Tell me how you are getting SOTW in 36 weeks..

[LG Gone Wild]

to include the optional literature (I have given up on history projects).

[UnsinkableKristen]

:bigear: because I have no idea.

[Kirch]

Well, considering that we're going on about 75 weeks or so, I can't help you there! :lol: That has more to do with us than with the program, though.

[dangermom]

Well, I don't think it's possible to include ALL the optional literature, but I usually pick 2 or 3 per chapter. I figure out where I can squish two chapters together in one week--I might skip some of the literature in that case, but I'll include a bit. Good spots to squish in are where you get two shortish chapters in a row, or two in a row that are closely related.

 

I find that this system works much better than the first time I did SOTW2, when I ended up doing the entire Renaissance in two weeks at the end of the year. :blushing:

 

On Monday we read the chapter and do map work. Wednesday we read optional literature and any coloring pages or activities. Friday she reads the chapter on her own and we do a narration.

[Joker]

We use Biblioplan with SOTW so most weeks we do more than one chapter. Dh reads aloud every night and that is usually always an optional lit. choice I have chosen. Dds usually get through a book a week that I've chosen as well ~ sometimes older dd's books take two weeks. I just plan out in advance which topics/books are most important and make sure those get read. Anything else is just considered extra.

[Erica in OR]

That's my pet peeve about the SOTW series—it isn't designed to fit. In a four year cycle, we've finished only one of the books. That was by making selective changes: two chapters in a week if one was a short chapter (only one section), omitting a particular chapter that I felt was less important/noteworthy than some of the others, etc. We try to do one chapter a week. We do it in three days: listen to the first portion and ask questions, listen to the second portion and ask questions along with map and timeline, select a project. For the extra literature, I see what's available at the library and just make it available for them to use for their silent reading time. Sometimes we'll do one as bedtime reading (we did The Enchanted Storks tonight) or for our school read-aloud (we did Black Ships of Troy that way).

 

Erica in OR

[LG Gone Wild]

We use Biblioplan with SOTW so most weeks we do more than one chapter. Dh reads aloud every night and that is usually always an optional lit. choice I have chosen. Dds usually get through a book a week that I've chosen as well ~ sometimes older dd's books take two weeks. I just plan out in advance which topics/books are most important and make sure those get read. Anything else is just considered extra.

 

What is Bilbioplan?

[LG Gone Wild]

Ok, embarrassing admission. I have used SOTW for six years now, still can't manage it and I am using it bare bones. I gave up the optional literature but I want to put it back in. Still brainstorming.

[LG Gone Wild]

Well, I don't think it's possible to include ALL the optional literature, but I usually pick 2 or 3 per chapter. I figure out where I can squish two chapters together in one week--I might skip some of the literature in that case, but I'll include a bit. Good spots to squish in are where you get two shortish chapters in a row, or two in a row that are closely related.

 

I find that this system works much better than the first time I did SOTW2, when I ended up doing the entire Renaissance in two weeks at the end of the year. :blushing:

 

On Monday we read the chapter and do map work. Wednesday we read optional literature and any coloring pages or activities. Friday she reads the chapter on her own and we do a narration.

 

Hey, Chico isn't terribly far from us. But anyway 2-3 optionals a chapter? Wow. Do you assign it as homework? Does it count as LA?

[Joker]

What is Bilbioplan?

 

This. If you look up the year you're on under samples you can see how it adds SOTW, reading, writing, and other interesting stuff (like a composer study).

[newlifemom]

We don't. We are just finishing vol 3 from last year. I mix things up a bit. I rarely do the projects. I just don't have the time. [besides, they have fun at co-op. :tongue_smilie:] I have them read the extras during their silent sustained reading time which no longer looks anything like a formal reading time. I also have them narrate once a week. We occasionally still do maps, but not all the time as we do geography with co-op.

 

Sorry, I am not more helpful. I will say that being this behind has helped with the library books. Not many homeschoolers around here are at chap 42 in vol 3. :D

[chepyl]

I do a chapter a week. We will have to double up on 7 chapters this year. I will try and do it with shorter or related chapters. We are not using anything extra. DS is in 1st grade. The text, map work, coloring sheets and lap book are enough for him. His retention is great!

 

We listen to the chapter on Monday, and he colors the map as he listens. I point out important locations, then I ask the review questions. Wednesday, we listen again while he colors the other sheets. We try for narration on that day.

 

Friday, we do the test as a worksheet together and do a piece to the lap book.

 

If I use SOTW for him again in the second cycle, we will add more lit. We do pull out the Kingfisher Encyclopedia when we want to look at more. Sometimes we look up pictures on the internet, and we have looked at some documentaries.

 

I do have a book on King Tut, and LOTS of references on the Ancients. We look at them, but the text and students pages are our main focus.

[dangermom]

Hey, Chico isn't terribly far from us. But anyway 2-3 optionals a chapter? Wow. Do you assign it as homework? Does it count as LA?

 

I think you might be thinking of Chino--I live a couple hours north of Sacramento. :) It does count as LA, and I just give her a couple/three books and tell her to read them. Most of them are picture-book type things, as we are still in SOTW 2 this year.

[hsbaby]

We ust mix it up. A project that coincides with one chapter, a read aloud with the next, etc. I can't imagine SWB intended for you to do it all. We are still reading Son of Charlemagne while working on our statue of Alfred the Great! There is only so much time in a day:)

[anneofalamo]

This is our 2nd year with SoTW, my girls are 12 (twins) and not big on history, but I read the book and they take really good notes. We discuss the questions in activity book, They make sure they have those in their notebook. I have a lapbook that I shrunk down so they do those and glue in the note book (composition book).

I give them once a week, internet things to find(we are in walking distance to library), a couple images and facts. they save to a thumb drive and print at home. The librarian loves them, and gives them extra time to research.

We have read a couple books, Beowolf (in comic form)

I read 1/2 of the book on Monday, the other parts on Wednesday. The enjoy coloring and will sometimes color also.

They also do a written narrative of what they heard.

They test on Friday and we rejoice and put it away til Monday!

 

It is just our time, no brothers, we tried doing it with them, but they know everything, so I have them in Abeka History thru the ages or something like that! hahah

We enjoy it and will finish by the end of the year. but if not, just ooze thru it next year....

[Brooketopia]

Not every chapter has three sections...if you do SOTW with a section a day, it generally works out to 36 weeks. We do history three days a week.

 

I can't include ALL the optional literature, I just pick what works best for us.

[LibraryLover]

We've been at this awhile, and I cried uncle a long time ago on the time lines. It's not possible to read and retain all of that. We can't even manage with car CDs or morning read alouds and afternoon audio books.

 

I think it's a cute idea and I think the bibliographies are fantastic. But for us, as much as we read, it's not been possible to cover all of that. It's a pipe dream, even for readers.

[freerange]

We do one chapter per week, even after we've finished everything else. They prefer to do it like that than rush it.

[Alice]

At the beginning of the year I plan out what chapters to do each week. Most weeks it's one, and I double up on weeks where the chapters are short or it's an area I don't think we need to go in depth on. Sometimes instead of doing two chapters in one week, we do three chapters over two weeks so about 1 1/2 a week.

 

We typically do history once or twice a week depending on what else is going on. On history day he reads the SOTW chapter, narrates and does a map. I also get out several literature selections, typically at least 1, sometimes more. We read those anytime during the week, sometimes it's during teatime, sometimes it's ds reading on his own. I have been assigning longer chapter books this year for him to do during his reading time and sometimes they go with history. I don't worry about the chapter books fitting exactly with the chapter in SOTW. So we did Japan weeks and weeks ago but ds is really interested in Ninjas and has read a bunch of ninja related books on his own. We did Pilgrims a few weeks ago but he is still working his way slowly through a Pilgrim chapter book.

 

I do very few projects anymore, but for SOTW 1 and 2 we did more.

 

I say all that saying that I'm thinking of changing things a bit, I'm not completely happy with the way history is going. Ds is and that's good. He likes SOTW although he'd like to do more projects. I'm still working out in my own mind why I'm not happy but I think it's that it doesn't feel all that fun to me, like we are just checking off a box. Fun isn't exactly the right word...maybe it's not exciting enough or engaging enough? I'm not changing anything right now but I am thinking of going to just reading together and fitting in projects and skipping the formal narrations and mapwork. We use WWE so he works on narrating there.

 

I'm rambling now...but that's how we do it.

[jplain]

I plan for 3 chapters in 2 weeks. We do history every day at my daughter's request, so that means ~3 days per chapter. If I want to include many extra books or a longer one, then a chapter will consume more days, sometimes many more. But that's okay because 3 chapters in 2 weeks would have us done in 28 weeks. Also we homeschool year round, though the workload is much lighter in summer.

 

The first day we read the chapter, discuss AG questions, narrate, and do map work. We spend the rest of the time allotted for that chapter on supplemental books, Discovery Education and/or BrainPop videos, UILE of World History, and any great internet links I may have found. I also make sure the audiobook is turned on at some point to listen to the chapter again, usually when we're in the car heading to an activity. Sometimes we do a simple project, but that's pretty unusual. This year I'm trying to add some simple notebooking and I hope to keep up with our homemade timeline.

 

Some chapters are split up and treated more like 2 chapters, if there's a lot of detail, or if I want to include a several supplemental books for each section of the chapter.

 

When I start SOTW1 with younger DD, I'll probably take 18 months to finish it with her. I won't expect her to listen/discuss/narrate a whole chapter in one day.

Edited October 25, 2011 by jplain

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

Not every chapter has an abundance of extra reads and activities. I keep telling myself this to make myself feel better and get it all done by the end of the school year. But honestly we are taking it slow and enjoying every bit of the activities.

[Chris in VA]

We were like Alice for SOTW 2, shortening here or there, combining, etc. We often tied read alouds to history. We read aloud every day, sometimes multiple times.(Our other read alouds were just fun--sometimes Dad had one going, I had one for history and one for fun, and dd had just plain reading for herself that may or may not have been history-related.)

 

We did SOTW 1 differently, sometimes getting to it and sometimes not. We started in January of her K year, and did about 10 chapters (I'm guessing, I don't really remember) before 1st, when we finished it.

 

We do several projects, read at least a couple of books, do notebook/narrations, etc.

 

Until we got to SOTW 3-- I feel that book is different. There are less "fun" projects, the lit is meatier, etc. We did finish that one on time, just doing more days a week.

[Melissa in Australia]

I am a really boring person, and we have no trouble getting through the book in a year.

We do history 2 times a week. I read through one chapter and do all questions , plus the kids do the written narration on one day, the next day we do the map work plus miss 11 does kingfisher. Master 8 is going through a DK history of inventions on the second day ( we are doing SOTW book 3). Miss 11 is reading the logic stage reading list, plus some of the extra books I read aloud to them both.

[Amy in NH]

Ok, embarrassing admission. I have used SOTW for six years now, still can't manage it and I am using it bare bones. I gave up the optional literature but I want to put it back in. Still brainstorming.

 

It took us 6 years to go through the whole cycle with literature. I think the literature is more important than the blurb in the SOTW book. The SOTW just gives us a good chronological spine.

 

I require my kids to do 1 hour per day of historical literature reading of my choice.

 

So we'll only go through it twice, if I'm lucky. The reading list is much longer with more complex reading for rhetoric stage...

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

We do history 3 days a week. We listen to one or two of the sections, answer the questions in the activity guide and do the map and/or a coloring page on 1-2 days. On the other days, we read one or two of the suggested books (or over the course of the week if it's a longer book), do a project, do an illustrated narration or play a game.

 

I don't get it done in 36 weeks. We keep up with history over the summer. It works for us because the kids like it and want to do it even in the summer.

[KungFuPanda]

I just cheated. On the first pass, I did JUST the literature and some activities. The kids always reviewed the books/activities at dinner, so that took the place of narrations. I read the chapters and just relayed the information to the kids that they couldn't glean from the picture book stories.

 

On the second pass, they read the chapters, answered the questions, did the map work, and narrated the chapter (so I could check comprehension). They might read an older book we didn't do the first time around.

 

I've got my first in high school now, and she's doing an Am Govt class at co-op. It's looking like there won't BE a third SOTW pass at my house.

 

The only book we struggled to complete before June was the 4th one. THAT usually snuck into summer.

[amey311]

We're using History odyssey (which uses SOTW for grades 1-4). Sometimes I pick up the optional reading as library books and leave them out for the boys to read as they like.

[Farrar]

I think you pick and choose what you focus on. Do a few things in depth, with projects and lots of books. Coordinate your evening or lunchtime longer read aloud to go with it some of the time. For other things, you just breeze through three chapters at once, read a picture book or two to go with it (if the library happens to have it) do a map activity if you get to it and then keep going and don't worry too much.