| Author | |
Jenny
Forum Pro
Joined: Dec 20 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 489
|
| Posted: May 08 2006 at 10:36pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
Does anyone have any experience with this?
__________________
Jenny
Chris' wife and momma of 7. My blog: The Littlest Way--Bible Journaling, Inspiring Bible Quotes, Daily Affirmations, Prayer Journaling & photography
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
alicegunther
Forum All-Star
Joined: Jan 28 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1992
|
| Posted: May 08 2006 at 10:59pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Yes, Jenny, and I would recommend it highly. I know I have written about RC History before and will need to find you a detailed response from the archives!
__________________
Love, Alice
mother of seven!
      
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Jenny
Forum Pro
Joined: Dec 20 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 489
|
| Posted: May 08 2006 at 11:10pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thank you Alice. I typed RC History for a search & came up with 74 hits! Too many to sort through late at night 
__________________
Jenny
Chris' wife and momma of 7. My blog: The Littlest Way--Bible Journaling, Inspiring Bible Quotes, Daily Affirmations, Prayer Journaling & photography
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
ALmom
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 18 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3299
|
| Posted: May 16 2006 at 12:26am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I did find the sight - linked from the discussion on the Faith forum under Bible study.
I have not personally used it, but so far everyone I've asked who has has really liked it. I'll get to see a local mom's copy on Saturday. I am very, very drawn to it for use with our dc (6 yo, 9 yo, 12 yo and 14 yo). I'll be interested in seeing if anyone here has any cautions besides that it is expensive. So far people (on this board and also locally) have all said it has been well - worth the price. It has come up in the Faith Forum under Bible study, and in the History forum under ALL Ye Lands. Hope this helps.
Janet
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
cvbmom
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 15 2005
Location: Ohio
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 930
|
| Posted: March 30 2007 at 1:43pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I am bumping up this thread because I would like to know more about RC History but can't find it when I search the archives. Could anyone tell me more about this program (is it good/worth it/too mom-intense/etc.) or send the direct link to the place where it was discussed before?
Thanks!
Christine
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Lisa R
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 29 2005
Location: Ohio
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 789
|
| Posted: March 30 2007 at 3:20pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Does anyone know if the next two volumes are in the works or on time for publication?
__________________
God Bless!
Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
ALmom
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 18 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3299
|
| Posted: March 30 2007 at 3:21pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I have used RC History now, and love it. As with anything, you must use your discretion in terms of books appropriate for the age. I have the first part and do it mostly with my highschooler (I bought books from all 3 levels so if you have specific questions about any of the books, ask and I'll try to give a summary of what we found) - but have used bits and pieces for all of mine. My dd found some things in the high school Bible study that she had some disagreements with - but we have the same material covered through Kolbe so we have substituted freely between them and simply do not use the one author here (I think there are 2 books by this author in the high school level) and use Laux and Kolbe plans instead. There are some books in the upper middle school that I am not yet ready for my son to read, but there's plenty of room for following your own trail too. It would be easy to substitute books from other lists or simply do a Bible history at the younger grades.
Also for anyone who is interested, I am doing RC History for my high school history even though my dd is enrolled with Kolbe. I have seen a great overlap in books read and have sometimes used Kolbe paper topic ideas and sometimes Rc history ideas - often giving my dd the choice. I like the sequential aspect, the suggestions for living books (fiction and non-fiction) and the Salvation history. We supplement easily with a lot of our own resources. I have had Kolbe evaluators evaluate papers from their own paper topics - and also from RC History topics.
I tend to be very free wheeling and picky in history and have tended to have complaints with most everything else we've done with history. Textbooks are too biased, dry and while giving a quick timeline sequence, they are more likely to turn people off than help and because there isn't enough detail and no documentation you cannot verify claims. Since history is always biased in some way, textbooks are very, very limiting - though we have many and do refer to them from time to time.
I loved Kolbe's original sources but was frustrated by lack of context. It is great to read Herodotus - but a western mind will find it impossible to pull out a sequence from that that will help them place events in context and many things will be shocking and alien since he was, after all, from a pagan society. Reading him, they'll never have to read and memorize the line that the father of History was Herodotus and Greeks have a non-linear view of history. This will be obvious from reading him. They will also see in some degree the values and beliefs of a pagan culture and it won't be either demonized entirely nor will it be glorified entirely - you'll get a pretty first hand view and bring your own judgement to bear on where they got things right and where they really went off the deep end.
I was very impressed by Kolbe immersing them in original sources and asking leading questions to bring them to make historical and moral judgements. However, history is also about time and sequence and I found that aspect very lacking in Kolbe plans. I needed someone to also help the children make connections between events - the way that ancient Greek and Rome and Israel each in varying degrees were used by God to prepare the way for the Savior's coming and how ideas and events from one time and place influence another. Kolbe, imo, didn't do a great job with this, at least not in the high school years.
I also wanted some historical novels to help make things come alive and help children bring their imagination to their study as a means of drawing them in but hate a history based mostly on historical fiction (the child has to be able to distinguish history from fantasy and logical deduction in these and my MODG syllabus relied exclusively on fiction).
I have found RC history to be a beatiful blending of all of these things that I think make up a good study of history. There are ideas for all kinds of ways to demonstrate or make the information your own - hands on projects, paper topics, map work, etc.) and it is so natural for the child to then pursue interests in specific areas and do some independent research. There are plenty of ways to let the child run with ideas and find their own way to grapple with them and present conclusions to others. This is really what historians do and I found it a wonderful history coming from the Catholic worldview (something also important to me since I know this happens to be the truth which is what we are after)
Some books were important for my dd and I to discuss together, others she did much of them on her own. I think this would be true of anything you use. I really, really like RC history.
Hope this helps.
Janet
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
ktgin
Forum Newbie
Joined: May 25 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5
|
| Posted: May 31 2007 at 2:15pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Janet,
Are you familiar with World Views? I'm wondering if RCHistory is similar to that...where they learn history and read great novels. Is is all History with RC or do the novels they have one read work for Grammar and Literature?
JMJ,
Katie
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
ALmom
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 18 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3299
|
| Posted: June 01 2007 at 11:30am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Katie:
I know nothing about World Views, so I cannot answer your question there. However, RC History is a blending of theology, history and literature and utilizes many study guides from Hillside Education. There aren't any specific grammar notes that come with the program so you might want something seperate for that. At the high school level, we have done additional literature - reading the Iliad and Odyssey with Kolbe but Perelandra with RC History. Plato and Aristotle are read in both Kolbe and RC History as is Herodotus and Thucyides.
Volume 1 is a good Bible History and incorporates history of ancient civilizations. We have found ourselves continually making connections between the Bible History and the secular history and this is my favorite aspect of the program. We supplemented with some of our own texts in the time period (from Roman Catholic books - reprints of old Catholic high school texts, one that covers Ancient Israel and one that covers Ancient History in general). We used these as references for independent research and to verify what we thought something else was saying. Vol 2 is supposed to come out this summer and there are some parts of it on the web now.
You can go to RChistory and look at the book lists to get an idea. They break the books down into various levels. A lot depends on the age of the children and how self-directing they are in history. My highschooler who loves history and likes to do it her way, is great with this program and pretty much self-directed. My science fan (10 yo) that doesn't like history a lot - well then the program is a bit more mom intensive. My 6th grader who won't write much, finds the reading great and has read a lot of the books but doesn't end up with a lot of documentation so I end up modifying how we do history with these - a bit more open ended for now and a lot less sequential than I'd like, but I do make him do a timeline from what he is reading. I have some books that I wouldn't be keen on the 10 yo reading so we focused mostly on Bible History with him. The program does require some digging to get the finer details but the questions generally force you to find this out yourself - so there is guidance but sometimes not sufficient detail in the texts that come with the program. Expect to use this as a jump off point and dig more deeply.
I'm not an Usborne fan but the Usborne book they use is not bad - it is typically busy with pictures and every once in a while you have to help your child realize that a civilization mentioned here evolves into one that comes up later - or this civilization is conquered or completely swallowed up by this other one. (I suspect this is just one of the difficulties of ancient civilization study and not peculiar to the text. It is fun for the children to suddenly have that lightbulb moment and recognize this as they are trying to answer a question with the program).
Also, I must caveat my review with the fact that I love history so it is one subject I wish I could spend all day on. This may make this kind of program easier for me to use - and one I like. I really have generally despised every history we have used up to this point. I still tweak even RC History. I did not have much of a background on Ancient civilizations - mine is mostly modern history - particularly WWII, rise of communism and beyond so I don't think I had any particular advantage in knowing the details, though I must admit that my favorite thing throughout school was research papers so this really fits my style .
Hope this helps some. Janet
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Erin
Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5814
|
| Posted: June 02 2007 at 11:56pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Janet
Thank you for your review, as always most helpful. I know you are picky with history now the question for me is are you more or less picky than I am I also am forever 'cutting and pasting'
Another question, does RC relie heavily on American history or does it have more of a worldview?
ALmom wrote:
I have found RC history to be a beatiful blending of all of these things that I think make up a good study of history. There are ideas for all kinds of ways to demonstrate or make the information your own - hands on projects, paper topics, map work, etc.) and it is so natural for the child to then pursue interests in specific areas and do some independent research. There are plenty of ways to let the child run with ideas and find their own way to grapple with them and present conclusions to others. This is really what historians do and I found it a wonderful history coming from the Catholic worldview (something also important to me since I know this happens to be the truth which is what we are after)
|
|
|
This is very very interesting as my dc respond well if a hands on componenent is involved.
__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
ALmom
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 18 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3299
|
| Posted: June 03 2007 at 1:33am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Well, Erin, as far as I know they don't have a volume out on U.S. History yet. We've done ancient so far and about to dig into early church history and middle ages so I don't think these volumes would be different for you or us. I don't know but have found the owner/author to be quite willing to respond to questions. Perhaps you could go on the site and peruse and then e-mail her your questions about what is planned. I'd be interested in what you thought about what you see.
You can probably tell that I still do make this my own - we use lots of additional resources, I substitute the Fr. Laux books for some of their Bible History books (seems more reliable theologically, to me - nothing really major just a few sentences in a few RC books that made us wonder). I freely blend Kolbe and RC history plus kids use a lot of what I have on hand to do the research (including ABCs of Christian Culture and the Roman Catholic textbooks I mentioned). My role is to mainly pull off the shelves everything that is relevant, point out to dd where she might find some more useful information, putting it all conviently in the shelf by dd desk and then let her run with that and the rc materials. I do recommend getting some of the earlier books even if you only are working with an older child - our oldest at home used reading materials from all levels.
My absolute favorite thing that came out of this was the integration of secular and religious history - they do relate and really cannot be fully understood as seperate entities. I did also like the things my dd came up with. - Besides the barbie that was turned into a mummy, she made a very elaborate, color coded timeline -(different color for each civilization) - but both of these were basically dd idea (stimulated from some of the other info and suggestions). It really helped us keep track of things and which civilizations interacted with which, which were overtaken, and which became which other ones later. I probably should take a digital photo and somehow put it on the boards - but I'm computer challenged so this may wait.
Janet
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
teachingmyown
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 20 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5128
|
| Posted: June 18 2007 at 8:04pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I am wondering about using this with younger kids, or if it really something to save until high school?
I can't get a real good feel for it from their website. A friend did send me a few pages of the lesson plans to look at, but I am still up in the air. My oldest at home is 11, she will be in 6th grade. The others are in 4th, 2nd and 1st. Am I better off sticking with Sonlight and just working Catholic titles into it?
Another consideration- how easy are the titles recommended to get, and how costly does it end up being if I buy all of the books?
Thanks!
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mackfam
Board Moderator
Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 14656
|
| Posted: June 18 2007 at 9:02pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Molly,
I used RC History starting with a 3rd grader. There are certainly books available for younger students. We used Fr. Lovasik's children's Bible which would be appropriate for all your younger ages.
My 3rd grader was a good reader, and we found lots to do and read with the program. I LOVE RC History because it teaches chronologically through living books. I think if you use their book recommendations along with some supplementing from Reading Your Way Through History (a Catholic site by the way) you'd be fine using the program with all of your age groups. There is certainly more to be done with older students simply because they have a better understanding of time, and better writing skills. So, if you order the program, you're really just getting a guide that holds your hand through the centuries. I did find the guide helpful for me - it gave me a more well-rounded view of history which allowed for a very organic conversation with my kids. Then we just did some timeline work, reading, narrations, back to the timeline for review and then we would discuss a new "chunk" of time. The program is heavily influenced by Scott Hahn's "Salvation History" and Jeff Cavin's program "The Great Adventure." Both are essential to offer a contextual perspective through history. If you are familiar with those programs then you know the "flavor" of RC History.
Ordering all of the books recommended can be costly. If you start now though and make a good list to carry in your purse, used book stores can offer lots from either of these history reading lists. I purchased most of mine new, from Amazon mostly, knowing they would be used again with my other children. I don't remember my total though - sorry. It was well into the hundreds I'm pretty sure.
HTH.
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Ok, RC History?
