History

We use history as the "spine" for much of the rest of our curriculum.  I loosely correspond history with the breakdown of great books within a time period.  Originally I used the time periods as designated by Susan Wise Bauer.  The last couple of years I've been using RC History's time periods which emphasize Christ and the early church.  

I started with the oldest child in the Ancients and 'fold' the other kids into history as they hit first grade, just adding them into our studies where ever we are in history.  Example : daughter #2 joined us in history class when she was in 2nd grade (she wasn't really ready before then), so she joined us in Year 4.

I bought RC History "Connecting with History" to use with my middle school kid and fleshed it out for a few months. I was VERY concerned about how much teacher work the program would be, but the Catholic part of it was sooo attractive.  I spend lots of time in the outline to really feel like I had a grasp on it (I guess I'm a slow grasper), now I think the ease of use will be comparable to using SOTW if you got a bunch of the corresponding literature and did many of the activities in the AG (which is how my children prefer to do school).

I'm planning on using the 2nd volume of "Connecting with History" next year alongside SOTW 2.

All Ye Lands by Catholic Texbook Project - It's not chronological, but based roughly on continent following the people through time, roughly one chapter per continent.
I did this, but it doesn't completely address the Catholic/protestant
issues completely enough for me to wrap my mind around the issues and
answer some of my kids' penetrating questions (why would the Pope send
his people to kill people in a crusade when Jesus says...)  So I had to look these answers up myself from sources I trusted.  See the article links listed below.

I did try & use Sr. Mary Celeste's The Old World's Gifts To The New by Neumann Press. It did NOT work for my elementary kids, but is great for the middleschoolers.  I haven't found anything non-Catholic in SOTW 1 (since the Catholic church didn't exist, yet, and Susan Wise Bauer is very Christian).

I've also encountered some Catholic bias in SOTW 2 that I've corrected by informing myself of what the Catholic church says about a particular period in history.  The yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/catholicwelltrainedminds is great for that.

We use SOTW in the 1st - 4th grades. Many of their friends are protestant and I want my dc to understand what their friends are taught and why, so they can come to the table of theology with a depth of understanding and a deep love and respect for Christ in others.  I ABSOLUTELY want my children to have a deep love for and understanding of their Catholic faith. We use much of what we don't agree with in SOTW as discussion points and it has been WONDERFUL for me to learn for the first time what the church really says about much of these historical events.  These are some of the articles I've used to educate myself on "hot" topics in history.

I look up articles using key words ("Bloody Mary" from Volume 2, chapter 38):

* http://www.catholiceducation.org
* http://www.catholic.com/ 
* http://www.cin.org 
* http://www.catholicexchange.com
* http://www.newadvent.com/ (this is pretty heavy reading)

When I find an appropriate article, I print it out and keep it with my Activity Guide at that chapter in that volume, so I don't have to re-do everything for the next kid to come through.

SOTW Volume 2 

chapter 18

The Fathers on the Crusades -
http://www.catholicexchange.com/clibrary//document.asp?category_id=165&d\
ocument_id=2123


chapter 28

The Inquisition - http://www.catholic.com/library/inquisition.asp

chapters 34 - 36

Luther & the Reformation are placed in a much more positive light than the Catholic Church says, and SOTW 2 brings them up, A LOT! (I also recall that she may say changes in the Catholic Church were "caused" by the Reformation, which isn't true)
ago) http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0099.html
has an EXCELLENT article putting things in perspective.

chapter 37 Galileo
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0005.html

There may be others, these are the ones I caught - each time the word "Catholic" comes up, I open my eyes to see what is written. I'm not vigilant about catching errors - there's only so much the elementary kids are going to retain about all of world history - my goal with my kids isn't to make them think that all of history is against the Catholic church, but to love history and see the ebb & flow of God working throughout history.