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SCM and AO for History
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I am having such a hard time deciding which to go with for History…SCM or AO? I thought I was settled on AO, but as I’ve been spending some time this week planning out the year, I am starting to have my doubts. Does anyone have any experience with both that would be willing to help me out?
Thanks so much in advance!
My only concern with AO is that I like to keep my children all on the same history rotation so that we’re all learning about the same time period each year.
I have done a family based CM program similar to SCM, one term of SCM, and I now do AO.
What do you want to know?
How old are your kids, and what AO years are you considering, and what SCM year/module/whatever the term is now, are you considering?
suzukimom…my kids are 5 & 7. I used Beautiful Feet Books early american history last year with my then 6 year old. The literature selections were wonderful, but that’s all it was…just a lot of reading and my DD does better with a little something extra thrown in. I’m not creative or resourceful on my own…I love the help of a guide or suggestions of some sort. I love History and want my kids to get the most from it and I’m just nervous that the readings from AO will just be too bland, since that’s all it is. Plus, there is no guidance as to how to spread the readings out…it just suggests what to read weekly…that’s it. And the readings I’ve looked at so far are not that long, so I’m not sure how I’d stretch them out over a whole week, or really over a 3-4 day period since that is how I was going to do history. I like how with AO, most things can be found at my library or free online and I guess the only reason I’m hesitating between the two is because with SCM, I’d have to purchase some items…that’s honestly the only thing holding me back from purchasing right now! 🙂
I guess I’m just looking for some guidance. From those that use AO History, what does it look like for you? How do you schedule the readings and do you add in any “extras”? And for those that use the SCM Modules, what do you like most about it and do you feel it’s been worth the monetary investment?
oh and I am going to start with Y1 for my 7 year old.
Thank you!
For 5 and 7 year olds, Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors is wonderful. Also Boy of the Pyramid, Visits to Africa, the Scripture verses and the literature selections from SCM are loved by my children and me. Going through the Old Testament slowly was so important to me. It was easy to add Aesop Fables, James Herriot’s Treasury, Fifty Famous Stories, Burgess’ Bird and Animal books, Just So Stories, Peter Pan to our literature readings.
(Audible.com has a great version of Peter Pan read by Jim Dale and Just So Stories read by Geoffrey Palmer. And we love this for Aesop – google: read.gov/aesop/ )
SCM’s Greece and Rome modules provide an excellent Bible, history, and geography foundation for later years. AO is also on an almost six year cycle, so you could do SCM 1-6 and AO 7-12…and have the best of both worlds.
So I vote SCM with added AO literature as needed.
For Year 1 of AO, there is only 1 or 2 history readings a week. I don’t do any ‘extra’ stuff with history, as that isn’t the way I am.
I don’t spread the readings out UNLESS I have a student that can’t handle the whole reading in one sitting. (I think Year 1 the history readings are about 10 minutes tops….) They just don’t need more at that stage.
Oh, I do have the kids make a timeline binder. I used free pages similar to the SCM’s FREE book of century pages (not the purchase one – I’m going to use that when they are much older…). The kids let me know of people/events that they want added, and I generally find a picture on the internet to match (they often pick) – they let me know during the week, and on Friday we add them to their books. (Each student has one and makes their own entries.) I found with AO it was worthwhile to put in ALL the British Monarchs (as we get to them) even if the student doesn’t ask – just to give a frame of reference. They have put in things from our history readings, as well as artists/composers, as well as authors of books.
One thing that was a minus for SCM for me was…. I have 4 kids aged just over 2 years apart. When I looked at the SCM modules, I realized that over the years I’d in theory need to buy ALL the history books, because as the years went by, I’d eventually have a student in every grade range in every module. That gave me a pause.
The other thing was a determined that family studies didn’t seem to work well for my family, for a few reasons. Comparison was a big one…. I had (when we did family studies) a student in grade 1 and in grade 3, so they were doing pretty much the same work. The oldest felt dumb because his little sister was doing the same things as him (occasionally better…) and the younger felt dumb because she wasn’t doing things as well as her brother…..
Janell…it’s like you’ve read my mind!! Thank you so much for your input! What you wrote is exactly what I was thinking, but wanted to see what others thoughts were and go from there! So, would you suggest for the ages of my children, to start at the very beginning with Genesis-Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt? And I asked this in another thread, but do you purchase all the recommended reading, or do you try to utilize the library as much as possible?
Again, to everyone, THANK YOU! 🙂
Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start…Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.
Genesis is a very good place to start.
I suggest you purchase all the books available through SCM and then search the interlibrary loan system for the rest. Whatever books you cannot find through the library purchase used through this used book search site: http://used.addall.com/. Then whatever you cannot find used buy new at Rainbow Resource or Amazon.
I went back and forth for a while. I could not decide, so I sat down with my husband and explained the 2 different programs and the pros am cons of each and his response was “why would you do AO if it is so much more work for you?” So SCM it is. I love how simple men can make decision making.
Janell … very cool thought. I wonder though, how does this play out with multiple children, since only the first would get the neat and tiday Mods 1-6 then HEO 7-12. Would you just stop wherever the other children are at in the Mod cycle when they’d get to HEO?
Kayla…my hubby said the same thing! “Why stress yourself out with more work?” Us women tend to do that, don’t we??! 🙂
My kids are spaced where I will have to purchase all the books too. But with AO you would have to buy them all also.
I am confused by the comments regarding having to buy all of the modules and books. I know that you would have to buy the books for each age range if you went through the modules more than once. But, if you do AO you are buying a lot of books 12 times. I think it would add up the same or maybe even less for SCM as the reading list is lighter than AO. Also, many of the books can be found used or on kindle free. My younger ones look forward to reading a book that brother or sister read when they were that age! They have had neat discussions about books that way.
We have gone back and forth between AO and SCM over the years. My husband said the same thing about making things harder for us all. Praise God that He made men’s brains so different from ours!
I am very happy with SCM now. I do use AO for suggestions in the extras such as poetry,Plutarch, Shakespeare, artist and composer. I also want my students to be read the early AO books such as 50 Famous Stories, Burgess Bird Book, Island Story. So I just fit those in here and there and in the summers. My older history buffs like a few addtional readings and so we have added Churchill’s books from AO in the upper years as well as a few extra literature selections.
I think AO is great. It just really depends on your time and abilities as well as what is a good fit for your family. Go with what works best for your family.
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