SOTW - Child's interest vs. teaching chronologically

[krisandpaula]

I own SOTW Vol. 1 and several of the accompanying books and had been planning to dive into Ancients in July as part of DS's 1st Grade curriculum. However, over the past couple of months, ds has developed a huge interest in many of the topics covered in Vol. 2. (knights, vikings, castles, King Arthur, etc.) Now I'm starting to think that he would get a lot out of Vol. 2 NOW due to his interest in the subject matter. And so I find myself conflicted.

 

What would you do? Would you stick with the chronology and start with Volume 1 or would you teach to his interest and skip ahead to Vol. 2? Has anyone taught SOTW successfully out of order? Or is there some other program out there that might be better suited for this situation? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!

Paula

Mom to Noah (6) and Keira (3)

On permanent Spring Break from PS Kindergarten.

Edited April 26, 2010 by paulabarber

[Aludlam]

:lurk5:

[Guest]

There is a lot to be said for an orderly, historical progression. However, there is also a lot to be said for using the early years to nurture a child's love for all things historical. Kids learn -- and retain -- amazing amounts when they are pursuing passionate interests.

 

You can keep the chronological idea going by having your son keep a timeline on which he marks all the things he reads about or does. If you haven't started one so far, I'd do that with what you have already covered with ancients. It needn't be a major, complicated project; use either a notebook or a long roll of paper as SWB describes in TWTM, mark major dates on it, and have your son illustrate it either by drawing or by using images from the internet (we did this latter thing). Then he will have a constant visual reminder of the chronological relationship between events he's studied in the past and those medieval topics he's more interested in now.

[8filltheheart]

forget chronology and follow passion. :)

 

Can your 6 yr old quantify time? Does he really comprehend the difference between 50 yrs vs 1000 yrs vs 5000 yrs? If he can, he is exceptional.

 

Teaching history out of order does not mean they won't comprehend it. If they are passionate about what they are studying and it stores in their long term memory, they will easily be able to sort it out as they get older and actually understand the progression of time. If it is just rote and they are learning it only in context of time, the odds of remaining in their long term memory is much lower.

 

FWIW.....the goal for all younger grades is simply exposure. Have fun and enjoy!

[fairytalemama]

I'm not sure how you feel about Charlotte Mason, but I was over on Ambleside Online surfing around and I came across this passage by accident in the FAQ section. It sounded like an answer tailor made to your question. I just had to share it:

 

"CM is not unschooling, nor is it delight-directed. To illustrate the difference, imagine that you had a son who was interested in knights and wanted to learn more about them. With unschooling, you wouldn't plan any lessons but you would let your son read all the books he could find about knights, play knights games, look up knights on the internet. Then, you'd count those hours as school time. With delight-directed, you would note his interest in knights, and ditch your plans to teach about ancient cultures and US History, and instead plan a semester of lessons about knights. With CM, you would allow your son to learn all he wanted about knights in his spare time, but during school hours, you would continue to assign readings from chronological history and literature so he'd still be learning about ancient Egypt, Rome, US History, etc. because, as Charlotte Mason said, you never know what will ignite a passion in a child, so exposure to many topics is necessary. However, you would keep school hours short to give him plenty of time (and inclination) to learn about knights after school."

 

What do you think of that option?

[Jen+4dc]

However, there is also a lot to be said for using the early years to nurture a child's love for all things historical. Kids learn -- and retain -- amazing amounts when they are pursuing passionate interests.

 

You can keep the chronological idea going by having your son keep a timeline.

 

 

forget chronology and follow passion. :)

 

Can your 6 yr old quantify time? Does he really comprehend the difference between 50 yrs vs 1000 yrs vs 5000 yrs? If he can, he is exceptional.

QUOTE]

 

I'd keep a timeline even without Ancients, just leave room for them. Later when you hit ancients again fill it in and he can see that it all takes place before Medieval. Right now, just let him see that it's blank so he know lots of stuff happened before knights.

 

Or, you could try a mini-unit on Knights (I did that a few summers ago). We read tons of non-fiction books from the library, we did "The Door in the Wall" as a read-aloud and used a few of these coloring books from Dover (they have really good pics and actual captions that give info). There's also a lapbook about Medieval Times here. Or a kit from hands and hears here.

 

(No implied recommendations here: the only one of the above that I've used is Door in the Wall and coloring books and those are recommended!)

 

The problem with skipping straight to SOTW 2 is that you cover a LOT more than Knights & Castles.....Would you want to jump around in the book? Or, would you prefer to work through the book when you get there? You know how you teach/plan best.:D

[TracyP]

If this was a poll - I would vote for following child's interest. I am doing a chronological history but am completely open to following rabbit trails when they come up. Dh and I were recently having this same conversation. The bottom line was that what you remember are the things that you *want* to know more about. I really like the CM idea. Start the history cycle (exposure to new topics, keep mama happy) but keep it very short leaving lots of time for exploration into other interests. This is what I am trying to do but I never had a good explanation for it. Thanks fairytalemama!

[mom2boys030507]

I would start with a unit on Knights and move forward. If interest falls or you are finding it is not working you have the resources to start ancients. If your son is anything like my boys, he will love the ancients too but knights have such cool stuff we had to study those first:)

[KrissiK]

Well, I have kids that age and personally, I would begin with SOTW1. The reason is that kids get interested in what they are exposed to. Yes, he's interested in knights, etc. but he may also pick up a passion for ancient Egypt, which is what my son does. And... just because he's interested in knights, doesn't mean he can't have another interest. My son loves Egypt, but he also goes to the library and checks out every book on dinosaurs. And with that being said, we're still going to study earth science in the fall. Because, I know that when we start learning about volcanoes and earthquakes and astronauts, he's going to love that, too. He just doesn't know it yet. This is just my opinion, but I don't really agree with child-lead education in the younger years. I believe it is my duty as parent/teacher to lead their education and expose them to the things they need to know. If something strikes their fancy, then yes... we'll delve into that for a while, but then I'll gently lead the way down the road again. If/when they get to high school and we're still homeschooling and I feel they have a breadth of education that is acceptable then I'd be more willing for them to follow their passions.

[Giraffe]

I am certainly no expert (my DD is only 2), but it occurs to me that July is two months from now. Couldn't you do a unit study or mini-session on knights this summer and then say, "Ok - now we're going to start with our school year and start studying another cool period - with Egyptian pharaohs, Roman soldiers, Greek gods, and all sorts of interesting things. You can continue to study about knights in your free time and free reading, but I want you to learn about these other periods during our school time."

 

Like I said - I'm no expert, but it seems you can do both. By the time you hit July your son might be ready for something new.