SOTW 1 At what age did your child start?

[StartingOver]

I am interested in what people think is the best age to start their child / children on SOTW 1.

 

Please vote on what age you plan to start, if you haven't already.

Edited December 10, 2009 by alatexan68

[nmoira]

My elder was 4 and my younger will be 6.

[nukeswife]

My oldest was 7 (in 2nd grade) when we started, he was in PS before that. My middle child was 4.5 and my youngest will be 7 when I start it with him.

 

I thought my 7 year old got a lot out of it, and since I'm trying to keep my times in sync between the older 2 and the younger 1 he'll start it when in 2nd grade like my oldest, which is just fine with me.

[StinkyFace]

We'll start next year, so I don't know if I should vote or not.

But he still will be 6 when we'll start.

[StartingOver]

We'll start next year, so I don't know if I should vote or not.

But he still will be 6 when we'll start.

 

Yes please vote, I am just looking for when you will or did start.

[Mommyfaithe]

My dd was 8. It was perfect.

 

I am waiting until ds is 8 before we begin again...my younger ds will be 6 1/2...but he is ready to keep up with older brother...

 

Faithe

[StartingOver]

bump

[Lovedtodeath]

I plan to use it for logic stage. We used the program in my sig at 7 years old without reading SOTW with it. (We finished early, I am on to US Geography while waiting for Medeival. DD is not digging the US Geography so far. OOPS You can't follow a program with a ton of picture books with a program that has very few picture books.)

Edited December 10, 2009 by Lovedtodeath

[patchfire]

Dd was six when we started it. It was a decent fit; she probably could have started earlier with it, but I wouldn't have wanted her to reach the later levels any sooner than she has. (We're doing SOTW 4 this year, with her being 9... tough subjects at times!)

 

For that reason, ds will start at 6 also. In theory, it would be "easier" to start him next year at five, as dd goes back to ancients... but they are far apart enough in age that I don't know that keeping them together would work very well, anyway, plus I just don't want to get to SOTW 4 any earlier than fourth.

[In the Rain]

We are 6 weeks from finishing SOTW 1. My 8 year old has truly gotten a lot out of it. She remembers lots of the stories and devours supplemental reading. My 5 1/2 yo will stay in the room while we are reading and do any activities or coloring pages. Every now and then she will demonstrate some retention, but not often.

[jillian]

i'm planning depending on dd's readiness between ages 4 and 6. it all depends on her readiness.

[AnneC]

My oldest was 4 when we started reading it. My boys would have been 3. We didn't read much in that first year so they were probably more like 5 and 4. They have all learned a lot from it but particularly dd.

[sgilli3]

Mine elder 2 were just over 9 and 10 when we began and 2 years later, have just finished volume 1.

 

I thought it was still suitable for their ages, and like most items, we just tweaked it to suit us.

[Amber in AUS]

We have started and my DD is 5. My DS is listening in but he isn't *doing* SOTW. She is a couple of years ahead academically and is having an awesome time. She does great narrations and is enjoying making connections and reading loads of myths and legends. I will formally start DS when i think he is ready for it, i really don't have an age but predicting 6ish for him.

[Cranberry]

I started at 6 with my son, and I think it's a good age. He seems to really get the connections between some of the cultures. And there are many of the extra literature and history suggested reading that he can read on his own, which helps quite a bit.

[Friederike in Persia]

My dds were 7 and 8 when I first came across TWTM and SOTW. It worked well for them and now that the older is into the logic stage she'll still listen to SOTW, but rather than narrate that, she'll outline the topic from an encylopaedia.

With ds (6) we started this year and he loves it. Doing history TWTM way it works best to start when they are 6, I find.

[~Kirsten~]

We'll start next year at 6, though that means we'll have a 4-year-old tag-along. After much stressing and plotting and negotiating, we're going to just see how it goes. I don't want to be doing SOTW 3 and 1 at the same time when the youngest is 6. So it seems the answer for her will either be 4 for SOTW 1 or an older age when we go back to repeat it.

[Allearia]

In the poll I said 5. We started listening to the audio when he was 4 but started doing the book with activity guide when he was 5.5.

 

For us it was a perfect choice. For one thing, ds is advanced and was doing first and above grade work at that age. But more importantly, starting at "kindergarten" age gave us more time to spend on it. There is so much extra stuff to do with all these ancient cultures, but also you don't want to make the school day too long for kids this young even if they are bright and ready for more advanced work. So we spent two years on it. I would have preferred 1 1/2 years then 1 1/2 years on sotw2, but fortunately with the flexibility of homeschooling I don't really have to worry about it. We can take the material and work with it on any level ds happens to be at at the time - at the beginning of SOTW1 I wrote down ds' narrations and he colored a picture, by the end he was writing the narrations himself.

 

I say all that because people worry a lot in this and other subjects about not starting too early so they don't get to the later years too early. For history there is content we may not want to get to too early but we can always take our time and go wider with this really rich material in ancient and medieval history instead of using other material that I don't like as much. And I personally value being consistent with the history and integrating geography and cultural studies into history, which others might not care about. Additionally, I trust myself to figure out when we get to something to see if it is truly too much or not appropriate but I don't worry much ahead of time about it.

[Lovedtodeath]

 

I say all that because people worry a lot in this and other subjects about not starting too early so they don't get to the later years too early. For history there is content we may not want to get to too early but we can always take our time and go wider with this really rich material in ancient and medieval history instead of using other material that I don't like as much. And I personally value being consistent with the history and integrating geography and cultural studies into history, which others might not care about. Additionally, I trust myself to figure out when we get to something to see if it is truly too much or not appropriate but I don't worry much ahead of time about it.

:iagree:There are always options. One can take 2 years on SOTW 1, one can do a year of geography and cultures, a year dedicated to more science, a year of literature, a year of American history, American geography and cultures, unit studies...

[Satori]

I really wanted to start at 4.5 with my daughter, who always does well when challenged. Ever since she was born we'd do puzzles and games aimed for higher ages. Same with homeschooling.

 

In this case, I asked WTMers their opinion and decided to wait until she was five. We're starting in January for sure now, she'll be 5.25 and we'll be taking the first year a bit slow to relish it and do lots of extras. :)

[Haiku]

We started when my kids were six and almost six. The older one generally has an easier time with academics than the younger one, but in our case, I think both my kids got a lot out of it. I wasn't especially worried about the kids retaining lots of specifics. I looked at it as more of an introduction to cultures. I re-arranged the order of the chapters so that all chapters about a certain culture were read together. We had a blast with our units, and the kids retained quite a bit.

 

That said, I wouldn't start a 5 year old with SOTW unless that child were riding a long with an older sibling.

 

Tara

[StartingOver]

In the poll I said 5. We started listening to the audio when he was 4 but started doing the book with activity guide when he was 5.5.

 

For us it was a perfect choice. For one thing, ds is advanced and was doing first and above grade work at that age. But more importantly, starting at "kindergarten" age gave us more time to spend on it. There is so much extra stuff to do with all these ancient cultures, but also you don't want to make the school day too long for kids this young even if they are bright and ready for more advanced work. So we spent two years on it. I would have preferred 1 1/2 years then 1 1/2 years on sotw2, but fortunately with the flexibility of homeschooling I don't really have to worry about it. We can take the material and work with it on any level ds happens to be at at the time - at the beginning of SOTW1 I wrote down ds' narrations and he colored a picture, by the end he was writing the narrations himself.

 

I say all that because people worry a lot in this and other subjects about not starting too early so they don't get to the later years too early. For history there is content we may not want to get to too early but we can always take our time and go wider with this really rich material in ancient and medieval history instead of using other material that I don't like as much. And I personally value being consistent with the history and integrating geography and cultural studies into history, which others might not care about. Additionally, I trust myself to figure out when we get to something to see if it is truly too much or not appropriate but I don't worry much ahead of time about it.

 

This is what I am planning on doing. I want to start with the Audio CD very soon. And move on to the activites at 5-ish. We will go farther and deeper, but he is ready for more than picture books. I really think it will work out wonderfully, as I think we will have to read many books along with it.

 

Of my three graduates, they were all very, very different. So I understand completely. I did the poll because I have no experience with SOTW, but I am now comfortable with starting a little sooner than the average. We will move at his pace.

[sweetTN]

We did not begin hs'ing until dd was in 3rd grade, so had a late start with SOTW.

[NavyWifeandMommy]

I will be starting SOTW with a 10 year old fifth grader. SHe will go thru all four books (my game plan) and then do something else for high school. My younger ones will tag along if iterested but it's mostly for her. The first four is a bit of everything but mostly US history/geography.

[Aubrey]

My oldest was 5/6 (winter bday), #2 tagged along--*cried* if we read w/out her, & even did some narrations when she was 3. That's not an ideal age, lol, but she's still that way & it cracks me up. How does the song go? Anything you can do, I can do better! :lol:

[HRAAB]

My twins were 8 before we started SOTW. I did try it at 6, and they were lost most of the time with the jumping around between civilizations and such. So I took a different approach and just read stories about famous people and events to them. Famous people and events seemed much more accessible to them than SOTW. Then when we started SOTW they had pegs upon which to hang the chronological story of history.

 

I'm still not convinced history needs to be taught chronologically, however, they're enjoying SOTW and the activity guides. So for now it's working.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

If all goes as planned my oldest will be just shy of 7 when we start SOTW. I've decided to do a year of world geography for first grade, as this coincides with what we are doing for science. DS will be 5 1/2, younger dd 3 1/2, and the baby will be 1 1/2 at the time. I imagine that at least ds will tag along.

[StartingOver]

My oldest was 5/6 (winter bday), #2 tagged along--*cried* if we read w/out her, & even did some narrations when she was 3. That's not an ideal age, lol, but she's still that way & it cracks me up. How does the song go? Anything you can do, I can do better! :lol:

 

My Emma is like this about everything, she just has to do whatever her big brother is doing.

[melmichigan]

My DD6's are doing it as part of SL Core 1, instead of CHOW. My DD10 is using it, along with an additional spine, as part of Core 6.

[Lovedtodeath]

DD was reading the minute she turned 3, and seems advanced in a lot of areas, but she doesn't like read alouds without a bunch of pictures, and some of the focus on details and wars isn't something she is interested in.

[StartingOver]

bump

[Annabel Lee]

Oh, I didn't see your question about "best" time until after I voted - I think 1st grade is the best time, but mine were K and 2nd and I had just been introduced to PHP materials and WTM hsing.

My littlest recalls SOTW1 stories as "the long, long ago times". :)

[joannqn]

OTHER.

 

We didn't find SOTW until DD was 8 (4th grade) and DS was 6 (2nd grade).

 

My younger children will fold into wherever we are in our history cycle when they hit 1st grade, though they may be included in activities before then. DS2 will hit that when we come back to volume 1 or 2, depending on when he's ready for Kindy. Based on where he is currently, I suspect he'll be doing volume 1 with us. DD0 will hit that point when DS2 is doing volume 3 or 4, but she's too young for me to even guess which she might be doing.

[LittleIzumi]

I plan to start next year, probably before she turns 5. If it gets put off another year I won't have a problem with that, though.

[ladydusk]

I plan on starting a year from January when my oldest will be 6, the next will be 5, and the little one will be 3.5.

[StartingOver]

I plan to start next year, probably before she turns 5. If it gets put off another year I won't have a problem with that, though.

 

Quince will be 4.3 when we start a secular run at Sonlight's Core K ( that is my best guess anyway ). So we will most likely start SOTW CD at that time, and SOTW 1 just when he turns 5. But we can always go back and revisit other things if he isn't ready. We will be doing Sonlight Cores ( only the cores ) and WTM together forever I think. I love the reading selections from Sonlight.

[shehmeth]

Our Girl was 5 when we started - when we started first grade work - However, for Kinder (when she was 4) I read the Child's History of the world aloud to her- Just read and color, not narration or anything like that - so she had heard some of the stories (content - not same style or words)...

 

Kate

 

PS. our Boy has been hearing it since he was born basically - to the point that they both as for history in the car (we play the SOTW CDs) is funny to hear they 21 month old say "Mom, 'ty, pissssss" (Translation: Mom, History Please) LOL - he says it as soon as she says it.. She asks for it first and he seconds her motion...

Edited December 12, 2009 by shehmeth