History: help me avoid ancient and medieval for 2 kids at once?

[Bloy]

My guys are 7 and 4. 4 year-old will begin K in the fall, formally... We use history as a spine, and my guys really love history... I did History Odyssey level 1 Ancients with 7 yo this year, and we will do a bit more of Late Rome through the summer... and begin early Medieval in the fall...

 

But then I am going to start hs-ing 4.5 year-old, who has been around for most of the stuff I've done with ds#1... and I don't want to do both at the same time, but have the boys be at the same place for History, and then just have books and other stuff for older ds to go into more depth...

 

So any good ideas for catching ds#2 up? I'm thinking of just reading SOTW straight through with him, and doing the History Pockets for him--hitting the highlights, so to speak. And of course doing some fun stuff from the Ancient Israelites and their neighbors, and the other book from History Odyssey... I know it will be rushed to do this over the summer, but he is so young and I think they would really benefit from doing this together...

 

Has anyone btdt? Anything I should be aware of?

 

Thank you! :auto:

[Heather in VA]

There is no need to "catch him up". Just start him where you are. He'll hit the cycle again. It doesn't need to be in order every time.

 

Heather

[Bloy]

There is no need to "catch him up". Just start him where you are. He'll hit the cycle again. It doesn't need to be in order every time.

 

Heather

I though about that, because he is aware of the major civilizations of the ancient world... And being a Catholic family the Medieval world is a really important part of history...

 

But a quick read through SOTW 1 is easy enough... so I will at least do that with him. :)

[keptwoman]

I have a similar problem, DD is 4 and will start "school" in January.

DS is 8 and is currently studying Middle Ages.

I've decided to not bother doing history with DD until we are onto our 2nd time around. That means she will be 7 1/2 when she starts Ancients, and I think that's a great age for it.

I'm going to spend some time concentrating on sciences, and some "social studies" type topics, but her schooling is likely to be fairly relaxed for the first few years.

I bet your 4yo will love some of the aspects of his brothers history studies, so you could just get him to join in with bits and pieces. My 4yo loves dressing up when her brother does, so I usually make costumes for both of them (much of our history studies involves dressing up, it's what DS enjoys)

[Bloy]

I have a similar problem, DD is 4 and will start "school" in January.

DS is 8 and is currently studying Middle Ages.

I've decided to not bother doing history with DD until we are onto our 2nd time around. That means she will be 7 1/2 when she starts Ancients, and I think that's a great age for it.

I'm going to spend some time concentrating on sciences, and some "social studies" type topics, but her schooling is likely to be fairly relaxed for the first few years.

 

That is interesting... I couldn't not do history with him, though...

 

I think we'll do the opposite and put science off until he is a bit older because he has really strong natural curiosity about the world and does this so well already. I could easily combine the two for science, even if ds one 'teaches' little brother a lot in the course of it all...

 

It is a juggling act, though, isn't it? :)

[keptwoman]

It is a juggling act, though, isn't it? :)

 

Is it ever! At the moment DD is bug obsessed, so I'm planning to run with that until she tires of it.

[Peela]

There is no need to "catch him up". Just start him where you are. He'll hit the cycle again. It doesn't need to be in order every time.

 

Heather

 

:iagree:

Truth is they wont remember much in a few years anyway and you will wonder why you were so concerned :001_smile:

[proudmamma]

Peela is right!! Don't stress they won't remember it anyways.

[WTMindy]

:iagree:

Truth is they wont remember much in a few years anyway and you will wonder why you were so concerned :001_smile:

This is very true. They remember very little specifics from the last rotation. However, it certainly couldn't hurt to read it to him this summer. My kids love to listen to SOTW. You could do the audio-book also.

[Mallory]

Even if you don't do history and let him wait for the next round, he'll be a similar age to when your oldest started history. He'll be 7 when he starts ancients, right?

 

He can join in when you guys are doing something interesting that he wants to do, but I don't think there will be much benefit from "catching up" a 4 year old.

 

I couldn't not do history with him, though...

Did you feel that way when your oldest was 4 and 5? If your oldest only started ancients at 6 or 7, what were you doing with him at 4 and 5?

 

He has such a short time to be so little, and while SOTW is not a terrible book for a 4yo read aloud there are so many other things you could be reading or doing that will speak to him in a way SOTW will much better at age 7. If he was sitting in with an older child I would do it, but not for his sake.