So what is the minimal SOTW you do?

[scootiepie]

Despite my best intentions, I am finding I really can't do more than have my kids (really my oldest, 2nd) listen to the audio and then ask them the questions

from the activity book.   And if I have time to spare, maybe do a map activity or coloring page.    We are doing Vol 1 for the first time.

 

I really had so much hope that I could do more than this.    Am I the only one?     I'm wondering if this is enough or if I need a whole new approach. 

[ByGrace3]

How old are your kids?

[Farrar]

The minimum I've ever done is skip chapters.  That was a breeze. :D

 

I think for 2nd grade, it's fine.  Really.  We sometimes do about that much and other times a good bit more, but it's uneven as we have time.  You do what you can.

[Caclcoca]

I'm doing the second volume with my second grader. We listen to the audio and talk about it/ do questions in the activity book (orally). We try to do the map every chapter, and we usually are reading something. We are "behind" in the reading part. Right now we are reading Stories From India even though we are a couple of chapters ahead of that. I was making myself crazy trying to do projects and keep the reading in the right place. This works for us.

[Ripley]

My minimum is to listen to the audio during car rides.  Instead of Q&A from the Activity Guide, we'd do on-the-spot questions or have a mini-discussion about what we just heard.  About 75% of the time we'd follow that up with a reading of the chapter.  My kids read it themselves, but if they hadn't been reading independently that percentage would've likely been more about 25% follow up.  Then we'd add a few read alouds from the era at bedtime.  No mapwork, no formal questions, and activities only if it were one of those rare days where the stars aligned and I had my act together LOL.

 

I think the minimum depends on what you desire to get out of the program.  What I needed out of it was a chronological, narrative history program - the questions, maps, activities were gravy.  What someone else may need is the classical methodology it supports.  If this is you, your minimum may not be desireable but I think you're covering the two most important parts.  I find SOTW to be one of the easier programs for me to actually use (even at my minimum).

[Miss Tick]

Really, elementary is a good time for exposure to topics and ideas they will hear more about and delve deeper into in later years. If you can, continue what you are doing with consistencyfor the year. Not every subject has to be "challenging". :-)

[matrips]

All we have ever done are the CDs in the car. We have cycled through all four volumes numerous times in the past several years. My kids are 8yo and just love listening to them, and enjoy history. I've looked at the tests in the activity and I would likely flunk them. Plus I probably wouldn't remember the details of many names again, so I'm not going to force my kids to. But I guess we are going more for the story and the patterns that repeat themselves throughout history. I am thinking of buying the books for the kids to read on their own though. They'd enjoy that. However, we also get history and geography through CC, so that helps as well.

[bttrflyvld]

I was just thinking about this for next year. I get all these grand plans, then sometimes they flop. Next school year I'll have a new baby and will have to be a minimalist to just survive. Glad to see how others do it.

[Lori D.]

Despite my best intentions, I am finding I really can't do more than have my kids (really my oldest, 2nd) listen to the audio and then ask them the questions

from the activity book.   And if I have time to spare, maybe do a map activity or coloring page.    We are doing Vol 1 for the first time.

 

I really had so much hope that I could do more than this.    Am I the only one?     I'm wondering if this is enough or if I need a whole new approach. 

 

 

Your oldest is 2nd grade? This is more history than public school 2nd grade children are getting. :)

 

What else are you *wanting* to do with SOTW?

Or what else are you thinking you "should" do? (And, BTW -- "should" is a dangerous word -- it often means we're comparing to what others are doing, or what we THINK others are doing, and sets us up for stress and unrealistic expectations...)

 

If that's the case, what about scheduling one morning a week as lighter on the regular academics and set aside SOTW, and do a hands-on project, go on a field trip to a museum, watch a history show or documentary, or whatever it is you are wanting to do that is not happening... (And that one morning a week could be not just your SOTW "extras" but math and LA games, art project day, etc., all in one day, with regular "school" the other 4 days a week.)

 

Or are you feeling that SOTW is not a good fit for your child?

 

 

If you could give us a bit more specifics about what is/is not working, or what you are hoping for or wanting to do that's not happening now, we might be able to offer some specific ideas to help get you where you want to be. :) Warmest regards, Lori D>

[AMJ]

We inflicted it in audio form upon the kids during our big road trip this summer.  Got through the entire book (Ancient History).  My kids are a little old for it, but it does give a good basic progression.  We are going through the book (kinda) along with Usborne Internet-linked History of the World (kinda).  We read some, skip some, timeline the dates (when I remember), and once in a while we go through some of the SOTW tests as a group for review.  The kids are getting the basic story, and they have curiosity about many -- this has been my goal, so we are okay.  After all, they will have another round in future years to deepen their understanding.

 

Oh, and we do the Famous Figures of Ancient Times.  Sometimes I Netflix something related to watch while they put together their paper figures.  They enjoy it more and get more out of it when it's a story, and lively.  If we can't find something related we look up Horrible Histories videos on YouTube.

[Maela]

I have a first grader.  We read the chapter together, she writes a sentence or two about something she remembers from the reading, she draws a picture to go with it, and then we do the map work.  (not all in one day!)

[Guest]

I was so excited about the CDs, but little ds (eclectic/relaxed/still ramping up kindy) just wants me to read the library book of it for a bedtime story, same as Hans Christian Anderson and Thornton Burgess.

 

Peh. What am I going to do, refuse?

 

He's getting something out of it anyway. Either it will sound vaguely familiar but be otherwise forgotten by 1st or 2nd grade when we do the activity book or else we'll be a bit out of sync with everybody else on the internet when we start activity books and more serious study with Volume 2 or 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[5LittleMonkeys]

Some years I've only read the book and had the kids do the mapwork...other years we've done the reading, summaries, KHE with outlining, mapwork, extra literature, documentaries and movies, and the activities.  Sometimes I waiver between minimal and maximum in the same year.  I just do whatever I can and whatever fits our needs and\or interest.  There is not a right or wrong way to do history as far as I know, and if there were I wouldn't give a flip...I'd do what fits my kids needs and our life anyway. :)
 
If you feel the urge to do more why not either spread it out over a year and a half so you have more time to do some of the extras OR choose a few chapters that have really fun projects and spend more time on those (maybe 2 weeks) while skipping a few others or at least doubling up the reading on a few others so you can still finish within the year.  

 

Whatever you choose to do know that it's absolutely the right way for your family. :)

[sagira]

From a scale of 1 to 10, minimal to the whole thing, I believe our family can rate doing SOTW like this:

 

Minimal

• Listen to SOTW either as a read-aloud or on audio CD, nothing else
• Listen to SOTW and color a page
• Listen to SOTW, narrate or answer questions
• Listen to SOTW, narrate or answer questions and color a page or do mapwork
• Listen to SOTW, narrate or answer questions, do mapwork, and color a page
• Listen to SOTW, narrate or answer questions, do mapwork, color a page, read Encyclopedia entry
• Listen to SOTW, narrate or answer questions, do mapwork, color a page, read Encyclopedia entry, read a supplementary book
• Listen to SOTW, narrate or answer questions, do mapwork, color a page, read Encyclopedia entry, read a supplementary book, do at least one activity
• Listen to SOTW, narrate or answer questions, do mapwork, color a page, read Encyclopedia entry, read a few supplementary books, do two or more activities
• Listen to SOTW, narrate and answer questions, do mapwork, color a page, read Encyclopedia entry, read all or almost all supplementary books, do all activities, and visit Usborne quicklinks online

The Whole Package

 

That said, we usually hover between 6 and 8, and this is spread out over 4 days, reading a chapter a week.

 

ETA: during the school year, we always discuss.

[scootiepie]

Thanks everyone, I guess I'm just wondering if at their ages (5 & 7 but mainly referring to the 7yo) if it needs to be more hands-on for it to "stick".  Some of the activities look wonderful but I don't have the time, resources or personal desire to organize a craft - so I don't know if those are there to help the lessons sink in, versus just more for fun.    Skipping over that much in the activity book just makes me feel like I'm not doing something I'm supposed to.

[ErinE]

Thanks everyone, I guess I'm just wondering if at their ages (5 & 7 but mainly referring to the 7yo) if it needs to be more hands-on for it to "stick". Some of the activities look wonderful but I don't have the time, resources or personal desire to organize a craft - so I don't know if those are there to help the lessons sink in, versus just more for fun. Skipping over that much in the activity book just makes me feel like I'm not doing something I'm supposed to.

Nothing in the AB is a must-have. I like pulling out the globe, talking about the region now, and doing a map for the region then. Otherwise, we just talk about the reading. Some of the assigned literature correlates to the book; DD particularly liked Egyptian myths. When we weren't using a writing curriculum, the kids would use readings from history some weeks for narration, dictation, or copywork.

[linguistmama]

We only listen to the audio cd. My 8yo loves to listen to it and has listened to the first 3 levels many, many times. I used to worry about the retention. But since she is interested in the topics and listens to them over and over her retention is much better than it would be if we read the chapter, narrated, did a project etc. Now I don't worry about it anymore.

[GSOchristie]

I have a first grader and no cd's. I read one of the sections of the chapter on Monday at breakfast, he answers the questions in the workbook independently (on paper) while I am gone. I give him the book, and he can go back and find the answers if he needs help. Wednesday we do the same with next section (if there are two). I am a BSF leader, so I am gone Monday and Wed mornings so his dad supervises his work...sort of...but he works pretty independently. Thursday we do the map, which only takes about 5 minutes, and Friday we do a fun project from the activity book, which I think you can totally skip but my kids do love them :). So my time committment is probably 40 minutes total, minus the fun activity.

 

Before the school year started, I went through the activity book and requested a bunch of the suggested extra reading books, which I use for reading aloud. He is currently reading The Magic Tree House Mummies in the Morning, which he loves, and it goes along with the Egyptian chapters.

[Stars]

We started out this year virtuously doing the whole shebang over two days a week (except that even between two local tiny libraries, we are almost never able to get the specific titles recommended for extra reading.  I just check out anything subject-related that looks age appropriate -- I can't tell you how many books on mummies I privately vetoed because of scary mummy photographs).  The children really loved the activities, but they have been the first thing to go.  Unless it's a project that uses stuff I already have, like modeling clay, I never remember to buy the supplies.  And since we prioritize our subjects by time, science and history always come next-to-last. (Sorry, art and music.  I'm doing the best I can here.)  Sometimes, we don't do any extra reading on the subjects, or, as a PP said, we're several weeks behind on our extra reading.

 

I do have ds6 read the lists suggested for memorization in TWTM: the principal pharaohs and the first twenty Roman emporers.  After the first several frustrating episodes of my correcting his pronunciation on every name, he can speed through them pretty painlessly at the beginning of each lesson.  I was surprised to find that he has memorized the pharaohs already and can name most of the emporers as well, just from reading the lists twice a week.

 

So that's my minimum for now.  I could see dropping the worksheets if I didn't have time, or the questions. 

 

Edited because "pharaoh" is the word I always misspell, and did, twice.

[chepyl]

We listen to each chapter at least 3 times. I try to play through it every day. We do a chapter or two a week. We fill out the test as a worksheet together. Sometimes we discuss. I have them color the student pages.

[kiwik]

Really minimal. Mum reads SOTW to herself then reads books to the kids and slips in a a bit of extra knowledge from her reading.

[Amy M]

Based on sagira's scale, we are usually a 5, but sometimes read a supplementary book (6-7) and try to do an activity (8). I'm better about worksheets than creative activities.

[angelmama1209]

we are down to basically just reading a chapter a day. i'm going to have her do a timeline, but just haven't gotten around to getting it ready yet due to printer issues. i'd LIKE to do more, but it just hasn't worked out for us.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I'm just having my ds8 (3rd grade) listen to the audio book, then I ask him questions from the activity book, and he writes a sentence or two.  I don't feel any pressure to do anymore than that.  My main concerns at 3rd grade are math and LA.  We spend a lot of time doing reading, English, and writing.  Of course we are doing science, and this year we are also doing Latin.  I think just learning the history is enough.  

[Satori]

We did our first year (Ancients) trying to do at least one activity in the Activity Guide but that lead to burnout and procrastination for history. The second year (Medieval) we did SOTW about 2x a week in which day 1 we'd read the chapter and do the questions. Day 2 we'd review, do the mapwork and then the test. Every now and then we'd read a related book or view a video.

 

This year for Early Moderns is very similar, but doing history approximately 3x a week, doing one reading passage and related questions in one day so that takes us an average of 2 days. We never skip the mapwork, as it's pretty quick and painless. She then does the SOTW test on the 3rd day, along with any Brainpop/Discovery Education videos that are relevant to the chapter. It's working out great. No more indepth crafting projects anymore though..

[SwallowTail]

I am not a doer, I have realized about myself.  So we really do not do the activities.  I read the book aloud to dd. We discuss the bit we are reading and I expand upon it according to my own knowledge of relevant and related facts. 

 

We keep our globe handy and study the countries and regions we are reading about, and look at related/relevant features.

 

We consult the internet for more depth on topics of interest (such as Joan of Arc or the Forbidden City).  We read books of my choosing that relate to the topics at hand.  We use some excellent coffee table style books with beautiful pictures of many of the relevant buildings/features, such as The Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and today -the Kremlin.  I have a large book from the Louvre and my pictures I took at the Louvre when I got to visit it, and we look at artwork and portraits from whatever time period we are studying.

 

We have used movies as additional exposure. (The Disney Pocahontas is not that bad actually, Lol, nor is the Charlie Brown Mayflower special).

 

I do not mummify chickens or build irrigated fields in the sand in my yard or make cuneiform tablets or jewelry. (I was really feeling very badly about a friend who seems to be doing these sorts of things with her dd as new person to SotW, and I was feeling very inadequate, until I realized that I have different giftings and am giving dd a deep, rich appreciation in a different way - my way.

[happypamama]

When we used SOTW1 last year, our general routine went like this:

-day 1 -- read chapter and discuss (do coloring page while listening, although my kids aren't really into coloring)

-day 2 -- do mapwork

-day 3 and 4 -- read some supplemental books and maybe do a project; we did only a few projects, one of which was the cuneiform tablets (which they really liked).  Or watch a video or play a game related to the topic.

 

Days 1-4 weren't necessarily Monday to Thursday; they were flexible, depending on what else we had going on.

[HS Mom in NC]

We're in SOTW 2.

 

Bare minimum for my 8 year old is:
 

listen to me read the chapter aloud

brainstorm what she remembers and her answers to my prompting questions in short phrases and keywords on a white board

narrate by looking at the whiteboard

(I write down her narration)

copy the narration in her handwriting

 

 We usually do 3 per week.

 

Extras: (to be skipped if life gets difficult)

 

We usually do a map, read aloud a couple of story books from the library listed in the activity book, and at least one activity from the activity book per week. We watch several very short youtube videos per month to see what we're reading about (Ajanta Caves, Maori hakas, a monks cell, the Hagia Sophia, Hajj, etc.)

 

 

I'm only homeschooling one kid.

 

We took a year and a half to get through The Ancients.  At 6 not every kid has developed much attention span and the ability to write much. 

 

 

[Kuovonne]

Does handing the book to my DD and telling her to read a section a day count? That's as minimal as I've done.

 

I aim for DDs to

- read the chapter,

- tell me about it if she feels like it,

- do the mapwork,

- do the test as a worksheet,

- look at the Usborne book and

- copy and caption a picture.

[jessj]

Thanks everyone, I guess I'm just wondering if at their ages (5 & 7 but mainly referring to the 7yo) if it needs to be more hands-on for it to "stick".  Some of the activities look wonderful but I don't have the time, resources or personal desire to organize a craft - so I don't know if those are there to help the lessons sink in, versus just more for fun.    Skipping over that much in the activity book just makes me feel like I'm not doing something I'm supposed to.

 

I used to think that too.  But here's the deal.  YOU are in charge of your homeschool.  Just you.  No one, nothing else.  The curriculum is a TOOL.  It is a tool for you to use however you decide.  It is not a contract that you must fulfill!

 

At 5&7 I would think of this as exposure to history.  Show them what's out there, don't do anything that you think is boring or tedious.  Just get them excited to hear the story. 

 

My kids are now 7&9 so we are doing maps and notebooking.  I check out library books and they will read 1-2 on the subject per week on their own and then come tell me something interesting about what they read.  However, since there are more than 36 chapters, I fully intend on skimping on some of the shorter or more "boring" chapters.  And if we have a busy week, then I'm not going to worry much about it.  Two years ago I really wouldn't have worried about it! 

[kiwik]

Oh and for Egypt we did three projects - writing in heiroglyphics, making a wax tablet and going to the beach to make a driftwood shaduf. For prehistory we are going to do a cave painting, make a mammoth bone hut and a bow and arrow (maybe).

[stayathomelibrarian]

I'm on year 2 with my 2nd grader.  We listen to the audio, answer the questions- orally, do the coloring page, and map work.  Since we're doing narration in FLL, I've dropped it from SOTW.   I do keep a book bin in our school room.  I plan our weeks in 6 week sections and then take a week off.  During that week I plan for the next 6 weeks.  I try to buy at least 1 book from the lists in the activity guide to keep in the bin. She reads these books during our 20 minutes of intentional reading every day.  I've also downloaded the lapbook (the link is somewhere in the forums).  We do those on Saturday.  She asks to do history on Saturdays, so we're doing something right I think. 

 

 

I have no problem skipping over all the stuff in the activity book.  Last year for year 1, we were total car schoolers for SOTW.  Well, that and the additional texts I would occasionally buy when my daughter showed an interest in something.  She loved Greek Myths, so we read a lot of them.   We have Kingfisher and UILE, so we often use those for additional reference texts, but I use my 2nd grader, and not the guide, as a cue. 

[stayathomelibrarian]

I wanted to add that the internet links in UILE can be great.  My 2nd grader still plays a game that she played last year on Mesopotamia.  When I have the time, I'll open the links up in additional windows at the computer and she can click them to her little hearts desire. 

http://www.usborne.com/quicklinks/eng/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?cat=1&loc=usa&area=H&subcat=HE&id=3922

[GSOchristie]

Coming back to this thread after talking to a mom of a public schooled first grader at a Backyard Paradise yesterday.  She told me that in first grade they are discussing who is in your community (fireman, policeman, mailman) and what it means to be part of a community.  So if you only let your second grader listen to the cd's and nothing else, I think you will still be ahead of the game :).  The mom asked me if I was "raising Einstein's over here" when I mentioned we are studying ancients in SOTW and the Middle Ages with CC  :lol: .

[Penelope]

After the first year or two, I have never done many of the activities. My kids so far haven't been very interested in making paper crowns or dolls, things that invovle a lot of cutting and pasting. When we did activities, it was usually trying a recipe (we have to eat some time, anyway, ;) ) or the board games. I think a few of the activities do help make the learning stick, but many of them are just things that take up time that could be spent on another skill or taking a walk or playing. If kids and parents think they are fun and want to do them, that's great, but for us, it just seemed like when we did too many extras, we ran out of time for more important things.

 

I do always have them narrate, and we usually do the maps. We often use Google for architectural images, and about half the time read an extra book from the library.

[Chris in VA]

I did a lot of the activities, and always did narration/notebooking and maps, but I counted those things as part of art and language arts and handwriting and geography :-) . So I spent less time on those subjects and made history a framework for other subjects.

Sometimes it's all in the way you look at it.

[smudge]

I always read the chapter, then the girls do the map page (which the LOVE) and the coloring sheet. Depending on the complexity of the chapters craft Mom will pick and choose. We just read about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and I just happened to have gold paint and several empty TP tubes and we made the Nubian Gold Bracelets. They loved that!

[aprilleigh]

I've been fairly lucky with the additional books suggested in the AB, but we tend to skip most of the activities. Too many of them have no real appeal to my DS. I have found great activities in some of the additional books the AB recommends, however. Pity that only lasted about the first year and a half or so.

[Laura Corin]

We didn't use the activity book.  I would read the books out loud and we would chat about them as we went through.  We would always check the location on the globe.  Then we would turn to The Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and read the related page.  After that, we would sometimes follow some of the Usborne links.  Occasionally we did a project: I remember cutting out a 'skin' in order to encompass the site of Carthage, and also mummifying an apple.

 

Minimal SOTW worked for us - the boys ended up with a feel for history and we filled in more details later.

 

L

[lea1]

I have two sons in 2nd grade so we are using the 2nd year of SOTW this year.  We do SOTW 2 days a week and our normal routine on the first day is that I read one chapter aloud, stopping after each section to ask questions and have one son narrate.  They color while I read aloud.  Next we do the map work, which is really quick but they have learned a lot by doing it consistently.  On the second day I read aloud books from the library recommended by the activity guide.  Some days I will also assign a library book or two for them to read.

 

We we first started doing SOTW I took the time to plan activities.   The pattern I saw very quickly was that my sons would start a project and be done with it before the project was actually done.  They would lose interest and it would be left to me to finish it.  I stopped planning the activities and neither of them seemed to even notice.  They never ask to do one, although they do see them in the activity guide here and there.  They really love coloring the pictures though and would get very upset with me if I did not make time for that.  It works out well that they can color while I read.

[PeacefulChaos]

We read it and answer the questions.

MOST of the time I get them to do narration on one of the sections we read.  But on days when we're reading 3 sections (like today), we just do the questions.

We haven't done maps since the first year - it was hated with a passion, which is weird, because ALL of us love maps.  Something about it just didn't work for us, though.

We never do anything out of the activity guide aside from the ?s - and I think today was the first time we had done those this school year.

 

I don't feel bad about it.  Even if they're just hearing it, they're hearing a lot more about history than most kids.  It's still giving them a foundation that we'll be building on in the future.  :)

[Targhee]

My bare minimum is 3 sessions: 1) listen to audio while coloring activity page, 2) review questions/oral narration (none of this is written down) and map work, 3) listen again then do chapter test/quiz.

 

If I have more time/energy we read a recommended book, possibly watch something, and very rarely do a project from the activity guide. I usually put books on hold at the library and have them on our history section of the shelf for the kids to look at if they want. DS is usually the only one who does this. I probably have 8-10 books checked out for every one actually read. Kids still learn a lot by just doing the minimum. We talk about history, just like homeschoolers seem to talk about everything school, when a connection can be made. But I am not a believer in lots of output. Input is more important when they are young - that's why we listens twice to the chapter.