SOTW - how much supplemental reading

[IceFairy]

I have already purchased SOTW 1 with the AG and CDs for next year for a 1st grader and tag along K. Looking at the AG I am wondering how much of the additional reading we will need to do....beyond the Kingfisher and Usborne books that go with the spine. I want them to have fun on this first go round with history.

[Stef03]

We usually read 2-3 books per week/chapter. We just use the list in the AG and see what the library has available.

[SilverMoon]

As much or as little as you want. Some stories will have so many extras you'll have a hard time deciding, but others won't have much at all. Ebb and flow.

 

I wouldn't do the Kingfisher or the Usborne with kids that young. Those are for the kids at the higher end of grammar stage and/or keeping logic stage kids in the same time period.

[5LittleMonkeys]

Here's my .02...

 

It depends. :tongue_smilie: How's that for help.

 

Seriously, it really does depend. How much time have you carved out for history per week? How "into" history are your littles? Do they sit and listen to read alouds well, or are they wiggly?

 

The information in SOTW is plenty for this age. You wouldn't need to add anything to it at all. If you feel you absolutely must add extra books, and you are planning on doing one chapter a week, I think for this age planning on one extra book per chapter is plenty...unless you decide to drop the encyclopedias then I would go with 2 or so. Now, I'm talking short books...not longer literature type tomes.

 

The fun of SOTW with this age are the activities in the AG. Don't get so bogged down in trying to read extra info that the fun stuff gets pushed off the plate.

 

For what it's worth I'm doing Ancients for the second time...this time with a 4th and 1st and we are doing 1 or sometimes 2 chapters a week (to fit it into the year). We read the chapter(s), do the map work, are reading one longer historical fiction over the span of 4-6 chapters, skipping the encyclopedias, and doing 1 big project at the end of the week. It is PLENTY even without supplemental books from the library.

 

edited: I agree with Moon...the encyclopedias are "blah" for this age...unless you just want to look at the pictures. :)

[Guest]

We do maybe 1-3 per week, depending on the subject. If we do, it's almost always a literature choice, not additional history reading. We have never opened the Usborne or Kingfisher to do the reading alongside SOTW. My kids get quite a bit out of just the text and mapwork. I will say, however, that we do a lot more additional reading and projects for science. I guess there's just a lot more interest there.

[NittanyJen]

The answer will change over time and even with each individual topic. Right now we are studying Modern Africa in SoTW4 for this week, and DS9 is loving reading a geography book, a book about elephants, a fact book, a book of African folk tales, listening to African music and seeing African art. We may look for a biography of Livingstone in the library tomorrow (this week we only go up to 1900). Even in high school we were taught that there wasn't much to know about African history :(

 

My 9YO is getting a better education than I had in what was regarded as one of the top public school systems in the country.

 

But I digress... We will stop reading when he no longer finds it enjoyable. We tossed in some geography, and plenty of discussion as well. I have not uncovered much in the way of science or herbalism to show him yet, though such things may simply not have been well recorded.

 

So my answer is... Pick a variety of topics and read to the extent that you have time and they have interest. The stories are what they will remember. It's fine to include fiction.

 

 

[Five More Minutes]

I just order in all of the recommended titles from the AG (most of them have to come into our small library via inter-library loan), expecting that some won't be available and some won't be interesting to my dds. I put them in a basket, and my dds pick out ones that interest them. If we have time, we read one or two together; if not, they just pore over them inependently.

 

We don't read anything from an encyclopedia at that age, but we refer to them for pictures.

[Hwin]

I read anything I can get for free from the library.

[IceFairy]

Thanks!!!! I am really glad we do not need the encyclopedias. They are budget killers for us.

[zenjenn]

I read anything I can get for free from the library.

 

I would add to this a few standbys that I'm really glad we *own* and will be revisited in the future:

 

- a good, solid book of Greek and Roman myths. D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths is frequently recommended. It's worth owning.

- a good, illustrated children's Bible (whether you're religious or not, just for the stories

- I suppose this one is debatable, but I love the illustrated Epic of Gilgamesh 3 book storybook series.

 

One we got out of the library was Mary Pope Osborne's version of the Odyssey in audio format, but frankly I'd love to have a book version around the house, too.

 

I mention these, as I think these will be the books that get revisited next time we come back to Ancient History. A lot of what we got from the library was fine, but I'd never use them again, such as Flat Stanley's adventures in Ancient Egypt or Lyle, Lyle Crocodile on the Nile or whatnot. If there's a good book of Egyptian mythology for kids, that'd be worth it, too, though I myself never picked one up.

[K&Rs Mom]

I wouldn't do the Kingfisher or the Usborne with kids that young. Those are for the kids at the higher end of grammar stage and/or keeping logic stage kids in the same time period.

 

 

I agree. We're using both now, on our second trip through SOTW, but didn't use either the first time around. Spend the next couple years wait-listed for them on paperbackswap or browsing used book sales, so you'll have them by the time you do want them, but don't buy them new now. If you know any Usborne sellers, there is sometimes a deal with a bunch of the IL encyc in a set for a good price.

 

I read anything I can get for free from the library.

 

 

This too. I unbound my SOTW AGs, and put them in binders, so I just take the page listing reading options with me to the library and browse the catalog and the shelves. Occasionally maybe in inter-library loan for something that really sounds interesting based on the AG description, but some of them were disappointing and I'm glad we didn't buy them, others were huge hits and I bought it later.

[AmyontheFarm]

Go visit your librarian ahead of time. Our library computer system has a list function that allows me to search for books in their system and add them to a list. I built book lists for each chapter in the SOTW and saved them. It will also make it easier the second time around going through the course with the next child. This makes it very easy for me to order books 3 weeks in advance, for the ILLO books this is important because it can take time for them to arrive. Usually, I can renew the books 2-3 times depending on if the ILLO book is needed some place else.

 

Some weeks we read 8-9 books, other weeks zero. It just depends on time and the children's interest.

[Hwin]

Go visit your librarian ahead of time. Our library computer system has a list function that allows me to search for books in their system and add them to a list. I built book lists for each chapter in the SOTW and saved them. It will also make it easier the second time around going through the course with the next child. This makes it very easy for me to order books 3 weeks in advance, for the ILLO books this is important because it can take time for them to arrive. Usually, I can renew the books 2-3 times depending on if the ILLO book is needed some place else.

 

Some weeks we read 8-9 books, other weeks zero. It just depends on time and the children's interest.

 

 

This is what I can do, but I can do it from home and then just place a request for ILL, and the local branch calls me to come pick up my books :) Listen to me. Bragging about how lazy I am :lol:

[Guest]

 

 

- I suppose this one is debatable, but I love the illustrated Epic of Gilgamesh 3 book storybook series.

 

 

 

 

I agree with all the other books that you suggested having in your library. We just read this section of SOTW 1 and I am debating purchasing this Gilgamesh trilogy from Amazon. Our library didn't have them, and I felt like I would really have liked to dig a bit deeper into this. I wish our library had them!

[blondeviolin]

What I can get from the library that doesn't have paragraphs upon paragraphs of text on each page, we read. Otherwise, we stick mainly to SOTW. We don't often even do projects. We do look up a lot of images and videos, though, and the kids love that.

[redsquirrel]

Like so many others have mentioned, it really depends. Some weeks we do a couple because it is a subject they like and the library has the books. We can go for weeks at a time not doing any extra at all.

 

My kids really love the projects so I try to one every couple weeks. I do NOT manage one every week. No way.

[HS Mom in NC]

I would say as much as as little as you like. I'm more CM in the early elementary years so we probably do more than some people, but just using the basics (SOTW, Kingfisher, and Usborne) is a good solid foundation and more World History than most ps or private schools I've heard of would do for a younger child. I recommend adding map work like Terry Johnson's Blackline Maps of World History which is now repackaged as Maptrek Atlas and Outline Maps of World History which sells for about $55.

 

I try to always incorporate folklore and mythology for each unit study we do along with read alouds covering more of each topic covered in SOTW. I also get project books from each time period and region and do a few simple projects per unit-more or less depending on what's going on in the rest of my life. I do SOTW chronologically within each region: Middle East/ Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, Africa, Greece, Rome, Northwestern Europe, and the Americas and put everything into a lap book.

 

I avoid encyclopedias like the plague. There are so many lovely, engaging, and well written books on just about every subject covered in encyclopedias in a much better way. If I needed a specific bit of trivia for something, the encyclopedia would be fine, but in general, I consider them a last choice.

 

The Gilgamesh Trilogy by Ludmilla Zeman is my 7 year old's favorite. I have read it to her a dozen times now and she still loves it. It was worth the money for us to buy it.

[lea1]

I normally order every book on the SOTW list that our library has. When I go pick them up, I sometimes put one or two back, if I can tell right away that it looks too in depth for my sons. The rest I bring home. I go through them and decide which ones I like the best for us, which ones I will read aloud and which I can assign as read-to-self and I make sure we read at least those. The rest are used as more of a "book basket". I keep them on the coffee table-ottoman in front of our couch, where we often sit or pass by. My sons will often pick a couple up and take them up to bed to read before falling asleep or sit down on the couch and read it sometime during the day.

 

I have found that most of them end up being read, to some degree (some have multiple stories and are fairly long), over the two weeks we have them.

[StartingOver]

It does really depend. I think the book its self would be plenty. Adding in the AG gives you some projects, and help with discussions. Adding books to read is just gravy. For me, I try to do one activity, and one book per chapter. For SOTW 3 this year I have 2 chapters that we do not have books for. When I real aloud my son doesn't hear me at all, so I have had to keep the books at his reading level. His sister will listen to him and is able to answer the review questions.

[ScoutTN]

We have found some great books not on the SOTW lists on various lists here and in the VP catalog.

We lean heavily toward picture books, even though DD can read very well.

I agree with Aime, don't let extra reading crowd out projects. They are fun and generally not complicated or expensive.

I have the Kingfisher, but we rarely use it.

We go with what we enjoy. We spent 3 weeks on the Vikings because it was fun! Some chapters are not so interesting and we just read the book, do the map and a narration and move on.

[NancyNellen]

I would say we have averaged 2-3 additional books per topic. I will also disagree and say, for our family, the encyclopedias have been essential. My children really love reading them and looking at the pictures. My oldest, during his 6th and 7th years took the Usborne encyclopedia with him everywhere and used it as his bedtime reading EVERY night. Maybe my kids are weirdos, but I can't imagine doing SOTW without one or the other encyclopedia (my kids preferred the Usborne in the early years.)

[Zoo Keeper]

I would say we have averaged 2-3 additional books per topic. I will also disagree and say, for our family, the encyclopedias have been essential. My children really love reading them and looking at the pictures. My oldest, during his 6th and 7th years took the Usborne encyclopedia with him everywhere and used it as his bedtime reading EVERY night. Maybe my kids are weirdos, but I can't imagine doing SOTW without one or the other encyclopedia (my kids preferred the Usborne in the early years.)

 

 

 

We love the encyclopedias as well. My older two boys are using Kingfisher this year, while the younger ones are going through Usborne. Because of all the pictures, the Usborne books made history very real for my guys.

[kiwik]

I just order in all of the recommended titles from the AG (most of them have to come into our small library via inter-library loan), expecting that some won't be available and some won't be interesting to my dds. I put them in a basket, and my dds pick out ones that interest them. If we have time, we read one or two together; if not, they just pore over them inependently.

 

We don't read anything from an encyclopedia at that age, but we refer to them for pictures.

 

Is reserving books and interloans free where you are? This is just curiousity the differences between services interests me. I think it is $2 per book to reserve and $10 to interloan.

[boscopup]

Like others, I just looked at the AG each week and saw what my library had, put them on hold, and went to pick them up. Usually it was 2-3 books per chapter, but sometimes there were more or less books. Whatever library books I got went into a book basket for DS to read from each day. Some books never got read. Some books were read over and over and over again. :D

 

My son LOVED the Usborne encyclopedia. I hated reading it, but he read it himself and carried it around so much that the binding came off. We had to tape it back together. You don't need TWO encyclopedias though. Both are listed there because younger kids usually use Usborne and older kids usually use Kingfisher. It's not absolutely essential though.

[Hwin]

Is reserving books and interloans free where you are? This is just curiousity the differences between services interests me. I think it is $2 per book to reserve and $10 to interloan.

 

All services are free for me (except when I accrue fines). It is one of the reasons I am such a huge fan of our local library system.