Would you switch history spine?

[Flaura]

I planned the whole fifth grade year to cover American History via the Hakim Books. We are 12 chapters into the first volume and ds doesn't enjoy them at all. He dislikes the writing style and asked to change. I am doing SOTW 1 with my dd who is in first grade. He asked to do the ancients with her. Would you switch? I have study guides for the Hakim books because I wanted to make it a rigorous history program for fifth grade. I am a little nervous about doing wtm style history without a guide. Any suggestions? Would you switch or make him finish out the books?

 

Thanks,

[scrapbabe]

Well, I may not be the best person to ask. But we have the Hakim books and every time I pull them out and read I want to scream. :banghead: I don't like the writing style at all. So we had to switch. If I hate it, I can't spend a whole year doing it. I'm a switcher though, if I absolutely know it's not going to work... or I'll be pulling teeth. It's not worth the struggle. I'd sell them and move on. But I'm sure some people will say "stick with it".

 

Good luck whatever you choose.

 

Smiles,

Shalynn

[Jean in CA]

My dd did the study guides for some of these at age 12 and found them challenging....

 

Sonlight curriculum uses Hakim at the 100 level, equivalent to their "8th grade."

 

We used Abeka's spine to cover U.S. history for our first pass and the level and content seemed to work out fine. There are some chapter questions at the end of each section.

 

I've always combined my dc on history.... we love talking about the same things together. It is also easier for mom to keep up with the subject matter :).

 

If he wants to join in on Ancient history, you might look into supplementing with Helene Guerber's Story of the Greeks, Story of the Romans, etc. My ds loved these and the style reminds of a bit of Story of the World, but with more detail.

[mom31257]

My dd is doing them now in 8th grade. My understanding is that the first few books are written to a younger audience, but the author adjusts that in later books. If the book are going to get more difficult, you might want to hold off.

 

I like the idea of keeping my kids together. I want my brain to at least be on similar topics. If you have him start Ancients in 5th, you could let him listen in on SOTW, then get a spine like Kingfisher and have him do outlining. You could always add in historical fiction as well.

 

You could also use Hakim in 7th and 8th grade when you get to those time periods in history.

[Flaura]

My dd is doing them now in 8th grade. My understanding is that the first few books are written to a younger audience, but the author adjusts that in later books. If the book are going to get more difficult, you might want to hold off.

 

I like the idea of keeping my kids together. I want my brain to at least be on similar topics. If you have him start Ancients in 5th, you could let him listen in on SOTW, then get a spine like Kingfisher and have him do outlining. You could always add in historical fiction as well.

 

You could also use Hakim in 7th and 8th grade when you get to those time periods in history.

 

This is a good idea! I could keep all my material to use later. Now, I just need to figure out how to make SOTW fifth grade level work.

Thanks!

[DarlaS]

This is a good idea! I could keep all my material to use later. Now, I just need to figure out how to make SOTW fifth grade level work.

Thanks!

 

Is it US History or A History of US he's having trouble getting into? I am liking All American History much better. Not so chatty, and just about right for 5th grade. It's also conveniently divided into 32 chapters/lessons which should nicely cover the rest of this school year.

[Flaura]

He says it is specifically the Hakim books. He doesn't like how she writes and says that there are too many rhetorical questions. The first few chapters also had a recurring time capsule theme which he apparently thought went on far too long.

 

I will look into this spine.

 

Thanks,

[HollyDay]

I've got Hakim's books as a support text for SOTW vol 4. I do not use them as my primary spine. I agree with other posters that the style is not something I would like in a primary spine. All American history looks interesting. BF does a fairly good job of literature approach to US History.

[regentrude]

Yes, if he really dislikes it, I would switch and save myself and my child the pain of dragging along for a year with a hated book.

Not every curriculum works for every child. One of the freedoms of homeschooling is that you can chose what works and discard what does not.

5th grade is too young, IMO, to insist on sticking it out with a textbook that is not a good fit.

[Mallory]

My 5th grader is using SOTW 1 this year. It is going so much better than when we did it 4 years ago. I am glad I didn't buy any thing new or try to plan my own.

 

Since the content is on the easy side, it gives us a chance to really work on skills with history. We haven't started on outlining yet (we are working up to it), but he has been writing nice narrations of several sentances and getting pretty good at editing his own writing too.

[Matryoshka]

He says it is specifically the Hakim books. He doesn't like how she writes and says that there are too many rhetorical questions. The first few chapters also had a recurring time capsule theme which he apparently thought went on far too long.

 

I don't like the style/layout of the History of US books- they give me a headache. If you want to stick with US history, maybe look into the Drama of American History series? There have been many threads about it here if you do a search...

[amys]

I'm using SOTW 3 with my 5th grader this year, and am using the corresponding chapters from Hakim's series to accompany it. We'll see how he likes it; haven't started since we're actually still finishing up SOTW 2 from last year! If he hates Hakim, I would (will) probably hold onto the books and use them later on, and find other books to beef up the American history part of our studies (maybe the "Drama of..." series that I've read good things about.)

[Flaura]

I don't like the style/layout of the History of US books- they give me a headache. If you want to stick with US history, maybe look into the Drama of American History series? There have been many threads about it here if you do a search...

 

I'll check those out.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Stacy in NJ]

I'd hold off on them for a couple/few years.

 

Since your youngest is doing Ancients with SOTW I, how about continuing with the logic stage history rotation? You can have your 5th grader read the corresponding sections and begin to outline from either Kingfisher or Usborne, and then fold him into the SOTW reading with your first grader. If your using the the SOTW AG, this should be supper easy. If not, have a look at History Odyssey level 2 for Ancients.

 

http://www.pandiapress.com/history_odyssey.htm#ancients

[karensk]

This is a good idea! I could keep all my material to use later. Now, I just need to figure out how to make SOTW fifth grade level work.

Thanks!

 

- Assign extra independent reading for the same period: Rosemary Sutcliff books, other books from the WTM list for 5th grade history, a few biographies.

 

- Assign the narrations in written form instead of oral (or after your discussion time and after he gives an oral narration).

 

- Assign outlines and summaries on some of the independent reading (described in WTM logic stage history).

 

- Maintain a timeline.

 

- Do the same mapwork in SOTW-1 AG.

 

- Take the SOTW-1 Tests.

 

I wouldn't necessarily try do all of these things, but some combination that works for you. We didn't do nearly as much writing as is suggested for 5th grade history in WTM, but ds still learned and writes pretty well now. And he didn't actually start outlining until 7th grade.

 

HTH!

[amys]

Well, I'm back to report that my 5th grader HATES the Story of US (oh, I'm so glad I have the whole set! :tongue_smilie:) He said it was boring, and he doesn't like the way she writes. He requested that we just stick with SOTW. I need more American history to supplement, so luckily for me, my library carries the "Drama" series!

 

I'm using SOTW 3 with my 5th grader this year, and am using the corresponding chapters from Hakim's series to accompany it. We'll see how he likes it; haven't started since we're actually still finishing up SOTW 2 from last year! If he hates Hakim, I would (will) probably hold onto the books and use them later on, and find other books to beef up the American history part of our studies (maybe the "Drama of..." series that I've read good things about.)

[Flaura]

I'm glad ds is not the only one. He actually took the books over to dh last night and after showing him what he didn't like dh agreed to let him switch to a new spine. I'm looking at k12 human odyssey to read while we go through SOTW with dd.

[Veritaserum]

My fifth grader is doing SOTW 1 with us and is also doing K12's Human Odyssey. I put together a literature program for her using TWTM reading list. So far so good. She likes the Human Odyssey book and the first literature book I had her read.

 

Before I found inexpensive copies of the K12 books I was going to just have her do SOTW 1 with us and additional pages from Usborne or Kingfisher for outlining. :)

[Flaura]

That's good to know. K12 said the text is appropriate for 7th grade so I was wondering if it would be too much for fifth.