kindy or 1st -- sotw

[momma aimee]

when did you start sotw 1 -- in kindy or first?

thoughts?

[Jen500]

We're doing SOTW1 over 2 years (k/1st)

[boscopup]

First grade here. I think it would have been a bit much for K, although I know some kids do fine with it in K. My current 4 year old is NOT ready for it and won't be next year either, I don't think. I would definitely wait until first for him.

 

For K, I prefer to spend time focusing on reading, writing, and basic arithmetic skills so that they are capable of doing first grade work the following year, so I don't have any plans to do "history" in K, but that's just me. :)

[Farrar]

Kindy.

 

I think both are good. I just depends on what your expectations are from doing it. If you want your kids to retain a lot of the information through memorization or want to focus on the map activities or really honing their narration skills, then wait. If you're less concerned about that and just want them to have fun with it - read lots of books, do crafts, etc. and get an impression for the myths and stories, then go ahead and do it in kindergarten. We had a great time with it and I don't regret it a bit. Also, I was glad that now we plan to take a year off for US history in 2nd grade.

[patchfire]

With my oldest, we started in first. For various reasons, I started my middle guy in it this past year, in kindergarten. He has really enjoyed it, those darn audio CDs finally got listened to (dd didn't enjoy them as much), and we'll have a year (3rd) to do US History while big sister is doing it too. I'll start my youngest with SOTW in K, too.

[myfatherslily]

Purposely waited until 1st. In K we did a little overview of a few different places, such as ancient Egypt, Greece, and China. We were gonna go farther, but we didn't get to it:)

[TXBeth]

We are starting in 1st this coming year. However, I wish I had started in Kindy so I could have a year of American History in 4th grade without messing up the cycle. I think I'm going to try to squeeze the first cycle into 3 years in order to still do this.

[morosophe]

We are starting in 1st this coming year. However, I wish I had started in Kindy so I could have a year of American History in 4th grade without messing up the cycle. I think I'm going to try to squeeze the first cycle into 3 years in order to still do this.

 

Couldn't you just focus on the American history portion of things in the third and fourth years of the cycle? Then you'd be covering American history in third and fourth grades, with international history only covered as it impacts America. You could try doing the history of the whole world in your second swing around the cycle. That's sort of what Sonlight does in cores 3 and 4 (now D and E). You could switch to another spine from SOTW to focus on American history, or just read what you think are the pertinent chapters in 3 and 4.

 

I'm not a SOTW user, though, so I might be missing something here.

[Mert]

I have Vol. 1, but I'm thinking that we'll wait a year for 1st. Ds is a fairly strong decoder, but he still needs to build up his comprehension skills. (Can one actually build those skills? Duh' no', but he needs to work on it all the same.)

[FairProspects]

Once again, I'm going to come in backwards from most recs.

 

We started in K because I had a ds who struggled with skills (particularly the LA skills of writing, reading, etc.) but was perfectly ready for listening/comprehending high level content. It was great for us; we did a ton of hands-on projects, ds retained lots, he made great cognitive connections between periods and countries, and it gave us some content to focus on while he was working on building up the skills.

 

But, like I said, ds is kind of backwards in many ways. I think many kids his age are better at the skills of reading/writing and not ready for the format of narration/comprehension. So, it would probably depend on the strengths of your K'er and what you want to get out of it. It sure is a lot of fun, whether you do it in K or 1st!

[MorganClassicalPrep]

If we have time, we'll start SOTW 1 in the last half of K. We are doing American History from June-mid December. We are taking 6 weeks off, and instead of going back to American we'll probably just switch to SOTW. That'll give us almost a year and a half to finish it in case we need it, and extra time for 2-4 if we don't.

[LittleIzumi]

My K'er has zero interest in history and is a visual learner, so we are waiting.

[Mallory]

3rd grade ;)

 

The first time we did it my older two were in K and 1st. Next time around I'm not requiring formal history until 3rd grade!

[JessieC]

I won't consider it until second grade at the earliest. I want to spend first grade just getting dd familiar with some basic concepts of places in the world and times past.

[Cindyz]

We're doing SOTW1 over 2 years (k/1st)

 

This, however my son was an older K'er.

[learningmama]

Started in K, but didn't do much in 1st. Will pick it back up some next year for 2nd and K. My dd did okay with it, but I like touching on the major "kid-friendly" events for the younger ones (like Egypt, Jewish History, Rome) and not focusing on evil rulers and the like just quite yet.

[patchfire]

Couldn't you just focus on the American history portion of things in the third and fourth years of the cycle? Then you'd be covering American history in third and fourth grades, with international history only covered as it impacts America. You could try doing the history of the whole world in your second swing around the cycle. That's sort of what Sonlight does in cores 3 and 4 (now D and E). You could switch to another spine from SOTW to focus on American history, or just read what you think are the pertinent chapters in 3 and 4.

 

I'm not a SOTW user, though, so I might be missing something here.

 

This is what I tried to do with my oldest, still using SOTW by really beefing up the American history part. I feel like we missed out on some of the world history, and the American history wasn't as thorough as I would have liked! THe only place it worked well was 1945+, as so much of American history & world history intertwine moreso than before that point.

[Aurelia]

Started in K, a bit late, like November or December. We did prehistory before that. She was ready.

[Tracy]

We could have easily done SOTW for K. But we did a year of geography instead. It was an excellent foundation for starting history in 1st.

[MadsandLilysMom]

We will be spreading it out over 2 years and also doing world geography along with SOTW 1. My oldest graduates from pre-K next Monday and she is already counting down the days to when we will start learning about Ancient Egypt. I think we will be hitting the ground running on Tuesday!