How did you make SOTW4 work for your younger children?

[dcjlkplus3]

I'm starting to plan for next year - I'll be doing SOTW4 with a 4th grader (9dd), 2nd grader (7dd) and kindergartener (5ds just wants to do what sissies do).

 

I already got the activity guide and am very excited about the outline completion (as opposed to narration) for my oldest, but wondering if it is too advanced for my middle one and if I should try and just do some kind of simple narration for her.

 

So... how did you make SOTW4 work for your younger children?

[s.z.ichigo]

SOTW 4 seems to be expecting a lot more retention than my fourth grader is capable of. I can't picture doing it with a 2nd grader at all. I would do that same sort of stuff that SOTW 1 and 2 do...simple review questions and narration. The outline is pretty tough, and from my experience (with the first 14 chapters or so) the prompts are way too open ended for a kid to come up with the answer the book is looking for.

[whitestavern]

We are about 1/4 of the way through SOTW4. I have a dd10 and ds almost 8. I purchased Biblioplan to go along with it so I could get some book ideas for my younger. I found it a little tough to line up Biblioplan, and probably should've just tried to find books for him at the library, but oh well. There were some interesting writing prompts for my dd. Definitely purchase the coloring pages, if your dc enjoy that, as they are now available.

 

FWIW, dd had a lot of trouble with the outlining (I agree with what the above poster noted) and when school starts up again we will be going back to narration. So far ds hasn't had too much trouble following along. We stopped and took lots of extra time for the Civil War. Hope this helps some.

[Lori in MS]

The outlines are really for grades 5-8. I don't require my dc younger than 4th grade to do SOTW 4 at all. I used MFW's 2nd-3rd grade supplement but you could just get books that go along with the time period. Focus on presidents, other famous people, inventors, etc instead of all the wars.

[Mallory]

We are just finishing SOTW 4 with a 3rd and 4th grader, and I agree. It was hard and not nearly as much fun as the other years.

 

I also tried to do some of the outlines, and quickly gave up and went back to narrations. We also skipped a lot more chapters in this one than we have in the others.

 

We did really like the timeline figures though!

[Angel]

I didn't. ;)

 

I had done a lot of reading on this board about SOTW 4 and the general consensus was (then) that it was not intended for students younger than 4th grade. So we skipped it entirely for my then 2nd grader and her older sister did it by herself. She'll come back to that time period when she is ready for it. There is so much heavy history for younger kids in that time period.

[dcjlkplus3]

I had done a lot of reading on this board about SOTW 4 and the general consensus was (then) that it was not intended for students younger than 4th grade. So we skipped it entirely for my then 2nd grader and her older sister did it by herself. She'll come back to that time period when she is ready for it. There is so much heavy history for younger kids in that time period.

If you skipped SOTW4 for your younger kids, what did you have them do for history instead? Mine all really like doing history together.

 

This year (with SOTW3) we usually try to cover 1 chapter a week (some weeks get 2 chapters). I usually have the oldest read the chapter on her own on Mondays and the younger 2 listen to it. On Tuesday, Wed and Thurs they all listen to chapter (often 2x) and we do the coloring pages one (or more days), we do the review questions all together. I have the younger daughter (7) narrate to me while the older does it on her own and we all (even the 5yo) do the maps together.

 

I can have my 7yo (2nd grade next year) do narrations instead of the outlining - I just need to relook into what kind/level of narration is expected for that age. I am planning on following the same kind of schedule for next year. We will be getting the coloring pages (they all enjoy them) and the tests (for the oldest only).

[Erica in OR]

We did it last year with a 4th grader and 2nd grader. It was less than ideal, to be sure. We did what we've done with SOTW through the four book cycle, listening to one chapter a week from the CD (usually broken into two days), do the map (typically with help from the globe/atlas/mom since the book expects more from you for the maps), and each narrate at their own level if something was particularly gripping from that chapter. We added in the outlines, although it required a lot of "what are you listening for next?" prompts, and stopping the CD at the appropriate point to go back over material. We chose projects and supplemental reading from the activity guide as it struck our fancy.

 

We made it through the end of World War II, with several weeks spent on studying our state, as recommended in TWTM.

 

So, it's doable, but not the greatest setup.

 

Erica in OR