Yesterday we finished up our final lesson in our Heart of Dakota curriculum. We started this in August of 2016 and after 35 weeks of lessons, we are finally done! We studied the program entitled "From Creation to Christ." I picked this curriculum at the time because I needed something easy with Micah, but now that he is older and more manageable, I am going to move to something more challenging. This curriculum was also geared towards 4th-6th graders with an extension pack (nine extra readers) for the older kids, which I thought would work well, but really didn't (in my opinion) Megan was not really challenged when it came to daily work and even though she was supposed to read the nine extra books, she really didn't.
The girls (and I) learned a lot, but I am not going on with the next program in Heart of Dakota curriculum. I need to find something more challenging for both girls! Courtney actually told me today that she wanted to do the next program because HOD is "really easy." I don't want "easy" for my kids! Another reason I am switching it because it is too expensive. I got this program at a pretty good cost (for used), but I can't seem to find the next program at a reasonable price. HOD is still pretty new, and there is not a huge used market for it yet. The notebooks for the next program are also $40 a piece (plus $10 shipping), so I would spend about $90 just on two notebooks! Too much for me!
To take the place of this program, we are switching to a book entitled "Mystery of History, book 2."
This book is going to pick up where we left after Christ's resurrection and take us through the Middle Ages. I like this book because even though there is a reading section for each chapter, the author also gives extended activities for younger kids, middle school kids, and older kids. This activities range from acting out a play to researching something you learned about. I am going to be able to challenge Megan quite a bit and stretch her knowledge! There are also tests and other quizzes throughout the book. I actually bought a copy for Megan and a copy for Courtney. I told Megan that she gets to write all throughout her book and do whatever she wants. I really want her to do it independently because she will be a 9th grader next year. I still haven't decided how I am going to approach it with Courtney. I told her she could do it on her own and I would expect less from her, but she kind of wants me to read it to her. I don't mind doing this because then Christian will hear the info too! I guess we will just start it and see how things work out.
In addition to using this book, we are going to pick up Sonlight Core G and start about week 18. I am going to use the read-alouds and readers from this program to go alongside Mystery of History. Sonlight uses a different history book for their program, but I don't really like it. It is written towards a younger age group and I need something more challenging. :) So I am replacing their book with MOH!
I think this is a great plan! There are four volumes altogether of Mystery of History, and we are starting in volume 2. I would really like Megan to get through volumes 3 and 4, but I also know she only has four years of high school. She will need a year of American history and a year of government, so we will need to see how this will all work out! She loves history, so maybe she can double up a few years. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment