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Troubles with liking history
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I am seriously considering TQ for next year. I had never looked into it before, and now that I have, I am intrigued. I finally ordered All Through the Ages and Child’s History of the World today. They’ll both be here by the beginning of next week, then I hope to get going on my history planning for next year. I don’t know if that will include SCM’s module 5 or not. Originally, that’s what I was going to use, since that’s what we have used in the past. But it’s just not generating the interest we need, especially if I compare our interests to Robin’s and Bookworm’s! That’s the kind of direction I want our history studies to take, but I haven’t been inspired by anything yet.
We love history! I follow the SCM history guide and use the spine that is recommended because it does fill in the gaps between books. I wasn’t crazy for some of them like the Roman one and I did skip some in there but this year using SCM Stories of the Nations/America has been awesome. Plus like someone else said we use movies and documentaries and field trips and projects to supplement our lessons. I have to say that I dont remember much of history from high school or college either but I sure am enjoying learning about it now. Historians learn and study history to learn from past mistakes; and while I don’t by any means consider myself a historian I still do enjoy reading all the great books.
The hardest part about TQ deciding which books to read! But my kids are just now beginning to read their books independently, so I read aloud our school books, and I want to read everything.
I tried truthquest last year and felt completely overwhelemed because I didn’t feel comfotable enough in my own knowledge of history to know what to read and what to skip over. It is a great list of books that is IMPOSSIBLE to complete.
So I had never heard of All Through the Ages. I am curious about it. Lindsey please let me know what you think. I like that it divides the era’s into subtopics the way it does. TQ does not do that. This looks like it has potential.
I have All Through the AGes and really enjoy it for the resource that it is. It truly is just a list of books divided into time periods and by age groups.
I will just confess: I am afraid to ditch the spines!!! We used Mod. 6 this year and totally LOVED the Stories of… spines. In years past we used Story of the World v. 1, 2, 3. Next year, we’re back to Story of the World v. 1. But, I think…..if I can work up the nerve, I’m going to eliminate the spine and pick books from Mod. 1, 2, 3 book lists, All through the Ages, and just use the SotW activity books for the maps and ocassional activities. That’s my hope.
I have TQ and ATTA and both completely overwhelm me. We’ll be using two different SCM modules with ideas added in from all of the guides plus charlotte mason help.
ETA: Luckily there are guides for us who need them and gigantic lists for those who don’t
Bookworm, may I ask how many books from Truth Quest do you incorporate with the SCM modules? Do you cut books out from the module and replace them with TQ choices? Or just use TQ as choices for their readers? Can you give some more details? Thanks!
Christie bumped a post about combining truthquest with SCM. There are some great points in it and a letter truthquest author regarding spines. Check it out. So thankful for all you ladies.
Amy
Marmiemama, we’d already been homeschooling for some time when the modules were published. SCM does a great job with them! But I kind of already had my own stuff I liked. I use a general SCM framework, use TQ to flesh out our history (amyjane, my guides are divided into LOTS of subtopics?) and add in some stuff from AO that we wanted to keep. Plus then we occasionally wing off on our own somewhere. Like my two oldest wanted to do American history in high school from a freedom/liberty perspective.
I don’t think spines are necessary though we like them to keep everyone on the same track. For Ancient Greece I liked Tappsn’s book, for the Middle Ages and America, Marshall’s books. Here is a post I did on spines if you are interested:
http://lettersfromnebby.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/history-spine-books/.com/2013
Nebby
Amazing how many of us have been contemplating history changes for next year!
I was thinking of moving to TQ next year (the American history for elementary), but my eldest has read many books/biographies of America during the past 2 years, and I really feel like an overview of history in general would help her put information into perspective. This week I pulled out my copy of A Child’s History of the World and read Hillyer’s introduction. There was a lot of good information for the teacher right there in the intro, but this thought struck a chord with me, “The object is to sketch the whole picture in outline, leaving the details to be gradually filled in by later study, as th artist sketches the general scheme of his picture before filling in the details.”. I’m thinking still, no set plans, but I may use CHOW next year for my 4th grader’s main history book, coupled with some interesting bios. In fact, we may take it slowly over two years. I don’t know. I think that the TQ guides for the upper grades would be a great way to “fill in the details” afterward and provide lots of interesting ideas for the remainder of her school years. When Robin P and Bookworm recommend a resource, I know it is worth pursuing! 🙂
🙂 Well, please don’t do anything based on any recommendation I give. As Bookworm said, I had been homeschooling years before the SCM guides were released. When my oldest, now 23, was entering 5th grade, I was searching for a history guide that gave me a particular focus. I wasn’t interested in people and dates per se. I was interested in hearts. WHY did things happen in history the way they did and what can we learn from it for our own future. There is nothing new under the sun and studying history from this perspective is critical in our world today. In our studies we were struck over and over at how many civilizations paralleled what our nation is facing. I was overjoyed when I found TQ. It had just been released. I think I was one of the first purchasers of it. 🙂 (As a fun side note, after I placed my order all those years ago, I got an email from Michelle Miller saying she noticed that the two of us were going to be at an event coming up. Would I like for her to bring my guides to save me shipping. 🙂 It was at that gathering that she urged me to open a library as we talked about books and my then relatively small collection. And here we are.)
I will be the first to admit that TQ can look overwhelming. And I will admit that my library patrons have it easier than most because they have me to assure them it is OK to skip sections and and help them choose books. But I did it for years without that. You just have to trust that the Holy Spirit is not only the Teacher of your children, He is the Teacher of YOU and He will lead you in choosing the best topics and books. (I even SKIPPED the Civil War with my younger boys a year or so ago!!! We were doing the American History for Young Students guide. They were only 8 and 9 and we only read If You Were There at the Civil War. That’s IT. I told them the issues were complex and we would cover it in high school when they could grapple with those issues. See…I’m really a rebel at heart…no pun intended.)
So pray for wisdom and trust that God will grant it to you. No guide can give you everything. Use it as a tool but ask God to do the building with it.
Amy, you can download free samples, table of contents, and recommended reading from TQ’s guides. And, I may be wrong, but I’m thinking you can go as in-depth or stay as shallow as you like on what you study. (ie. Robin mentioned the Civil War.)
The other thread about combining TQ w/ SCM has also been extremely helpful to me, and that is the direction I’m leaning toward. I like the layout of the SCM module guides, but I much prefer the commentary and additional reading from TQ.
Maybe I should be posting this on the other thread…
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