I'm making a chart comparing how a few non-classical programs approach their history eras by rough grade level. Why non-classical? Well because the classical cycle is a fairly standard 4-year rotation.
I did this to help me visualize other approaches. For instance, Heart of Dakota does two big sweeps of history, and they do American history early on. My Father's World has a year of cultural studies and geography before they get into a history cycle. Each program listed has differences (of course).
I sorta color-coded eras but it's not perfect (but let me know if there's a mistake). The programs break up time periods differently. Within the chart currently are My Father's World, Heart of Dakota, Sonlight, Simply Charlotte Mason, and Ambleside Online.
I did:
- light red: ancients
- blue: US history/modern
- green: more of a cultural/geographical approach vs. strict historical period
- yellow: middle ages
- purple: sweep of everything, or a really broad period of history tackled in a year
I linked to the scope & sequence or page that I grabbed the info from, below each column.
(shown as an image but the link to the chart is here)
Important to note:
With Heart of Dakota, I called their "Little Hearts for His Glory" program their kindergarten program, but you can do that for 1st (they say ages 5-7).
With Sonlight, the grade levels mentioned are minimums. Many people use P4/5 as their kindergarten, and do Core A with an older kid and so on. Also, they have years where they do a B+C combo, or a C+D combo if you wanted to hit that content in one year instead of two.
I stopped at roughly 8th grade rather than compare it all the way through 12th.
I am really not sure how to group some of Ambleside's. May need some revisions.
P.S. I don't like Ambleside's approach at all, nor SCM's. OK Actually, after reading more about SCM's approach and actually downloading a sample (instead of just looking at the page where they describe the materials used) I think I do like it a little more. The 6-year cycle is kind of throwing me but I need to look into it more. Some people say the 4-year is too short. My main concern is I don't want to wait thaaat long to get to American lit, but perhaps there is an easy workaround.
P.P.S. I actually have been unaware of the Sonlight drama that went down like a year ago. Maybe it's ongoing. I dunno. Apparently Sonlight has made a bunch of changes to cores and people are mad. For me, Sonlight isn't a good fit (I identify with several of the "reason's not to buy this program" that they have on their site). But I just wanted to include how they do their progression...which apparently has changed and it's not a set in stone thing. So. Ok then.
P.P.P.S: I was woken up a lot last night. And each time I was thinking about some history-related thing. Apparently I'm dreaming about this and a baby is interrupting me.
P.P.S. I actually have been unaware of the Sonlight drama that went down like a year ago. Maybe it's ongoing. I dunno. Apparently Sonlight has made a bunch of changes to cores and people are mad. For me, Sonlight isn't a good fit (I identify with several of the "reason's not to buy this program" that they have on their site). But I just wanted to include how they do their progression...which apparently has changed and it's not a set in stone thing. So. Ok then.
P.P.P.S: I was woken up a lot last night. And each time I was thinking about some history-related thing. Apparently I'm dreaming about this and a baby is interrupting me.
Are there other programs I should include here? Should I throw in classical programs? Any color-coding errors I should fix?
LOL. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has restless sleep and dreams when I'm over-analyzing curriculum. This was a really helpful way to compare the programs, I thought. I think it totally makes sense to omit classical from this comparison, fwiw, as they all do a chronological look, and really it's just a matter of comparing whether it takes 3, 4, or 5 years for them to do it before repeating. Not worth complicating the graphic :-).
ReplyDeleteAs for other programs. . . what does FIAR do? I know FIAR is lit-based, like Sonlight, but really don't know many ins-and-outs of it.
I will be writing about FIAR here soon! We are "rowing" our first book this week because why not?
ReplyDeleteSo there is no progression with the FIAR stories or volumes. I could choose a book from vol 1. this week, one from vol 3. the next and it would not matter. Also, I can bounce around the volume based on book availability at the library/etc.
You *could* coordinate it somewhat if you wanted to group books by geography or rough time period, but I think part of the method of FIAR is to let topics and info sort of simmer in a child's brain.
Like for instance: we can row Madeline and do some activities/learn some things about France, and a few months later read another title (something about giraffes, I forget) which is also set in France. And we'll say oh hey this is in France, just like Madeline. Remember that? And sorta build on that.
I think.
So not chronological order. Not geographic-based. That might make your classically minded brain ache, hehe!
Anyway yeah I will write more about how we are doing FIAR soon.
Also now on my radar is TruthQuest and again the Simply Charlotte Mason history modules.
Whew my head is spinning!!
ReplyDeleteI think we're alike here! I love making comparison charts. A couple classical ones that aren't 4 year cycles you might look at to compare would be Logos Press, Easy Classical, and Veritas Press. Another Charlotte Mason to compare is Living Books Curriculum.
ReplyDelete