Have you/are you able to combine 5 yrs. of VP into 3 yrs.?

[everlastingstarflower]

We're going to be finishing SOTW next summer and I will have 4th - 6th grade to teach a history curriculum to my dd. (I like to plan ahead.) If I would have known about VP earlier, we wouldn't have even done SOTW but, I just found out about it and I really would like to use it for those 3 grades. Is it possible to do 5 years in 3 or is it a pipe dream? If you've done it, how did you make it work? One of my saving graces is that we hs year round so I have the summers to work with too. I'd like to start Omnibus when she's in 7th grade. Any advice and help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Also, I'm not sure whether we'd be doing the history & bible together or if it would just be the history portion. I'm not opposed to doing both but, if it would make it easier to just do the history then I'd definitely consider that......unless it's easier to combine them.....oh, help me decide!?! :willy_nilly:

[frogpond1]

And I plan on doing the next 3 years in 2 more years, but haven't put it together yet.

 

History & Reading by week: (Each of these are topics from VP 1&2 in order.)

Creation/Fall/Cain and Abel/Flood

Tower of Babel/Unification of Lower & Upper Egypt

Old Kingdom Egypt, Book of the Dead, Pyramids, First Intermediate period

Call of Abraham, God's Covenant with Abraham

Hagar and Ishmael, Sodom & Gomorrah, The Birth and sacrifice of Isaac

The Middle Kingdom in Egypt, Joseph as slave, Famine in Egypt

The Twelve Tribes of Israel/Second Intermediate Period in Egypt

Code of Hammurabi/Hyksos Invasion of Egypt

Early New Kingdom in Egypt/Moses's birth/Plagues in Egypt

The Exodus/Ten Commandments

Amenhotep IV/Monotheism/Reign of Tutankhamon

Later New Kingtom/Davidic Kingdom

Solomon's Reign/Alexander the Great Conquers Egypt

Egypt Falls to Rome/ Egyptian Feast Tuesday

Minoan Culture/Mycenaen Culture

Trojan War

Phonecian Civilization/ Israel Divides into two Kingdoms

Homer and Greek Mythology/ The Olympics

The Founding of Rome

Greece Colonized/Democracy Begins

Israel and Judah Fall

Prophets of God, Roman Republic Developed

Persian Wars

Pericles and the Peloponnesian War

Greek Philospophers/ Nehemiah and the Jewish Return

Alexander the Great/Architectural Advances in Rome

Rome rises to World Power/ Reign of Julius Caesar

Reign of Caesar Augustus/Birth of Christ

Ministry of John the Baptist/Ministry of Christ

Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ,

Rome burns, Nero Persecutes Christians

Destruction of Jerusalem, Pompeii Burns

Split of the Roman Empire/ Constantine and the Edict of Milan

The First Council of Nicea/ End of the Western Roman Empire

[Rebecca77]

I'm doing year's 5 and 6 next year so I can get through american history in one year. No teacher manual though. I'll just be using two cards a week with most of the spine readings, and then read-alouds from sonlight core 3+4.

 

I think you'd definitely have to be flexible, and just pick and choose stuff, because the teacher manual has alot of activities and projects that correspond to the literature and the history. The Bible curriculum does as well.

[MaMa2005]

We are doing SOTW 2 this year. I have it already planned out in HST+. We start school on August 2 and only do history twice a week. Following our local school calendar (fall break, thanksgiving break, etc.) we will finish the book on January 20. Looking at that, I think it is easily doable to finish more than one book a year, especially if you school year round.

[everlastingstarflower]

Thanks for your input. We have only finished SOTW I and were going to cram SOTW II & III into this summer/fall/winter/spring to do SOTW IV next summer and then start with VP 2 in 4th grade. My head has been spinning (and hurting) over how we're going to squeeze this all together and then after reading other people's posts who were asking about combining SOTW and VP together, I had my eureka moment.

 

Why can't I just use SOTW as a resource text for VP? I could use the activity guide for the maps since it seems that from what I've read VP doesn't have maps. We're doing a separate art program so I don't want to spend a lot of time on crafts but, my dc love the SOTW coloring pages so we could use some of the coloring pages with the VP lessons and just integrate the whole thing. Then we'd only have to do 2nd & 3rd grade together this year and by next year, we'd be doing 4th grade IN 4th grade, ect., ect.

 

I talked it over with my dh because I thought I'd already bought most of what I needed for this school year and I needed to make sure he was o.k. with the extra money needed to purchase the VP supplies and he was all for it! :thumbup: I'm also thankful that Bible can be incorporated with it because we've been doing a separate Bible curriculum and I haven't done a very good job of teaching the kids how it affects history and life in general. I think this combo will help me do a better job of streamlining and teaching more effectively. I feel like the spiritual aspect has been tacked on the end and that's not what either of us wants. What a relief!

 

I talked with the kids about the change and they're excited about the new curriculum, too. I don't know why I didn't think of this before.....

[SilverMoon]

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Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[PeterPan]

Your kids are a year apart? What grades are you calling them this fall? It's sort of getting lost in the shuffle for me. If they're pretty close in ability, you might find it more sensible to combine them for Omnibus, starting their 7th/8th gr years. That means you have plenty of time to complete two WTM-style cycles. I've used the VP history (in my own fashion) since dd was 1st grade, and personally I wouldn't ditch SOTW for you right now, not when it's working so well. SOTW2 is better for these ages than VP MARR. I would keep going with SOTW2 and just add on the memory songs. You can review the songs from OTAE and NTGR, but remember you're COMING BACK later!!!

 

Are you thinking you're going to do the Scholars lessons? If you are, they'll talk you through how to sequence your kids. As I said though, unless you're going to do them for Omnibus online, you might be much happier waiting a year and combining them. That of course makes your history calculation very different from what you were thinking. :)