What does SOTW look like at your house?

[Wee Pip]

We are planning to start SOTW 3. In the past, reading aloud didn't work for us, but the kids do well if it is assigned independent reading. It took me all year to figure this out:) Now that I know independent reading works for us, I'd like to add in a few AG things, as well. I'm looking to see how SOTW looks at your house (SOTW 1, 2, 3, or 4). How do you schedule the...

1. reading

2. map activities

3. timeline?

4. any activities/extra reading

 

So how does this all look at your house? (If you don't do any AG activities, feel free to speak up as well!) (BTW, my kids can only handle 1/2 a chapter per day - anything more and I lose them).

[*Amber*]

:lurk5: We are starting SOTW 1 this coming year so I would love to hear how others do it. :bigear:

[Mom-ninja.]

Jim Weiss

Map

AG activity

extra reading

[Wee Pip]

Oh, and how much / how many times per week?

[EKS]

We don't do the activities and we don't do a timeline.

 

We read one section per day or do a coloring page/map.

 

We also do supplemental reading, which means that I read a lot aloud and my son also has reading assignments.

[Wendy Inman]

Hello! We've done SOTW 1 and we're 3/4th of the way through 2.

 

It really depends on what works for your family, everyone i know who does SOTW, does it different :)

 

Here's a typical week schedule for us - we do a 4 day history schedule.

 

Day 1 - read 1st part of chapter, do narration (I type it), read an extra book

Day 2 - read 2nd part of chapter, do narration, mapwork

Day 3 - read corresponding section of Usborne World History, copywork, read an extra book

Day 4 - Do activity from activity guide, read any extra books that are left

(I try to find him a chapter book related to the particular chapter or time period to read throughout the week for assigned reading time)

 

We are very flexible about switching things up on different days and we schedule our extra books depending on how many we have for the week, sometimes we even read them before bed. We also don't do coloring pages because my son doesn't like to color. Most of the time this takes 30 minutes or so a day.

[Kirch]

Well, I started out trying to do it all neat and tidy the way SWB suggests in TWTM: Read 1/2 chapter, narrate, do coloring page one day; read 1/2 chapter, narrate, do map work on the second day; read library book(s) or encyclopedia and do project on the third day. Reality: it doesn't usually break down quite so nicely! Sometimes the projects take more than one day to do (i.e. you have to let clay or paint dry before going on to the next step of the project), or both the map and the coloring page apply to one 1/2 of the chapter but not the other. So now I look at the chapter, choose the activities I want to do and I just try to break it up between three days in a way that works for us and makes sense. We always do the map work and usually any other activity sheets as well.

 

I'm blogging (with pictures) through our SOTW I journey if anyone is interested: This Side Up. :001_smile: I'm actually off to post a couple more chapters to hopefully catch up to where we are at the moment.

[Chris in VA]

Just finishing SOTW 3 with dd.

We only did a section a day, most of the time--it's denser and has more names/events that are more complicated this time around (used 1 and 2 in First and Second Grade). I allow her to color the page if she wants, while she listens. We always do the mapwork--after the whole chapter is read, b/c it covers the whole thing, so you really can't do it after just one section (unless you break it up, and I didn't want to do that). We were slackers when it came to written narrations this year--

 

I allowed dd to take notes on some of the chapters, b/c they were complex. In fact, the AG specifically tells parents to use directed narration in some chapters b/c of the amt of detail. Jotting down some notes helped dd organize her thoughts and remember for the questions (I used the review questions a lot this year to check comprehension). You can also allow your dc to use the book and flip back thru the chapter, but dd will not give me an "original" narration then.

 

We didn't do a lot of activities this year--started out ok, but the middle portion seemed weak in the activities dept. Now it's getting better, so we'll do more. I actually am skipping Simon Bolivar and maybe another chapter, so we finish most of it by June 15, our testing date (somewhere in that week, anyway!).

 

So, for us--

 

First Day: Read a section while dd colors or does something with her hands

Ask her comprehension questions and sometimes for a narration (written, corrected/edited, rewritten and put in notebook)

 

Second Day: Read another section to her, finish the map.

 

Third Day: Do an activity.

 

Read alouds went along with the chapter, and I practically count them as a separate subject, not scheduled as "history," necessarily, tho most of them are history books.

[alpidarkomama]

We finished SOTW 1 last month. We have a heavy dual curriculum (Jewish/secular), so we go a little light on history. We did history 3x/week.

 

Day 1: read whole chapter

Day 2: map work

Day 3: review chapter with questions and discussions

 

That's it! Oh, we also did supplemental reading, mostly historical fiction, plus I checked out books from the library for DD to explore on her own. I don't think we did any of the SOTW projects.

[m0mmaBuck]

In theory, we do a chapter/wk over 2-3 days. I read over the AG 2-3 wks in advance to determine what, if any, activites we will do, gather materials, and request any books or DVDs from the library that we will want.

 

Day 1: Read chapter while kids do coloring pages. Go over the review questions. Do mapwork.

Day 2: Use narration for copywork and review. Do project, read, or both.

Day 3 (if needed): Finish project. Read more books. I try to get at least on IR for DS and one RA.

 

In reality, lately it's looked a little more like this...

 

Today: Read chapter while the kids eat breakfast. Go over review questions just as a matter of trying to make sure DS8 was listening even in the little bit. Do the mapwork and coloring page because DD4 spied the sheets I copied off and wants to color. Google an image of the modern flag of Israel because DS8 has to make it "perfect." End up making the dreidels because they started singing the Dreidel song the minute they saw them. Spend another 30 mins playing with the dreidels. Spend another 30 minutes building walls with the Pez candies we used to play dreidel. DS8 decides to read "Shabbat" to DD4 because it's in the pile of books for the week and he recognizes the word from our earlier discussion of Shabbat and Hannukah. Realize it's now lunchtime and they need to be fed again.

 

This leaves us with narration/copywork and a few books for the rest of the week.

Edited May 25, 2010 by m0mmaBuck
adding

[Amber in AUS]

We are doing SOTW1 and we do it twice per week. During that time we read the allocated section for the day, it is only 1 small section, however the chapter is broken down, not an entire chapter. Immediately after i ask DD to tell me one important thing she remembers from the reading (WWE style narration), or i ask for the story back (CM style narration) honestly depends how much writing i want to do and how soon lunch is approaching LOL. Sometimes she will also draw a picture or complete the colouring in. We don't do the map work.

 

We have a book shelf which has lots of extra books which are from the AG, SL and other peoples suggestions. They are free reading books she can go to when she feels like but are not required reading. She has been fascinated by different characters and gone looking for more reading on them.

 

So far we have only done 2 projects from the AG, we are about half way through. We moved house though so probably not an accurate reflection had we not had the turmoil.

[EppieJ]

When we started with v1, I would read a chapter or two at a time and maybe do a map page or some other notebook work. When I got v1 on disc, I just handed it to ds for him to listen to at his leisure...which he did...multiple times. I decided that was the way to go for us, so over the next 2-3 years I purchased the other 3 volumes and gave them to him one at a time. He listens to them frequently, so I know he's getting his world history which frees us up to focus on different time periods as desired.

[funschooler5]

We're just finishing up SOTW 2 (well, we're about 6 chapters away :tongue_smilie:). Normally, we do one chapter a week, but because we're so behind, the last few weeks we've been doing two chapters a week.

 

Monday, I read aloud the from SOTW, and ask my kids the review questions (my DD is does some supplemental reading, but because this is her first time through SOTW 2, she listens in and answers questions.) Then DS recites his narration to me. He has ADHD and sensory issues, and has trouble coordinating handwriting and narration at the same time, so I write it down for him, then he types it to put in his notebook. (DD does her narration from the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, but she does that on her own, later in the day.) We do the mapwork, and I send them off to do a little bit of history reading from the Activity guide literature suggestions (we usually get a ton of history books at the library, so we spend a few days on the extra reading.) If a book is particularly long, but I feel like DS would get a lot out of it, I read it aloud to him.

 

Then, I spend the rest of the week feeling guilty for not doing the projects in the activity guide. :lol: We have done a few, but usually we are so rushed, I skip them and focus on the outside reading. My favorite part of SOTW is the great reading recommendations!

[NanceXToo]

Well, at my house, we only do SOTW in the summer. We started last summer and did I think the first 9 chapters of SOTW1. We stopped for the school year, and will be returning to it probably next week.

 

Here, with my then 8 and now 9 y/o, I read a chapter aloud to her. We do the narration and questions together.

 

Then...well I really don't schedule it at all. I didn't want to feel pressured to do any of this, I wanted it to be fun and educational summer learning activities. So really we just take our time and get through it as we get through it.

 

I'll get most of the recommended supplemental books from the library and we'll read them, always together, usually taking turns reading aloud. If they're short books more for younger kids we might read one or two books in a day. If they're longer, we just take our time and read it over a few days, a section or chapter or a few pages at a time.

 

She'll do the mapwork, with me looking on, and then the coloring page on her own (I forget now if last year I had her do that stuff before or after we finished the supplemental reading).

 

Then we look at the activities/hands on projects they suggest in the AG and we'll pick 1 or 2 of them to do and on a day that we are free to do it, we do it. Then in a day or two or when we're ready, we move on to the next chapter.

 

So it's fairly casual.

 

In the beginning, with chapter one, I had it in my head that we had to do every single activity in there. But then I found myself just sort of halted going "I don't want to do that activity yet," so we weren't doing anything at all. Finally I just gave myself permission to NOT do every.single.activity.in.the.book.

 

I told myself we'd just go with the flow and move at whatever pace felt comfortable and if there was an activity we wanted to do, we'd do it, and if there was one I didn't feel like dealing with, we'd just pass over it and keep going.

 

After that it went more smoothly and we just had fun :) And we did at least 1 of the activities per chapter but not all of them (we didn't mummify a chicken, for example lol).

[MIch elle]

SOTW 3:

 

Mon - listen to chapter on cd

Tues - listen to chapter on cd in car

Wed. - read KF/ do Cool History worksheet

Thurs - discussion questions & map & Google image and/or map search

Friday - SOTW test

 

History made easy! :D

[2_girls_mommy]

We do a chapter in 2 days. Day 1 we practice memorywork from the kingfisher encyclopedia. I read section 1 from SOTW. We are in vol. 2 this year. DC color the coloring sheet while they listen. I ask the comp. questions from the section, then write down dd7's narration. She then copies it into her handwriting.

 

Day 2 we practice memorywork, do the next section of SOTW 2 exactly as above. Plus we add the mapwork. At this time we try to do an activity. If it is a simple, no fuss one, we do it immediately. Yesterday it was potato stamps, and I knew my girls would love that. So we did SOTW first thing in the morning. Then we had lunch, did our other subjects, and then did the painting project. Sometimes if a session is going especially long, I will save the narration and have her copy it the next day first thing in the morning.

 

We do the extra reading at bedtime. And I assign some for silent reading.

[jen_white]

finished last year with SOTW series (with 12yr old son).

 

Day 1:

Read Chapter (with or without Audio)

Answer Questions on your own.

Check & correct with answer key.

 

Day 2:

Do map work

Do any activities assigned by me.

 

Day 3: Test, prepare/review timeline cards

 

we often did two Chapters per week to get in the 40 Chapters.

 

This was never too much work. Taught my kids early to work hard. :)

[patchfire]

How my dd approached it in 3rd & 4th grade is pretty different from how ds will be approaching it in K & 1st, so I'll run down both. :)

 

Dd - SOTW 3 & 4

The first day of the week that she did history, she'd read the entirety of the assigned chapter. Sometimes she had two assigned chapters. We moved over the course of 3rd and 4th grade from oral narrations & review questions to fully-developed one and two paragraph summaries. When she was at the summary stage, she also took basic notes right after reading. Then she also read in supplemental spines (we were adding in US history, plus the Usborne Book of World History). She read any supplemental books throughout the week. Mapwork was done on the second day of history in the week, along with completing her summary, if applicable.

 

Ds - SOTW 1 in K, SOTW 2 in 1st

First day of history, read one section. Pause, get a one sentence narration orally. I may or may not write it down, depending on how many I've written, etc. Do coloring page if it applies to that section.

Next day of history, read the second section. One sentence narration, again. Do coloring page if it applies here. Do mapwork.

Remainder of week: read any supplemental books and do any activities chosen.

 

We are not all that history-centered, though. :)

[lionfamily1999]

1. reading

2. map activities

3. timeline?

4. any activities/extra reading

 

1. Depends on the size of the chapter... We have History Mon, Wed, Friday. We read one section each class until the chapter is finished. We do the narrations/questions as soon as we've finished reading the section and then review them each class until we've moved onto the next chapter.

 

2. We do the map work the next class after we've finished reading the chapter.

 

3. I thought about doing the timeline, but it's in the "logic stage" according to TWTM and that's a good enough excuse for me not to do one.

 

4. Extra reading is either done during reading, or at bed time. If there are lots of resources, then ds gets to choose one to write a narration on and include in his history book, otherwise they're used for writing (narration and dictation) or he reads them, enjoys them and moves on without any extra work :)

We do many of the activities, usually on our map work days. Bigger projects may wait for the weekend and dh ;)

[MaMa2005]

Since we didn't start SOTW 1 until February, we (try to) do a lesson a day. I want to be able to start SOTW 2 when school starts back in August.

 

I read a section, DS narrates, I read, DS narrates, etc. Then we do the map and the coloring page. If times allows, an extra activity/book.

 

One thing that has helped is that DS loves to act out what we have read. He will get lego blocks, pencils, etc. and then re-enact what we just talked about. For example, we were reading about the Golden Apple and Zeus yesterday. DS got an apple, then Buzz Lightyear became Zeus, three other characters from Toy Story became the goddesses, etc. It really cements what we have read in his mind. Also, by him doing these re-enactments, we are able to get an entire lesson done as it gives him a break from just sitting and listening to me read.

[lailasmum]

we are about 2 1/2 weeks from finishing SOTW1.

 

We tend to read a chapter a week, reading the sections as we fancy over that week. We do some activities from the Activity guide and some colouring pages but not every week. We have done about half the questions, some times we just have a conversation about what we have read. We don't do the map work but aim to with the next volume.

 

We tend to add in activities from the step into series and read those books. Also we add in other books and documentaries if I can find them.

 

Some areas really caught our imagination and we spent a long time on Egypt.

 

All in all it will have taken about 10months to do that one volume.

[Mom_Abear]

We just finished SOTW 1 a couple of weeks ago, and I'm planning SOTW 2 right now - fun! :)

 

We do history twice a week, and this is how I break it down. I read 1 (or 2, if there are more than 2) section(s) on Day 1, and the other 1 (or 2) section(s) on Day 2. Each day, after the reading, I ask ds the review questions and let him narrate back to me. Whichever "day" the coloring page pertains to is the day ds colors while I read. If the information needed for mapwork is included in Day 1's reading, we'll do mapwork on Day 1, but if he needs the info from Day 2's reading, we do mapwork on Day 2. It's really quite simple, and usually works out where the coloring and mapwork fall on different days. :)

 

I do try to do an activity a week (some weeks, there's just not anything inspiring, though), and we start the activity on the day that I feel he has enough information to make the activity worthwhile. My Littles go to Mother's Day Out twice a week, so I also factor in their schedule to plan some of the harder activities for when it's just me and ds at home. Occasionally, an activity took us more than one afternoon, but that was rare.

 

I also try and have a supplemental reading (or two ... or three ... ;)) scheduled for each week and ready to go on my bookshelf! My son reads most of these independently, but next year, I'll have a Ker, so I'll be reading more aloud.

 

You've received lots of great ideas from all the other posters, too! Hope you can find a schedule that works for your family!

[Tonia]

We're still working through SOTW 1 here in a similar format to Carrie's (post above).

 

1 Chapter a week -

 

Day 1: Section 1 of the chapter (or two sections if there are three or more), coloring page or map (whichever applies to this section), review questions, narration, extra activity if one is included in activity guide

 

Day 2: Section 2 of the chapter (or sections three/four if there are more than two), coloring page or map (whichever we didn't get to on day 1), review questions, narration, paper doll (from Famous Figures of Ancient Times)

 

Day 3: Review cards, project or history pocket activity, read from encyclopedia or supplemental book from library.

 

I don't line up our literature selections by week. Instead I keep a list of literature divided into 6-week sections. So, when we started week 7 I ordered all the literature recommendations for weeks 7-12. I keep these in a basket and dd chooses one each evening for me to read aloud before bedtime. I don't mind that the books don't line up exactly with what we are studying.

[mcconnellboys]

I did do read aloud during the elementary years, but I'm letting my son read it on his own for logic stage. He outlines at least one section from each chapter he reads. You might have your younger students come and tell you about what they've read if they're reading it on their own. Or perhaps they could write down the most important 1-3 things they read in the chapter and you could compare what each of them found important.

 

We do the timeline in spurts, as we get time, and use it for review. We also tend to do the maps after the fact, several chapters at a time, for review.

 

We do tons of extra reading, both alone and aloud. For a couple of years, my son was into doing the coloring pages, but not now. We haven't done many of the activities just because I'm not a very hands-on, crafty person. We have found this year that we like doing lapbooks, and have done several of those to accompany the different time periods we've studied.

[brijen97]

We are on Story of the World 1 and my daughter is in first grade so we are still reading aloud. We read the chapter and either do review questions or narration. Sometimes if the chapter is long or she is not into it we spilt that into 2 days. The next day we do the map and the coloring page. She listens to the cd while doing the coloring page...the cds are so well done and sometimes I mispronounce things so it helps. The next day we dig through other books and do any of the activities that look good...this can extend into many days!! It worked well for us this year so we are planning on continuing this way next year.

 

Oops! I almost forgot...we are planning on going back and using the review cards to construct a timeline...or use them as an idea of how to construct a timeline this summer. This is still a fledgling idea in my head so who knows yet!!

[Renee in NC]

Read Chapter while they color. Go over review questions. Do map work. 12yo ds does test from test book. Occasionally do activity or extra reading from activity guide.

[orangearrow]

We did the first 2.5 volumes:

 

 

 

• I read a section
  

 

 

 

• Do narration and illustration
  

 

 

 

• After all sections in a chapter are completed, do mapwork
  
• Additional reading
  
• Any additional projects on Friday
  

 

 

This year, I had to change things up a bit. The narrations were just an incredible drag for our family. I gave it a good whirl, but this new system is working better for my kids.

 

 

 

• Jim Weiss reads a section
  
• I typed up the questions from the "review" section of the Student Activity Guide and the girls answer those questions. (had to type them up so they wouldn't immediately read the answers in the book!) The girls are free to use their books to retrieve this information.
  
• After all sections are complete, we do the mapwork
  
• Additional reading from selections in the activity guide are done throughout the week.
  
• We've nixed almost all of the additional projects. Too many other projects happening to make these happen.
  

 

[Pretty in Pink]

I began using SOTW + AG this year with my 1st grader. My 4yo likes to listen in on the reading and any activities that we do.

 

I aim to cover one chapter per week. We've been in volume 3 (because that is the year my oldest ds is in w/ TOG). I read aloud for ten minutes or so 2 to 3 times per week. The kids work on the coloring sheet while I do this. Once per week my 1st grader narrates to me and I record his thoughts.

 

We do the map work weekly as well (my ds really loves this part).

 

The activities are very hit and miss for us; some of them are too difficult for a 6yo and others he's not particularly interested in. For some reason he really likes the paper dolls though... :tongue_smilie:

 

So, that's it. We probably spend about 30 minutes on SOTW, 2 to 3 times per week.

[lmrich]

We listen to it during the last part of breakfast - you know the time that everyone is really done eating, but they don't want to get up from the table. I drink my coffee and will often pause the recording to discuss some points in more detail. Also my older two kids listen even though they have different history through their co-op classes.

 

We do the map work and write a narration on just one part.

 

I also started making her study guides on the last ten chapters to help prepare for her the test. This worked out great for her, and she is learning to be more independent.

 

This was for SOTW 2

[JadeOrchidSong]

We've been reading a chapter a day for two days a week along with SL Core 1 history books.

J