FairProspects Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 I'm reading about lots of them not turning out so well from the other thread, but we are pretty crafty around here and I have been really looking forward to the SOTW projects next year. Who had great experiences with them? Which ones were your favorites? My kiddos are pretty kinethestic hands-on learners, so even if the projects don't cement specific dates in their heads, I'd like to spark some interest & create positive/fun memories associated with history. Did the SOTW projects do that for your family? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greensummervillian Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 I assume you're talking about the ancients book since your oldest is 5. I just happen to have the AG in front of me, so I'll list some of the ones we did t hat I thought were worthwhile. Ch. 2 Make a model of the Nile. It wasn't as beautiful and neat as I had imagined it, but it made a point. Ch. 3 all 3 activities. Ch. 4 we made a lego pyramid Ch. 9 making a brick Ch. 10 make pictograms Ch. 16 Make an ssyrian siege tower with legos Ch. 18 Drew our own mazes (not listed as an activity) Ch. 35 Learn Roman numerals Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom_Abear Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 I just replied in the other thread, but I thought I stop in here, too! Take heart - we are enjoying them here! We are only a few weeks into SOTW 1, so I don't yet have a "looking back" mentality, but you are welcome to look at my blog's "Week in Review" to see pictures of what all we've enjoyed so far! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtotkbb Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 I've been through the books twice with different kiddos and both times we loved the activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmy Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 We love the literature lists and the AG pages but we don't do very many activities. Some of them seem to be a huge amount of trouble, others were too advanced for my boys when we got to them..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macrina Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 We do and love all the activities, we've only had a couple flops, bound to happen with anything. We love to do "stuff" anyway and this way it ties into learning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K&Rs Mom Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 We've really enjoyed the AG. Some of the recipes have made it into my regular cooking file (Banana-Date bars in the Africa chapter was one). I don't know how much it really reinforces the information, but the activities make history one of dc's favorite things, and they help them see what it was like to live in different times and places, which they DO remember and play all the time. Plus it's good life-skills training, with the sewing and cooking in some chapters. Now when they see history exhibits at a museum or whatever, they can relate: "That's like the baskets WE made - I can do that," or "I remember those bowls, they're from China." It's fun to see. :) OTOH, our house is now full of historical clutter. How can I throw out the Viking house and ship where the Playmobil guys live and work? Or maybe that's a good thing: history being reviewed all the time as they play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 We've loved the AG, too. I remember the Nile very well! I also liked a more unusual project, about the kingdom of Mali, I think--we learned about taxes and how you couldn't tax too much or people might take their business elsewhere! We like most of the cooking activities. The file folder games are fun for us, and we like a lot of the crafts, tho I don't consider myself crafty at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Mac Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 We love them here too :001_smile: and I'm looking forward to re-doing SOTW 1 next year and getting into some of those projects that I didn't bother with when it was only one child doing it. Mummified chicken here we come :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 (edited) We're in SOTW 4 now. Some activities we did, some we didn't. Of the ones we did, most we liked, some were "eh". In part, that may be because my daughter didn't become "crafty" until she was into third grade. With an only child, playing the board games wasn't as big a deal here. We did modify some of the activities. The chicken mummy became the potato mummy, for instance (because the concept of the chicken just grossed me out too much). I peeled a large baking potato and carved out a rough human shape, making "organs" from the leftovers. We put the "organs" in canopic jars made from small baby food jars. I've also seen suggestions to use an apple. If you do substitute a potato, either use non-iodized salt or be prepared for your mummy to turn purple-black almost immediately as the iodine reacts with the starch in the potato (OTOH, it was a pretty cool effect, if startling when you uncover it the first time ;)). An idea for all the "stuff" is to take a photo of each project once completed and keep the photos in a scrapbook or as part of the history notebook. Takes up a *lot* less room. BTW, another modification I am making this year (from SOTW 4, won't work as well with especially one or two) is to type out the review/comprehension questions and giving them to my daughter to fill out on her own. It seems to be helping with retention. I give her the outline sheet to use to take notes while I read the chapter aloud. I'm finding the tests useful this year as well. In SOTW 1, I tried using them, but we only ended up doing them orally as a review----way too much to expect from a first grader but I can see how they can be useful with older kids. If I choose to go back through SOTW as a supplement to my 5th-8th grade work, I will get the tests again. Edited September 23, 2009 by KarenNC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 I picked and chose which activities we did, but I usually had pretty good success with the projects. And I'm one of the people who normally hates activities and science experiments because they usually flop for us. I never did the Turkish delight project that the other poster had a hard time with, but the ones we did were great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 I loved the SOTW AG, projects included. 1 projcect per chapter was my goal - at times easily met, and others spilled over into the weekend. Once you find where to buy air-drying clay (for some reason my store had it well-hidden among unrelated items), you'll be set. Making a nile river model was a hit here, too; as was builing pyramids out of homemade clay bricks, writing in wet clay, writing in heiroglyphs, making up their own code of law like Hamarabi (one of which is still hanging on their bedroom door), etc. I don't think we did anything for the Africa chapter (the one w/ the Anansi stories), but we read every single Anansi book our library had - my sons enjoyed them & asked for more. Recently we found an Anansi movie there & checked it out and it sparked discussion of what they learned about Africa last year. I think it does help cement the basic story-line. Projects probably won't help w/ alot of exact information, but for my guys it becomes a reminder of something that stuck out to them from that chapter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 BTW, I was watching some show on PBS last night, and they showed a family making Turkish Delight in their candy store/factory. It was pretty neat! No gelatin was mentioned, and they said it needed to sit for 10 hours. Just fyi. (looked delish, too! They added pistachios.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 We did SOTW1 last year, and are doing 2 now. We did not try to do an activity w/each chapter by any means. I would just get too behind feeling if I did. I learned by the end of the year, to pick the easier ones, so that we could do one most weeks and to do one big one once in awhile that appealed to us. I also learned to feel no pressure to finish it in the week that we are working on that chapter. We may work on something big over a period of time (like for an hour every friday) and finish it 3 weeks later while we are on another chapter. But the relevance was still there, and we still discussed the topic as we worked and read other books to go with it. So last year ones that we enjoyed: We started the year w/the family history book and the archeological dig in the sandbox. Huge hits! We made Sumerian clay seals as our signatures. We did cuneiform in clay, and hieroglyphics on homemade scrolls. We made a ziggurat that we had displayed all year. It was very cool! We did lots of ones that were out of paper and therefore "easy" in my book: Things like a Roman crown of leaves, a book for the first library, paper dolls, etc. We made homemade Greek stickers using gelatin for the sticky stuff. We made a volcano and erupted it. Our last big project was the model of a Roman road showing the layers out of homemade sand cement. They were very proud of that! This year in vol. 2 we have done the paper dolls, illuminations like monks in the middle ages (Using gold paint pens!), a mosaic, and the edible oasis. I am planning on making a loom to do weaving w/them. I like the fact that the projects are some of the things I remember doing in Art class as a kid, so I know we are covering tons of ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hannah Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 We are halfway through SOTW3 and from the start have done a "History Club" one afternoon a week with two other families. We read the SOTW chapter, do narrations/summaries/worksheets, additional reading, colouring and mapwork at home according to each families schedule and the three Moms prepare the activities. We use the AG or if we don't like what's in the AG, 120 Great History Projects or find something online to substitute. We have an hour and a half set aside each week, so the number of activities depend on how intricate they may be. Doing it together benefits the children as each Mom has different craft skills and something one enjoys the other might not. It also keeps up the standard! All that to say that, depending on your skills and interests, you may enjoy doing a suggested activity that another person may find daunting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macrina Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 We are halfway through SOTW3 and from the start have done a "History Club" one afternoon a week with two other families. We read the SOTW chapter, do narrations/summaries/worksheets, additional reading, colouring and mapwork at home according to each families schedule and the three Moms prepare the activities. We use the AG or if we don't like what's in the AG, 120 Great History Projects or find something online to substitute. We have an hour and a half set aside each week, so the number of activities depend on how intricate they may be. Doing it together benefits the children as each Mom has different craft skills and something one enjoys the other might not. It also keeps up the standard! All that to say that, depending on your skills and interests, you may enjoy doing a suggested activity that another person may find daunting. We do the same thing! But we have 6 families and 20 kids and I generally plan the whole thing! :willy_nilly:It IS fun and totally worth it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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