Hi April,
Here we go. You said “I really want a chronological study for my children but I don’t want everything to be about “Ancient Egypt. ”
Charlotte Mason (and SCM) definitely is a different method than this approach. CM wants you to spread a generous feast for your child, not just serve them one thing all the time – even in different forms. In talking about a unit study type approach, CM said something to the effect that by the time the children build the ladder to pick the apple, they’ve long since lost the taste for it.
A quick background on us…these are our family’s goals for history ala CM:
See God’s economy throughout history.
Know something of what has gone before in order to think justly of what is occurring today.
Inculcate a sane and serviceable patriotism.
Understand people’s roles in history.
Learn from history’s accomplishments and mistakes.
We started in AO, learned a lot and enjoyed ourselves but we weren’t reaching our goals with AO history. This was a heavy schedule for us (and that was only with one officially registered). Looking back at the end of the year, I realized we hadn’t gotten all the outside time we needed but kept plugging away to get through it all (yes, all my fault). What would I do when schooling two or more?
The SCM handbook allowed us to stay in the 20 minute time frame and learn together as a family. It is Biblical in its approach and whoa, did we LOVE the table showing how God used each of the ten plagues to reveal Himself as the one true God while exposing the falseness of the Egyptian gods. For us, this was so important as, let’s face it, Ancient Egypt is a completely fascinating subject.
We used the first edition of Genesis through Deuteronomy and Ancient Egypt. I was happy to know that it has been redone to weave the Ancient Egypt in with the Bible reading. My sister will be using the new edition with her five children this year and we went over all the book selections together. I have mine lent out to a friend who is considering it right now but if I remember correctly, Croconile and Seeker of Knowledge are no longer listed in the 1-3 grades. We loved these particular books and they were both at our library. Shipwrecked Sailor by the particular author listed wasn’t but can be found in almost any anthology of stories from Ancient Egypt. If you want to add Jewish stories to your library basket, I suggest checking the book list from the PJ Library. You may even be able to sign your children up to receive free Jewish content books for a year. We also watched Ark Discovery Int’l‘s free video of archealogy showing Sodom & Gomorrah, Noah’s Ark, the Red Sea Crossing location, and Mt. Sinai. We watched these some evenings as a family.
Our family absolutely loved Boy of the Pyramids. I think I myself learned more about Ancient Egypt from that one book alone than I knew in my whole life. It’s a really fun mystery.
Whatever you decide, April, you are right to make it a prayed about decision. Though we were happy with our decision to use these and plan on using them for two rotations, it must work for your family. I can say that I loved the format – it was easy to follow, combines all ages, and has God and His will throughout history at the center.
Dislikes, none really. I did suggest to my sister to put the aforementioned books back in because I know her children will love them. I’m sure Sonya took them out because they are probably out of print and she is sensitive to us paying inflated prices. I don’t know about the spines as we didn’t use any. I thought the balance was really good but then again, we used the first edition. I did feel the freedom with this schedule to take anything out I wanted to if I wanted to have more classic literature. It’s completely flexible. I’ll bet we all concur with CM when she says “home is the best growing-ground for children.”
I can’t answer your scheduling questions. I felt comfortable with the SCM schedule in this book as it incorporates geography and the Bible as well and those were additional subjects scheduled in our year with AO. My schedule from this last year is here.
HTH some.
Peace and joy to you!
Richele