SOTW for middle school?

[crl]

Is Story of the World with guide and the Usborne Encyclopedia (possibly Map Trek) enough for grades 5-8? We feel that Math and LA are the most important parts of the day and that Science and History should have an equal balance after the 3 R's are complete. So with that in mind, is SOTW enough or is this really an elementary program?

[boscopup]

I used that combo for my first grader. It was a perfect fit.

 

Maybe get the Kingfisher Encyclopedia (it's coordinated in the AG) and beef it up with a lot of middle school level extra books?

[momma2three]

Pandia Press has a history curriculum for ages 5-8 which might be a better fit for kids that age?

[hsmom2011]

n/m

[Murrayshire]

We are using SOTW 1-2 with Sonlight with my 7th grader......She hasn't had any issue with it being too elementary-ish. Dd uses Kingfisher/Usborne ency., readers, mapwork, wall timeline, documentaries, and has even done the activities in the SOTW AG. History is her favorite part of the day.....it gives her time to relax from her core subjects, though she is still learning a great deal. She keeps a history notebook to put her summaries, outlines, mapwork, and occasional reports. I ordered Map Trek for her to use with SOTW 3-4, using SL readers.....I found that we didn't really need the SL Guide this year. Dd does use the SOTW audio books but she reads along with it.....she can read anything but loves audio books. This is her down time at the end of the day! I want history to be exciting and something she looks forward to each day. I don't want it to become another task or busy work b/c then she wouldn't be so wrapped into history....We have found the kind of schedule she enjoys and are sticking to it!!

[stephg]

Murrayshire - Your schedule for your DD sounds lovely. I may have to try it for my son as he loves history also.

 

DS is using SOTW 2 this year. He isn't middle school age yet, but we do plan to add in outlining next year. And I spend quite a bit of time researching and reserving go along books from our library. I'll have him dig a little deeper and research and write about topics that interest him as we go through SOTW vol 3 & 4 over the next 2 years.

[Tess in the Burbs]

We are using it for middle school. Sonlight has it in their middle school cores G/H/W. I reread WTM to see how to do this before trying. But we read SOTW, do the map, questions, timeline dates one day. Kids read and outline from Encyclopedias(we have Usborne and Kingfisher) another day. We also have readers and Read alouds like Sonlight would that I scheduled. And we even threw in one of the projects yesterday :-)

 

My only gripe(kids too) is 1 chapter a week is too slow. So we are speeding up to 2 chapters a week and will move faster through the rest of the books. But yes, doing it WTM way works. You need to add books to read to it.

[Murrayshire]

Like tess in the burbs, dd is reading 2 chapters a week, too.......she is eating it up!

 

I'll be starting SOTW 1 with my 2nd and 5th grader next school year....just using 1 book each year. They are excited for what's is store for them watching their older sis!!

[crl]

Glad to see I wasn't totally crazy to consider this. What if I added in the Mystery of History using one of those coordinating schedules along with the appropriate Bible selections for the time period? Would that bring it up to par more?

Of course we need to start the outlining and timeline work this year. But by using SOTW as the spine, I could include my younger son for part of it.