SOTW, CD or Book?

[Kakids]

If I can only purchase one, which one do I want?  We are trying to decide between the SOTW CD or book.  I'm leaning toward the CD since I could accomplish a task and listen with the kids at the same time.  I am not sure yet if they are more visual or auditory learners, so I don't know that having the book in print is important at the moment.  The thing holding me back from getting the CD right now is the wonder if there is content in the book that I would miss with just the CD.  We will have the activity books.  Thoughts?  Insight?

[MusicMama]

I was torn between the book and CD, and ended up getting both.  I've hardly opened the book, but we listen to the cd ALL THE TIME.  I just keep a disc in our car's cd player, and we listen as we run errands.  The kids love listening to their "story".  In fact, today I met my mom and was giving her a cd.  As I reached in the car, my DD said "Mom!  Don't give her our "Story"!"  She loves it.  My intention is to read aloud the section we are studying that week, and just use the car listening as review.  But...probably not.  I read aloud so much, I love getting a break!  

[Stef03]

We use both. I like having a physical copy of the book for my DS to read & learn the spelling of new words he comes across (countries, rulers etc). The CDs have been useful for review, on long road trips etc. If I could only have one I'd pick the book, you can always check your library to see if they have the CDs. Everything written in the books is on the CDs apart from the photos/maps, the maps are in the activity book though.

[thebacabunch]

CD CD CD!!!!!!!   We keep them in the car and play them over and over again.

[Incognito]

We have both, and the CD has been wonderful.  I have only gone to dig out the book twice in Ancients.

[Hunter]

I recently bought the Kindle version. My teaching style is a bit unusual though. I often self-study a topic, prepare copywork for the student, and just discuss or retell the reading to the student in a quite edited form.

 

SOTW hasn't worked out well for me as read aloud. In book 1 the tone is younger than the reading level, so doesn't meet the needs of any of my students. As a spine for me to prepare an outline or copywork from, and to self-teach from, it's meeting the needs of all my students, though.

 

Examine your teaching style, and the ability level and ages of your students, to decide.

[kiwik]

I have the book for ancients. It is hard back and as big as a trade paperback. It feels really nice to hold but didn't work for me as a read aloud and I didn't finish it either. I bought the second book on kindle and read the whole thing in a week and can see me using it next year. Can you afford the kindle version (if you have a kindle or tablet) and a mp3 download? It would cost about the same as a CD.

[Alice]

I find my own kids listen better to a book read by me than to the CD. But that’s just us. We have both and used the CD the summer after we did Ancients sort of us review. They liked it. For  younger kids I also like being able to read, stop and discuss what we just read, read some more, etc. I suppose you could do that with a CD also but I’d find it harder. 

 

Also, this will probably be like heresy here but I don’t love Jim Weiss as a narrator. I know many people LOVE him and his style. I don’t and often find him kind of annoying/distracting. If you’ve never heard him you might want to check out another audiobook that he does (our library has many narrated by him) and see what you think before committing to a year of listening. :) 

[evansmom]

Can you buy the CD and check out the book at the library? Our library has them all. 

 

We love the CD personally and you can always use other books to back up the history, something from DK, Usborne or Kingfisher. 

 

[Berta]

Definitely CD's. We listen to them in the car just about every day.

[Spryte]

We used the CDs almost exclusively for Ancients.  But for SOTW2 & 3, I tend to read aloud more.  We use the CDs, but DS prefers me to read.  

 

The content is about the same, though there may be the occasional symbol or picture that isn't going to be in the CD.  There are maps at the beginning of chapters, but you could use the ones in the AG, if you only have the CD.  

[Tracy]

Another vote for CD's.  There are a very few times when a picture or map is referred to, but I haven't found that to be very problematic.  We listen to the CD's all the time.  My ds5 chooses SOTW over most other listening options almost all the time.  

[Arboreal TJ]

I have both. My kids listen better to the CD and I don't have to struggle through the names! Next Vol I'll get the CDs only.

[chelsmm]

That's a tough one. I would say cd except that I tried it and found my kids didn't listen as intently to Jim as they did to me ;) usually they love Jim Weiss, as do I. However, after a chapter read by him, I asked the kids a few questions and thy had no clue what was read. Granted they were tired, but when I read, they really listen. So a bit depends on your kids. I love using the cd as review, and for pronunciation. But for us, the book is important too. Our library had the CDs, so we are borrowing them now. I did buy the book.

[Kakids]

Our library here unfortunately doesn't carry any of it.  I think we'll try the audio.  I can pick up the book later if we want it, and this will get us started.  Thank you everyone.