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Should I try to pull 5th grader into SOTW or keep her on her own?


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I want my middle two (1st and 3rd) to start ancients next year. I'm planning on doing SOTW 1 with them.  

 

My oldest has completed the 4 year cycle and is also back to ancients.  I'm debating if I would rather do the Human Odyssey series in 5th-7th and complete a 3 year cycle OR keep her on pace with the SOTW series.  If I kept her with SOTW, I would assign her to read the HO books as well but spread them over four years.  She could also do some of the SOTW projects with the younger two and maybe the mapwork.  

 

I just can't figure out if it is worth it at all to try to keep them together or if I should just separate them out completely.

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My DD3 (age 10) is in exactly the same boat. We're in Vol. 4 of SOTW now, so I'm trying to decide what to do with her next year. I'm tempted by WTM Academy's Story of the Ancients for the logic stage, which will use SOTW 1 and "additional assigned materials" by the instructor. I wish the syllabus would be published soon! I can't wait to see how they will beef it up to make it usable by logic stage students. I don't really feel like I NEED to outsource history/lit, but I could be talked into it...

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I am also in this situation. I have chosen to go with HO, along with some of the OUP Anicent World series and of course some good literature reading. It is more work for me, but my Dd is ready for more challenging work and we will still do projects all together for sure. Chicky-Hotep II. ;)

 

I want Dd to practice outlining and do some writing based on her history studies next year. The reading level of SOTW is too easy for what I think she can do.

 

We will eventually go with some online courses, but not quite yet.

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Did your rising-5th grader already do SOTW vol. 1? Is so, then, just me, but I'd probably lean towards doing HO as the spine and she can listen in or join the youngers for activities off and on as she likes, and as it works for you.

 

Also, your 5th grader may want something a bit more challenging. I personally think SOTW vol. 1 is very young in presentation -- a good book for 1-4th, but by 5th/6th it seems a little too young. I do think the volumes are more mature as they go -- as I recall, SWB says she intentionally wrote them that way. So:

vol 1 = gr. 1-4

vol 2 = gr. 2-5

vol 3 = gr. 3-6

vol 4 = gr. 4-8

 

A bonus: By doing SOTW and HO, it gives you all a second slightly different perspective on the ancients by using 2 different programs. :)

 

Since they would all be in the same time period, and the younger 2 are using the same thing, it's not really too difficult having two different "spine" programs. Where it gets hairy is having 3 students studying 3 different time period!

 

BEST of luck, whatever you decide to do. :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

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Since they would all be in the same time period, and the younger 2 are using the same thing, it's not really too difficult having two different "spine" programs. Where it gets hairy is having 3 students studying 3 different time period!

 

BEST of luck, whatever you decide to do. :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Would you space HO out over four years?  Or do a book a year?  Because, if I do HO series in 3 years and SOTW in 4 years, I will eventually have two different time frames running.

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Having done both, everyone together and separating kids, it's easier to have everyone on the same general topic. I found it was all the 'extras'. Being able to check out movies and documentaries, projects, field trips, strewing books from the library all over the house, and discussions at dinner. The kids often chatter in the car about something funny they learned or make silly historical jokes.

 

My 2 cents: keep them together. :001_smile:

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Would you space HO out over four years?  Or do a book a year?  Because, if I do HO series in 3 years and SOTW in 4 years, I will eventually have two different time frames running.

 

Sure! And spreading out the books gives you the option of more time to allow the oldest student to do projects and extras with the youngers, and to explore additional resources of interest. :)

 

And just adding on to coffeegal's thought -- by doing some of the movies/documentaries, read alouds, activities and projects together, all DC build a shared experience on the same topic. And by having two different "spines" (SOTW for younger, HO for older), some of the specific information and details will be different, giving everyone something to contribute to the conversation and "teach" one another. ;)

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I decided to keep my 5th grader and 1st grader together using SOTW for the younger (but dd10 still listens usually bc she hasn't done SOTW all the way through) and then she uses Story of Mankind, Usborne and Kingfisher Encyclopedias to supplement. We'll be doing the SOTW activities and all the extras together to make it easier on me. But I'll definitely have them approach their history study from the appropriate stage. 

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We found ourselves in a similiar boat this year with my oldest as a freshman but still finishing her first go through the 4-year cycle. I debated keeping them together vs having her move onto a different curriculum for HS. It made my brain hurt trying to come up with something for her to do as Modern while I read SOTW for the others. We opted to have her sit in for our readings and map skills, but she wasn't required to do any of the additional activities or books or readings we did with the other 2 kids. She is taking a World History class at our co-op that covers all 4 years of the cycle in an overview style, so I still felt like it would work to have her complete SOTW book 4 with us. Her main coursework for HS credit is the work she does for the class, but I love having her listen to the readings and she was happy with that arrangement too. Best of both worlds for us.

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We chose to separate the oldest out and have her follow Human Odyssey independently, and that has been the right choice for her. The academic span between her and child 3 had just become too great. Child 2 was doing great in the middle, but to keep all three of them together would have meant that I was shortchanging either the oldest or the youngest. Now she is loving that she can move at her own quicker pace and read much more challenging books independently (instead of the slow drag of reading out loud).

 

I haven't worried at all about the 4-yr versus 3-yr thing. She has already covered anything (projects, fieldtrips, etc) that I'm going to do with the younger children, so she can join in when she wants to. She is moving at just a slightly quicker pace than the younger children, but I've enjoyed being able to do certain movies and documentaries with her that are a little too heavy for the younger children. I'm not 100% sure what we're going to do with that 4th year. We may do a year of intense American history with the high school level American Odyssey, which would wind up putting her right in line with the 4-yr cycle anyway.

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