How are you using the Oxford World in Ancient times?

[Jyniffrec]

I just received my first volume in the mail today (The Ancient Chinese World). As I am looking through it I am thinking that a chapter a day would work, making the Ancient China study about 3 weeks. Does this sound about right for Logic Stage ancients studies?

[Arch at Home]

We started out with a chapter a day but have settled into 2 chapters a week. My daughter outlines each chapter, makes a timeline entry, and writes a 3 paragraph paper each Friday on a topic from the readings which she researches in more depth. Though DD could be doing more, I could not keep up. It is not necessary to do all of the books to get a good sense of ancient history. I do recommend doing the Prehistoric book. I am also holding off on the Americas book as I am going to use it as a bridge to Medieval.

[Jyniffrec]

I wondered partly because doing a chapter a day in the China books puts us into 5 weeks on China. I don't mind because I wanted to spend more time on some of the ancient cultures we are less familiar with and I have found lots of novels for her to read. I will have to consider how long I really want to devote to each section.

 

I will pick up the Prehistoric book - thank you! I wanted to spend some time on that as well. My daughter is very excited about that section. :001_smile:

[redsquirrel]

my son really enjoyed the prehistoric book but know they are prob VERY out of date these days. I suspect that is why I got it so cheaply. I told him that there have been lots of developments since the books were written and called it good, lol.

 

I don't use every Oxford book or I would never get through the period in a school year. I don't use SOTW with my older child but with younger brother. I try to have them match up as much as possible. That way, ds1 can chime in, participate in activities etc.

 

He adores mythology and wanted to go much deeper so we are running a parallel 'mythology' unit along with the history. We did 8 weeks on egyptian mythology. He read the Green book and a bunch of others, as well as some biographies. I got the Oxford book about Egypt and he read through that, doing narration and outlines when asked. He also did narrations of the myths etc. We are currently reading our way through some Old Testement stories and will do the same thing with Greece and Rome.

 

All of that is seperate from history and only due to his love of mythology. For our actual history I use a combo of "The Kingfisher Book of Ancient times" and "Human Odyssey'. I used the Oxford prehistoric book as the reading in the first week or two because Human Odyssey didn't have anything.

[Jyniffrec]

redsquirrel, did you find that the Egypt book had more information than one can typically find in children's books about Egypt? My kids have never been terribly interested in it (despite the fact that dh and I spent 4 months there and have a lot of knowledge about it!). I was going to use Roger Lancelyn Green's book Tales of Ancient Egypt, the Kingfisher Encyclopedia and several novels. I guess in the back of my mind I was planning on having the whole Oxford series but I think you are right - there is no way we would get through all of them in a year unless we rushed through.

 

Your bringing up Egypt reminded me of this book that we bought while we were in Egypt. The drawings are beautiful. I'm surprised that David Roberts isn't more popular in the U.S.

[redsquirrel]

That is a good question. I liked the egypt book quite a lot. I found it had good information and well laid out for this age group. It was at a more mature level than many of the other egypt books (DK, useborne etc). Many of them were great but limited in scope. I had one book on "what is daily life like in ancient egypt" and another "Mummies" and I am sure there was one called "a city over time in egypt" or something like that. The Oxford book was ONE book with all of that. My son and I also liked the tone better than the Horrible History books. I see their value but it's a bit too 'casual' for our taste in a school book. Now, ds likes flipping through a horrible history as much as any other kid, but for outlining and narration the Oxford book was better.

 

I should also add that I didn't have to buy the Egypt book,lol. My husband is a librarian so I can get my mitts on anything I want, pretty much. I already had a bunch of Egypt books in my house and I prob could have made them work without the Oxford book. However, I was really happy with it, and am glad I had it as a resource.

 

He did read through the Green book on egyptian mythology as well as a couple biographies and The Golden Goblet. He did narrations and outlines as assigned.