Managing Story of the World with Multiple Ages

[Guest JennVaT]

Next year will be second year homeschooling. My six year old son will be in "first grade" and we are both very excited to start the first Story of the World book.

 

My problem is that I have two other children who will be in kindergarten next year. My other son is five and my daughter is four. She will be five in December, but I thought I could start her homeschooling early so as not to have three different grade levels all at once the following year. She seems quite ready for basic math and basic reading.

 

My main concern surrounds Story of the World. Should I begin next year? If it is too challenging for the the young ones (which I highly suspect) then that means the following year I will have two different levels for History. I was trying to combine as many subjects as I could to better manage my day. Has anyone tried to teach Story of the World with multiple children who were close in age?

 

I could wait a year and start them all at the same time, but my first grader is quite ready and eager. I also have a two year old who will eventually be home schooled and I am concerned about having soooo many different levels in so many different subjects. I expect different levels in reading and math, but I was hoping to combine history, science, and Bible whenever possible.

 

Any advice? Thanks.

[FO4UR]

Combine! Start now or wait a year...it doesn't matter, but do combine!

 

 

My older 3 dc are within 3.5 years of each other. (10, 8 and almost 7 now.) The younger ones take what they will, and love the coloring pages. I've taken things nice and slow, one chapter per week at most. We are starting book 3 this summer.

[IrishMum]

Being as I didn't require much form my own kids when they were that young, I would give it a year.

[Coco_Clark]

It seems to me like you have several options. 1. Go ahead and begin now with all three DC, expect your first grader to participate in (some) narrations/projects/whatever output you were planning and expect your Kers to simply listen and maybe color. 2. Start with all three DC and treat it as a read-aloud for everyone. 3. Go ahead and begin with your first grader and leave your Kers out, fold them in next year with SOTW 2 (this is what many many moms do. My own youngers will fold in at books 2 and 4 respectively.).

 

Waiting seems silly if he is really excited to begin, and trying to teach two History cycles is (IMHO) even sillier.

[Chris in VA]

I like Coco_Clark's idea of just letting the littles listen in next year. They can help with some of the projects, too, I'll bet. I wouldn't have them keep a timeline or notebook, or even ask them questions/do narrations.

The only caveat is when you get to SOTW 4. It's pretty advanced. So I'd think about maybe taking that year (when they are 9, 8, and 7 and your now-2yo is 5) and just doing a year of geography or extra science or something like that. That way, you'll have everyone on Ancients at the same time the next year (you could use SOTW again--bet he won't really remember it...have the oldest supplement with little reports from Usborne or Kingfisher or another history encyclo).