Name: Great Homeschool Conventions (Columbus)
Start: 2025-04-24T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-04-26T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Columbus, OH

This topic has 11 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 8 months ago by the9clarks.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

Author
Posts
June 23, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Nina
Participant
between SCM Gen-Deut and SOTW… I have both and have looked over them. I do not remember anything about world history and haven’t done any with my children. SOTW talks about alot of different things than the SCM guide. Can anyone tell me why? I’m so confused.
June 23, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
Nina, I’ve listened to only part of one SOTW volume, so I can’t answer definitely. But it seems like the main difference might be emphasis. We try to emphasize Bible History and bring some other world history alongside during the first three modules. SOTW focuses more on world history.
Those of you who have used SOTW Volume 1, does that seem like an accurate comparison?
June 24, 2010 at 12:25 pm
momto2blessings
Participant
I’ve not used either. But I have glanced through SOTW Vol. I and read The Well Trained Mind. I don’t think that Susan W. Bauer places much emphasis on God/the Bible in her writings. In WTM she does say to take time ea. day to study your family religion and others, but it’s nothing like CM-style programs where loving and knowing God/training in virtue are the primary emphasis. Hope that helps some:) Gina
June 24, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Bookworm
Participant
One thing that bothers me in The Story of the World is that she seems to just be telling “stories”–you can’t tell the difference between her coverage of, say, Abraham or the mythological beginnings of Rome. They are all presented in a “I’m telling you a story” sort of tone. That bothers me, personally. I only read about half the first book before deciding it just didn’t seem right to me, and returned it.
June 25, 2010 at 1:59 pm
KellyP
Member
Agreed – i’d been considering SOTW because its so popular, but it doesn’t have the Biblical emphasis, and it is sometimes hard to tell which is fact and which is fiction (as Bookworm pointed out) It also felt like you are just zipping so fast with now chance to pause and enjoy. There is an activity guide with other reading suggestions but you are in and out of a civilization in a week sometimes.

Advantages – you do get introduced to other cultures (china, india) which I do think is good. But, there isn’t that much info and you could likely easily “tuck” these in using something like Usborne Ency of world history and putting them on your time line. I think its good to help kids realize that “history” is happening all over the world, but it depends where you want your focus/emphasis.
Hope this helps! If I had to choose a comprhensive program like this, Mystery of History would be my choice, but it seems like it is for older children and it still moves at Mach speed from what I could tell from the Table of contents.
June 25, 2010 at 3:34 pm
my3boys
Participant
Before I decided on the CM approach to history I flip flopped between SOTW and MOH. A mom in our homeschool group was using SOTW and I thought it was so cool (my son was not in her class), so I researched it and came across MOH. I fell for that one hard. I bought the book, studied the lesson plans, purchased needed supplies and off we went. We made it to lesson 11, Ancient Egypt. I just couldn’t go any further. It went too fast through the civilizations/people/places you were covering and I just didn’t feel like there was a layering affect going on. The lessons are not CM style at all, imho, they are facts written in “Have you ever wondered about…” then paragraphs about the topic. Nicely written, I must add, and fine for an adult looking for info on a topic but not a good fit for my family of boys ages 9 1/2 and 6 1/2 at the time, I believe. In the program you are encouraged to have your children summarize the “story” on a 3×5 card and file it under it’s proper place (binder/card file) for use at another time, well, my oldest had not been summarizing much (written narration after oral narration is fine tuned) so that was a nightmare for both of us. My middle boy could summarize pretty quick and that just made it worse:( The mapping was useful (I made a ton of copies we’ll use eventually, I hope) and some of the suggested activities were appropriate for their age. I also made the suggested timeline which turned out nice, but with a 2 yo at the time he just wanted to rip it up and I didn’t have a place to hang it out of reach. We are going to do a portable one, notebook style, in the fall.
I am keeping the book as a reference guide (it has great pictures and information I may find valuable in the future) as a mom from this site suggested.
Okay, that wasn’t meant to criticize a program, but just give my honest assessment after really trying to use it, but making the decision to convert to CM made it difficult to tweak to fit my new goals/approaches for my family.
I do know there is reference to our Lord, maybe more than SOTW, but I believe the program/lesson plans are very similar and neither are CM friendly, imho.
June 25, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Nina
Participant
Thank you so much ladies. I appreciate your help. I needed honest CM’er opinions. I’ve looked thru SOTW and it made my head spin. I can’t imagine my poor children trying to keep up.
I do have more questions but I am going to start a new post for those. 😉 Thanks again!
June 25, 2010 at 7:39 pm
the9clarks
Participant
Susan Wise Bauer is not a Christian. So Biblical history will never be her focus. In WTM, she gives “religion” the least time of all the subjects.
June 25, 2010 at 8:25 pm
lboulden
Participant
I have used SOTW with my two older kids and have enjoyed them, but what I really appreciate about SCM is that it focuses on just one or two regions at a time so kids really learn about them. I know very few children who could tell you all the countries in Africa, but with Genesis-Deuteronomy, they can’t help but know by the time they are done. Plus you haven’t drilled them hours on end, it’s a natural, enjoyable process.
June 25, 2010 at 8:50 pm
KellyP
Member
Thanks for this – I was/am pondering MOH and you have given me a lot to think about…the pace with MOH was/is a huge concern for me and I wasn’t sure how to fit living books in – which I definitely wanted to do.
I still may get it as a spine and use it over 2 years, but we’ll see –
June 26, 2010 at 2:50 am
teachermom
Participant
Susan Wise Bauer is not a Christian.
She is a Christian.
As Christians ourselves, we ground everything we do and write in our commitment to our faith; our beliefs and practice are shaped by the historic creeds of the orthodox Christian church, particularly the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, which we return to in our worship time and time again; our commitment to our local church, in which we see Christ’s Great Commission acted out through hospitality, through worship and through the celebration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, is central to our lives.
You can read more of her writing on the subject of Christian education here. It’s a very good article (IMHO).
-Kim
June 26, 2010 at 8:22 am
the9clarks
Participant
How disappointing to hear she professes Christianity. By her choice of language (profanity on her personal blog) and her low priority of “religion” in the education she recommends, I would never have guessed this. 🙁