Diane Waring: Ancient Civilizations and the Bible

I only have the cds and my children have really enjoyed them. They like her excited style. I didn’t use the books, though.

We use the whole set, books and CD’s and they work very well for my 11 and 12 year old’s. I highly recommend them. Is there something specific that you want to know? I think they are great for a framework for my kids who are becoming more independent and responsible for their own learning. Also I love that she always recommends resources that you don’t seem to hear about anywhere else. I would not use them if my kids were any younger just because I don’t think they’d get a lot out of them.

The only other book would be the book for elementary aged students, but you definitely wouldn’t need that.  Other than that, the only books you need are the ones recommended for each chapter.  

Here’s how we use it:  (The only thing we do together is listen to the cd’s.  Everything else is done independently.)

phase one:  Complete “Listen to This” and “Look at This”, do the “Read for your Life” section.  Read through “Talk Together” and be ready to discuss as a family on Friday night.  The kids read through the recommended projects for phase 2, 3, and 4 and mark their initials by the ones they are planning to do.  I buy the supplies for all of the projects at the end of this week.

phase two:  Century Book, kids complete at least two projects

phase three:  Maps and Mapping, kids complete at least two projects.  

phase four:  Kids complete at least two of the projects.  

Throughout the entire four weeks, they are also reading from the recommended resources, whichever ones I buy or we can get through the library.  I always have one of these books with required written narrations and one with required oral narrations.  Other than that, they are free to read them without narrating.  I do not help them with their projects (other than helping to locate resources) unless they specifically ask for my help.  I have been very pleasantly surprised with how they have done.  I have never given them so much independence before and this has been wonderful for them.  

There is a yahoo group for each of these books and it is very helpful.  Diana Waring answers questions herself, along with others who are using the curriculum.  On the yahoo group, I downloaded a CM’ized schedule for the books.  I can’t remember who wrote it, but it is there and it is good.  I just chose not to use it, but it might be something you’d be interested in.

You mentioned that you love to learn everything too.  If you did nothing other than get the cd’s and use them yourself, it would still be money well spent.  You would learn a lot from the cd’s and be ready to share that info with your kids.  I have been using her curriculum for 13 years and she has taught me SO MUCH through her tapes and now the cd’s.

Well, that schedule in my post above is really all there is to it. I am a heavy planner and have always tightly scheduled everything in the past. I have set my mind on letting go of a lot of that in the past couple of years. I have three younger kids who need more attention from me for school, so I am transitioning these older two to be more independent with their learning. I am honestly not doing anymore planning than what you see here. On every Saturday evening I sit and look through the next phase for history and write down what they are supposed to accomplish and which page number in the student book talks about that project and I draw a check box on there. They see what they are supposed to do and they know it has to be ready to present to the family on Friday night. It is up to them to decide what to do, how to do it, and when to work on it. Because they have decided which projects interest them, I generally don’t hear any groaning or complaining.

When we are a couple of weeks away from a new unit, I decide which books to use. First off, I eliminate everything that’s listed for high school and I don’t even look for those. (I am saving those choices for when they go through history cycles again.) After that I see what’s available from my library and I go ahead and order those. Then with whatever books are left, I check the prices and if they are reasonable, I order them. I have been able to get almost everything very reasonably. If I really want to use something but its too expensive, I just let it go and don’t worry about it.

Hmmm… I am not sure that my answers will be at all helpful to you. Please ask me again if I haven’t told you what you want to know.

By the way, I do plan on using the new SCM history portfolios and geography notebooks as soon as we get to the Greece unit. I missed the Egypt and Africa sets because we were just about done with that part of the world when they came out. I think they will be a wonderful addition.