DragonflyAcademy Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 I currently have a kindergartener, third grader and sixth grader.. We have been using Story of the World since the oldest was pulled from PS in 2nd grade.. starting with Ancients. After Ancients, I paired STOW with History Odyssey...for STOW 2 and STOW 3 We are now doing STOW 4, without History Odyssey as the jumping around in HO made it harder to do the outlines in STOW... I like STOW...I think it is a very detailed program.. and that is part of my problem right now... I see their eyes glaze over at all the detail.. and even the review questions and some of the outline bullet points that are asked are very Nit Picky details... Details are great.. but I don't think that my kids are getting much out of that aspect... Ask them what the name of the Chinese Dynasty that was ruling during the Taiping rebellion and you'll get a blank stare.. ask them why there was a rebellion and they could probably list a few factors.. Here is my dilema.. What other, mostly secular, History program is out there?? HO uses STOW as a spine...so that's out... I guess I am just sold on how detailed it all is for the grades and ages that I have...For High School.. yes.. understanding the details of the revolutions that swept the world during the 1800s and 1900s is important to know.. as it sets a backdrop to major events... Am I the only one that feels this way? Any other suggestions out there for history that is mostly, if not all, secular... Or do I just pick and choose chapters from STOW 4 and skip all the little details and focus on major events.. like the Civil War, The Movement Westward, Vietnam, WWI, WWII, Communism etc...trusting that they will get exposure to more details in High School? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Many of the details in SOTW go right over my guys' heads. I'm okay with that. I think that K-8 is about exposure in history/science, and high school is time to do something with all that info rattling around in the brain. Some kids are ready to start putting the "how, why, and when" together in jr. high, some aren't. Keep on swimming...;) I use the Usborne history books to help cement some of these things. The highly visual aspect helps my boys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonflyAcademy Posted June 13, 2012 Author Share Posted June 13, 2012 So.. should I shift focus from having them outline and do written summaries to just a discussion of the main idea.. and not focus on the details after the reading... ie.. read or listen to the chapter.. then just summarize it together...and call it done??? The reading of the material doesn't take long.. but trying to get them to connect the dots and answer the chapter questions is like pulling teeth.. and I end up reading the answer and their eyes glaze over... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unfrumpable. Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 My son is just 6 and we're doing 1st grade now. I decided the SOTW was not for us, he was just not enjoying it. That said, I spend a lot of time this past weekend trying to find a secular history curriculum that didn't use SOTW as a spine. I've decided to use A Little History of the World along with the SOTW activity guides/student pages, Usborne Encyclopedia, extra books, Mapquest, etc. I found that the chapters are shorter in ALHotW and Ethan seemed to enjoy it this week. So, I'm kind of just doing my own thing. That said, here is a free curriculum that uses either ALHofW *or* SOTW as it's spine. Your choice and you can download whichever curriculum is right for you. It looks really interesting, just not quite what I wanted. http://bringinguplearners.com/mosaic-myths-maps-and-marvels/ I think that history in the lower levels is supposed to be mostly focused on learning/hearing the stories not so much on dates. I will most likely be skipping the questions in the activity guide and focusing on the activities and using it as a reference for other books. Also, Truthquest is a great resource for living history books. I only have the American History one, but it is full of good info and gives a great timeline. It comes across as not secular, but it is very easily secular. There is no need to read the little blurb in the book. In the TQ book I have, she even specifies which books may have too much God in them for some people and which ones may be too secular for some people. I hope this helps some! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 (edited) So.. should I shift focus from having them outline and do written summaries to just a discussion of the main idea.. and not focus on the details after the reading... ie.. read or listen to the chapter.. then just summarize it together...and call it done??? The reading of the material doesn't take long.. but trying to get them to connect the dots and answer the chapter questions is like pulling teeth.. and I end up reading the answer and their eyes glaze over... I found SWB's elementary and middle school writing lectures very, very, very helpful. The skills she outlines in the lectures are incremental, so if your oldest is not comfortable with narration, outlining is going to be painful. Discussion, then narration, then outline. Do one until it is very comfortable for the student, then go on to the next. I would drop the outline, for now. Edited June 13, 2012 by Zoo Keeper typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 (edited) Well, what's your goal with history? My kids' eyes used to glaze over a bit and I know they never got a lot of the details... but I was also never too bothered by it. We kept at it, pushed activities they enjoyed and I saw that they were getting *something* of out it. They may not have been able to name a lot of specifics, but they remember a lot of general things about ancient Egypt, Greek mythology, life in Rome and the other things we studied back when we started. And that was all I ever really expected. And now they're much better at remembering the details and doing narrations and so forth because we kept at it. Edited June 13, 2012 by farrarwilliams saving a kitten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 I think some of the point of the questions and narrations is not so much that they will remember all the details long term, but that they will listen attentively to the story and be able to tell it back at the time. It's practice with narrative skill and writing (before WWE came out, WTM recommended that children practice the skills outlined therein through history, science and literature). And without details, it's not really a story anymore, it's more of a textbook, and would be pretty boring for kids that age to listen to IMO. I ask for summaries often, but I also ask for more detailed narrations at times. You don't have to ask the questions in the activity guide, you can use just the text and do your own thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonflyAcademy Posted June 13, 2012 Author Share Posted June 13, 2012 My goal is that they remember generalities.. that they begin to recognize that events are tied together.. that History repeats itself...that nations rise and fall due to many similar reasons... Not that a certain battle was fought on X date by X general... I guess STOW 4 is more detailed that the previous STOWS or the expectation in the guide is that the kids can do more outlining etc.. which is a skill we are just developing for the older and the middle child is totally lost.. We do WWE too.. so they are getting practice with summaries and dictations... I think I'll just use STOW 4 in a similar way to the earlier STOWs and back off on the outlines... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garddwr Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 For your younger children, I think the goal at this point is just exposure. We use only the audio recordings for SOTW, and listen to them over and over (I have a history-loving 7 year old who like to play them as background throughout the day). I never quiz the kids, we do sometimes check out books from the library and they will get excited to see books about people they have heard about on the history CD's. The only one I might expect to do more than that would be your 6th grader, but I haven't hit that point yet so don't really have any suggestions. We have also read through Hillyer's A Child's History of the World and enjoyed that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 I think some of the point of the questions and narrations is not so much that they will remember all the details long term, but that they will listen attentively to the story and be able to tell it back at the time. It's practice with narrative skill and writing (before WWE came out, WTM recommended that children practice the skills outlined therein through history, science and literature). And without details, it's not really a story anymore, it's more of a textbook, and would be pretty boring for kids that age to listen to IMO. I ask for summaries often, but I also ask for more detailed narrations at times. You don't have to ask the questions in the activity guide, you can use just the text and do your own thing. :iagree: I have used SOTW for both kids, and am currently doing #4 with ds who is finishing up fifth grade. I love the level of detail, and my kids seem to do fine with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shell0830 Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Regarding detail in sotw...I actually think of it the opposite way as a couple of posters do. The more details Story of the World has, the less of a story it becomes. It's become very dry and boring, filled with facts and...un-story like/ more textbooky. I fell in love with story of the world 1. 2 was good, but moving through 3 was painful and looking at 4 makes me wanna cry. I don't think they need to know that amount of detail at that age and it starts to feel like a waste of time. I wish I would of done lap books on the american revolution or something that was more "big picture". This year I am focusing on american/state history through literature and just having d listen to story of the world and do an outline/picture/map. I'm not holding her responsible to remember any of the details...just to hear it through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 You could try a world history overview book. That gives the big picture nicely and prevents drowning in all of the details. You could then follow that with an overview book of American history. You can do both of those in one year. If you like, you can add in a basic timeline, memory work, and a few lapbooks. This is a good and easy DIY history course for elementary kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonflyAcademy Posted June 14, 2012 Author Share Posted June 14, 2012 Shell.. you summed it up in a nutshell.. you really did. The jumping around and the details was ok in 1... manageable in 2..annoying in 3... and by 4.. makes me what to tear my hair out.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted June 14, 2012 Share Posted June 14, 2012 My goal is that they remember generalities.. that they begin to recognize that events are tied together.. that History repeats itself...that nations rise and fall due to many similar reasons... Not that a certain battle was fought on X date by X general... QUOTE] For history I have a similar goal. We are using a variety of source materials, SOTW1 is just one of them. We are also using VP's self-paced study right now. To help the kids tie things together we do the reading, take a look at a map that I pull up on a large monitor (actually a big screen TV), watch vidoes or DVDs and sometimes do craft projects or related worksheets. I think using visuals and relating the experiences to the children's own really helps solidify the information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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