SOTW

[Bellamoon]

I have seen a few threads stating they are using SOTW for 6th grade. We used V.1 last year and V2 this year in 5th grade. It seems way too young for my 10 year old. How do you make it more grade level approprate. Oh and I am using V1 this year with my girl in K and its right on her level with the work book and all.

[....]

You're going to get different opinions on this topic.

 

I'm reading SOTW 3 with an 11 yro and 10 yro and they really like it. But, we do read so much more than SOTW. We just finished reading a version of Pilgrim's Progress. We've read every one of the Sutcliffe books. We read the Aeneid... My kids are creating a Book of Centuries on their own time (an awesome project). They include pictures, colored pencil sketches of weaponry, biographical summaries, etc.

 

We love SOTW. I can't say enough good things about it. I have actually learned so much history from reading it to the kids.

 

If your students are too old for SOTW, there's History Odyssey and a number of other programs out there (Notgrass, etc).

[thundersweet]

What are Sutcliffe books?

[mumto2]

Sonlight uses two a year for 6th and 7th grade( I think the new letters are G and H). I will be honest and say ds is not a history fan in terms of book learning--thrives on our local history which we have tons of. SL is working well for him with lots of youtube documentaries added. Because we are in the states for a couple of months we have left SL and SOTW and are doing modern history with library books (lewelma published her book list a couple of weeks ago in a Modern History thread). It seems to be holding his interest which is honestly what I want. I think it really depends on the child. The main thing IMO is to get a timeline going in his brain for lack of a better description. I want him to know how major events relate to each other. We do not use the workbook just the text as a place to start.

 

I believe WTM recommends using a DK spine in the 3rd edition and writing a summery daily. A friend's dd is doing that happily.

[mumto2]

Rosemary Sutcliffe is an author of really good historical novels for children.

[SilverMoon]

My kids raised eyebrows at me assigning just portions of SOTW in fifth grade, and were offended by it as sixth graders. They loved it in grammar stage though.

 

You might take a look at the Genevieve Foster books instead. Augustus Caesar's World for ancients, then I *thinK* it goes The World of Captain John Smith, The World of Columbus and Sons, The World of William Penn, George Washington's World, and Abraham Lincoln's World. The titles are American focused, but it spreads out like SOTW and covers what's happening all over the world at the same time. It's written for an older child, and is more appropriate for logic stage kids IMO.

 

Some other popular choices used here are K12's Human Oddyssey, and the Oxford history books (titles change depending on the era).

[redsquirrel]

Sutcliff books are books by Rosemary Sutcliff. They are historical fiction.

 

We used SOTW for years 1-4, so my son wasn't really into using it for middle school. However, as a 7th grader, he is not above joining in with younger brother for an activity.

 

I use a variety of middle school books.

 

For grades 5-6 I used K12 Human Odyssey 1 and 2, and the two Oxford series. I think they are called "history in ancient times' and 'history of the medieval world" but I am sure someone here can provide the correct title for the series. At the end of 6th grade I also pulled in the first of Hakim's History of US.

 

Now, in 7th grade we are still using K12's Human Odyssey 2 and quite a lot of Hakim's History of US. I am also using the books titled (I think) Critical thinking and US history? Is that it? I just woke up and have had 3 sips of coffee, lol.

 

For 8th grade we will continue with History of US, Human Odyssey 3 and the Critical Thinking books. I am also thinking I will pull in SOTW 4 because it really is an amazing modern history book. That is the easiest one to pull up to middle school level.

 

My one wish is that Oxford would have continued their middle grades history series. They are so great!

 

I have found the Teacher's pages for the K12 books 1&2 to be somewhat helpful but not work a lot of $$. If you find them cheap then go for it, but don't spend a lot of $. I don't have the student books. I use the teacher pages mostly for the essay questions. We use them as discussion questions. I don't use 99% of the books. The third K12 book for modern history doesn't seem to have a teacher's guide in book form. Boo Hiss.

 

I have borrowed the teacher and student pages for the Oxford books and wasn't impressed. Again, if they were VERY inexpensive I might be tempted, but that is the only way. They are very classroom oriented and not easy to adapt. They are also flimsy books. I was afraid they would fall apart.

 

I have been using the teacher books for History of US recently, again only used. Each chapter has two or maybe three discussion questions, and some vocabulary words, and that is all I use. There are some worksheets in the back that have mapwork and some primary resource reading, but I always seem to forget those. I will try to do better this week! I am not interested in having my son make posters or travel brochures for the different colonies and other such things.

[swellmomma]

I am using SOTW 3 with my 13 and 14 year olds. They love it, but it is not our spine. We are primarily using time travelers cd-roms, book selections from SL and then Canadian history, We are reading through SOTW 3 as a way of just giving some background of what else was going on in the rest of teh world at that time. After all the events in North America during those years did not happen in a vacuum.

[julikins]

I've been considering doing SOTW2 with my kids who will be 2nd and 6th. For the 6th grader I'm thinking of either adding the K12 Human Odyssey book, or just doing the Kingfisher History outlining and writing that's recommended in the WTM with mapwork and timeline. The 2nd grader wouldn't be required to do the other resource. I like to combine my kids where I can, and that usually ends up making history hard for my 2nd grader to understand and I have to re-explain things to him. So this year I think I'm going to do the base for him and then add stuff for the 6th grader. Does that sound good? Would the Kingfisher be enough? Would K12 Human Odyssey be redundant when put alongside SOTW2? This is my latest idea.

[2_girls_mommy]

I have a 3rd grader who is back in vol. 1 this year. My 5th grader has done vol 1-4, so she is doing the WTM style Kingfisher outlining and summaries from library books. She is also doing Classical House of Learning Lit. which is giving her the fun extra reading. 5th grader does the Geography Coloring Book suggested in WTM, while 3rd grader does SOTW maps. We do videos and some projects together. 5th grader will still listen to SOTW readings and she will comment that it has something that her book didn't. So it is going well. I have to say that I don't think SOTW would be enough for the 5th grader, nor do I think straight KHE would be enough. Doing both, plus the extra library readings together and the CHOLL and videos seems to put it all together for her.

[MrsMe]

Just chiming in that I also agree that SOTW is not enough.