Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Sonlight and Mystery of History 3

Several people have asked for the book list I put together combining MOH 3 and Sonlight H (plus a few other books)...here it is at long last!  For those who have previously read how we combined SL with MOH 1 and 2, I updated that post with what we *actually* ended up doing with core G.  There were a few books at the end of my original listing that I saved for MOH 3 instead.

Below is what my 8th grade daughter is doing this year (and my 10th grade son is listening in to the read-alouds).  My son is using MOH for high school this year, by surprise--I'll put what he's doing in a separate post.

History Resources:
Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation
Famous Men of the 16th and 17th Centuries
Mothers of Famous Men
Ten Girls Who Made History

We continue to enjoy the Famous Men series, that has been a good addition here.

The first few read-alouds actually start from before the time period of MOH 3.  I worked in two new Sonlight G books as well as a core 200 book.  My son is studying MOH 2 and 3 this year, so I chose a few books that would correspond to the MOH 2 time period as well.  It's not an exact science, I realize, but it's been enjoyable!  These could easily be worked into the MOH 2 rotation instead if you wish.

Read-Alouds:
1 - King Arthur of the Round Table - 1-2 ch
2 - Hidden Treasure of Galston - 1171, 1 ch
5 - Ramsay Scallop - 1300's
9 - I, Juan de Pareja - 1600's, 2 ch (this one doesn't fit chronologically, but fits nicely with countries/culture)
11 - Murder for her Majesty - 1558 (Elizabeth is Queen), 1 ch.
14 - Shakespeare Stories, Hamlet - 36 Pages (prelude to Shakespeare Stealer)
14 - Shakespeare Stealer - 1587, 2 ch
16 - Tabitha's Travels (Advent Story)
18 - Shakespeare Stories, The Merchant of Venice (my kids request, there's an Adventure's in Odyssey story based on this I guess!)
19 - Pride and Prejudice (Core 200, just because I wanted to)
24 - Out of Many Waters - 1654, 2 ch
26 - Master Cornhill - 1665 (plague), 2 ch
28 - Escape Across the Wide Sea - 1686, 2 ch
30 - Ravenmaster's Secret - 1735, 2 ch
32 - Kidnapped Prince - 1755, 3 ch
34 - Arrow Over the Door - 1777, 2 ch
35 - The Westing Game - 1960's, 1-2 ch, just for fun

Alternates:
Jane Eyre 1800's, 2 ch
The Sherwood Ring - 1800's or 1900's, 10 days
Oliver Twist - 1800's, 1-2 ch (40 days
Robinson Crusoe
More Shakespeare Stories

Readers:
1 - Trumpeter of Krakow - 1400's, 20 pages
4 - Shadow of a Bull, 2 ch.
6 - Man Who Laid the Egg - 1500, 2 ch.
7 - Luther Biography - 1500, 1 ch
10 - Samurai's Tale - 1500's, 1-2 ch
14 - King's Fifth - 1541, 2 ch
18 - Mary, Bloody Mary - 1553, 2 ch
20 - Iron Peacock - 1650, 1 ch
25 - Ghost in Takaido Inn - 1735, 2 ch
28 - Madeleine Takes Command - 1692, 2 ch
31 - Stowaway - 1768, 2 ch
32 - Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde and other stories
34 - Free Reading

Alternates:
2/11 - Explorers' News
3 - Pedro's Journal
5 - Michaelangelo
13 - Good Queen Bess
16 - Shakespeare Stories
16 - Bard of Avon
28 - Peter the Great
Anne of Green Gables

Sometimes my kids will choose a book off the alternates list, or sometimes during the year they'll ask to read another book instead, so I try to work in a little wiggle room for that.

I let my dd pick and choose from the history activities once every week or two.  We do some of the quizzes and the semester and final exams from MOH as well.

I hope this helps!  The dating is just to get a rough idea--usually you can find this information on the back of a book or in the first few pages.  I try to guess how many chapters or pages we'll read, so again, these are guesses.  We're on week 19, and so far have held fairly close to this list.



9 comments:

  1. Oh Thank you Thank you Thank You! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Merry - what are the numbers in front of the books? And thanks for the book suggestions!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Jolanthe--You're welcome! The numbers are approximate week numbers of when I'd aim to start each book (1-36, for a 180 day/36 week year). If we take longer to read a book, then I know I might have to drop something--or if we take less time, I can add in an optional book. (Sonlight has a 1-page schedule where they list the books in order by week they are introduced, and I found that worked better for me than a daily schedule--and then I started making up my own 1-page sheet. The notation afterwards is my "guess" at how much I think we'll cover in a day's time.")

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you so much for posting. This is a huge help especially for someone like me (new to homeschooling) :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for this list. I combined Mystery of History 1 and 2 with Sonlight last year for our teen children. They both are such good history programs and I was thinking that someday, I would come up with a curriculum to share. Thank you. We RENT and sell Mystery of History and Sonlight on our Website https://www.yellowhousebookrental.com/ Come take a look. Our mission is to help the homeschool community save money with another option, renting!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello there!
    Did you combine mystery of history 4 with Sonlight? Considering doing this next year but extremely daunted by the idea of pulling it together on my own!
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Beth--I did, but not as much as other years. I wanted to add in British Lit, since my oldest had not done much of that, and it was his last year in high school. So, I combined with Sonlight for read-alouds (which you can see here: http://hopeforhomeschool.blogspot.com/2014/10/mystery-of-history-4-and-sonlight-for.html), but for readers I used LLATL Gold British Lit. I didn't love LLATL Gold though, and in retrospect wish I'd just pulled from Sonlight for that year too! It's really not too hard to combine with Sonlight once you try it. Maybe I'll write on that sometime! But the basics:

      1, decide which cores have books from the the history's time period (for MOH 4, that would be some of 200, all of 300 and most of H--I wouldn't pull from 100, I like to use US history as is---but you could pull from that too).

      2, decide which one most closely matches your student's age/abilities (For a high schooler, any could match--use 200 and 300 for more rigor, and an occasional H book for something lighter. For junior high, I'd select from just H.)

      3, Think about how many books you might like to use. I find 20-24 is good for us at this range (using about half for readers, half for read-alouds). I buy a few extras for changing my mind, or in case we get ahead--and I put extras on an optional list.

      4, then read book descriptions and see what sounds most interesting to you. Mark all that sound interesting, and then see if you have enough (quantity), if you like the variety of people/places covered, and so on. You may want to make a copy of the MOH 3 table of contents--see if you have a new book every few weeks or so. Some books might not match exactly--they might preview or review a topic--that's okay. Lit-based curricula don't have to be perfectly matching.

      5, you may want to ask about certain books on the Sonlight board, or read other threads about them.

      You really can't go wrong pulling from Sonlight--we enjoy almost all of the books and have kept many over the years. Wonderful company.

      One more option for you though--have you looked at Illuminations? They put books together with MOH, and lay it all out for you. I've not ever used it (though I've occasionally used a book they suggested)--but maybe you would like something already set up? It's put out by Bright Ideas Press, the publisher of Mystery of History.

      HTH some!

      Delete