HOD

I did the same thing. My oldest was enjoying module 1, but my new first grader wasn’t engaged at all. Then we went into a busy season half way through the year and I did HOD Beyond with both to finish off the year. It was the best decision.  This year I pulled parts of HOD , and SCM but it was a lot of work. I have no idea what direction I am going next year :). HOD has some really fun elements and choices but I don’t do any of the language arts, so I am torn :).

I tried it, didn’t like it. And I really don’t think it would be worth it for just history and science as it’s an expensive program. You’d need to get a really good deal online.

Honestly, we found the books very dry, and in the lower grades honestly, it has a lot of busywork projects, and the science was very unappealing to us.

Okay, so I had a reply typed out, went to edit it and it somehow disappeared. If it magically appears again, then my apologies for a double post 🙂

Here’s my honest take on history at a young age:

It’s over-rated 😉

In all honesty, many/most children that age (grade 1, even older), lose interest in history very quickly, especially ancient history, because it’s a very abstract concept. It’s hard to apply it to their lives. Young children live in the here and now, and if it doesn’t interest them… forget it. Charlotte herself started with local history, first (starting with England’s history, going chronologically, delving into myths etc…). She did not get into ancient history (the Greeks, Romans etc) until later.

We haven’t done formal “history/social studies” yet (oldest is grade 4). We just kept it very informal. We learned the basics – identifying and naming the provinces of our country, some general politics as it came up during election, we talk about civic duties through the course of life etc… and then otherwise, we just follow interests. When my son was interested in Mummies, we read about them. When he wanted to learn about China, we learned about China. At this stage, I would rather develop an interest in history, and make it come alive for them, which I don’t think happens when we force them to learn about things that has no meaning to them.

So, that said. I actually love My Father’s World’s approach to history. I like that they start a couple years of cementing Bible stories/light Bible history (that’s easy to apply to a child’s life). Then they move into history of your own country first, which again, is easier for children to grasp. Then they do a year of world geography/cultures, which again, is something children that age are often interested in, and I also feel gives a better foundation for moving into world history.

If I could turn back time and do it over again, I likely would have done Adventures in grade 2, ECC in grade 3, then done the SCM history cycle starting in grade 4. That would leave grades 10-12 free to go more in depth in other studies: go back and revisit ancient/medieval history, study Aboriginal and/or African American affairs, civics/government, modern affairs etc…

I agree with previous and would focus on the 3Rs and have the 1st grader listen in as interested.

I did HOD with my oldest in kinder and really liked it a lot! I switched to SCM when she started 1st because the ideq of having multiple guides in the future was not for me. I also found that I was really only going to use for History and Science, because I liked other options for the other subjects and thr guides were expensive to not be used fully IMO.

We started with Early American/World and it was a great year! As we have continued and her brothers have joined in, I find they are listening, as they quietly play, while I read and I am always amazed at what they are learning and am glad that I did not stress about picking history and science just for them, that we continued to do those as a family.

There are always simple options like selecting specific read alouf books that your youngest is interested in as well. Our read aloud literature books are always a variety which is fun for all of us.