question on differences

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?

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. 

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.

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. 

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 –

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. 🙁