History Together at 2-3 Different Levels Next Year = Help!

[Mama Anna]

We're trying to (more or less) do WTM-style history here.  I'll have a dd13 (8th, somewhat accelerated), dd10 (5th) and dd7 (2nd) next year.  As good little WTMers, we've followed the 4-year cycle and will be doing the Modern Era (1850 to Present).  History is going to have to go differently than it has in past years for several reasons:

 

Dd13 is pretty responsible and able to work on her own.  In fact, I've taken advantage of this for the past several years to the extent that she has had little interaction with me about History and is finding the encyclopedia/timeline/extra reading/summary cycle pretty boring.  (No!  My daughter is not liking History!!  How can this be happening?!? Aaaaargh!)  She loved SOTW because of its narrative quality.  She's not happy with moving through an encyclopedia, skimming the surfaces of various subjects, and needing to come up with thought-provoking things to write about the Acts of Enclosure, etc.  My idea for change is to give her a carefully selected set of topics from World History in the Modern Era and a rubric of requirements for each (names, dates, etc.).  She would then spend more than a week on each subject and hopefully be able to dig in deeply enough to find one or more narratives, resulting in not only a better understanding but also more personal enjoyment.  I would keep tabs on her work on a weekly basis and she would do a written or oral report at the end of each subject.  (Thoughts?  Advice?)

 

Dd10 is graduating from SOTW this year and will need to shift into the Encyclopedia/outlining/timeline/narration stage.  Problem: she's nowhere near a natural writer and will need her hand held through a large part of at least this first year in Logic Stage.  She is also easily distractable (not a very independent worker) and loves projects.

 

Dd7 will be doing SOTW and will need constant interaction.  She's not writing well on her own yet so that narrations will still need to be dictated for at least the first part of the year.

 

How do I work these second two together?  Due to time constraints, they're going to have to do history at the same time.  I'm heroically nerving myself to cut chapters out of SOTW 4 (it'll be my first time to not "finish the book" and the thought is making me somewhat batty) in order to slow the history flow down somewhat and allow for flexibility.  I can still work Dd10 into projects for SOTW 4 along with dd7.  Other than that . . . ?

 

I figured I can't be the first person on this board to face this.  Does anyone have some BTDT to share?

 

TIA!!

 

Mama Anna