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History/Bible/Geo Modules
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I am trying to gather the books needed for the Module 1 to be used in a 6 year rotation. I am concernced that the modules don’t focus on a complete ancient history including in depth study for Babylon, Assyria, etc. Has anyone found it to be an issue following SCM curriculum exactly? Is there too much that is overlooked and will the children find that to be an issue going to college later? Thanks for any recommendations!
I have found it to be thorough, especially for the younger set – I have a 6 and 8 year old finishing module 2, did Module 1 last year. Ancient history is fun and important, but unless your child is going to be a history major in college, they’ll probably be able to do fine with less than half of what they’ll learn in these history modules.
I was valedictorian of my high school and graduated Suma Cum Laude from my college and I can only remember getting ONE year of WORLD history my sophomore year of high school. One YEAR of world history!!!! That covered EVERYTHING, not just ancient history. I got another year of US History in High school and I had to memorize lots of dates and names of historical persons during grammar school, but it was all from textbooks so dry that it never made any impact. You’ll find the living books you’re reading will make a huge impact on your child’s ability to remember it and turn it into valuable life lessons as well as an intelligent worldview for analyzing our current world events.
Our state doesn’t even require history as a subject to be taught to homeschooled children – of course we teach it anyway, but it’s not required.
One of the things that I love about SCM is the balance of the subjects – they don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on history as some curriculums do… Some have the child spending 2 or 3 hours a DAY reading books for history, to me that’s just too much for lots of different reasons.
If you’re still concerned, you could easily follow the SCM guide and on Bible days add a short reading from Story of the World or Child’s History of the World by VM Hillyer, both have short readings that would make a great supplement… but if your child struggles with listening for so long, then it really is ok to drop it or even put it off until she’s older.
I appreciate that you want to teach a “complete” ancient histroy, but I would consider that to be a very lofty and extensive undertaking. It would take far longer than 6 years to study everything there is to know about every civilization. I would rather teach a love and interest in history than run the risk of overwhelming my child (especially in the elementary years) by providing too much information. A child who learns to learn, and loves to learn, can and will search out new information as they need or are intereted in doing so.
I would not at all be concerned about a child using SCM modules being ill prepared for college or university level learning. The vast majority of PS children wouldn’t even have half of what is covered in these modules, and odds are good they would have forgotten it just as quickly as they learned it.
If you are looking to introduce the history of other civilizations to your children, you might simply chose some good historical literature for summer read alouds or do a “unit study” over the summer. If you use a family book of centuries or time line it will give you a visual to help keep everything straight time wise.
For my younger ones, ds8 and dd6, I have found the SCM modules to be as complete as we need them to be. I like that in six years, we can repeat and have more resources to use than we did the first go ’round. The younger ages are a time to develop a love for learning and good habits more than worrying about whether they’re getting a complete education of all of ancient history, in my opinion. Take it easy and have fun!
I totally agree with Lindsey!
If you do want extra resources, Story of the World has some good options on their list that is categorized by age. SCM picks some of the best options for books, and if felt I needed to change or add more to a certain topic, I used SOW’s recommendations.
Another one is All Through the Ages. It is an awesome resource for any part of history. It recommends books categorized by age/level.
What I love most about SCM is that, for most of us, it is completely, complete. If you feel the need to add, you can, no biggie. If you feel the need to subtract, you can, no biggie. It is great the way it is, but, it can be look at as framework that can be used just as or it can be made into what you desire for your family.
And, with the Curriculum Guide being free, what can you lose. Add that to the fact that most of their items are so reasonably price and meant for the whole family, then you’ve really got a good deal.
My .02.
I think the modules are sufficient, and they are not so full that if you want to add more books it’s not a problem. I do add more books (not a lot), and know I will in h.s. I use Truthquest History as my history guide right now (the SCM module guides hadn’t been completed as I needed them!) It gives a biblical commentary and YOU pick the books. The TQ book list can be overwhelming, so I use the SCM module guide to narrow, plus add in the occasional AO or TQ ‘don’t miss’ book. If you did this, you would be presented w/many options of other books if you want to cover more topics than SCM…or you could just read the short TQ commentary on some topics and not read the extra books. I just try to be careful to not overdo it….or it’s stressful and feels crammed…not my desire!
I do plan to purchase the SCM guide for next year because I want to try to simplify and have more of the planning done for me. But I’m still using the TQ commentary and adding in some more readings, since I don’t think the SCM readings for Mod. 1 seem to be too much for our schedule. My kids are 12 and 9 and I learn something new in history every day it seems….even though I was an ‘A’ student in h.s. and did well in college. I wonder what in the world I spent so much time ‘learning!’ HTH some:) Gina
P.S. I’m not there yet, but I’m not sure if Gov.’t and Econ. are covered w/SCM…but that’s easily fixed by using materials from other CM curriculums like AO or TQ. Or Notgrass has materials.
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