Anyone combine children in the same WTM cycle?

[amselby81]

I'm just thinking ahead a few years. If we do the WTM cycles, DD#1 will be in 4th grade when DD#2 is in 1st. Would I need to start DD#2 on cycle 1, or could I throw her into ODD's cycle 4? I feel like YDD will probably sit through a quite a few lessons of SOTW and science, so she'd have some knowledge of the previous cycles. I'm just wondering if people do this, and whether it makes HS'ing easier?

[m0mmaBuck]

We started HS'ing when DS was in 2nd and DD was 3. She has always been there while we went through SOTW, coloring, listening, doing maps and projects when it pleases her. Next year she will be in first. DS should be starting SOTW4. I don't want to have 2 SOTW's running at the same time, and I don't want to completely skip the modern age, so what I am going to do is have DS listen to/read SOTW4 over the summer for a brief overview (no extra reading, maps, projects, etc., unless he chooses to do so) and then start SOTW1 with both of them in the fall. That way both with start over with biology/life science and the Ancients all at once and it will be easier for me.

[Alice]

I think many people combine for subjects like History and Science. I will have a 4th grader and 1st grader next year. This year we've been doing a lot of American history with SOTW on the side as a read aloud. Next year, I'm going to take a year to focus on geography and more American history with both boys. I'll read SOTW 4 with the older one but we won't do all the extras. Then the next year we'll start Ancients again with both boys. I've always taken the approach with the younger one that he is welcome to sit in for history or science but not required to do so. He sometimes sits and listens, he likes any kind of activities and he loves the science experiments we do. He's absorbed a fair amount through the years.

[EastTNmom]

Angie,

I'm glad you asked b/c I was wondering the same thing. We are just now starting ds (3rd gr) on SOTW 1 and dd (PreK) will be in 1st when ds is in 5th. I wasn't sure how to coordinate the SOTW schedule. I was worried it would confuse my dd to start in the middle instead of the beginning when it came time for 1st grade. I also don't want to have 2 SOTW lessons happening at the same time.

 

Looking forward to hear how others manage this. Thanks!

[MandJsMama]

My son will be in 5th and my daughter in 2nd. I held off on history for a year with my daughter so that she and her brother could both start with SOTW Ancients next year. My son is completing the first 4-year cycle this year. We listen to SOTW in the car and I just couldn't handle having one in year 1 and one in year 4.

[2_girls_mommy]

If you just continue the cycle each child will get the full cycles, just at different grades than the others. You just adjust the workload. Before 1st grade, the younger participated in projects and listened to stories and such at her will, so she has been exposed to topics early that she will study again later. We did:

 

1st grade: SOTW1 and life science

2nd grade and K: SOTW 2 and earth/space science

3rd grade and 1st: SOTW3 and chemistry

4th grade and 2nd: SOTW4 and physics

 

next year we start the cycle over:

 

5th grade and 3rd: logic ancients/SOTW1 and biology/life science

6th grade and 4th : logic middle ages/SOTW2 and earth/ astronomy science

7th grade and 5th: logic early moderns and chemistry

8th grade and 6th: logic moderns and physics

 

I adjust the workload for each. Right now(2nd and 4th) they both listen to SOTW4 and do mapwork. Little dd draws a picture and writes a couple of sentences for her narration for her notebook. Older continues on and makes a timeline and does a beginning outline or writes from an outline for her notebook. I read some picture books aloud to younger and older reads biographies and historical fiction on the subjects on her own. etc..

[Miss Tick]

One thing to consider is that SOTW 4 covers a time period with a lot of war and disruption. I bought SOTW4 when my dc were in K thinking I would just cherry pick some topics to discuss and I just couldn't work it out. Once we talked about the Glass Palace I was at a loss for topics that they could pick up on (ETA: not too politically complicated) and that weren't too violent. You are talking about a first-grader, so this may not be an issue - you're the best judge for your kids.

 

I switched direction and covered pre-history for a year, loosely tying history and science together. You could do this with whatever suits your family's beliefs. Even if you do this, your oldest would go through the cycle at least twice, and by the third time you may be doing more in-depth studies and not the full cycle anyway.

 

Just relating my experience.

Edited April 22, 2012 by SusanC

[2_girls_mommy]

I agree, in 3 and 4 there are some topics that are harder for youngers to understand, namely politics. I remember I had trouble following the politics of the 30 years war in vol. 3 :) But I have found there are plenty of topics in recent history to teach to my younger: American Revolution and founding fathers, civil war and Pres. Lincoln, slavery and abolitionists, pioneers and westward movement, inventors and inventions (right now we are in a biography of the Wright Bros) presidents' lives, citizenship and Ellis island, intro to wars through books written for children that are gentle in their approach, etc. All of that falls in the moderns period. I just make sure to get lots of books on those topics from the library along with the World history stuff. So although I heard the argument above, it hasn't been a problem for us. If mine wanders off during a long description of the Russian Revolution, she comes back for the stories of the Faberge Eggs and had fun making one of her own for art. She is still getting plenty of history.