more interested again now that we’re through that. I do get one or two picture books from the library for each chapter to go along with it. I think I’d prefer something like Beautiful Feet but it’s awfully pricey.
OP, if you’re thinking of using volume 1 this year, I think it’d be very young for your 13 YO. It’s written more for the 5-10 YO age range IMO. Although of course you could supplement with more difficult go-alongs for him/her.
The Christian world view in these books is strong. Very strong I would say. We have used the notebooks that come with it but found we didn’t want to do what they had a place for and our written narrations were limited by the few lines provided. So, we just do written narrations on notebook paper and add drawings or pictures if they want to. My LD son will probably do the notebook because the spaces for drawings and then a short caption about it are perfect for him. I used her book ideas, but she doesn’t have many. I didn’t have trouble coming up with lots of others though. I find this program very simple to use.
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