whats the BEST history curriculum EVER?

[SweetCaroline]

in your opinion..for say 6-7th grade

:popcorn

[flowermama]

I haven't had much experience with curriculum, but my older son really likes the Story of the World books... http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/history-and-geography/story-of-the-world.html

[JJsMom]

We love Story if the World too. I bought the audiobooks on cd and my ds has listed to the first three volume at least 8 times! My 5yo dd are listening to it right now. :)

[littlemama]

We are enjoying Mystery of History.

Another good one is Tapestry of Grace. It's a bit more pricey but it includes A LOT. We used it for a while and just didn't use it all so we switched to MOH. When you read about TOG they are pretty up front that most people don't use every single part of their curriculum. In our case, we were just using the history lesson part and I just felt like I was wasting money when there was so much more to it that we weren't using.

SOTW is good but I wouldn't recommend it for those grades. They need more than just reading from the text and writing a narration. MOH and TOG both teach multi-level and have activities/lessons (from arts & crafts to research) for the upper grades.

[DavidKelleyMay18]

I think it varies from family to family and child to child. We kept trying "Story of the World" and my kids disliked it a lot. Right now we are just using "Living Books" which is working well.

Kelley

[Stonebeck Farm]

I personally do not think there is a "Best Curriculum." What one loves and other doesn't care for or find challenging. This is great place for you to decide what you are looking for from education--curriculum or unschooing,.. I know you have been exploring if unschooling is for your family. A lot depends on what you are looking for. How comfortable are you pulling things together from one place or another.

I would say there is not BEST curriculum but great books just waiting to be read.

We are doing SOTW and my oldest-almost 12 loves it. There is an activity book I have heard lots about that we do NOT use-- but it is much more than read and narrate. Many IRL families I know use SOTW with their older kids. My DS actually uses SOTW as a spine and then we add in lots of living books. We have a portfolio for Medieval history that he is working on. There is a thread from Sept about the portfolios. The portfolio book comes with a list of great books to read. We also use a book list that lists all the best living history books by time period.

:shrug3My best friend IRL used SOTW and MOH and said she and the kids definitly perfered SOTW as they love literature and not so much of the "teaching history" aspect. Her kids added good books about the time period in. Like mine, hers did not need any encouragemnt on activities. Her kids did do the activity book, but she found that with good living books, the kids just naturally did activities. Another family we are good friends with is in love with MOH and really liked it but they were more looking for a "structured curriculum". THey also wanted the Christian aspect in teh teaching materials.

My friend's kids went from SOTW into OMNIBUS-a very classical education. Her oldest started OMNIBUS in 8th and her daughter 7th started the on-line class this year.Her family loves OMNIBUS.

I love Beautiful Feet books also for book ideas of what to read. :heart I pursue the SONLIGHT lists to get book title ideas.

My daughter (9) uses HOD and I like the read-aloud selections for the older grades. I will mostly continue with this for her. She needs to see her whole year written out-- she wanted this curriculum. She likes the activities. I use some of the living books with DS.

[diamondintherough]

We use Sonlight which has SOTW as a resource. We have them on audio and my 8yo and 5yo listen to them at night. The CD's were pricey, but IMO they were worth it.

I will say that SOTW seems geared towards 6th-7th grade or under, but I have learned a lot just by listening.

If you want to use it as a stand-alone program, they do sell activity books and test booklets, too. http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=1168468&sp=1016&kw=story%20of%20the%20world&event=PPCSRC&p=1018818&cm_mmc=Google-_-Homeschool-_-story%20of%20the%20world-_-story%20of%20the%20world&gclid=CIi32q_Tla0CFcZM4AodzB1iQA

A friend of mine used the activity book and when they learned about ancient Egypt, they mummified a chicken! Needless to say, the kids have a very good understanding of the mummification process. Apparently, there are lots of activities to pick and choose from.

I've heard lots of good things about Mystery of History, too. IIRC, that one is geared for a little bit older than SOTW.

I don't agree with everything in SOTW, but I think it's a great program :yes

[SweetCaroline]

thankyou ladie for your answers..
im going to be witching from k12 next year...and going out on my own :nails

i want to offer my on an *aweome* history curr. since he's really into it.

he reads alot. the cool thing about k12 is that since its online, it offers many links to follow to suppliment the lessons. i guess we can still do that with a non-virtual schooling.

im nervous about switching..but excited too. i just want to make sure i can offer something thats going to really nuture what i know he already loves- so its an even better experience for him

[diamondintherough]

You can absolutely supplement. There's a ton of stuff out there online!

I am using CK-12.org for some of dd15yo's classes. Not sure how low (grade-wise) they go, but it's free and worth checking out. In the curriculum, they embed videos etc. I have not checked out their history, but we like the biology.