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SCM History Modules
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Ok – so I am doing our mid-term (and mid-year) look at how we are doing – and I want to make some changes. I’ve been doing a mentored program for many of the subjects and well – for history and science we are almost right at the week 6 mark…… for term 1! So although I’m trying not to worry about being behind someones schedule… at the same time, with a 6 year rotation (like that program is) – it would take us 18 years to go through a history rotation once! Of course I’d expect my kids to speed up as they get older, but still… it is obviously way too much for my family at this time….
So I am looking seriously at the SCM History Modules. I ahve been quite happy with the free things, and the few things I’ve bought from SCM. It also does the family all together (like the mentored program I was doing) which is important for me with 3 children aged 8-1 (and so in the future will be a fair spread).
So – I know I’ve answered this question for other people – and I know it really doesn’t matter that much – but where to start? We have been doing Egypt (and I think basically finished it in the other program, even if not as much as in SCM…) – so a part of me is thinking just start Module 2 right now. I look at my son in “Grade 3” – and think that he wouldn’t get to Canadian History until “Grade 7 and 8” – and that would be it… none in High School… So then I think maybe start with a later Module – maybe Module 4 (Middle Ages would probably be fun for him – and I wouldn’t have to work out the Canadian History resources yet…) But then I realize that with all my kids as evenly spaced out as possible with about 2+1/4 years between them… well someone is going to end up with Canadian History in grade 7/8 (or close to that…) – so really that shouldn’t be a big concern….?
So – beyond the “Where to begin” – I’d just like some opinions/reviews. I’ve looked over the samples of a few of the modules, and over-all it looks pretty good… but we have jumped around so much in history trying to find a good match (and so far everything else has been free…..) that I’m not sure my judgement on history is very good. It was always my weak subject in school…
So – did anyone find the SCM History modules to be “too much”? (Especially for grades 1-3)? Or too boring and their kids didn’t like it? I know sometimes people worry it is too little – but more experienced people with the modules say it is fine…. And as I tend to end up on the “too much” scale of things, I think that would be better, if you follow me… it would be better for my family to be doing something that seems like it might be “light” but isn’t.
So looking at the modules and what I know of them…
Module 1 – Ancient Egypt – has an OOP book that can be expensive (and isn’t in my library…) – I believe that Sonya said they have found a new resource and will be updating this module after done module 6. As we have just done a big of Ancient Egypt (which I admit my kids did enjoy) – I don’t think this is the Module for us…
Module 2 – Ancient Greece – I believe the one spine is available for free – Grades 1-3 don’t have a lot of books – there is an optional spine for them that I didn’t quickly find as free, but as it is optional we will probalby skip. I noticed another book in Term 1 that is in my library… so I could probably do this inexpensively. Module looks like it hasn’t been updated recently (just some differences in layout from the others I looked at….)
Module 3 – Ancient Rome – I haven’t looked at this one recently (as we did AO for some of last year we did a bit of things that touched on Roman History while doing the British History… ) – no real reason not to do it though.
Module 4 – Middle Ages – Reformation – Has a fair number of books (some of which I own) – could be interesting. One question for this module is the amount of Reformation stuff – not sure how much I want to do on that…..
Module 5 – Early US with World History at that time – Recently created! Resources for US History Seperated from World History, which is nice for me…. but I’ll need to figure out the Canadian History resources. (I do have some figured out… nothing that has jumped out at me as THE resource…) Need to buy the Spine as well as the Guide….
Module 6 – Later US and World History – in the process of being created… same notes as for Module 5….
I totally understand where your coming from. I have a tendency to overplan. I currently am using Truthquest, Beautiful Feet and SOTW at bed time (I know it sounds crazy, but it’s coming together nicely. We LOVE history!!)
Is is possible for you to work on a 4 or 5 year cycle (taking things out of the modules to go over at a later time so you could still cover things you would have missed in HS (does that make sense?) Just a thought.
I know how overwhelming following some curriculums can be. I still can’t figure out how AO and charlotte mason help get in as much reading as they do. SCM has always seemed so much more realistic to me. The literature in the other two kinda scares me, however I enjoy reading their articles. We really are blessed to have so many resources.
I hope this helps. I have gone over this for my family so many times that I thought I’d share my experience
Not sure about where to start…I plan for my oldest and it will work out ‘perfect’ with her finishing Amer. History in Gr. 12, but of course then it’s not ‘perfect’ for my younger:) I’m just choosing not to worry about it. I love us being on the same period, so it will have to be different ages for them covering different periods, and I’m o.k. with that as long as I’m providing age appropriate books at each level. The only thing I’ll likely do is some of the exceptional books that need maturity, like “How Should We Then Live,” I’ll want to make sure both kids get at an older age….so will add it in no matter what cycle we’re in.
What works for us is using Truthquest History guides. We read the commentary and a spine together….I just pick spiness that both kids can understand (currently from AO/here). I also assign independent history readers (mostly from here). I then pencil check them in my TQ guide and my kids read them in order from a schedule I set up at the beg. of the year. It takes a bit of planning, but is worth it to me for a custom plan each year that fits our family. HTH some:) Gina
I think you’ll like the SCM guides. I think having it all planned out will be a huge time-saver for you, plus I do think they include enough especially considering that your family spends a lot of time on other things, like violin practice.
I would say go with Module 2 Greece. The books look good and it seems as though you can get what you need inexpensively. You’ll be picking up where you left off from Egypt and you won’t need to spend the time right now gathering resources for Canadian history. Most of module one is about Genesis and Exodus. If you’ve pretty much covered that through church or your own Bible studies, I’d say you’re good with that time period for now.
Good luck! Its so hard to choose for history – there is so much good stuff out there! Becky
Have any of you ever considered skipping the spine and just reading literature, studying maps as locations are discussed at home/in the books, and keeping a book of the centuries? There seems to be quite enough in the curriculum guide to go on without having to over plan for at least a while just to get an idea of where you’d like to start. Maybe read the first book or a part of the first book at the beginning of each module to decide where you’d like to go over the next while.
Our family has even had times where we’ve studied history chronologically in reverse. Sort of a back in time approach. This allowed the ones that “missed” something to get back on track where we could all be on the same page in history. We had been doing 2 or 3 time periods by grade leveling every child which turned into a global nightmare for me. Coordinating one time is much better than 3, 4, or 5 historical periods in a large family.
When you recognize that you’ll read various books over several years from each of the modules, you can rest assured that you will have covered much more than you realize. I read on the AO site that CM changed the books every year in order to have everyone, including the teachers, learn something fresh. Maybe she didn’t over analyze the way we tend to do as moms. I know that fear of missing some imaginary goal can worry us into paralysis. But, I think it really can be as easy as reading good literature, discussing it, noting when and where things happened in the book and then moving on (forward or backward) through time. ;0)
Not sure this helps, but I hope it might,
Becca<><
Suzukimom,
I don’t know much about the history modules, as I haven’t used them yet, just the free curriculum guide. I just was wondering about your plan for Canadian History. Are you going to try to match the Canadian timeline with World History, so not doing any Canadian History until World History is further along? I think what we are going to do is spend the first couple of years just reading stories and getting familiar with some of the major events in Canadian History, not worrying yet where they fit in to the whole world history timeline. Then, as we get further in World History, we can start putting Canadian History in context. I just don’t want to wait several years before addressing Canadian History.
So far for Year 1, we have just done “Pioneer Story” and a few stories from “Great Canadian Lives,” and we are now reading “Eskimo Twins” I’m definitely still working on this one too!
Joanne
We have started by continent. We did Antartica, Autralia, and now we are on Africa. Then we decided to do Ancient Egypt first and started the timeline stuff there. I have picked up “Around the world in 180 day” and other books and We play the “out of Africa” game. It has taken me a little longer but When we hit Europe I think it will take even longer for that. I was going to do what I guess is Module 2 . Is that Genesis- Deuteronomy and Ancient Greece book? I think I will go with that one if I am correct. I think I will still work by continent also because I find it easier to group it together and learn geography more and suppliment some SCM into it up to module 4. I have been easing into SCM and this is how I have to do it from my end. I still like the continent thing and want to go with that plan. We still study some American History. I do more of a Unit Study in that area. This way they are having fun and we are learning a little bit about the U.S. We also play U.S Geography and history games. This way if something ever happens to me my kids they won’t seem totally ignorant to whomever may have to teach them. 🙂 A little bit of knowledge can go a long way! just thinking…..and planning…. 🙂
Thanks everyone – it is sounding like it may be a much better fit for my family. Yes, violin practice takes a LONG time around here with 3 kids practicing (I rarely practice anymore… really should try to get going on it again.) I have a new system for practice which seems to be taking longer, but with less whining/complaints and more results. Their violin teacher noticed.
Joanne, I do plan to put the Canadian History in the timeframe of World History. I did do a little bit of Canadian History previously with my son, when I was doing AO, but then decided that I’d do it more like SCM and put it in its time. So my son did do “Pioneer Story”, a little bit of “Great Canadian Lives”, and a bit of “The Story of Canada”, and “My First History of Canada” – one problem is I still haven’t really found a book for Canadian History that I like. Sigh
Here was my plan from spring of last year for history –
http://maplehillacademy.blogspot.com/2011/04/history-family-rotation.html
and here is my more detailed plan from when I was doing AO
http://maplehillacademy.blogspot.com/2011/02/canadian-history-plan-updated.html
and here is an example of what I would have been doing with my plan from last spring, for one of “my” modules..
http://maplehillacademy.blogspot.com/2011/05/history-rotation-2.html
So I’ll probably use resources I’ve already found (unless I can find a better spine out there) – but most of the resources I had originally found assumed a certain school level/age level based on the AO year we would be doing it.
We are doing SCM modules with a high school student. We didn’t read the main spine before but we read all of the younger kids literature in other programs. We finished Module 3 last fall and are now working in Module 4. I plan to go through Module 5 yet this year. We are just covering what we didn’t do before although we did reread Augustus Caesar’s World because it had been several years since I read it aloud. Christy read it herself this time.
We never used that out of print book and didn’t miss it at all. I found one History Channel DVD from Netflix that covered it just fine.
For K-3rd grade I feel that learning the 3Rs is the most important thing. Reading the Bible and reading some literature and looking at Geography should be enough. So you could do that in any module. Plus even if I was doing Ancient History I would still have my young children reading some easy Am History biographies. But if you’re not in the USA YMMV
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