Come here if you follow a 4 year history cycle

[plain jane]

I know someone who is considering hs'ing next year and would like to use SOTW series and a 4 year history cycle. She'd be starting ds (in grade 2) with SOTW1 but for simplicity's sake later on, would like to be back on track again to cover Ancients in grade 5. (She'd have a first grader then too and it would work out nicely :))

 

Was wondering what those of you here would suggest to her to get 4 years of SOTW done in 3? Would you work more quickly through one of the SOTW books? - Which one could be done the quickest? I was thinking perhaps SOTW3 or maybe even 4 since the more modern times seem to be less appealing to young children. Or would you push through and read the text through summers and maybe skip the extra suggested readings and just go with the general flow of history that SOTW provides? Or, perhaps I could gently suggest to her to :chillpill: and to just do history studies according to what works for her family and not stress that it isn't what's in the WTM?

 

:bigear:

[Staci in MO]

Telling someone to chill usually doesn't go over well, but that's probably the best option. :)

 

I'm on my second year of the history cycle. At the end of every year there has been a period when I had to cover, ahem, several chapters quickly to finish the book. :blushing: Getting them done in three years could be accomplished without breaking a sweat.

 

Once she gets started with the books, it will be pretty easy to see how it would work best for her. I would probably double up here and there and then read a few chapters over the summer.

[sagira]

I'm tweaking it to suit our needs. I don't feel ds will be ready for Modern Times in 4th (especially considering he's on the sensitive side), so we're taking it slower. SOTW 1 in First, SOTW 2 in 2nd, 3rd an American History year with other resources, SOTW 3 in 4th, SOTW 4 in 5th and starting all over again in 6th with Ancients. After that we will be doing the four-year-cycle in three years. Then Ancients again in ninth and so forth.

 

So the short answer is: whatever works for her family, but don't stress ;)

[SonshineLearner]

I had my daughter listen to Volume 3 and now we're back to Ancients. We'll do Volume 4 the second time around. I also have her her listen to SOTW volumes on cd...and we'll be doing Famous Men of.....for history. (So, SOTW is her free time. ) She really like SOTW and had it almost memorized. I feel like it gave her a really decent grasp of the material, and FMO series....is great for some Latin exposure....(on top of her Latin studies) and also for vocabulary and such. There are four parts...so reading the stories and doing one activity a day is a good start for that series..for us. She'll do some through the summer and then do FMO Greece after that. We have 2 summers (this and next) and the year in between to work through at least 2 FMO books. I'm really excited!

Carrie:-)

[WTMCassandra]

If she wants to do that she needs to be really, really disciplined to just hit the high points, get the overall flow of history. BUT, most grammar-stage children do NOT want to do that--they want to wallow in a time period. I think the child will have better memories if she lets him/her wallow to his/her heart's content.

 

If she is simply not willing to start at the beginning and take four years, I recommend that she construct a very simple chart or Cliff Notes ; ) outlining the flow of history until the settlement of America, spend a day or two going over the chart, and then proceed with years 3 and 4. Then, in fifth grade she could start over with Ancients. I really felt like my children got much more out of the Ancients study the second time around, anyway. They did much better with the content. And, American history has tons of resources and is fun for small children. It would be a shame to rush years 3 and 4, which she would have to do in order to cram four years into three.

[mazakaal]

I followed the 4-yr history cycle with my oldest 2 dc, but I've strayed a little to make things work for my family. My 3rd dc is in 1st grade right now and could have begun the history cycle, but I wanted my 4th to do history with her, and didn't want him doing modern history in 2nd grade. So I've stalled dd, having her wait until 3rd grade to start the history cyle so #4 can do Ancients with her. We're doing a year of world geography this year and a year of American history next year.

 

Could your friend maybe do CHOW in 2 years (maybe using Sonlight), pausing at the periods where ds shows interest, and then a year of American history, and then begin a proper 4 year cycle when he's in 5th and the other child is in 1st. Then they can both do SOTW together and it won't be 'old' for him. If she sticks to her plan, he would be racing through SOTW in 3 years and then doing SOTW again with his younger sibling. It's doable, but maybe not as much fun. I'm finding that racing through curriculum just to get it done isn't always the best option.

[Sunshine State Sue]

I started SOTW 1 with ds when he was in 2nd grade and had some of those thoughts because I like to be "on track". Can you tell I'm a perfectionist?

 

I finally decided to just stay "behind". Here was my reasoning: I LOVE SOTW. It's engaging. At the time, I didn't really know what I would use for Logic stage. We've used History Odyssey since then, but it pales in comparison to SOTW. I'm so glad I stayed behind and didn't rush through SOTW.

[siloam]

If I were in your shoes I would either live with it being off (if you look at my signature there is no way to do neat 4 year cycles with this bunch), or I would skip year 4 for your first round. They would still get two more rounds.

 

Heather (who idealistically is on the 4 year plan, but practically has taken 6 years to get through the first round. :smilielol5: )

[Aurelia]

Could she use A Child's History of the World (or a similar book) for a couple of years, and just spread out different time periods, like doing a lot of Egyptian stuff or more research on gladiators if he's interested in that, then in 5th start over?

 

If I were in her shoes, I would do that or just do books 1-3 since I'm not wild about dealing with all those heavy issues in the modern times with a youngish child.

[bookmomma]

I'm faced with the same problem. I started SOTW1 w/ my 1st and 3rd graders, so I am doing all four years in three by 1. reading more than a chapter a week (not hard to do--they love it) and 2. year round lessons. Each book is approximately 42 chapters (42 chapters X 4 books = 168 chapters divided by 3 years = 56 chapters per year), so if you complete about 55 chapters per year (that's little more than one per week, but some are shorter) you should finish in three years.

 

It's just the introductory stage too, they'll get it again in the logic stage and recall some of the details and stories from the first round. It's not meant to be a hard-and-fast rule.

[WTMindy]

If it is important to her to get back "on track" and start Ancients in 5th grade, then I would probably just spend the next three years (starting with Ancients) and moving forward through SOTW. I wouldn't even worry about how far we got through the series. I would focus mostly on doing lots of fun projects and activities and building a love of history. Honestly, I did all 4 years of SOTW and we LOVED it and I did lots of projects and had a lot of fun, but my kids don't remember a ton of the details from the first time around. But, they did gain a LOVE of history and history is their favorite subject. And, to me, that was the best thing that SOTW gave my kids (and me, for that matter!)