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SCM Guides AND Truthquest Guides?
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Hi Gals,
Does anybody use the SCM guides and TQ guides simultaneously? I’ve never used the SCM guides….we’ve always been one time period ahead of when the guides were done. And I admit I tend to be anti-guide after my Sonlight experience of always feeling behind (and my tweaker tendencies). But part of me would just like the planning done for me and the SCM guides look wonderful (and affordable). We’re starting over in Ancients next year and I have TQ’s Beginnings guide.I love TQ’s commentary and want to keep it. I generally plan in a lot of SCM books w/it to narrow TQ’s booklist (and already own most Module 1 books).
I’m just wondering if anybody has used SCM guides, reading TQ’s commentary along with it. Plus I know there would be some books I would want to add in (not a lot, maybe a couple a year). Any experience/thoughts? My main concern is lining up the cycles when (for example) we’d be spending 2 yrs. on modern history w/SCM and 3 yrs. with TQ’s AOR series. Thanks! Gina
I am going to start using the SCM guides this next year so I can’t fully answer your questions. I did use TQ guide with my daughter last year and I would think that TQ would be a great supplement to any history. I love the book list in TQ!!! I am interested to see what responses you get on this question too!!!
I know there are lots of threads about this topic (sorry, I don’t have time to link) that might be helpful.
I really want to do the same thing (I think we’ve had this conversation before, Gina) and having used the SCM guides before (not history, but the others), I just don’t see the conflict. The SCM guides are guides, but they don’t seem restrictive or that you’d feel behind….I don’t know, I’ve never used SL, but it’s usually mentioned how “behind” everyone feels. I don’t hear that or feel that way with their guides.
I actually plan to get a TQ guide and already have the Mod. 1 guide from SCM. You really can’t go wrong with a $10.95 download, and I’ve never been disappointed with their guides. Just my .02.
Although I have not used either one yet, I have both the SCM Module 1 and TQ Beginnings and have been attempting to coordinate them myself. Some parts would line up fairly well. Other places I am not sure yet what to do. TQ has a lot of commentary at the beginning (over 20 sections) for day 1 of SCM. I will either have to add days to my SCM year or skip parts of the TQ commentary at the beginning or require an older child (when mine get there) to read that part of the commentary on their own. Sometimes you will also run into things in a different order in the two but so far I think I can deal with that. I can’t decide which one I like better. I am thinking I might end up using SCM for the younger children and adding TQ once they get older. The commentary in TQ can be a bit much for a younger child. I like the simplicity of SCM for the young ones.
If the only reason you are buying the SCM Module is for the schedule and you are going to take the time to coordinate it with TQ for the commentary, you might want to just make your own schedule with TQ. I am finding it is taking even more planning to coordinate the two than to just make my own schedule to go with TQ. But having the SCM schedule in front of me did help me see how I could better schedule TQ on my own. Maybe purchasing one SCM Module would give you ideas for scheduling the rest of the TQ guides.
This is what we do! I love the SCM guides, but don’t feel like there is enough history (but I LOVE history). The TQ guides are a great supplement. I use the geography and Bible in SCM as is, but follow the TQ guides for history and jot in the SCM suggestions where they correspond. It works well for us and takes very little extra planning.
NJcountrygal…yes, I love the booklist and commentary!
My3boys….yeah, I guess I could just order the SCM guide to satisfy my curiosity, since they’re so cheap:)
Schele….ditto above…should probably just buy a SCM guide! I do think Beginnings would be hard to schedule w/SCM. I’m planning on using it just for Bible for a couple years, because it’s so much…esp. since my kids will be just 10 and 13. Actually, don’t the SCM modules take 3 yrs. to cover the whole OT, which Beginnings does in one guide? Maybe 1/3 of TQ Beginning each year of SCM Mod. 1-3? Do you see it possible to follow SCM for Bible, bringing in the TQ commentary when covering each particular passage? I’m probably making this way too complicated!
Hope….glad that’s working well for you! Thanks for sharing. So, do you plan on using TQ’s Beginnings guide for Bible? That’s where I’m getting stumped. I just received it and it’s HUGE next to the AHYS guides.
Thanks for all the input! For some reason I struggle every year with coming up w/this part of my curriculum plan. I wish somebody would write a plan I’d like just for me:) Blessings, Gina
@ Britney & Hope – when you use the SCM guides for Bible only, do you stay in the same time period of history with TQ? (Assuming yes, but wanted to check). Also, do you find that you move thru the SCM guides faster by not using the history portions?
@mom2blessings – we’re doing SCM module 1 right now, in the required resources there are two commentaries: Exodus: A Commentary for Children and Numbers: A Commenatry for Children both by Nancy Ganz. I was not able to buy either one, as I wasn’t able to buy many books this past year (library had didn’t have them either). I wonder how those two books would compare as commentary for younger children to the TQ’s commentary? I’d sure like to know myself, in hindsight, I think a commentary would have been really nice for me as a teacher (even if I only read it for myself). I’m leary of doing Ancient Greece next year, without SOMETHING, as I’m not as familiar with that time peroid of history as I am with others.
I’d sure like to know how to combine the best of both worlds without making myself crazy trying to coordinate it!
Thanks, Britney! I have the same qu. for you…do you plan on using TQ’s Beginnings guide at all, or just the SCM guides for Bible? I’ve heard great things about the discussions w/kids using Beginnings….so in one respect hate to miss it. But also hear raves about SCM guides and really prefer as simple as possible! Thanks:) Gina
I’m not familiar with TQ Beginnings though sounds like something I would like. This year, I used the SCM Ancient Greece/ Joshua through Malachi guide for how we are going through the Bible, did the georgraphy sections, and then used the TQ Ancient Greece guide to go through history. I still use the SCM History suggestions at times but use the TQ order and book list, if that makes sense.
Next year we’ll do the same with Ancient Rome.
The TQ Beginnings guide actually covers almost exactly the same material as the SCM Module 1. Just in a different order and with very lengthy commentary. I am about 2/3 of the way through Beginnings and it is still lining up with SCM Module 1. TQ Greece correlates with SCM Module 2 and TQ Rome with SCM Module 3. Although I think TQ does not have the Bible that SCM has in those. Greece and Rome are not nearly as huge as Beginnings. I have both of those also but have not had any time to compare what is in each one. I am still stuck on that Beginnings one.
SCM usually schedules geography 1 day a week, Bible a couple days and history a couple days. Although in the Beginnings/Module 1 time period Bible is history until you encounter Egypt. That makes it kind of hard to decide what to do for Bible and what to do for history if I would use TQ for one and SCM for the other. I think seperating the Bible and history will be much easier in the remaining years. Bringing in the TQ Beginnings commentary for the SCM Bible like you suggested would still leave far to much commentary in Module 1 but almost none in Module 2 or 3. I thought of possibly just doing SCM Module 1 and leaving out most of the TQ commentary until I get to Egypt. The SCM Bible is refreshingly simple. Then again I would be missing all those possible discussions with TQ. But the TQ Beginnings commentary is sometimes to much for me let alone a child while the SCM Module 1 is so simple. And sometimes simplicity is powerful.
Schele
Thanks, Schele! Yes, Beginnings is the struggle….I want to do it, but not sure how best to fit it in. I love your ‘simplicity is powerful’ statement. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed after getting the huge Beg. guide. I hate to miss it, but also crave simplicity and am drawn to the SCM guides, too. I don’t want to overwhelm my kids (or myself).
Could you tell me how many weeks before the SCM guide starts to talk about Egypt? Do you know what you plan to do for Amer. History, w/SCM taking 2 yrs. and TQ 3 yrs.? The easy answer would seem to be 1 1/2 guides per year of TQ…but I’ve heard they’re very meaty. Too many good things out there…really need to simplify somewhere! Thanks for your thoughts….I need to re-think because it does seem like it will be more difficult to separate out the Bible than I thought. Blessings, Gina
@morgrace- Here’s what happened. We started doing SCM Module 1. Then when it was time to start Module 2, my 5 year old son began listening in and my husband did not feel that starting him in Greek Mythology was a good idea. He is not as mature as my daughter was at the time. So, we decided that with him joining us we would just begin with American History and go from there. I found TQ and love it. That being said, my kids learned alot about the Bible during SCM Module 1 and they (and I) wanted to continue on in the Bible. So that’s what we did! Right now, we are reading about William Penn and the founding of PA during History time using TQ. But we are starting this week in Esther during Bible time using SCM Module 2 guide. Then, when it’s time to start the TQ Beginnings guide, we should be about to start over in Bible anyway. Does that make sense?
@momto2blessings- After American History, which is 3 guides, we will start in the TQ Beginnings guide. By then my daughter and son will be 4 years older. Therefore, my daughter will be going through it again but using different books and my son will be getting it for the first time. We have been using TQ for 6 months now and we LOVE it.
Morgrace…funny, I was just flipping through the Exodus commentary last night to compare to TQ. Maybe somebody whose actually used both could chime in, but at a glance the TQ commentary is written in Michelle Miller’s personal style, such as “Of course, as you already know, Abram and Sarai took matters into their own hands. Perhaps they didn’t feel that God was moving quickly enough, or maybe I’m instead revealing how I probably would have felt!”
The Exodus commentary (only Ganz one I own) seems more like a straight commentary stating the facts of what happened such as “By faith Moses left Egypt and for many years he lived as a fugitive in a foreign land. He was no longer a prince; now he was a shepherd, who wandered in the wilderness, leading another man’s sheep from one poor pasture to the next. Moses’ life was hard, but at least he was free.” And the Exodus commentary has a teacher guide for each chapter w/ ideas for visual aids, memory work, craft, review qu., prayers, fieldtrips, psalms to sing.
Of course, Beginnings takes you through the whole OT, while the Ganz guides are only for a few books of the Bible. I’ve really liked having the TQ commentary to present a biblical worldview. The TQ Greece guide might be what you’re looking for. In all her guides she talks about the Big 2 Beliefs…Who is God? and Who Then is Mankind? She talks about the Greeks beliefs in mythology and humanism, and relates it to our more modern world, talks about post-modernism. It would be very simple to use the SCM guide for Greece and just read the TQ commentary as you go (not real lengthy). There are also additional book selections, if you wanted to add any.
The TQ guides also have “Think Write” questions such as “Life as a Spartan.” Where it says to take a look at their Big 2 beliefs and who had ultimate authority? What personal qualities did they revere? Was human life precious? How were babies and the weak treated? How did they enslave others? What was their economic system? Did they follow Godly systems of enterprise? Etc. These are optional, and you can do them as written or oral exercises.
Sorry so long! Hope it was helpful:) GIna
Hope…that makes sense. Will have to consider that option!
Thanks, Britney! I love TQ, too:) It’s the hugeness of the Beg. guide and how to fit it in and remain in historical order that’s stumping me. I am strongly leaning towards getting the SCM guides for simplicity, and adding in the TQ commentary and extra books. Just not sure how to work in Beg., though.
Thanks all for helping me work through my qu. I’m feeling some peace and direction:) Blessings, Gina
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