TCoppock Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I love the activity guide for SOTW but we rarely ever seem to get to the crafts. We enjoy doing them when we find the time but it seems like we are on another chapter before I have gathered all the supplies needed for the project. Was wondering if anyone else had this happen or if I was the only disorganized mom. :( Suggestions on a quick and easy system would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMindy Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 The ONLY system that works for me is to have another family come over for project day. If I know someone is coming to my house for a project then I will get the supplies I need and get organized. If not.....we put it off. :rolleyes: But, I would encourage you to do the projects. I know it has given my kids a love of history *and* it really does help them remember better. Plus, I always take pictures of their projects and so they like going back and looking through their notebooks, and then they review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigitte Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 You are not the only one who has trouble getting to them. We do the map and coloring page and on a very rare occassion we do a craft. Since we are behind where I hoped to be, we are having to cover a two chapters a week right now. I guess what I should do is look ahead and see what my girls might just love doing and plan what I will need and when. But, I know myself and that will likely not happen. My other thought was to look for all the cooking activities and fit those in with our meal one day during the week that section is covered. You know...two birds, one stone. My final option is to get more Usborne books and kid kits that relate to the topic - a pyramid excavation kit is coming out (still not in stock, even though it is in the catalog) and I just saw the See Inside Ancient Egypt and it was great. Crafts just are not my strong suit. :( Brigitte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigitte Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 The ONLY system that works for me is to have another family come over for project day. If I know someone is coming to my house for a project then I will get the supplies I need and get organized. That would probably motivate me! Okay who wants to come over???!!! I hope when we move there are some WTMers nearby. Brigitte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Wise Bauer Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Would it help if I told you I do a craft every three or four months? I'm not a craft person. My idea of fun is, "Let's read another book." If the kids want crafts done, I enlist my husband or my mother. The crafts are there for families who find that a good way to learn. Not everyone does. SWB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigitte Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Would it help if I told you I do a craft every three or four months? I'm not a craft person. My idea of fun is, "Let's read another book." If the kids want crafts done, I enlist my husband or my mother. The crafts are there for families who find that a good way to learn. Not everyone does. SWB After I saw you posted, I thought "Oh, no! SWB is going to know I am an A.G. slacker. :o" I feel much better now. Brigitte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Alfred Academy Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 We school 4 days a week but only do history 3 of those. Since my guys are young (4&6) I am just trying to wet their appetite. What I have found that works for us is doing one chapter a week but breaking it up into the sections. Tues. We listen to the first section of the chapter on cd. Then I have them answer the questions orally in the AG. They color the page in the AG during their room time. Wed. We listen to the other section and answer the remaining questions. Then we do the mapwork. Thurs. This is project day. I purposefully make this a light school day because of the project or I know I won't do it. Let me just say, this is my boy's favorite day of school. It does take extra preparation, but not too much. As far as reading other materials, I read a historical fiction book to them during lunch. My ds6 also reads a lot of books on his own through out the week about the topic we are studying. We really don't spend a lot of time on history, but it seems to be enough for now. However, this will probably change now that we are getting into the greeks and romans and then studying the middle ages will be a different story...my dh is a medievalist! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strawberry Queen Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I am a crafty person. Which in reality means that I can figure out how to do the craft, and I like to do crafts, but I don't actually do them. I would rather read a book:) Even a book on crafts. hee hee Isn't that sad? Anyhow, I modify the crafts to be less work. I have 2 dd's and they love crafts. The craft for this week was making a surcoat for being a crusader. Instead of making a surcoat out of fabric, I made them out of napkins for their stuffies. Cut the napkin in half, cut a hole in the top, and there's the quick and nasty surcoat. I also find that if I have a large chunk of time set aside for history that it goes better. We can read, do narrations, colour pictures *and* do the craft. If we only have a short time period we read and narrate, colour and then that's it. But that's okay too:) I am also a bit behind where I want to be, so we're doubling up on chapters. It's cold and depressingly dark these days, so we may as well read together and do history. My motivation goes out the window when spring comes in April.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvergreenEclecticAcademy Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 We are also running behind where I planned for us to be at this point in the year with SOTW1. We are hauling thru 2-3 chapters a week to play "catch up." So far we've only done a few (like, maybe 3) of the crafts. :o I've been feeling pretty guilty over not making the full use of the AG. Knowing that we're not alone...and that even SWB herself doesn't do crafts with each chapter...makes me feel much better! :D Having said that...we are planning to do the "make your own glass" project from Ch. 15 this afternoon! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trivium Academy Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 That is my requirement for projects. If one of the projects in SOTW AG fit that, great- if not I find something else that does. Integrating art into history has lightened up the "project" load and simplified it as well. The Treasure Chest kits are fabulous for SOTW1 and 2, for 3 & 4 we're using workbook crafts. For example: Hands-On History American Revolution by Michael Gravois, Grades 4-8 These types of books put the workload on the student and everything is provided- I really like ones that integrate LA skills into the projects, the title above has projects for timelines, flipbooks, writing a letter, step book, guide book, circlebook of important events, readers theater, cause and effect, vocabulary, etc. Parent provides the book, tape, glue, scissors, colored pencils, markers and a project folder. Voila- done! It's non-consumable if you photocopy the pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhesa Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I'm glad I'm not the only one! I can relate to SWB's post: My idea of fun is to read another book. I do think I should stretch myself occasionally for the kid's sake though! But I just hate crafts- we have a very small apartment, then there's the mess, and the cleanup...ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 We like doing the crafts but they weren't getting done. We were just having time to do the reading and narrations. We were having difficulty to get everything done. I felt like a task master, rushing us along so that we would have time to at least get to the extra reading. I felt that this defeated the purpose of buying the AG, so I came up with a radical plan. We do history (and other content subjects) in blocks. We now do history for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks at a time. Now we have time for everything and we can do it at a slower pace. We are able to relly enjoy the extras and the info has a better chance of sticking, imo. We are enjoying doing it this way. This works for us, but I know that it wouldn't work for everyone. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelda Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I'm not a craft-lovin' lady. I mean, I love the crafting but I really dislike the cleaning up and sometimes all the prep. That weighs heavily into our lack of crafts. But it hasn't stopped us from enjoying the AG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 My dd loves crafts. I started out doing the crafts weekly then it fizzled out. So, I offered a class at our next co-op session - "Ancient History Crafts" I took 10-12 of the best and most memorable crafts combined them with a good picture book and a summarized version of the history from the SOTW and had a really cool history class. More than half the parents purchased SOTW and the AG after the class so they could do more fun history with their kids. It was knowing that I would have to entertain 12 6-8 yo kids for an hour that made me get the crafts and the stories together. What I learned was that if I really wanted to do the crafts, I had to plan the week focused on the crafts and work the story of it around the craft. So my advice is to look ahead a pick a few crafts that you REALLY want to do with the kids and plan well for those couple of crafts and don't sweat the rest of them. Not all of the crafts are worth the trouble that we have to go through to make them happen, but some of them will just light up a child's imagination so much that it will be worth the trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phyllis in Canada Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 My oldest ds loved crafts but I didn't. So he'd go through the guide on his own time and choose crafts he wanted to do and that he could do on his own and he would do them! I would just read plenty of books to him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hannah Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 We also do the crafts with two other families. One is a hs family and the other family afterschools for history. We schedule our "history club" like any other activity at a fixed time every week. The children listen to the relevant chapter on CD or as a read-aloud during the week. The hs families usually do an additional read-aloud from the recommended list, but the afterschooling family does not get to this. My dd also has narrations and mapwork. We are into the third year (starting in Jan) of History Club and about halfway through the 2nd book, so it is going a bit slower than it would of if we were doing SOTW on our own. We are following the school's term times and there have been occasions where we've had to cancel because one family couldn't make it. I don't really mind this as we have catch-up time if we've followed rabbit trails. The moms take turns in preparing the activities. We meet at each other's homes and work around the dining tables. If I was doing it only for my dd, we'd be slacking on the activities, but now there are 5 other children (and two three year olds taking an increasing interest) relying on me to do it properly. The quality of the crafts is definitely higher than it would otherwise have been and as its only every third week, I'm not overwhelmed by preparing activities. Over the years we've also found that the moms have different creative talents, so the kids benefit from this variety as well. One mom is a very good seamstress and makes wonderful costumes, the other is good at woodwork, etc. This year we've taken a second afternoon to do science club with the other hs family and dd is finally getting well-prepared experiments done as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristiana Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Including the mummy, but have hardly done a single craft since. My oldest likes paper crafts so I just throw History Pockets at him and he's happy. None of them really like to color, but hands-on crafts really get my younger two (4.5 and 3) involved in history with us which is worth the fuss of pulling something together. But still, we haven't done many lately. Like Jessica said, it has to be cheap, quick, and easy. I don't worry if I don't have something every single week. I also reserve Fridays for art and history projects and less bookwork. If I have it scheduled, I'm more likely to do it than if I just say, we'll get to it if we have time. I won't make time that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Closeacademy Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 If you want to do the crafts--I found a system that makes it easy to do them. Every 6 to 9 weeks you pick out what crafts you want to do over the next month or quarter. And you go through your supplies and make a baggie for each craft. Put all the supplies needed in the baggie, label them and put them in order of when you want to do the crafts. At this time, if you do not have some of the supplies on hand, then you get to make a shopping list and go to your local craft store and buy the items and put them in the baggies. When it comes to craft time, you just pull out the baggie and everything is there. I works nicely and we did it for a while but right now we are taking a break from SOTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gandpsmommy Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Where are you moving? I hope Ohio! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gandpsmommy Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Would it help if I told you I do a craft every three or four months? I'm not a craft person. My idea of fun is, "Let's read another book." If the kids want crafts done, I enlist my husband or my mother. The crafts are there for families who find that a good way to learn. Not everyone does. SWB Well, I don't know about the op, but I feel so much better after reading this. I laughed inside when I read, "My idea of fun is, 'Let's read another book.'" That is me exactly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Jenny Flint Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Susan's post was extremely liberating. Plus, as my kids get older they are not as much into the crafts as they used to be. My challenge is to work in supplemental readings for the chapters we are covering in a given week. Mostly, we used the AG for the coloring and the maps. My daughter really enjoys the maps now that she is in 3rd grade. The coloring pages used to win the day, but she is growing up, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeljenn Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 I never seem to get around to the projects either. However, if my kiddos see something they want to do, then they do it themselves! I do use the map work and color sheets... and I love the activity guide for the comp. questions, and book lists!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCoppock Posted January 25, 2008 Author Share Posted January 25, 2008 If you want to do the crafts--I found a system that makes it easy to do them. Every 6 to 9 weeks you pick out what crafts you want to do over the next month or quarter. And you go through your supplies and make a baggie for each craft. Put all the supplies needed in the baggie, label them and put them in order of when you want to do the crafts. At this time, if you do not have some of the supplies on hand, then you get to make a shopping list and go to your local craft store and buy the items and put them in the baggies. When it comes to craft time, you just pull out the baggie and everything is there. I works nicely and we did it for a while but right now we are taking a break from SOTW. This is a great idea. Hopefully if everything is prepackaged for me I will actually do it. It is just to much driving for me to run around and try to get supplies. I feel 100% better knowing I am not the only mom out there struggling with the crafts. Although I am not crafty I know my son really enjoys the projects. We did the Nile river early on this year and he still goes out weekly to check on it and make it "flood." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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