I know it all could not be crammed in a year and nobody would want to do that….but does anyone condense the first three time periods a bit and turn the entire SCM history rotation into more of a four year cycle?
Or….is there any CM resource that does this? I am hearing about HUFI and Milestone and others for the first time and I see that they do not as they either don’t keep the kids studying the same time period or they have 5 or 6 rotations, but is there something CM out there that puts the whole family in a four year rotation for history?
I thought about doing Modules 1-3 in one year but decided to just start year 1 and see how fast or slow we actually want to take it. You could look into Biblioplan for a Year 1 substitute or something like Story of the World Vol 1. with some good add in books.
I am looking at doing a 5 year rotation with combining the first three mods over a two year period. I have heard of at least one person doing three mods in one year — one each term — with a high schooler working independently (only one child). The most I would personally attempt would be two in one year — perhaps Mod 1 & 2, then 3 & 4 the next year, and mod 5 in the third year and mod 6 in the fourth.
Thanks eawerner and 4myboys! I will look at the idea of maybe combining two at a time. To see if that is doable. So am I correct then that of all the CM resources/plans out there available, A/O, HUFI, Milestone, M.A., there is not one with a four year rotation where all the kids can study the same period?
I always thogugh there was just A/O and SCM, until recently learning there are more out there.
I am combining the first 3 years because I want to complete a 4 year cycle while my dd is in highschool. Sonya had mentioned BF ancients guide at one time…so that is an option. I am choosing to use Mystery of History….now while it wouldn’t really be my first choice, I felt like it was the most “doable” for me with kids from K all the way up to highschool. My highschooler is going to supplement with alot of books from SCM/BF. I did see on the Queens FB group that they have an ancients course that will be out this summer….they are CM. My plan is then to move to SCM years 4, 5 &6 after this year.
ooh Pink, I like what you are saying…I forgot all about BF. We have done MOH for other time periods so I might take another look at that for Ancients too. We might be in a slightly similar boat with you, as my daughter will be in 9th this fall.
Ours are 14, almost 12, 9, 6, 5, 5, and 4. How about you?
So are you combining the first three modules beginning this fall are have you already begun?
Kimberly, our kids are almost the same ages. 🙂 I have an almost 14 yo, 12, 8, and 5. My oldest dd will be in 9th as well. We will be starting ancients this fall…I am just putting my resources together right now. We were using a different curriculum up to this point. However, since I want to keep all my children studying the same time period, we are making some changes.
Biblioplan is a really fantastic resource we’ve enjoyed for both Ancients and Middle Ages & Ren & Ref, and I love the way the Ancients had us read through the Old Testament. It might be an option for you. Heads up: it can be intense if you try to do everything. In the past, I tried to use every single resource listed, read most of it to the kids (rather than have them do history reading), and while I greatly enjoyed our 1-1 1/2 hour history lessons, it was WAY too much for all but one of the kids.
This year I may re-use the second year in the cycle, using the CM principles we’ve learned these past years to restructure a bit – assigning more as independent reading, reading some to the kids and being content to pick and choose read-alouds and literature books so that we can read at a more leisurely pace. If I really want to complicate things, I may add in Truthquest, using the great Biblioplan schedule to keep me on track. Don’t know if this helps, but it might be something to consider if you want to keep them together.
Well my boys are little and we’re just starting out (7 with the 5yr old tagging along). But we finished up with Mod 1 in Jan and read all sorts of living books on ancient Egypt and made a salt dough map (we really did not care for Oxford Ancient His so I only used a few parts). After that we just sort of continued on our own into ancient Greece, reading about the culture, foods, olympics and planning some more living books with it this summer. At the same time we’re reading living books on Pilgrims, Indians and early Am. History since there are so many great ones available for their ages. We usually do Anc Hist reading 1x wk and Am Hist 2x, sometimes more or less, and I just write down what we did in my planner. So I’m thining we’ll continue with Ancients in this way for a lighter intro to it as we read aloud 2-3x wk from the Vos Story Bible going thru the Old Testament and should wrap up in the fall with Rome and then just move on since we school year round in some form. Don’t know if that helps or not, but it’s been working well for us.
I plan to do Ancients all in one year with dd#3 when she restarts the history cycle. I do not know if that will be a combination of Modules 1-3 or another program for that year. Then we will do Modules 4, 5, and 6 each in their own year.
Wow~ it has been a while since I looked at Biblioplan. They really have revamped things. I will take a closer look. Plus I love love love that they have Reece’s Rainbow button at the bottom of their site, with beautiful pics of kids, some with special needs needing a forever fmaily. As a mom of a son with Down Syndrome (who is the light of my life :-)and twins from Ethiopia, this brings joy to my heart!
I noticed Biblioplan’s advocacy for orphan care and Reece’s Rainbow when I visited recently too! Several of my kids were waiting children with special needs, so that made my heart smile and made me feel even better about the company. Another neat thing: I have an older version I purchased from them a few years ago, and they told me they’ll send me the updated version free; I believe it’s a matter of policy. What a great company!
I just posted this on another thread – keep in mind I am not in HS years yet, but this is what I think could work out with what I have. It might not be that way for you. Here it is:
I have heard Sonya say that to count Mods 1-3 as a high school credit for history, you would have to combine just the history part into one year. Which is totally doable, if you went through the guide books and did the history lessons for each module in 1 term. You can have them do one of the Bible studies available as a seperate subject in order to keep them doing Bible during that year. Another alternative she suggests is Beautiful Feet for going through the Ancients faster then the Mods go.
So I would seriously consider doing the history and geography parts of the SCM Mods 1-3 for 9th, with a seperate Bible study. Then for 10th, I would use Mod 4 as my next thing, keeping in mind that you can always pick out just the history part if time is an issue. For instance, could you not do Mod 4 that way for about 4 months, add in a Government/Civics (constitution) class or State Class for the other half. Then for 11 and 12 I would do Module 5 and 6 each of those TOGETHER count as 1 World History Credit and 1 American History Credit, finishing up with Government/Civics class as needed.
So hypothetically speaking you could do:
Ninth – Ancient cultures (Mod 1-3) (1 history credit)
Tenth – Module 4 and a State Study (each worth a 1/2 credit)
Eleventh – Module 5 and a Government/Constitution/Civics Class (I did this in HS, totally doable) 1/2 credit in each: world, US, and 1 credit in Governement)
Twelth – Module 6 – 1/2 credit in World and American
You end up with 4 history credits. The advantage in adding in the Government class in 11th is that you are freeing up an extra place in 12th grade to finish a needed math or science. ( I hope I did the math right, lol – I’m still waking up)