Combine or not to combine 4th & 1st History/Science

[Researcher]

I could really use some advice about history and science. We are off on our rotations in both due to some extreme circumstances that happened in the last couple of years. I realize these are content areas so I have tried to not get too bent out of shape about it but I am the kind of personality that says “It’s the 3rd grade year; we should be in x part of the rotation.†Argh!

 

So the dilemma is DS is 3rd and DD is K at the moment and I’m not sure how to proceed. It seems it would be easier if they were closer in age but I’ll have a 4th & 1st grader next year.

 

We are about halfway through Ancients and Biology. (Honestly, DS knows most of what is covered in ES Biology already from other sources but it’s nice to go through the curriculum and know that I don’t have holes.) I can continue with him just fine but DD will be 1st next year and needs to start the rotations. I have gone over this a million times in my head and I can’t come to a conclusion. So I’m now calling on the hive.

 

The choices I keep coming up with are as follows:

 

1. Continue on with DS and go ahead and combine DD even though she is only 5 1/2. Then she’ll get half of the Ancients and Biology rotation and I can continue to have them in the same area for the lower grades.

 

2. Same as above but speed up DS to get him to the right rotations by 9th. Then let DD go at a normal pace to have her at her “correct†level. However, my worry with this is then I’ll be teaching 2 kids in 2 different areas of history and science. Frankly, all of our other curriculum is so teacher intensive that I’m not sure how I can pull this off. Coffee to the rescue!

 

3. Go head and jump DS to the right areas and then come back around to the others when he goes through the 2nd rotation. Then let DD start off in the right place. This still leaves me with the same concerns as above about teaching both of them in different areas.

 

I’m open to all suggestions and would love to hear how you make it work by combining or not combining.

[boscopup]

It doesn't matter so much whether you do x part of the rotation in y grade. The main thing is to keep it chronological. So your DD can start in middle ages, and it's perfectly fine for your DS to start high school in a different part of the rotation than ancients. Just keep cycling through. After modern, you head back to ancients.

 

The science cycle matters even less, IMO. One thing to consider is that a lot of curriculum have bio and e&s geared toward grades 1-2, and chem and phys are often geared toward grades 3-4. I have a friend doing ES Bio with her third grader, and yeah, it's ridiculously easy for her, but she is enjoying science now (when she came out of school last fall saying science was boring). At that grade level, I'm not so concerned about science being "challenging", but if the kid is bored with with it at a lower level, it's time to change.

 

No advice on combining in science... I do interest-led with my first grader, so that will be easy to combine when I add the next kid in, but I'm not there yet, so I have no experience. ;)

[TC5]

I'd definitely say combine them (option 1), but as you continue, if you find a reason that one needs to slow down or speed up, these ideas may help a bit.

 

I have a 5th-grader and 2nd-grader this year, so last year they were 4th and 1st. We combined history and science (and are this year, too). It worked great. As it is the first time through, both have plenty to learn, but I can change the requirements depending on skill level. Next year, we'll be on the same topics, but I don't think I'll be using the same programs -- for science, at least. That may become more complicated, but it will be much easier than teaching two completely different areas. My oldest says he wants an independent science program next year, so he doesn't have to wait for me. I'm all for encouraging that, although I don't know how much he'll really need my help. Your son may reach that point soon, too, which would open up more options for you.

 

And neither is on the right 4-year plan for the WTM because we started homeschooling when my oldest was in 3rd grade and the second was in K. I had thought about ways to get one of them on the right rotation, but I figured that once they get to high school, we may not do the 4-year plan anyway, depending on interests. It is a little challenging to know whether the WTM recommendations will work for my boys at different grade levels than intended, but most resources have worked out very well.

 

Now I have a new plan to get some of my children on the WTM rotation. Even though you're talking about just two children, this may help if you feel the need at some point:

 

We will be on Year 4 (physics and SOTW4 for us) for 2011-12, when my boys are 6th, 3rd, and 1st. Nobody is on track.

The next year, we'll do a one-year quick overview of world history, maybe with Sonlight, which I've never used before. I haven't decided science, but as we haven't ever done any formal nature study, I am thinking of really devoting time to that for the year. That may make biology more fun the next year, too. Or we'll do interest-led science, which we haven't done.

In 2013-14, I will have 8th, 5th, 3rd, 1st, so if we start again in Year 1, then 2 of the 4 will be on the WTM schedule. My youngest, who is due next month, will also be on the WTM schedule this way. In a few years, my boys will be 12th, 9th, 7th, 5th, and 1st, so three of the five will be on track.

 

I think it is worth stepping out of the rotation for one year, and doing some really fun things, to get three of my children on the right rotation. Two will still be off, and that's going to have to be OK. If I had just two children, I might try to get the oldest on track -- not the youngest. That way, I'd have a better idea of the materials being used at that level and would know whether it would be appropriate for my younger child when he reached that level. Does that make sense?

 

I'm sure you didn't need that much information, but I've been thinking about this a lot lately and think I've finally decided what I'm going to do. And I'm excited about it!

 

Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

[Researcher]

The science cycle matters even less, IMO.

 

I agree with this. It isn't like history that needs a chronological order, IMO anyway. Right now, he really enjoys bio because of the garden we keep and doing nature study alongside our regular science. I'll have no problems changing in the future though if I see him losing that interest. I was just thinking that Bio would be really easy to have DD tag along.

 

Teonei: Thank you! That was actually very helpful. I know we'll end up "off the cycle" at some point due to adding in US studies. I don't know when that will be just this moment, but it will come soon enough.

[Researcher]

I know there are some that don't combine and I would love to hear your perspective as well. Why did you decide not to combine and what does your day look like?

[robsiew]

Well, I was a combiner and this year moved to a "non-combiner". Here's my story...

 

I teach K-4th grade and honestly I found I wasn't meeting the needs of my oldest and youngest by keeping them altogether. My youngest was missing out on fun age appropriate activities and my oldest wasn't being challenged at all. I tried coming up with adjustments on both ends, but that ended up taking too much time. I really decided I need to be able to be able to "open and go" with the different levels.

 

So... this year I separated everyone out, except I do combine the younger two boys. So, basically I'm teaching 3 different levels.

 

History: My older son (4th grade) is pretty much independent. He uses SOTW3. He listens to the CD, does a short summary, fills out a timeline and does his mapping mostly on his own. I review using the questions in the AG to make sure he's understood everything.

 

We're finding my dd8 needs me to read the book to her. She just doesn't pick up things well from the CD... so my routine with her will be to read the chapter in SOTW3 to her and we do the map work together. I also use the review questions with her. This is going to add some time in...

 

My little guys I hit upon Liberty's Kids. Actually, all of the kids watch it, but this is history for the younger set plus books I pull that correspond to who we've learned about in the show.

 

For science:

 

My ds10 does this independently. We use Elemental Science. He's doing Chemistry this year. He does 2 lessons a week. I review with him to again make sure he's "getting it".

 

DD8 loves lapbooks. She's doing those based on interests since Chem didn't really do it for her this year. She somewhat independent, but right now we're test driving some curriculum so I'm doing it with her. Once we're done with that she'll be more independent.

 

My younger set we just check out library books in areas they are interested in and add in some simple experiments. Next year they will both do ES Biology.

 

We do all our science experiments on Friday and everyone participates. When I hit upon a good history project we may try and fit that in too, but I've not been good about that lately... we've favored science projects.

 

Most of my kids I end up spending about an hour of one on one time with. The olders sometimes a bit more.

 

It is a bit more time to separate them out, but over-all I'm happy with what we're doing. I'm able to meet the needs of my youngest and my oldest without a lot of "redoing" things on my part. It's working now... :D