History advice needed!

[KMV]

This is our first year of hs, and we are using SOTW for our history studies. As much as I like it, ds only moans and groans when it's time to read/narrate/etc.

 

The way I do it is this - I read a chapter aloud to him (he's 8 in the 3rd grade) and he then narrates back to me. He does the map work, (which he isn't fond of because he doesn't like to color) and then we'll either read another book on the chapter or an activity from the SOTW activity book. Sometimes these activities are separated into two days.

 

Aside from the activities, he seems to really dislike history. What am I doing wrong? Should I have him make a timeline so he can "connect the dots" more easily? :confused1: I really don't have a clue....any suggestions?

 

Thank you in advance.

[Hunter]

I find the sentence length and complexity too much for lower level students. I prefer textbooks with short and simple sentences, with a lot of vocabulary support. I have yet to find a text that I want to use for K-3 Ancient History.

 

There have been others here posting about the same problem the past couple weeks. You are NOT alone. A thread from yesterday.

 

I'm seriously planning on writing my own curriculum at this point. For now, especially with the election coming up, I switched to American History.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Hunter

[Chava_Raizel]

Personally, for that age level, I think less is more when it comes to history. You're really just exposing then to the subject. Read aloud from Story of the World, but don't feel like you have to expand on everything in the book.

 

My boys were not big fans of history at that age, so I would read the chapter, we'd talk a bit about it, and if they seemed interested, I might do a fun activity or mapwork, or we might go to the library and find more books on the topic. If they could barely recap the chapter during our discussion, we'd just move on to something else.

[Walking-Iris]

I started SOTW Ancients in 3rd grade too. My ds still moans and groans. What I do after much trial and error is to read a chapter (the whole chapter or a section depending on interest level--once or twice a week) and then we read and talk using the questions as a guide. I just re read certain sections and help him as much as he seems to need with the questions. I have stopped asking for narrations. It just frustrated my ds after all the questions and I figure if the questions were enough to spark some sort of conversation with him about what we read than I was good with that much. I leave narration time for lang arts stuff. I give him the map and the coloring page if he wants. If your ds doesn't like to color then just skip the coloring pages and just look and talk about the map, maybe compare it to a modern day wall map.

 

I pick one or two possible projects. I try to aim for one. And I try to do that the day afternoon after we've read the chapter. I just ILL as many of the extra books as I can and I don't force those. I may read one or two out loud but I just keep them around for him to look at on his own. I don't expect any extra questions or narrations from those. Because of my library we usually have last chapters books, and I've discovered that he may be interested in something after some time has gone by.

 

A time line can be fun. I would just suggest stretching it out a bit more. Give the topics you just read about some time to percolate. Go back and revisit something previously covered with the extra books. If you have him doing narrations in lang arts then just skip SOTW narrations. Just have a regular talk instead. I think kids can sometimes feel how forced narrations are and they may learn better with a real conversation. Look for some Documentaries on what you're reading. I have the audio book for SOTW1, but my ds isn't much interested in it. Maybe yours will be.

 

Don't sweat it! We're still working on SOTW1. Oh well. Aim for a curiosity about history. Let him see you reading and watching documentaries about the topic.

 

He may just dislike the questions or the narrations. Try not to make him feel like they are a quiz he needs to pass but just use them to spark some conversations about what you've read.

 

After reading a chapter and talking about what you've read I would just leave it at that.

[Cassy]

My boys weren't keen on history either. We started off doing what you're doing now, but very soon ended up simply reading the relevant chapter and then they answered the questions from the activity guide (that became more fun as time went by as I had three boys at home and they would treat the questions as a competition, I'd even give out candy for correctly answered questions :tongue_smilie:). We'd also, if possible, find a relevant movie or documentary on the topic. This routine evolved as much because of general time constraints in our schedule as lack of interest in history.

 

This year I have just my two younger boys at home and we're starting back at SOTW1 again. This time I've also invested in Pandia Press's History Odyssey, Ancients, which the boys seem to really enjoy as it is more 'hands on' and creative; they'll very happily colour, cut and paste while I'm reading.

 

I do hope you find a way to inspire your son, it can be so difficult. I love history and it's been quite frustrating for me trying to find a way to communicate to the boys how fascinating the study of history can be.

[LindaOz]

I'm using SOTW with dd10 and ds8. I read a section and then we have 'the quiz' which is simply just asking the questions in the Activity Guide. One child keeps a tally of correct answers and they get a little prize for each correct answer at the end. They love this.

 

I then have them write a narration, draw, color, map etc. Once a week we have a longer quiz where I ask questions from one or two previous lessons as revision so that means more prizes. We also look up the relevant section in Usborne History Encyclopedia so they can see the pictures. We just read and discuss these.

 

May I encourage you to stick with it? My older kids did SOTW when they were younger and it gave them such a good base for all their later history studies and such a good general knowledge of the world. They still remember things from their SOTW days. I know it's frustrating when they don't seem to be enjoying it or understanding, but maybe a little edible incentive may help...;) .

[walkermamaof4]

You might consider doing a HOD search on this forum and reading about it. So many people love schooling with it, that we made the switch this year. We weren't big SOTW fans. We used it for 2 years. We've used SL, Veritas, BF, and MFW as well. We are all really enjoying HOD after emailing Carrie a bunch to get placement right. It has the perfect mix of work for us. Also, you can search using the word "fun" and then sort by # of comments. That was insightful to me. I think I also searched "love" or something on those lines. I took tons of notes and researched a lot. It helped us get to a place where we enjoy what we are using.

[KMV]

Thanks so much for the suggestions. So much good advice out there - glad I posted.

 

Maybe I've been expecting too much in terms of retention. For now, there will be more "regular" discussions after chapters (if wanted and/or he's interested), and maybe some documentaries that relate to the subject.

 

For the record, I love SOTW audio, but my dc just want to imitate his voice for the rest of the day! :rolleyes:

[ereks mom]

Personally, for that age level, I think less is more when it comes to history.

 

I agree. OP, does your ds like hands-on activities? He might prefer Evan-Moor History Pockets.

Edited September 16, 2012 by ereks mom

[thebacabunch]

We listen to the chapter we are on in SOTW while driving around during the week. Sometimes we get through it 2 or 3 times. My second grader does mapwork and uses whatever medium she likes (ie watercolor paints, crayon, pen). We also do activities from the activity book. My 6th grader does all of the above and also does outlining of the usborne or kingfisher encyclopedia. We do history 2 times per week. 1 day we do lapbooking and mapwork. The other day we do activities from the activity book. The girls love history. My girls will do all 4 twice. The first time as an introduction and the second with depth.

[Pen]

I started reading SOTW 1 aloud. Then we did SOTW audio--many times. No narrations, coloring, quizzes etc. A lot got learned. A lot got forgotten. It gave what I wanted for that stage which was an overview, so that when something is mentioned in another context it is likely to be familiar. We also used some documentaries, particularly with the ancients part. But also things like James Burke's Connections, helped liven it up. Extra activities were sometimes done, but they were child led, not required, thus more fun (and more learned).

 

Magic Tree House visited some things that had been in SOTW, so did Shakespeare plays we saw. Then, reading Rick Riordan books more recently helped bring back some parts like Egypt, Greece and Rome.

 

Bit by bit it adds up, and there hasn't been a dislike for it as had been true for me when history was about memorizing and regurgitating.

 

This year on US History I am getting some more moans and groans, as I require a little more active work to be done than was done last year, but over all it is still going well.

[IsabelC]

This is our first year of hs, and we are using SOTW for our history studies. As much as I like it, ds only moans and groans when it's time to read/narrate/etc.

 

The way I do it is this - I read a chapter aloud to him (he's 8 in the 3rd grade) and he then narrates back to me. He does the map work, (which he isn't fond of because he doesn't like to color) and then we'll either read another book on the chapter or an activity from the SOTW activity book. Sometimes these activities are separated into two days.

 

Aside from the activities, he seems to really dislike history. What am I doing wrong? Should I have him make a timeline so he can "connect the dots" more easily? :confused1: I really don't have a clue....any suggestions?

 

Thank you in advance.

My first suggestion is tweak, tweak and tweak again. If your son doesn't like coloring maps, don't do that. Let him paint it with watercolor, or create a map using a computer program, or whatever he likes. Or just use a globe or large wall map and point out the relevant locations. If he doesn't like narrations, try informal narration (eg, have his dad, older sibling, etc ask what today's story was about), or act out something from the story, or just ask what he thinks about it, what he would have done if he'd been King So-and-so, what was his favorite bit, etc.

 

Here's what works for my kids. We read several chapters at a time and then do some hand on activities relating to a part they were interested in. Also I order library books a few weeks ahead. Some come before we read the SOTW chapter, some come later. So we often get a couple of books, a chapter, then another book or two later, which seems to help with interest and retention. I don't have them do any writing, and they've only done very few maps or coloring pages if they wanted to do something while listening to the story.

 

But if you tweak and tweak and your son still loathes it, don't feel bad about choosing another program or even going to purely interest led (or television documentary led, if that's his thing) history. Or if he's totally uninterested in history as a whole, you could try family history, local history, whatever. Because if you're planning to revisit it all in the logic stage, it's not a disaster if you don't happen to cover it all this year.

[Lily_Grace]

I got success by modifying the order. I'd present an activity first, and while we got busy with that I'd tell the story. The mapwork came next, and then retelling or rewriting the main points.

[jessicalb]

We hated SOTW. It took less than a chapter for ds and I both to just be completely freaking done. We just used other sources and history got a lot nicer.

[Elfknitter.#]

My soon to be 7.5 yo H.A.T.E.D. SOTW the first time I tried to read it. Too dry, boring and no way for him to focus attention. Then we tried (of all things I figured this craft hating kid would never do) the SOTW lapbook: http://runofthemillfamily.blogspot.com/2010/04/story-of-world-lapbook-for-volume-one.html. Now, he listens and retains some of the info. I think he just needed some guided focus because if I had him play with clay or work on building with Legos, it didn't happen. If he played cars or trains, he didn't hear the history. Having a physical folder which we can review, look over works great *and* he retains info. For us, it's been just the thing we needed.

[Critterfixer]

If he dreads history enough to moan about it, you should probably start looking at other history programs.

For now, I'd do a few things to make the medicine go down a little better.

 

1) Don't have him narrate from SOTW. It will be an exercise in futility. If you hate something as an adult, you can force yourself to stomach it enough to spit it back out when asked. But even then, your actual retention isn't going to be good, and all you remember is how bad it tasted. The last thing you want is for history to be remembered only for how bad it tasted!

 

2) Have him do an oral narration on a book related to the history studied. This could be supplementary material: a biography on a person, a reading of a story from mythology, a book that talks about the culture, etc. Stick with oral, guided narration. If you must have something written, you could scribe this for him. But honestly, some children are perfectly happy to narrate and discuss until you hand them the pencil. Until history becomes fun, I'd stick with the oral form of narration.

 

3) I've not found a history program I like at the price I want yet. So what I do is use SOTW to find the books I want to use. Only if I can't find what I want do I read directly from SOTW. I like to go find actual biographies or stories about the people and the events if I can. I like to read stories from the particular civilization we are studying. I'm working on finding a better way to do geography and maps as I find the fill in the blank kind of map work really is busy work more than actual learning.

 

4) If the child likes projects, do some projects. If not, skip them. Coloring should be treated the same way. Mine hated coloring the pictures. But they enjoyed drawing their own. So much of our history notebook has their renderings of the events with a note from me on the top of the page to tell which battle it was or which king is chopping off heads.

 

Hope that helps some.