If you do SOTW only two or three days a week...

[melissel]

...how long do you spend on each day? What do you do? Can you tell me about your routine with it?

 

I'd love to cut it back to 2-3 days per week, but I feel like that doesn't leave enough time for extra reading, encyclopedia reading, any project we might want to do, putting events up on the timeline, etc. My kids' attention span seems to be just enough for reading the SOTW selection, narrating, and coloring (or some other simple project).

 

How much do you pack into (or not pack into!) your SOTW schedule?

 

TIA!

[Hockey Mom]

We do SOTW once a week, two chapters. We spend about 2 hours on each chapter (give or take).

 

We start with review questions from the previous two chapters. Then, while I read the chapter, the boys are coloring the coloring sheet. We go over the review questions (sometimes a few times...just to make sure it all "sticks"). After that, we do narration. That part takes the longest because my boys hate writing. LOL After narration, we do the map and timeline. We end the chapter with a craft.

 

They spend all week reading corresponding books that go along with what we learned in the two chapters. At the end of the week, they pick their favorite book and write a short book report.

 

I also keep a box of 'alternate' craft ideas and supplies on our History shelf in the classroom. Sometimes they'll do it (the hieroglyphics stamps were really popular a few months ago), and sometimes they're not interested. Those are mostly for the "I'm bored" moments.

 

SOTW is one of those days they actually look forward to though. For whatever reason, they don't view it as educational...they view it as fun. :)

 

ETA: We also break for 30 minutes between the chapters. I usually send them outside while I finish cleaning up and prepare for the second chapter. If they don't run and play for those 30 minutes I lose them halfway through the second chapter. It's essential for us.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Hockey Mom

[boscopup]

We don't really do the projects, so it doesn't take us a lot of time. I do official history 3 days a week, where he goes off and reads SOTW (one section per day, though he read 4 chapters the other day :tongue_smilie:), and then he comes back to me and we do the questions and the narration. He then notebooks on the topic (just one original sentence and a picture - pretty easy, since he's pencil phobic). We aren't doing a timeline or anything but will do one in logic stage.

 

Throughout the week, he reads library books on the subject. I used to also have him read the Usborne Encyclopedia, but he finished that (while he was finishing the whole SOTW series - he loves history! Just finished reading SOTW4 again today). I don't count the extra reading as our history time, because I'm not really required for that. He reads on his own. Note that I have a crazy 2 year old and a crazy 5 year old, so read alouds are difficult in our house, hence why DS is doing all his own reading. We're slowly adding in more read alouds as the little ones mature a bit more.

[Love2teach0307]

We've scaled back and now are doing 2 chapters a week (doing Vol.1) and taking around 45 minutes per chapter. First, I cut out the activities after they started really derailing our afternoons. I read the chapter out loud, and then go over the review questions. Sometimes I question after each section, but sometimes keep all the questions to the end. She is loving the book and hates when we stop reading to discuss. Then, my 3rd grader writes in her notebook narrating the part she found the most interesting or memorable. We do the map together, and look up the pages in Kingfisher Encyclopedia mainly for the visuals.

 

Now, after every 8 to 10 chapters, I take two days for review. We lapbook the chapters and add events to a timeline. This helps brings perspective to the events and helps cement them in her mind. I'm not requiring memorization of events since we do so much other memorization, and I'm interested in history remaining enjoyable. When I switched to doing a whole chapter in one sitting, history really started to flow for us. HTH

 

Edited: We go to the library twice a month and I try to add additional reading on the civilization we are studying. She does this reading during her free time, but I might use history time to discuss anything new she's learned. I also don't make her read every word; sometimes the pictures alone can make history come more alive.

Edited February 6, 2012 by Love2teach0307
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[stm4him]

Thanks, that was very helpful to me, too!

[happyhomemaker]

We do it 3 days a week. I LOVE the audio book!! I put it on while we are eating lunch. Then we discuss and answer the questions in the AG. When the kids are finished eating, we do a coloring page and/or map work. Then we get cozy on the couch and do some read alouds. I don't do many of the activities, but for mine I think the read alouds help them remember more than the activities so that is what we focus on. If we have a great many extra books, we will read some throughout the week. We don't do a timeline yet either, but we do talk about which events are happening at the same time. We also take a day every now and then and I let them go through their notebooks and tell me the things they remember and we just talk about the people and places, ect. We spend about an hour (give or take) on our history days.

 

I used to get stressed out when dd couldn't remember the answers to questions at a younger age. Now that I am more focused on developing a love of history and a broad exposure in the grammar stage, we are all loving it more and I think remembering it better without the pressure I was placing on it before.

 

So the bottom line to me is to do what the kids enjoy in those first years. If you can't get to every book on a subject, you will go over it again another time.

[kidsnbooks8]

We do 3 days. My girls are 11 and 9. We do 1 chapter a week. We read together discuss, do mapping and very rarely we do a project(only if there is extremely high interest) The girls read other books together on their own during the week and our read alouds don't stay lined up with where we are in SOTW(we are behind). The girls also use the history encyclopedias on their own and are required to write something from what they have read. The 11yo uses the Kingfisher and the 9yo uses the Usborne Book of World History.

[2_girls_mommy]

We do 1 chp. a week on Tues and Thurs. afternoons. We spend an hr to an hr. and a half each session.

 

First we do our memory work. We are working on memorizing the presidents in order this year and the states alphabetically.

 

I read aloud 1 section from the chp. DD9 is holding her outline from the A.G. (vol. 4) as we read, and she fills in some of it as I go. Then we discuss using A.G. questions and she completes the outline. Then we pull out the maps and globe and work on mapwork w/both dds. Then I work on a narration with dd7 and/or she draws a picture to go with it. DD9 cuts out the timeline picture and glues it in her timeline book on her own. We didn't start a timeline until this year w/vol. 4

 

For extra reading I do it at bedtime when there are picture books to go along or extra readings from WY2GNTK. DD9 reads extra literature suggestions on her throughout the week. Like a PP, they don't always line up exactly with exactly the chapter we are on, because sometimes they take her longer than a week, or there are more than one a week she wants to read. So on some chapters we don't do any extra reading, and SOTW is all for us.

 

ETA... projects. There aren't as many projects in SOTW4. Yesterday our project was to discuss flag symbolism and color flags of the U.S. and of Liberia, then to design their own flag for their own country, describing the symbolism. They enjoy this stuff, and do it after the bulk of history on their own. Last week we wrote a Limerick about Czar Alexander III because we were reading about Limericks in WY2GNTK :) Most weeks we don't do much of a project. IF there is a writing or memory work project we will do that over the course of the week at a different time.

Edited February 6, 2012 by 2_girls_mommy

[kesmom]

:lurk5:

[chepyl]

We do three days a week. The first day we listen to the audio book while he colors the map. We discuss the locations and he colors it as he wants. The second day, we listen again amd he does whatever color sheet there is. Then he narrated orally what he learned. I propt with review questions as needed. The third day we do the test as a review worksheet. Then we do a lapbook section. If we have to do two chapters we do one the first day and o.e the sec.d and both worksheets and lapbooks the third day.

 

We take time to look at the Kingfisher encyclopedia some days, but not all the time. I have some extra books that we have use as bedtime reads. He reads his Bible to keep up with the Biblical timeline in that and our memory work.

[Chrysalis Academy]

We do it twice a week, for about 1 to 1.5 hours each time. We do one chapter a week, but do a *lot* of outside reading with each chapter. The first day, we read the chapter, do comprehension questions and narrations (usually orally), and map work - looking at the atlas, doing a map activity on a printed out map. The second day is reading related biographies or lit, sometimes together and sometimes on her own, depending on the level of the supplemental readings. She has one or two history-related writing assignment each week, usually a summary of a chapter section, which she may do during history time, or if we run short she'll do it on her own on Friday.

 

We haven't done timelines yet, but I just ordered one, and we'll start as soon as it arrives! We're just transitioning from Vol. II to Vol. III. I plan to do a lot of American History supplements with Vol. III, so I'm glad to get an "early" start on it. I haven't really had her use the KHE much, yet, because a lot of the information has been redundant so far, but I'm thinking that once she starts WWS/learns outlining, I will add an outline of the KHE page once a week.

[SonshineLearner]

At our co-op we do one chapter, each week of SOTW. We'll do the whole program over 6yrs. I think it'll work well for us. (We're only half way into our first year) We love listening to SOTW cds and do that over and over. We do a project each week, too. (Games, project, something :))

We also do a Science Chapter of God's Design for Science, and one of their projects. Sometimes we do two of Science, as we're trying to get through the whole series from 1st-6th grade, too.

For the rest of the week, we do supportive type schooling. More history, More Science, Reading, Writing, Math and those type of things ;)

[ScoutTN]

We do three days a week with a project or two without. We spend about 1.5 hours a week on it, without a project.

 

Plan A:

We read the chapter early in the week. I ask the review questions and/or ask for an oral narration. We do the map and sometimes the coloring.

The second day we read supplementary books to go with the chapter and talk about them.

 

Plan B:

We read one section, do questions, narration, map and read supplementary book or two. We do this two days.

 

When we do the projects, they are the third day.

My kids often pick up a history book just for fun outside of structured school time. They too think history is just fun, not really school! :)

Edited February 8, 2012 by ScoutTN

[jengjohnson]

We typically do 3 days a week.

 

Each day: read a section, review questions, narrations (I write my first grader's, fourth grader does her own).

 

They do the mapwork on the day it goes best with.

 

My younger colors anything available while listening to the reading. Older often chooses not to color.

 

We do the simpler projects and play the games when they're included, usually on the 3rd day. Older always does extra reading, but during her "reading" time, not when we do history. I read extra history books to my younger in the evenings.

 

We don't bother with the encyclopedia, but next year my older will begin outlining. Not sure how/when we'll add that in. We're using the chapter review cards as timeline entries on a timeline we started last year. We're having a really good year doing things this way.

[melissel]

Thank you all for the ideas and feedback. I need to do some rejiggering to our history because I think we finally have a science plan that everyone likes, and we NEED to fit that in!