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Anyone line up SOTW and/or VP with CC?


stm4him
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Ok, so I am getting us ready for summer pretty soon here as CC begins to wrap up and I am about to have a baby, which means the kids will need things to work on without me. I love SOTW and VP history resources but during the year I don't let them interfere with what we are doing with CC, which is already so rich. So my original idea was to have them go through SOTW and VP individually by grade level in the summers because the activity guides and teacher's manuals seemed to get harder as they go on and I wanted the kids to do them when they were academically ready to handle the writing parts of the programs. But as we get closer I'm wondering how practical that is for all of them to be in a different history for the summer and am wanting to capitalize more on working together and reinforcing our topics from CC. So now my thought is to line up VP with CC like so:

 

Cycle 1: OT/AE, NT/G&R

Cycle 2: MARR

Cycle 3: Ex-1815, 1815-Present

 

I would make a binder of hands on projects that we would all do together. Then I would give the kids one notebook per cycle (as we get to them) and give them only the pages that they can handle. I would divide all the writing or paper based projects into 1-3 and 4-6 grade levels so that they would get the pages either the first or second time through. I think we would not do the worksheets or tests because I may have them do self-paced on their own for learning the information. We may just use the projects for adding some hands on fun to our CC topics as I said.

 

Where I am confused now is what to do with SOTW. Part of me thinks we should do 1 with cycle 1, 2 and 4 with cycle 2, and 3 with cycle 3. I know that sounds odd to skip 3 but the second half of cycle 2 is the world wars and more modern world history and there is less about America in SOTW 4. But SOTW 3 has more about America in it and lines up better with what we will be doing in the American history year and will help broaden their understanding of what was going on in the world when America began.

 

Another option I am considering is literally lining up the topics with CC's and doing the projects that way but it seems a little more choppy that way and then I would want to go back and hit the chapters we skipped somehow.

 

So for the SOTW activity guides we would do the same thing. I would keep the hands on project pages with me (or at least a reference to them) and then I would divide up the student pages into two levels (1-3, 4-6) and give out the pages accordingly. But my question is then do I do SOTW first and then OT/AE or mix the two together chronologically? Do we read the story and then do the narrations and projects? I'm trying to figure out what our summer days would look like this way! The main point is I want to use the stories and narrations of SOTW and also use the hands on projects and writing assignments from VP somehow but not worry about testing and worksheets for now.

 

Any help with how to line these up? We have about an hour to an hour and a half daily to do this probably and we have at least from mid April to mid August.......

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Ok, that was about as clear as mud I think. Maybe this is a better way to explain it. This summer (from mid April-mid August) I want to work on SOTW 1, OT/AE, and NT/G&R. We have 3 parts of the day where we work on history currently. One is where I read to them the information and we discuss it. Then they notebook it for the second part. Then they do free reading on the topic later. But currently we do not do any hands on projects. So I guess what I'm thinking is that our overall schedule would stay the same. I would read from SOTW (or the backs of two cards), then they would do the corresponding pages, and free read with the extra books. Then at some point this summer we would have a few hands on days where we knock out a bunch of the hands on projects from the three books, have feasts, etc.

 

I'm hoping it would take me one day per chapter and one day for every 2 cards for a total of 74 days plus some hands on days. But I'm not sure how realistic that is :-( Even though it sounds like we could do it I don't know if we actually will. Since there will be some weeks where I won't be teaching I think maybe they could do extra on their own by reading the chapters themselves and going ahead with the student pages I gave them. Hopefully they could still just come and narrate to me......Knowing how much they love history they may do several chapters a day if they don't have other subjects to do.

 

I already own the student pages for SOTW and the activity guide and the book so it won't hurt anything to try. Then depending on how that is going I can decide whether to order OT/AE.....

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Ok, I just found this website:

 

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/SOTWmenu.htm

 

It coordinates SOTW w/ VP. SOTW 1 is with OT/AE, SOTW 2 is with MARR, and SOTW 3 is w/ Ex-1815. There is nothing lined up between SOTW 4 and 1815-Present. But that is ok b/c I will just stick SOTW 4 after MARR/SOTW2 and I will just stick 1815-Pres after SOTW3/Ex-1815. There are two lists for SOTW1/OT/AE/NT/G&R. One has the VP cards in order and SOTW mixed in and the other has SOTW in order and VP cards mixed in. I'm not sure which way we'll go with that, but it sure is helpful......That way maybe I can make a combined notebook instead of separate.

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Good, because I thought I was just talking to myself....lol. I started putting together a list of activity pages and hands on projects from SOTW 1 and I went ahead and ordered the VP teacher's manuals, cards, and cds. I bought the school version b/c it comes in a binder for easier copying. Now I'm wondering if I should have just bought them both their own binder and then they can just do the pages they can this time through and finish the rest next time through. I would transfer them to one large binder so I can fit both sets in and SOTW 1. But at least if I have one I can use that for planning to start with. I'm going to make a materials list. I used the link above to coordinate the two. I'm using the one that goes chronologically through SOTW and then adds in the cards. I may change my mind on that........But using this schedule I can do it in fewer days (like 50 something instead of 70 something). We'll see how it goes.....

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Last summer I sat down with all the CC timeline cards, the VP cards, SOTW 1, and the Usborne encyclopedia to coordinate the whole thing. I worked on it a good while before I got stuck because I couldn't decide if I should coordinate around the encyclopedia or the cards or whatever. I just could not make a decision. So, I didn't coordinate anything. It has worked out so great that I will never bother again.

 

We outline from the encyclopedia in order and read SOTW in its order so that I can use the tests. I pull from the timeline cards when I feel like it for more information. What this has done is allow us to see topics more than once during the year. For instance, we might read about Sargon in the encyclopedia first. Then, when he comes up in the SOTW, we will talk about him again. This can also break up the boredom of reading practically the same thing from a variety of sources. By the time we talk about Sargon the 2nd time, she will have forgotten some of the information from the first go 'round. It is like a built in review.

 

I am not trying to say not to coordinate. It really is a personal choice of what works best for you, but if you don't get it set up just perfectly, it will still be fine. :) Obviously, the fun projects will need to be coordinated to one of the spines or it could get confusing. I would love to hear how it ends up!

 

 

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Last summer I sat down with all the CC timeline cards, the VP cards, SOTW 1, and the Usborne encyclopedia to coordinate the whole thing. I worked on it a good while before I got stuck because I couldn't decide if I should coordinate around the encyclopedia or the cards or whatever. I just could not make a decision. So, I didn't coordinate anything. It has worked out so great that I will never bother again.

 

We outline from the encyclopedia in order and read SOTW in its order so that I can use the tests. I pull from the timeline cards when I feel like it for more information. What this has done is allow us to see topics more than once during the year. For instance, we might read about Sargon in the encyclopedia first. Then, when he comes up in the SOTW, we will talk about him again. This can also break up the boredom of reading practically the same thing from a variety of sources. By the time we talk about Sargon the 2nd time, she will have forgotten some of the information from the first go 'round. It is like a built in review.

 

I am not trying to say not to coordinate. It really is a personal choice of what works best for you, but if you don't get it set up just perfectly, it will still be fine. :) Obviously, the fun projects will need to be coordinated to one of the spines or it could get confusing. I would love to hear how it ends up!

 

 

:iagree: this is what I will probably do as well.

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