How to go about skipping SOTW4 the first time around?

[cjthedog64]

We've used SOTW 1-3 over first thru fourth grades.  I ended up rushing through a lot of year 1 because I wasn't very organized to keep moving all year.  And year 2 ended up taking 2 years, because the first year was similarly slowed down.  Year 3 has gone very smoothly, and I've got a routine figured out.  :)  But DS9 has asked if we can skip Year 4 and go back to Ancients.  Due to a European vacation last summer, we've done a decent overview of WWI and WW2, and I wasn't planning to go very in depth to the 1900's because of the prevalence of wars, and political stuff.   So what I'm thinking, is that after we finish book 3, we'll just go back and start over, with more organization.  Is there anything from the modern era that we shouldn't miss right now?  Does this sound like a reasonable idea?   

[HelenNotOfTroy]

I do not think there is a problem with that. I would suggest using different materials for the second go around.

[Doodle]

We spent grades 1-4 covering SOTW 1-3. This year (5th grade) Doodle opted to restart our history cycle rather than continuing onto SOTW4. Covering ancient history was more appealing to him than covering WWI and WWII. For our second history cycle, we are using both Human Odyssey and SOTW.

[Carol in Cal.]

I think it's a great idea.  SOTW4 is in many ways the driest of the series, and also in some ways the most disturbing.

I would, though, salt in a few modern era books here and there to convey the background of the times.

[Dmmetler]

DD got very upset when we tried SOTW 4 the first time. We ended up cycling back to the start and using a lot of the additional books, plus she did an online world history class. She's doing SOTW4 now, with a few more years of maturity under her belt, and I think it was the right choice.

[cjthedog64]

At this time, I'm planning to reuse SOTW for Ancients at least.  He started it in 1st grade, and we ended up skipping a lot.  He wasn't comfortable with reading or writing at the time, so there's a lot more that we can do with it.  We'll be able to use the encyclopedias and do more indepth stuff this time, because he can do so much more.

 

[ScoutTN]

We skipped SOTW 4 because it was too much, too dry, just not a good fit for my kids. We subbed VP 1815- present, self paced and it it has been fine. More U.S. focused and not heavy on death and destruction. Independent too, which I like and don't like.

[KrissiK]

We skipped it, too. It took me into the next school year to finish book 3, so basically what we did for the rest of that year was do a more in depth study of westward expansion and the Civil War first semester and second semester we studied State History.

[RootAnn]

That's definitely a reasonable idea.

If you feel at some point before you get back to books 3 & 4 that you need more US history or modern stuff, you can just cover that separately or informally.

Sounds like you are in good shape & he's going to be excited for ancients!