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Together or Separate History?
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I love AO and HUFI and have used them in a modified way for years. But I have also done other curriculums – such as SCM- that have us doing history/bible/geo. together and we love that too! Ugh! I can’t decide. Is there a way to do both? Preferably without losing my mind!!!I like the togetherness of history topics shared, but I am so impressed with what my children learn and read on their own using AO/HUFI. I have four children from (next year) 10th – 1st grade. I know I can combine them in a module and it will be great, but I don’t want them to lose the amazing things that come from doing AO chronologically. Does this make any sense?
I echo your sentiments exactly! I’ve tried all of the above too! I love learning about the same time period together, but it can be a bit challenging with a spread of ages ( mine will be 3rd – 8th next year ). At this point I’m planning to follow AO again next year for history, but I’ll be waiting along with you for any ideas anyone has for combining the different curriculums. 🙂
I’ve realized that my children actually work better when they have their own “things” to study. So they do their own history, science, math, LA, etc. mine are close in ages. And while they love being together and playing together, sometimes it just helps to be separated for school. There is less competition and trust me, they get plenty of that! When they are combined, it just makes for too much competition. Now each child can shine! next year we are going to do Bible study and memory work (bible verses and poetry) together. Also a state study. Should be fine. And I’ve noticed that since I un-combined them, our school day is actually much shorter!
I agree about the shorter day in some ways. It is certainly less work for me if they are each in their own year of AO. But we actually like working together on history, etc..
What about picking a module that coincides time wise with some of their AO years and doing the module together in the morning for a bit and then letting them loose with their AO – which I would lighten up a bit if I were adding module readings?
What about maybe reading and discussing Truthquest commentary for together time with them keeping up their AO schedule? I think it would be challenging to mesh AO and SCM with kids in different levels of AO (but not impossible:) Or all kids could do the same SCM module with you deciding how much together time and how much independent time. Hope you find a good fit:) Gina
@Linda ~ Your post really resonated with me as I try desperately to decide how to proceed next year. My girls are 20 months apart and we’ve always done everything together, but I am beginning to see the merit in all that you’ve said. May I ask how you schedule your day? You said it is actually shorter. What are the ages of your children? Are you still reading aloud to them or are they doing their own thing? If you are still doing the bulk of the reading, do you do all of school with one and then do all of school with the other or do you bounce back and forth? When do you schedule family subjects like picture study, composer study, poetry, Shakespeare, literature (or do you do thosea as a family?)? One per day or all on the same day? Any insight would be much appreciated. 🙂
Thanks,
Melissa
We prefer together (next fall I’ll have eight children grades 7th down to newborn) with an element of separate. How’s that for confusing? It really isn’t though. We follow SCM’s idea of having everyone in the same time period with a family read aloud but then each child/age group has individual titles on their level to read as well. So we will read Mara Pratt’s American History Stories as our spine next fall and then my 7th grader has a list of chapter books to read ( a few are: The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Amos Fortune Free Man, and Johnny Tremain) while I’ll read other chapter books to my 1st-2rd grade crowd (a few are: The Sign of the Beaver, The Matchlock Gun, and Toliver’s Secret).
momto2blessings- I have thought about truthquest. I will look at it more closely next month at convention. Thanks for the advice.
Tristan- I have done just as you have described many times and it has always gone well.In fact, I sort of miss it. But, I do like very much the achievements of my high schooler this year using only AO. I have thought of keeping everyone else in the same year of history using SCM module and letting him continue in AO. I don’t think he’d feel too left out. He is quite the history buff anyway and won’t be missing anything he doesn’t already have some knowledge of. He could write his own history curriculum I think. Anyway, he would be able to hear the read alouds with us as a family. Then when each subsequent child reaches high school age they could go on to AO only and I would just continue SCM chronologically with remaining children until they have all gone on to AO. Just thinking aloud!
I think letting the high school students go off on their own can be a good compromise. Especially since that is when you have to keep records for graduation requirements and such. You can still be there to discuss readings, but you don’t need to monitor them quite so much.
That’s what we are doing for the rest of this school year (what eawerner mentioned)….my oldest is doing a lot of what we were doing together independently. Next year, it will be even more so, with him anyway. My younger two do well with most things together with some obvious exceptions. I have a lot to finish planning for this year since our change and feel like I’m a bit “out of sorts” but I just need a good plan, then it will be fine. Now that I know that this is a better fit for my oldest, I’m going to plan an even more independent year for him for 9th grade.
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