Jess4879 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 So SOTW is not our history core...but I really like it. What I am thinking of doing is buying the CD and listening in the car. We are in a rural location, so no matter where we go, it's at least a 30 min. drive. Has anyone else taken this approach? Did your kids retain anything, even if you didn't touch on the subjects again? (My kids are 8, 6, 3) Am I nuts?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystie Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 You're not nuts at all! They are fun to listen to and perfect for that sort of thing, I think! I just bought all 4 for this school year. We are using them as part of our history, but since it's audio, we can listen at home or during lunch or in the car. My plan is to listen to all 4 volumes every year during the elementary years (and, since I'm still working on baby #5, we'll be in elementary years for a long time!). I assign readings based on the cycle year we're in, but this way (plus we memorize the Veritas timeline CC style) we get the big picture sweep every year. My goal is for them to know the general flow of history and main people and events in the elementary years, then they can dig deeper and make connections more in the later years and college. I have IRL friends who bought the SOTW audio and exclusively listened to it in the car. They went through all 4 in under a year (might have even been twice a year), and have been doing that, just cycling through the volumes, for at least 3 if not more years, and that's pretty much all they are doing for history, period. They say their kids *know* SOTW and it's been fantastic. Run with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maus Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 We do own the books and activity books, but haven't read past book one. We've listened to the audio books twice through now, once on our seven state circle tour last year, and once while commuting to lessons this year. DS9 has retained a lot. He even has fav orite stories and knows which set and disk each is on. DD7, whom we are beginning to suspect is ADHD inattentive, has retained considerably less. Although she was present in the car, I'm not sure she heard them in the first place. Sigh... But she does remember some of it. DH and I have learned a lot of history we never knew from that long trip. (DH didn't commute with us, so he's only heard them once through.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misslissa Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 That is exactly what we do. We live in a semi rural area and drive over 400 times a week frequently. My husband is hooked so we actually only listen when we're all together. In the past year we've gotten through volumes 1 -3 and are 2 discs into volume 4. We don't match it to our history. Just listen through. When we finish, we'll start over. Even my non-auditory learner has picked up "pegs" to build history knowledge on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 We only use the audios and retention is high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyhomemaker Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 The audiobooks are worth every penny, imo. We listened to SOTW2 last year for our lessons and it was so nice to have a break from me reading aloud. I just started playing them in the car this past week and have noticed that they remember quite a bit and are picking up more this time around. Today ds said to me, "Mom, turn it up. I love Beowulf!" :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoLuRu Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 We have been listening to SOTW all summer in the car and so far, the kids are retaining it. They act out stories they've heard (put a doll in a basket on a blue blanket and pretended it was Sargon, made their bunk bed into a pyramid and explored the burial chamber, etc.) They've picked library books about the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. A trip to a local museum with an Egyptian art room was especially fun! We're finishing Volume 1 before starting a separate pre-history unit, and then plan on doing SOTW 1 again before starting 2. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess4879 Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Thanks for all the responses! I am really excited to give this a try now!! Now - does anyone know if/when there is a sale coming up on these?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BugsMama Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 We also have it and use it- we also do the activity guide, but the kids know what they know from listening to it over and over and over! It annoys my husband, but I don't mind the audiobook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stef03 Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Just wanted to add that you should check your library just in case; mine had the cds :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenbrdsly Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 We have listened to SOTW 1-3 in the car, and it has been wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 I would say, go for it. It is a form of carschooling and it uses the travel time as well as keeps everyone busy during the commute while learning! We have put SOTW-1 on an ipod for my DS to listen by himself whenever he wants to and he absolutely loves it. He has his own favorite sections, and quite often, pauses a story to find a grown up to ask what a particular word means or for a deeper explanation. He retains a lot even at his age. We do read SOTW to him occasionally. He then goes back to that chapter on audio and tries to correlate what we read to him with the audio track. We will repeat SOTW when he is older, but I am glad I bought the audio CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess4879 Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Just wanted to add that you should check your library just in case; mine had the cds :D Will do! Thanks! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess4879 Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 We have put SOTW-1 on an ipod for my DS to listen by himself whenever he wants to and he absolutely loves it. Great idea!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessamonk Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 I was hoping there are people who do this! My six year old is just starting to read and I'm trying to limit how many read-alouds I have to do. He loves listening to audiobooks so I wondered whether at least year one would work if we went audio-only. Does anyone do the student activity guide with the audio-only route? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 FWIW, we had better retention with listening in the car than when I read, or when I had him listen at home. We did do each section about 3 times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 FWIW, we had better retention with listening in the car than when I read, or when I had him listen at home. We did do each section about 3 times. That's because kids can't do anything else but listen. :D I make sure to leave the history CDs in the car. We have MOH, SOTW, and Little History of the World, and if I figure out a way to connect the iPod to the car stereo, we could listen to a bunch of others from librivox. I rarely read aloud history unless it's something like Horrible History. I find that it's harder to keep Dd's attention with history unless we are in the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
besroma Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Thanks for all the responses! I am really excited to give this a try now!! Now - does anyone know if/when there is a sale coming up on these?? I am interested in the sale info also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 You are not nuts. My son listened to it over and over, and yes, he did retain things. Years later he pipe up when he hears something about a topic from them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 Do it! I bought all the audiobooks because my kids listen to them again and again. My son was in K when I first bought them and both of my kids most recently listened to all the volumes again this summer for fun (without me telling them to). Lias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 We do this too. SOTW is not our spine (although we have the books and have used some of the activity sheets), but we use the audio cds -- mostly in the car. The stories are great, and my dc (and I) like all thing by Jim Weiss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 I've heard of a couple of people that use the SOTW audios every year (all 4 volumes a year) and the retention seems to be quite high. They get a constant chronological view in the car every year, so yes, I would say it becomes memorized. We've moved away from SOTW to WinterPromise, but I plan to purchase the other two volumes of SOTW (3&4), and play them in the car. We'll have the MP3 versions, so hubby is just going to put them into the mp3 player, and have it so each time we hop in as a family I can just press play and it will resume from wherever it left off. It would be even better to have a song version....my kids seem to learn everything from songs :lol: So since it will be on the MP3 player it also won't affect his radio/CD playing. We just have to re-hook up the speakers to the back of the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.