dixiebuckeye Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Likes? Dislikes? If you recommend it,what would you recommend I get for a 4 and 6 year old? If you aren't a fan, what do you prefer? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I started year 1 when dd was 4 and it quickly became her favorite subject. She loved the stories and still picks up the first book to read for fun on her own. I think the activity guide is great too. We did the maps and coloring pages and the occassional other activity. I'm not too crafty but we did some things which she enjoyed. We are in year 2 now and she's still loving it. I go to 2 different libraries that are close to us and we're able to find either the books recommended in the activity guide or similar books. I generally looked them up in the online catalog and reserve them to save time For us, SOTW has helped to create a love for history in my dd. She is a mini-expert on Egypt and Roman & Greek mythology. I know others recommend waiting for history until 1st grade but young children love stories about mummies and mythology so much I think it worked well for us to start early. I can't really think of anything we dislike. The only challenge for me has been that if it were up to dd we would do history all day every day. She often reads way ahead so we are reviewing when we do the maps and activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirch Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Love it here. The only problem has been that I can't make myself skip chapters, so it's taking us a while to get through it! :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I started SOTW1 with my oldest when he was 6.5. It has been excellent for him. He LOVES history now. We're in SOTW2, though he has read all 4 volumes on his own, and he's even asked for an "Axis Powers battleship" for Christmas (basically, an "enemy ship" in WWII, since DS2 just got a US WWI battleship for his birthday, complete with Russian MIGs from the 80s :lol:). SOTW will likely be over your 4 year old's head. There are exceptions, of course, but most 4 year olds aren't ready for it. My current 5 year old (just turned 5) isn't ready for SOTW, and I don't know that he would be even at 6, but he had a speech/language delay (and possibly has other issues), and he's currently working out what is real and what is not. He isn't really ready for lots of myths and stories like in SOTW1. So basically, YMWV. :) For history, I would teach to the 6 year old, and not worry about the 4 year old. If the 4 year old is disinterested and wants to go play, that's fine. As a Christian, I've found a couple inaccuracies (or sometimes a bit more poetic license than I'd like) with some of the Bible stories, but it hasn't been a big deal. We just discussed them, read the stories from the Bible itself, and talked about which version of the story we believe. We've had some good discussions that way! :) Those parts were such a tiny part of the book, that it didn't make me stop using the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Love it here. The only problem has been that I can't make myself skip chapters, so it's taking us a while to get through it! :tongue_smilie: We do one section per day, 3 days a week. That can usually get it done in about 36 weeks, since some chapters have 1 or 2 sections in them. :) I haven't skipped any chapters as of yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Love it. Love the Activity Guide. Book 1 is the perfect place to start. Next year move on to book 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 SOTW will likely be over your 4 year old's head. There are exceptions, of course, but most 4 year olds aren't ready for it. So basically, YMWV. :) For history, I would teach to the 6 year old, and not worry about the 4 year old. If the 4 year old is disinterested and wants to go play, that's fine. As a Christian, I've found a couple inaccuracies (or sometimes a bit more poetic license than I'd like) with some of the Bible stories, but it hasn't been a big deal. We just discussed them, read the stories from the Bible itself, and talked about which version of the story we believe. We've had some good discussions that way! :) Those parts were such a tiny part of the book, that it didn't make me stop using the book. :iagree: My 4 yo is not at all ready for it, but he joins us a lot of the time for the supplemental lit books, and does a lot of the coloring and projects. I have a kind of love/hate relationship with SOTW. I love the idea, the simplicity, the complete age appropriateness of the program in its entirety with the AG. However, sometimes we like the actual text, sometimes we don't. :tongue_smilie: Recently I have given myself permission to skip some of it if we have a great lit or picture book that explains it in a way we like better, especially if the chapter section is a retelling of a book or legend for which we can get a picture book. I also have had some problems with what I consider Biblical inaccuracies or too much literary license (for my taste) with Biblical persons or themes. I reword or skip as needed :tongue_smilie: I wouldn't be comfortable just giving my dd the book because of this however. We just added the VP history cards to give a little more Biblical content and have been happy with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I'm doing SOTW 1 with a 4 yo and 6 yo this year, and both are loving it. Sure, there are some parts of the narrations that are harder for my 4yo to understand, but I'm amazed at how much she does understand and retains. The projects, maps, extra readings, and maps in the Activity Guide have really made the program the hit that it is. I don't do every project (or even a project a week) but we do enough that history is an exciting, favourite subject for both of my girls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennynd Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 We are loving it. we used it as bed time story than a curriculum though.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay3fer Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I'm also doing SOTW1 this year with a 4- and 6-year-old. They love it. The 6-yo gets more out of it, obviously, but she dislikes colouring, so sometimes I'll give those pages in the AG to him. There are people who dislike it, but you're not likely to find many of them here. ;-) There is the religious thing: some people say SOTW isn't Christian enough; others believe it's TOO Christian. You can't please all of the people all of the time, I guess. We're Jewish, and I like how it incorporates our own history smoothly into the history of civilization as a whole. If you're looking for an alternative and/or another good, readable history text, I also bought Hillyer's Child's History of the World. It covers the whole history of everything in one volume. Make sure you get the NEWEST edition - older ones are quite racist and inaccurate. It's a little weird, but my kids clamour for it, even more than SOTW. Plus, the chapters are a nice, readable length. It doesn't give you all the details of history, but enough of the interesting tidbits that the kids are intrigued by the depth and breadth of history. I also just finished reading, for my own interest, the first volume in The History of US. I'd recommend it more for independent readers, but I found it absolutely fascinating. It's a many-volume set, and probably good for a comprehensive US history study. Sadly, we're in Canada, and planning a move to Israel, so I feel we're better off doing world history. If you take a year for US history, as some people do, I would highly recommend this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 We started SOTW 1 this year. My dc that are involved with it are 8 and 6. It's perfect. They both enjoy it immensely. We use the AG and it's just the right amount of things to do. We do it twice a week. We do the coloring page and map work for each section (some don't have coloring pages) and we also do 1 project/art thing listed in the AG for that particular chapter. We were doing Mystery of History and I switched. This is storytelling and I LOVE IT!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3peasinapod Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 We are doing it with 7 and 8yo girls. We love it! We don't always do every activity, but I like having the option. We do the mapping every week and coloring page. The comprehension questions are great. We are doing it alongside SL Core B, so we're not doing it in order (the horror!), but it seems to be going along okay. The girls don't always remember all the names, but they love the stories and if we mention a name and I jog their memory of what so and so did, they usually remember. We do notebooking and drawing with it to try to cement it in a little more. We are going to go on to SOTW2 with AG next year, along with SL Core C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justLisa Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Does anyone just basically use this as a read aloud and not test/question much? My kids are not interested in activities from the AG and frankly we hardly have time, however they love to read about it. We talk about the section after, and the main points, and we do have the review cards from the AG to look over. I am more concerned with exposing them to history and less concerned with memorizing dates etc at this point. We do basic geography along with it but that's about it. Right now DD 5.5 just listens and DS would not be interested at all if it involved yet more writing. We just enjoy reading it, and I guess when we re-visit each time period in the later years they can be more involved? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirch Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 We do one section per day, 3 days a week. That can usually get it done in about 36 weeks, since some chapters have 1 or 2 sections in them. :) I haven't skipped any chapters as of yet! Oh, yes, I'm sure it's possible. Part of our problem, though, is that we tend to sit on one thing that the boys are finding interesting for a while. And if we're having a rough week, I'm going to pare it down to the basics and let history/science slide for a while. So now that I think about it, I guess it's really more us than the length of the book. But I'm okay with it either way--we just really need to start ramping it up a bit here soon, or we won't be ready to start the history cycle again until they hit high school! :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Mixed feelings here. As we worked through the second volume, I realized it just didn't really reflect my perspective on history at all. We ended up ditching it for another spine. I'm also not a fan of the Activity Guide, which I can see totally has value for many people, but wasn't right for my style at all. We enjoyed it for awhile and I appreciate it, if that makes sense. We'll definitely continue to use volume 3 and 4 in some capacity in the future (we're taking a year off for US history this year), but it will not be our primary program again, just another resource. I wrote a pretty detailed blog post about my issues with it awhile back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jar7709 Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I have to be another quiet voice of dissent--we gave SOTW 1 the ol' college try and it did not work for us. Our biggest problem with it was that the readings in the text itelf sound just terrible coming out of my mouth, and the writing is not in the style that appeal to my kids. In addition I found I had to do a fair amount of screening/editing to match the approach to history we wanted to take. So I chucked it and now I'm having much better luck finding my own "living books" on each historical topic, supplementing that with information from Eyewitness Books/Usborne/Kingfisher Encylopedias, and activities that fold in history with science and art that I scrounge together. History is still one of our favorite topics, though. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 We adore SOTW. We take six years to do the cycle instead of 4 specifically because it's too enjoyable to skip over quickly. I highly recommend it. Go ahead and start with ancients. Enjoy a couple activities per chapter, but don't stress about doing them all as it's really not necessary. It's fun to get out some extra library books as well, but I see that as an enriching extra--we get library books if able, and if not, no biggie. My other recommendation is to go ahead and get the Usborne encyclopedia that's recommended as well. My kids love poring over the pictures, and it's a wonderful supplement to the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 We like it as well. I tried it last year with my 5 year old and it was too much for him. He is now six and absolutely loving it. We aren't activity guide people. Twice a week history reading takes place of his other reading assignments and we go off to explore biographies. It works like a charm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 We loved it! I started when the dc were 6 and 8. They drew or colored while I read. We talked about the chapter using the questions in the Activity Guide. Narrations depended on ability, talking, me writing what they said, me writing and they copied part of what they said, me writing and they copied all of what they said and them writing on their own. Many variations can work. I would order the books from the AG for a few weeks from the library and they would get read over time, not always all of them. Sometimes we did an activity. If we wanted to spend extra time in Egypt we did. One book can take more than a year. Some weeks we just read the chapter. Later we bought the books on CD for the car so we could keep up when we traveled. We love the maps. For the most part our literature and history having naturally gone hand in hand. Enjoy! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimtaxi234 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 We are on STOW-2 for the third time for my oldest and second time for my youngest. Thankfully it worked out that they have always been on the same book, but I have always required my oldest to do more work. Needless to say, we love the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
go_go_gadget Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 (edited) My kids came home from jujitsu last night asking to do history, and when told we'd finished history for the week they asked to do extra after they'd finished their other work for the day, so I'd say it's a hit. It's absolutely feasible to do it with young children; we did an ancient history unit when mine were five and three, and they remember it well. It wasn't SOTW, but we used the Usborne encyclopedia as a spine and made heavy use of the library and field trips. I think it would have worked just as well with SOTW1, and we're now using SOTW2 very happily in much the same way. I sympathize with farrarwilliams' concerns, and if my children were older--or if this were the only history cycle we were going through--I would also seek an alternative, but at this stage my focus is on establishing a love of history and developing their "palates" by introducing them to lots of "flavors". Once they're a bit older, my focus will shift to making sure many more details are covered, and from more perspectives. I consider SOTW to be a near-ideal balance between fact and narrative for this stage, especially when supplemented with library books and field trips (which, being in the US, were easier to come by when we were doing ancient history ;)). eta: I don't do any of the activities. Last year I made up my own; this year I don't have time (I'm also an undergrad). I do use the review questions in the AG, but I wouldn't buy them just for that purpose; in fact, I wouldn't have the AGs if a friend hadn't been giving them away. I do look forward to doing projects again when my schedule allows, but like farrarwilliams, the activities in the AG don't do it for me. Edited November 12, 2011 by go_go_gadget Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 SOTW practically has an altar in our home. Really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 We love it. I wouldn't have started a 4 year old on it, though. I don't think they would really understand/appreciate it. My son was 5 when we started and I think it was a little ahead of him. First grade age is perfect, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 It depends on the child, I guess. My 6 year old son (turned 6 this month) would NEVER have an interest in or attention span for most of it. Sure, he might like some of the picture books recommended for supplemental reading but the text would be way over his head, he wouldn't sit for any of the longer books as he's kind of wiggly, he doesn't like to color, we're still learning to read so he couldn't find things on the map on his own, and hands on/artistic projects are hit or miss with him. And I wouldn't expect him to really retain the vast majority of it so it would seem pointless/a waste of time, to me. I started SOTW1 with my daughter when she was 8 1/2 and it went great. She just turned 11 and we're still using it. And still enjoying it. She loves the projects, the coloring, most of the supplemental books, understands what we're reading in the text, and while even she doesn't really retain specific names and dates and so on much of the time, she gets the main point and certainly retains a heck of a lot more than a 4, 5 or 6 year old could. In my opinion/experience, SOTW would be good for a kid at the 2nd-3rd or even 4th grade level and I couldn't imagine it being all that great for a K or first grader... but then lots of the responses here say otherwise, so it depends on your children! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jplain Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 I wrote a pretty detailed blog post about my issues with it awhile back. Thanks so much for your thoughts! I'll be sticking with SOTW2, but I'm going to think a lot more about how to round it out with other resources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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