following scm history with story of the world as a spine

My DC didn’t care for the Famous Men books, so we are using SOTW 2 in place of them for the Middle Ages guide.   Next year I plan on using SCM’s Stories of America & Stories of the Nations instead of SOTW.  I think SCM has a much better approach to modern history.  I like SCM’s focus on positive events over focusing on wars.  They still cover them, but they also cover missionaries, artists, architects, etc.

The two programs aren’t going to line up exactly, as each program has their own cut-off dates for different levels of curriculum.  SOTW 1 will roughly correspond to the SCM 1st-3rd modules.  SOTW 2 lines up with SCM module 4 (with a couple chapters lining up with SCM’s 5th module).  Then SOTW 3&4 would line up with SCM 5&6.

I would decide which curriculum to plan your years around, either SOTW or SCM.  Or a third possibility would be to cover Ancients in 1 year, and follow SCM for the remaining years.  This is my plan, because I didn’t want a 6-year history cycle.

SCM’s lesson plans are very easy to make book substitutions with.  I like to make notes right in the teacher’s guides as to which books will be subbed.  The teacher’s guide has nice wide margins for penciling in changes.  With SOTW, we just read one or two sections of each chapter per reading.  We also add in the Activity Guide coloring pages, maps, and discussion questions.  I will miss these next year, but I plan on adding in the recommended Dover coloring books…they really enjoy coloring while I read aloud!

I am doing this now and have been for this entire school year (1st grade boy).  I mostly use the SOTW and then back-up my understanding of everything with the SCM book and point out just a few things in there to my son. It does get a bit confusing and messy, but it’s worth it to me to use the resource that works best for us!