How do you Teach "The Story of the World"?

[Virginia82]

I just received my copy of "Story of the World Vol 1" and I'm wondering how you break it down to teach? I've been looking through it, and I'm trying to figure out how to break it down for our weekly assignments. I'm working on our school planning for the year, and am not sure how much of the book I should cover each week. There are 42 chapters, but 36 weeks in the school year...so how do y'all do it?

 

Are there some chapters that take less time and I could do more 2 chapters at that time? Do you figure out which chapters you want to spend more time on, and if so...which?

 

I'm overwhelmed trying to figure this out.

[OleanderRain]

I just saw this discussed the other day....here it is! HTH

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197382&highlight=SOTW

[NanceXToo]

I think a chapter a week is pretty reasonable (make sure you check with your library a couple of chapters in advance each week to see if they have the supplemental reading materials; if not, they may have to order from interlibrary loan, and that takes a while).

 

For me, some chapters take more than one week because we do a decent amount of the supplemental reading and like to take our time with the crafts and whatnot... so I wouldn't try to do more than one chapter a week personally.

 

...but you could always continue into the summer or start SOTW before the rest of your school year. My daughter and I do most of SOTW over the summer anyway, and we usually have fun with it.

[~Kirsten~]

We started our new school year with SoTW1 in June, and as a general rule, we're doing one chapter per week. We did spend an extra week on chapter 4, which is Old Kingdom Egypt, as we made a mummy and had a lot of extra reading to go along with it. But the previous chapter had only one section, so that one went faster. As I've paged through the text, it seems that there are at least a few chapters that only have one section, and thus, for us at least, we'll move a little faster.

 

We do one section of a chapter at a sitting, and if there's an activity from the guide that relates, like a map or coloring page, we do that, too. So mostly, we do history 2x per week. I also think you could do 3x some weeks, to squeeze those short chapters in, if you really wanted to get through it in 36 weeks. We school year round, though, so I'm not too worried about pacing. When we have a lot of supplemental readings, or when we want to go deeper, we'll slow down. If there's little extra, or if my daughter is really wanting to hear a little more, we'll go a little faster or add an extra day.

 

The chapter sections really make nice breaking points for us, so hopefully that will work for you as well.

 

Do you by any chance have the Activity Guide? I really love it and find the review questions helpful, not to mention the coloring pages and project ideas. That could help you with planning, too. If you know there's a project you simply *must* do, you know to schedule that. HTH a bit! :001_smile:

[Mom_Abear]

I generally do one chapter per week. Some weeks I double up and do two chapters if I don't have any supplemental reading or activities planned. Other chapters I may stretch out over two or even three weeks if I have lots of extra reading to cover and projects to work on.

 

I posted in the spring how I plan SOTW ... here's the link to the blog post!

 

Hope this helps! Enjoy learning alongside your child ... it's an amazing journey!

[ShutterBug]

We don't use SOTW as our primary history curriculum but we do enjoy listening to the audio CD's as a supplement :) .

[Satori]

I think one chapter a week is our plan. We want to do at least one hands-on activity per chapter, but I recently decided not to have that hold us up in case we don't get to that every week. So we'll stick to a chapter a week, and maybe do a huge project week to catch up on a bunch of activities.

 

I organized all our SOTW plans and photo-blog as we do the fun stuff.

[Bright_Future]

I think it depends on what your plans are for SOTW. Are you using the AG? Are you doing the review questions and narrations for every chapter and/or every section of the chapter? Are you using the tests?

 

We do the SOTW with the AG. This year I bought the tests but I am not stressing over them, they are mostly to use to learn to take standardized type of tests for the future. I will read a section of the chapter or the whole chapter depending on additional books I want to read. We always do the mapping (that is one of my son's favorite parts). I do the review questions orally most times and oral narrations less often.

 

You could easily do two chapters in one week because you are not required nor do you need to do the extras to get something out of the book. My kids just love to hear it read. As my son gets older he smuggles the book to his bed and reads ahead of me :glare:.

 

If you are going to use the AG look ahead and find the extra books you might want to read or projects to do and then plan accordingly. And if you miss something the first go around, don't stress, you can pick it up on the next cycle. Just reading the book alone with be more history education most school give even in high school-that's experience talking.

[patchfire]

I went through and determined for which chapters I wanted to include more supplemental reading, especially with regards to history (versus literature). Then I sat down and looked at the lightest chapters, and combined where possible. For SOTW 1, I also do the introduction over the summer. That got us to thirty-six weeks.

 

For SOTW 1, specifically, I tend to do the chapters I think of as religious during the weekend, and that takes them out of the schedule as well.

[Aubrey]

I pick out 2-6 of the BEST ch's (or topics) & "skip" them, ie, fake my kids out--I plan those for holidays because they're so fun. So right now? We're reading thr all of the Little House on the Prairie books, playing "pioneer" in our sunbonnets, growing a garden, doing an Oregon Trail simulation, etc. Because it's summer "vacation." :lol:

 

One yr, we did Greek Olympics, gingerbread Parthenon, etc for ds's bday party. :D If I had lots of energy, I'd do a period-Christmas or Thanksgiving. Maybe when they're bigger. But you get a lot of hands-on punch for a short period of time that way.

 

(Last summer was the Revolutionary War. Spring "break" was about a month long, & we did the Civil War.) Oh! Now I'm feeling guilty. Must find another thread..:leaving:

Edited July 29, 2010 by Aubrey

[Wee Pip]

I'm the LAMEST SOTW Mom Ever...

(Hanging head in shame)

Here's what we did:

 

I sat at the table with kids during lunch and read 1/2 a chapter per day, 4 times per week. This got us thru 2 chapters per week. Occasionally got books from the library, occasionally tried doing narration, mapwork, etc. Ditched it within a few weeks. I'm lazy.

 

Here's how we use SOTW now:

 

I hand the book to the kids and say: "here, read 1/2 a chapter". And then later I might say, "what was that about?" History? Check! Next subject. We get through the book at a good clip and don't feel like we're dragging thru it. I have high hopes of doing something more this year for book3, but don't count on it...

[crimsonkelley]

Hmmm - I didn't realize there were 36 weeks in a school year - shhhh, don't tell my kids!!! :lol:

 

We would read 1 chapter a week. I would put the library books on hold several weeks ahead of time so they would be there for that week. I usually sit down at the computer and put about 3 or 4 weeks worth of books on hold.

 

I put all the library books in our library basket as we picked them up. Normally when I would sit down to read a book my kids would say they had already read it. However, I usually found one or two we could do as a read aloud.

 

As I read, they would do a coloring sheet. At the end of the week, we would do the map work. (My 2nd grader still can't spell, but he definitely knows where the Nile River is!!) :001_smile: They also did a narration sheet.

 

SOTW is so much fun and easy to read! I'm sure you can easily combine a few chapters (maybe the ones on India or Japan) or just read a few chapters for "fun", but not require any narration pages or mapwork.

 

Best of luck!

[happymomma]

We are doing 2 chapters a week and adding in about 25 or so Mystery of History chapters (ones I think are important and that do not overlap SOTW--creation, ice age, noah and the flood, adam and eve, abraham, moses, Jesus' ministry, death and resurrection and a few others in the old testament--just enough to bring God into our history study but not so it's so overwhelming. LOVING it so far!

[Twilight Woods]

I dont have my copy yet of SOTW but for "supplemental reading" is their a suggested basic list provided with the book?

[mamachanse]

I dont have my copy yet of SOTW but for "supplemental reading" is their a suggested basic list provided with the book?

 

Yes. Included with each chapter.

[boscopup]

Here's how we started doing SOTW1 a few weeks ago:

 

- I made a "schedule" page for each week in Word. It has a table at the top with either 1, 2, or 3 days, depending on how many sections are in the chapter. Most chapters have 2 sections.

 

 

• On day one, we have the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History pages listed (usually a 2 page spread), the first section of the SOTW chapter, and a narration... maybe a coloring page (not that my son colors it... he tends to draw things with it).
  
• On day 2, I have the 2nd section of the SOTW chapter, a narration, and mapwork listed.
  

 

- Below that table, I list the mapwork instructions (from the AG), so my son can do the mapwork independently. It's mostly things like coloring a section or circling a name on the map or putting an X on the name. Very easy stuff for a first grader.

- Below that, I list any books that my library has (from the AG recommendations). There are usually about 2 books available. I stick these on the "library book shelf", which is kind of like my "book basket". My son can read these at will. If it's a read-aloud, we'll read it together. Most of the books he can read himself though.

-Below that, I list one project that we intend to do that week. Sometimes it will be elaborate, but most times not. I picked things I thought would actually get done - like the games or building stuff with Legos. I did do the chicken mummy.... well, it's still sitting on my fridge drying out.

 

Yes, there are 42 chapters. I don't school 36 weeks though. We go year round. So 42 weeks will be easy for us to do. We also did a chapter during our last "break", as my son wanted to, so that might also be an option. SOTW is fun.

 

I made narration pages for each chapter in Startwrite, so it uses HWT lines and has cool pictures to go with each narration.

 

With all this done (I did 10 chapters' worth, so that will get me to the next break and a little beyond... I'll do the next set during that break), history is super easy to get done. The SOTW sections don't take very long to read and narrate (I use the AG for leading questions). The extra books are mostly picture books, so they're short. The mapwork is easy. The project is usually fairly short and easy. I'm not by any means trying to "do it all". We'll go through this again, and I'll have a K-1st grader next cycle through, so any projects we miss, we can always do at that time, and my oldest would probably get more out of it then anyway. We did the Assyrian Siege Tower out of Legos last week, and it ended up being ME building the tower. DS was too busy playing with the Legos and forgot about the siege tower. :tongue_smilie: He did build some walls for the siege tower to take out, and he played with my siege tower. I think he would have gotten just as much out of the history if we'd not bothered with the siege tower, and most of the activities feel like that to me (or maybe it's just his learning style - he's really not a hands on learner... he tends to think abstractly pretty well), so I'm not worried if we don't do any hands on activities one week. They are fun activities if we get to them, but my son tends to learn MOST from just reading books himself and looking at the pictures. So handing him the Usborne book and the SOTW book to read himself works wonders (I didn't actually hand him the SOTW book... he picked it up on his own and read quite a bit ahead... he loves it!).

 

I dont have my copy yet of SOTW but for "supplemental reading" is their a suggested basic list provided with the book?

 

It's in the Activity Guide, not the SOTW book itself.

[anneofalamo]

I'm the LAMEST SOTW Mom Ever...

(Hanging head in shame)

Here's what we did:

 

I sat at the table with kids during lunch and read 1/2 a chapter per day, 4 times per week. This got us thru 2 chapters per week. Occasionally got books from the library, occasionally tried doing narration, mapwork, etc. Ditched it within a few weeks. I'm lazy.

 

Here's how we use SOTW now:

 

I hand the book to the kids and say: "here, read 1/2 a chapter". And then later I might say, "what was that about?" History? Check! Next subject. We get through the book at a good clip and don't feel like we're dragging thru it. I have high hopes of doing something more this year for book3, but don't count on it...

 

I love you!! I too am lame!

WE started SotW 1 all fired up! I would read, they do narration, a few maps, did History Pockets for rome and greece, and we did some activities, colored a bit, uhm lets go outside! ha hah

Then came winter and the blahs, we finished it in March, they twice a week read out loud to each other(one book and as they didn't care for the CDs), and then they did the test together, arguing and discussing the answers. Then one (I have 3 in same grade) would be the checker of the answers, read them back.

We finished, and it was not enjoyable for me, in the organization or the story. But, I think it is good for them to have. So, this year I am doing History Odyssey lev1 medieveal with my youngest 2, who don't enjoy History, but have a good attitude, and my son, who devours History will do level 2. It looks a bit more structured for this mom.

[2_girls_mommy]

We keep SOTW going over the summer, even if we have finished everything else for the year. MOst of the year we aim for 1 chapter a week. I do it 2x a week, 1 section at a time. I read the 1st section aloud as they color. Then I ask the comp. questions aloud and we discuss. Then I take each child's narration. DD8 takes hers to copy onto her own paper to put in her notebook. I print dd6's, but give her 1 important sentence from it to copy in her best writing. We put it all in the notebook.

 

2nd session: Same as above, but usually the coloring sheet is already done. If so, there may be another something or other they can color like an activity page of paper dolls or something. Sometimes my dd6 will just bring any old coloring book or draw a picture to go along. Then we add mapwork, and get out the globe. Because this is a longer session, a lot of time, dds will copy the narration the next day instead of at this time. If there is a short project and time we will do one. Since this makes a long session, we only do the short ones that involve paper for the most part. We are in vol. 3 and the # of projects is way down from vol.1-2 anyway. In those years I schedule a 3rd day of history for the projects, or we did some during art time over a couple of weeks. Sometimes we do a fun battle reenactment or something at a different time.

 

I get as many extra books as I can from the library. I put them in our library box and they get read as bedtime stories or during lunch throughout the week. DD8 picks a couple of the biographical novels for her reading. Occasionally I assign her one that I think she needs to read. Some never get read, as we sometimes get many on the same topic, and I pick the one that will work best.

[cschnee]

Seems like I am the odd one out here...It's taken us almost 2 years to do each SOTW book. We do a lot of extras and not just what's in the AG. We almost always do some sort of cooking and read myths and tales from the country in question, watch videos, etc...

 

At the end of SOTW 3, we started Canadian history (wow, we're young, that's where "we" fit in naturally!) and with SOTW 4, it's going to take us 3 years, as we alternate Canadian history/geography with the chapters in SOTW.

 

All this to say, that there is no ONE WAY to do SOTW. You find what works for you and your family, and go from there.

[littlebug42]

SOTW and history are a highlight in history for my kids so I have actually just decided to take our time through them. The particularly loved Ancient Greek stuff so we stayed there for a while. We did lots of supplementary reading etc. We always do the mapwork as they love that. They also love the coloring pages from the AG. We throw in some of the activities. We went to the art museum to see some Ancient Greek pieces. Now, we are moving more quickly through some of the other stuff like India which they just don't find as interesting. I am going to supplement some of the American History stuff with some American Girl stuff as they love that as well. We just decided that we are going to proceed through it at our own pace and that may likely take longer than 4 years but they are getting so much out of it that I don't want to rush.

[lindsrae]

LOVE these ideas!

[joysworld]

When we start it, we are just going to do it as we feel like it. If in one chapter they are really enjoying and want to camp out there, then we will. If they breeze through it, and are ready to go to the next section, we will. I'll just follow their lead with it. I also will not schedule out our school years. When we finish our books or a year has passed (which ever comes first), we've finished our 'grade.' :D I also don't schedule time off. We make do 'school' for three weeks straight, 6 weeks straight, etc, and then we decide to have a break, we'll take one. It may last a few days to a few weeks. Not sure if this helps you, but that's our plan:)

[Jen+4dc]

My IRL friend explained to me last week how she did SOTW and now I'm so sad I didn't do it this same way!!:glare::

 

At the beginning of the year they read straight through SOTW, the entire volume, 1 chapter a day. (If the chapter is particularly long they might spread it over two days). This allows the beautiful narrative flow to continue through the whole book and provides a wonderful overview of Ancient/Medieval/etc.

 

Then, they go back and spend time reveling in/enjoying certain aspects. For example, they read all the way through SOTW vol. 1 (took about 2 months) then they spent about a month in Ancient Egypt. They read Landmark Pharoahs, bios of King Tut, Ramses, Cleopatra, etc. Played Egyptian games, made a model Nile River, etc. etc. Then, they spent about a month in Ancient Greece, having a mock Olympics, learning Greek letters, reading historical fiction that takes place in Ancient Greece, etc. Then another month in Ancient Rome, then Ancient China, etc.

 

This gives a wonderful overview of the flow of history and still allows some immersion in the cultures you find the most fascinating. Then, you go back through the major cultures and the kids get a double exposure: "Remember when we read about Sparta, how they were such a warlike society?...

and you reinforce what they previously learned.

 

We're going to try it next year. I'm afraid it won't work as well with vol 3 (where we'll be in the rotation) as vol 1, but it sounds better to me than trying to cram everything in and rarely getting my supplemental library books on time and never having time for the fun AG projects because I'm trying to make sure UILE of KHE gets read and timeline gets done and supplemental reading gets done, along with math, LA, science, etc. etc.

 

HTH:D

[mamatohaleybug]

We're doing SOTW Vol 1 right now. At first, we were all gung ho, planning to do everything in the Activity Guide, mapwork, library books, other supplemental literature, online activities, movies, etc. It didn't take long to realize that those things weren't working for us. My DD(8) is an auditory learner. She had no interest in the "fun" things. In fact, all of the "fun" things I had planned this year did nothing but agitate her and make my life miserable.

 

Between SOTW, Usborne World History and all of my supplemental lit, we read/study history every day but we don't do any hands on activities now. I read, we discuss, we look at our maps. Done. We're both happier.

 

As for scheduling, we just spend as much time as we want on things (2 weeks on ancient China just now). Instead of racing through it, we're enjoying digging deep. All schedules flew out the window this year. :D

[joyfulhomeschooler]

I think one chapter a week is our plan. We want to do at least one hands-on activity per chapter, but I recently decided not to have that hold us up in case we don't get to that every week. So we'll stick to a chapter a week, and maybe do a huge project week to catch up on a bunch of activities.

 

I organized all our SOTW plans and photo-blog as we do the fun stuff.

 

I just LOVE your blog! You are so creative with your go along ideas!!!

[Erika in TX]

:iagree: You're making your homeschool so fun and memorable! Good job!

[RahRah]

When we start it, we are just going to do it as we feel like it. If in one chapter they are really enjoying and want to camp out there, then we will. If they breeze through it, and are ready to go to the next section, we will. I'll just follow their lead with it. I also will not schedule out our school years. When we finish our books or a year has passed (which ever comes first), we've finished our 'grade.' :D I also don't schedule time off. We make do 'school' for three weeks straight, 6 weeks straight, etc, and then we decide to have a break, we'll take one. It may last a few days to a few weeks. Not sure if this helps you, but that's our plan:)

 

:iagree:

 

We started the year off gung-ho about SOTW 1 - and DS loves it, but he's young and to always have to do history, week in, week out at this point - wasn't working as well as I'd hoped. I love history myself, but sometimes one just needs a breather, or wants to stay and learn more about a particular time period or place.....so we're now on a track of very flexible and it's working out way better for us overall. We're almost done with SOTW 1 (use the CD's and this is actually the second listen though - the first we did without doing anything else, just listened to the whole thing first, over about a month, then started again for the activities, mapping, supplemental books, etc.) and will do it all again with SOTW 2 starting in July!

[Mommee & Baba]

Thank you all for your input! We're beginning SOTW1 next year and I wanted to finish MOH1 since we stopped at chapter 42 last year...and I'm super excited to begin SOTW. I think for realistic purposes for our scheduling I will plan 1 chapter a week and we will begin with the intro stuff in June/July so we have a good start on it before our "school year" begins. We school year round as well so the 42 doesn't concern me but my girls are chomping at the bit to begin history!

[mama25angels]

My IRL friend explained to me last week how she did SOTW and now I'm so sad I didn't do it this same way!!:glare::

 

At the beginning of the year they read straight through SOTW, the entire volume, 1 chapter a day. (If the chapter is particularly long they might spread it over two days). This allows the beautiful narrative flow to continue through the whole book and provides a wonderful overview of Ancient/Medieval/etc.

 

Then, they go back and spend time reveling in/enjoying certain aspects. For example, they read all the way through SOTW vol. 1 (took about 2 months) then they spent about a month in Ancient Egypt. They read Landmark Pharoahs, bios of King Tut, Ramses, Cleopatra, etc. Played Egyptian games, made a model Nile River, etc. etc. Then, they spent about a month in Ancient Greece, having a mock Olympics, learning Greek letters, reading historical fiction that takes place in Ancient Greece, etc. Then another month in Ancient Rome, then Ancient China, etc.

 

This gives a wonderful overview of the flow of history and still allows some immersion in the cultures you find the most fascinating. Then, you go back through the major cultures and the kids get a double exposure: "Remember when we read about Sparta, how they were such a warlike society?...

and you reinforce what they previously learned.

 

We're going to try it next year. I'm afraid it won't work as well with vol 3 (where we'll be in the rotation) as vol 1, but it sounds better to me than trying to cram everything in and rarely getting my supplemental library books on time and never having time for the fun AG projects because I'm trying to make sure UILE of KHE gets read and timeline gets done and supplemental reading gets done, along with math, LA, science, etc. etc.

 

HTH:D

 

 

This is an excellent idea!

[mama25angels]

:iagree:

 

We started the year off gung-ho about SOTW 1 - and DS loves it, but he's young and to always have to do history, week in, week out at this point - wasn't working as well as I'd hoped. I love history myself, but sometimes one just needs a breather, or wants to stay and learn more about a particular time period or place.....so we're now on a track of very flexible and it's working out way better for us overall. We're almost done with SOTW 1 (use the CD's and this is actually the second listen though - the first we did without doing anything else, just listened to the whole thing first, over about a month, then started again for the activities, mapping, supplemental books, etc.) and will do it all again with SOTW 2 starting in July!

 

Love this idea :)

[Chris in VA]

Thank you all for your input! We're beginning SOTW1 next year and I wanted to finish MOH1 since we stopped at chapter 42 last year...and I'm super excited to begin SOTW. I think for realistic purposes for our scheduling I will plan 1 chapter a week and we will begin with the intro stuff in June/July so we have a good start on it before our "school year" begins. We school year round as well so the 42 doesn't concern me but my girls are chomping at the bit to begin history!

 

Just curious why you wouldn't go on to SOTW 2, since you've covered most of SOTW 1's subject matter in MOH. :001_smile:

[dietmom]

okay--we are so boring!! My DS just likes to read it--he is 10 yo and reads a chapter every day--and we have supplemental materials from the library to go along as needed especially for the visual aspects of it! But we started #1 in the fall and will finish #2 this spring. Maybe we'll slow it down next year!!