SOTW4 for Logic Stage

[AnnaG]

My dd9 and ds11 will start the modern era in history in the fall. Dd9 will use SOTW4 with the AG. My plan was to have the kids read each SOTW chapter together. Then, ds11 would study the events of that week's chapter by following the WTM recommendations for 5th grade history (list of facts, outlines, timeline, etc., using the National Geographic Almanac of World History and other resources).

 

However, as I read SOTW4, I find that many of the chapters are made up of sections that talk about very different events. For example, Chapter 2 has a section on Japan opening up to foreign trade and a section on the Crimean War.

 

In a case like this I'm trying to decide if:

 

a)Ds11 should just pick one section for in-depth study for the week and skip the other, or

 

b)He should follow the sequence of the NG Almanac of World History and just read sections in SOTW as they relate to NG Almanac section he's working on.

In this case he and his sister would be studying different things at different times (for some reason I want them doing the same topic at the same time, but not sure if that's entirely rational...)

 

Anyone else faced this dilemma? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[TKDmom]

I vote for option A. It seems like it would be simpler for you to keep them mostly together. But I'm not speaking from experience, so...feel free to ignore me. ;)

[ChrissySC]

The orientation of SOTW4 is why I used HO Modern Level 1 this year. I wanted things more or less grouped. It seems to have worked well.

[TC5]

My dd9 and ds11 will start the modern era in history in the fall. Dd9 will use SOTW4 with the AG. My plan was to have the kids read each SOTW chapter together. Then, ds11 would study the events of that week's chapter by following the WTM recommendations for 5th grade history (list of facts, outlines, timeline, etc., using the National Geographic Almanac of World History and other resources).

 

However, as I read SOTW4, I find that many of the chapters are made up of sections that talk about very different events. For example, Chapter 2 has a section on Japan opening up to foreign trade and a section on the Crimean War.

 

In a case like this I'm trying to decide if:

 

a)Ds11 should just pick one section for in-depth study for the week and skip the other, or

 

b)He should follow the sequence of the NG Almanac of World History and just read sections in SOTW as they relate to NG Almanac section he's working on.

In this case he and his sister would be studying different things at different times (for some reason I want them doing the same topic at the same time, but not sure if that's entirely rational...)

 

Anyone else faced this dilemma? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

You've probably already started school, but I just saw this and wanted to tell you that we did this last year. Option A. We used SOTW 3 as the spine for my 5th- and 3rd-graders. The 5th-grader also read Kingfisher but not for every section. He read 2 pages in Kingfisher for each SOTW chapter we did. I chose the section that I thought it was most important for him to learn more about (he didn't care, or I'd have let him choose). He usually took his once-weekly list of facts from Kingfisher (again, I'd choose which day we had a topic I thought he should take notes from and remember more) and did an outline once each week from another source. Sometimes he outlined SOTW and sometimes other books (I'd choose about 6 paragraphs that I thought were good to remember, and he'd outline those.). It worked very well.

 

I hope you've found something that is working for you.