Heather in Neverland Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 which would you pick? I have brought SOTW in as our new history curriculum for grades 1-4. This year was a "pilot" year of sorts and next year we will be really doing it full out. The problem is we do 1/2 the year in history (18 weeks) and half in science. So we can only pick 18 chapters from each volume to do. So, keeping in mind that this is an international school with students from over 28 different countries and therefore cannot be completely american-centered, which 18 chapters would you pick out of each volume? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 That's hard, and I don't know if any of us can actually answer it for you. But I'll give it my best shot ;) One idea might be to schedule 2 chapters a week, but still do only a certain number of school work for each week. It could be up to the teacher or kids what chapters or sections actually get done. Or they could read or listen to both chapters, but only do one narration on one section, and a project from one section, and so on. Even then you still would have to just cut some. Does religion matter? Because there are some obviously Christian centered chapters, especially in vol. 1 that would be easy to drop (say chs. 6, 14, and 37). While I think all the different civilizations are one of the really nice parts of SOTW, I think you are just going to have to prioritize some civilizations. For SOTW 1, I think you would be best served doing the Egypt (ch. 2, 3, 4, 12, 13) , Greek (18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25), and Roman Chapters (27, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42). Even that was 22 chapters, but some would be easy to combine. It's been a long time since I've done 2 or 3 and we didn't make it through much of 4, so I'll let someone else put down some ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I would not even try to cut that much out. I would double up - read one section a day, which will usually get you through two 1/2 chapters.I would follow up with questions each day, map skills, and famous people for the time line. I absolutely would have the kids spend 20 minutes responding with a narration or a picture and keep it in a notebook or a binder. You could assign each kid to do a presentation on a certain historical figure and then throughout the year they could present to the class. I think you could make it work, if you look at the sections in the chapters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 hmmm.... I LOVE that I was able to bring SOTW into our school but I just cannot figure out how to fit it in...or fit more of it in. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy4ever Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Since it's just an introduction this year, and you'll be doing it completely next year, what about simply doing the readings? It's written narrative style and very enjoyable. My 2 older girls aren't using it, but when we pull it out they always listen to me read, or the CD(when I can get from the library). With dd7, I'm doing a coloring page when she wants to, and sometimes a map. I'm not doing it hard core. You could just read with them. Let them as a few questions, you ask them a few questions and move on. You could easily do a chapter a day, we've sometimes done 2 if the chapters were short. If you have the activity guides, you could consider reading one or two chapters a day Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs and doing one of the projects on Friday. That would get you through 4 chapters a week. Continue through summer just for the reading. But you won't get through 4 books. Cutting out 1/2 the chapters, you'll be missing alot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truebluexf Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Do you do each 4-5 days a week? I think SOTW is meant to be done twice a week anyway, so you could do it 4 days a week instead. I have to say I kind of like the idea of doing each for one semester though!!! Curious to hear how you do it. It sounds like it would be easier to really get into it all that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy4ever Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 My dd11 is just starting the cycle for the first time, late grade 6, as per WTM recommendations for late starters. We're planning on covering 1&2 by next June. She is working with the Pandia Press history to keep it fleshed out, and somewhat independent. DD7 is doing 1 a year. Then we'll likely do 1 per semester in grade 8, so then she's on track for the high school timetable of world history etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay3fer Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Forgive me for being dumb, but why can't you do science ALL the time (but less of it) and history ALL the time (but less of it)? It seems to me that with a six-month gap, kids will lose continuity, and that it might be better, if at all possible, to scale back one or the other or both so you could keep it up year-round. As a Canadian, I have not found anything "American-centric" yet, though I'm sure Volumes 3 and 4 will have more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam L in Mid Tenn Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Do you have the CDs? If so, you could listen to all the chapters while choosing 18 for the assignments. That way they are still getting the whole picture while studying only certain segments. I would choose chapters based upon the makeup of the class so that everyone learns something about their own heritage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Forgive me for being dumb, but why can't you do science ALL the time (but less of it) and history ALL the time (but less of it)? It seems to me that with a six-month gap, kids will lose continuity, and that it might be better, if at all possible, to scale back one or the other or both so you could keep it up year-round. Because there are only so many hours in a day. By the time we spend blocks of time on bible, math, reading, spelling, vocab, grammar, writing... then add in PE, art, music, foreign language, computers, library, lunch, recess and chapel... there isn't much time left over and I would rather them spend a block of time on one subject and go into it deeper than try to do both every day and not get much done at all. We actually rotate quarters. So they do 9 weeks of science then 9 weeks of history then 9 weeks of science then 9 weeks of history. And they do them 5 days a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 By eliminating chapters that presumably get covered elsewhere, I got it down to 33 chapters. Left out the chapters specific to Christianity (covered in your Bible curriculum, presumably), the one devoted to Confucius, chapters 1 and 3 (on nomads taking up farming, and Sumerian writing), the one on Greek gods (myths covered in English maybe?) Then I'd whittle by skipping chapter sections, for example, Caesar gets eight sections-skip some. Another way to whittle would be to just read the book to them, and skip some or all of the map work or supplemental reading, questions, or map work. I'd choose this method myself-read, short discussion, move on. doing one chapter every couple of days. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We use SOTW, but probably in far less detail that many others do. IMO exposure is more important than mastery of history for this age group. I don't sweat it and prioritize accordingly. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 (edited) I know this thread is a few weeks old, but... I'm not sure if this could help you decide how to use SOTW in your school, and this is a Catholic school, but St. Jerome's in Maryland uses it in their classical curriculum. Here is their educational plan and it gets into detail on pg. 49 about how they cover SOTW over K-8. GL Edited April 8, 2011 by ChrisB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 By eliminating chapters that presumably get covered elsewhere, I got it down to 33 chapters. Left out the chapters specific to Christianity (covered in your Bible curriculum, presumably), the one devoted to Confucius, chapters 1 and 3 (on nomads taking up farming, and Sumerian writing), the one on Greek gods (myths covered in English maybe?) Then I'd whittle by skipping chapter sections, for example, Caesar gets eight sections-skip some. Another way to whittle would be to just read the book to them, and skip some or all of the map work or supplemental reading, questions, or map work. I'd choose this method myself-read, short discussion, move on. doing one chapter every couple of days. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We use SOTW, but probably in far less detail that many others do. IMO exposure is more important than mastery of history for this age group. I don't sweat it and prioritize accordingly. HTH! :iagree: We use SOTW similarly. It's just one resource of many we use. If you were to do this approach, you could have some books related to the periods available for any free reading time. Visually heavy books are great to flip through (like DK style books). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patches Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Could you do it over more years? What does middle school history look like? Would something like this be possible? Volume 1 in 1st and 2nd. Volume 2 in 3rd and 4th. Volume 3 in 5th. Volume 4 in 6th. I'm presuming that in the older grades they have history throughout the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Do you have the CDs? If so, you could listen to all the chapters while choosing 18 for the assignments. That way they are still getting the whole picture while studying only certain segments. I would choose chapters based upon the makeup of the class so that everyone learns something about their own heritage. :iagree: This is what I'd suggest....the CD's add up to 8-hours of listening time and can be listened to even in the car. I'd get the CD's and use those for the listening part and pick 18 chapters to focus on for activities.....doing that keeps the story in full for the kids, but also allows you to condense the activities and work into something more manageable for the time you have left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 I know this thread is a few weeks old, but... I'm not sure if this could help you decide how to use SOTW in your school, and this is a Catholic school, but St. Jerome's in Maryland uses it in their classical curriculum. Here is their educational plan and it gets into detail on pg. 49 about how they cover SOTW over K-8. GL Thank YOU for posting this. I am not Catholic, but I love how this plan is set up and I am going to print it up and use it as I plan my schoolwork for our spring semester. Thanks again, Faithe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 (edited) Thank YOU for posting this. I am not Catholic, but I love how this plan is set up and I am going to print it up and use it as I plan my schoolwork for our spring semester. Thanks again, Faithe Your welcome! It's nice how it is already laid out. Edited April 10, 2011 by ChrisB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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