History together or separate?

[Flowergirl159]

I have noticed that some homeschoolers do history with all children together and others have a separate history program for each child. What are their reasons and which works better?

 

I was planning on doing history together starting in January. My children will be 9, 7 and 5.

 

My 9yr old has not had any formal lessons on history yet. We have read some picture books such as Usborne World History, the bible, and some biographies. But nothing formal yet. So I really want to get started on history for her.

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I was going to us Ambleside Online then I remembered I had purchased SOTW vol 1. I am thinking I will do ancient history with them all starting next year and see how we go.

 

So before I get started, just wanted to check that I am doing it the best way for us :/

[Coco_Clark]

I think one of the biggest reasons to do history together is time management. You can do an hour of history with the whole bunch and be finished vs an hour with each kid. Of course you could always delegate older children to do the bulk of their history independently, but its still a time-saver. I think another benefit (at least in all studying the same time frame) is the conversations and play the children can ALL participate it.

 

The only benefit I can think of for seperate history is shielding young children from "darker" historical events. But then again, unless you don't allow any conversations or reading while they are in the room I don't see how that would work out. I'm sure there are others though!

[happypamama]

For your kids' ages, I think SOTW 1 will work just fine.  If your oldest needs more, you can give her additional reading (and writing, if need be), and you can use supplemental picture books so that your younger one is interested as well.  We did that sort of thing for several years, and it was really nice (and did save me time).  Ancient history is often really a lot of fun for kids (making sugar cube pyramids, dressing up as Egyptians and Romans, reading Greek myths, etc.), so it would make a great introduction to formal history.

[boscopup]

SOTW would work great for those ages!

 

Last year, I did two separate Sonlight Cores. Technically, the middle child wasn't doing "history" that year (P4/5), but he was having separate read-aloud time with me while I also did history with my oldest. It went fine. This year, I tried to read some separate books with middle child matched up to what my oldest was doing in Core E. That was a lot of work and a lot of reading aloud. I really didn't want separate history sessions for each child though. My brain would like to be on one general page, history wise. :) I also didn't want separate "real" Sonlight Cores, as that would just be too much reading aloud for my voice, and I like to have time to do non-history fun read-alouds. A couple months ago, I started using TOG, and we're all doing history together very easily now. My oldest has his own books to read. I read to my middle son. I discuss things with my oldest after he reads. I sometimes do a read-aloud for all of them (though my oldest sits in on my middle son's readings). They can do projects together if they want. They're learning the same basic things, except my oldest gets to go deeper and learn about some extra topics. I imagine it would be fairly easy to do that with SOTW and heavy use of the book lists in the AG.

 

As far as which works better, together or separate, that is going to depend on what you're using, what you like to do, what your kids like to do, etc. I don't think either way is inherently better in general. I know several people on the boards here that successfully and happily do history completely separate. You just have to try it both ways yourself and see which way works for your family. :) And I mention what you're using can make a difference because when I was trying to do one Sonlight Core together (3 grade age span with older child being very advanced and younger child not-so-much in that area, so I *had* to have different books for each kid), it just wasn't working for us. It wasn't really tied together well, and it was taking a lot of work for me. So doing separate history probably would have been easier than that (except that the older child didn't need me to read aloud most of his history). Some curricula are setup for easy use across age ranges, and some are not. I think SOTW/WTM-method is fairly easy to use across age ranges - or at least elementary/middle school - so you should be ok there. Basically, read the SOTW section, then hand your older child some books at her level, read some picture-heavy books to your younger kids (and your older if she wants to sit in). The younger set can focus on different things from the older one. For example, when doing modern times, my younger kids learned about Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers, while my oldest studied those topics briefly and studied Albert Einstein and Theodore Roosevelt more in depth. So we were all looking at things that happened around the same time, but the depth of study was different.

 

Some people that do separate history don't do a 4-year world history cycle. They might pick specific topics of study based on the child's interests. In that case, it would be better to do history separately, since the kids aren't likely to all be interested in the same thing. If I were to use that method, I'd wait until the kid is reading independently to start history, so they could read on their own. My problem I'd have with it is trying to keep up with what they're reading, for discussion purposes. I'm not a fast reader, so I'd have trouble pre-reading everything. That's where TOG notes are helpful to me - I read one set of notes, and then I can have intelligent discussions with all the kids at all levels. I don't have the depth that they do, but I have some idea of what's going on at that point in history. :D Again, I think SOTW would lend itself well to you knowing what's going on.

[OneStepAtATime]

If you can do it together, that is awesome.  I think everyone being on the same page, discussing things from different viewpoints, being able to share and play with the same concepts, etc. is really beneficial and can be a lot of fun, as well as much easier to plan and implement.  Especially before you get to High School, give it a whirl.  It might work out wonderfully for everyone!  :)

 

That being said, my son loves history and my daughter loathes it.  Having them do it together was turning history into a hated subject for both of them.  I ended up having to separate them for most history things even though I really didn't want to.  It just worked out a lot better for both of them.  My 9 year old son can be studying Ancient History and early 20th century at the same time without it confusing and frustrating my daughter (13).  My son can watch as many drab, black and white documentaries on WW1 and WW2 as he wants, in his room, without his sister having to deal with any of that.  He can go into as much depth as he wants without her being bored to tears or him being frustrated that we have to move on when he still wants to study something more.  She does a more Art history approach, something her brother does not have much interest in (although he is regretting he didn't spend more time in the Faberge exhibit we went to several months ago after studying Russia and Nicholas II).  Still not a subject she likes, but she does it without being miserable or dampening her brother's enthusiasm for all things History.

 

The way that works best really depends on the child and circumstances at the time.  I hope you find a successful and fun path for your own family.  SOTW is wonderful.  We love it here (well, 2 of us do :)   ).

[Desert Strawberry]

We use SOTW together. I read aloud to everyone. They all enjoy it. It's storytime. Everyone loves a story. I have them act out the scene, illustrate it or play it out with toy figures while I read. They all enjoy that. The older two do narrations appropriate to their age. We read related picture books together. I give my oldest related books or research assignments to do on his own. 

For us, when we do history, we are all fully immersed in it. The littlest don't always hang through the whole lesson, but they are welcome to participate. We discuss it informally afterwards,and they incorporate it into their play and conversations.

I couldn't possibly approach it this way if I split it up. 

I am considering breaking off my oldest and having him do volume 4 alone. I have read that it is too mature for little ones. If we do that, I think we might do something else with our together time, and then loop around and start again at ancients with the three youngest. Aries was 2-3 the first time around. I will continue to supplement for Sagg at his level and include a timeline. 

So will have to wait and see where everyone is maturity-wise and how the final volume strikes me at that time.

[Erin]

Long ago and far away (1997 ;) ), i started adulthood as a teacher in a one-room country school.  K-8, I had 10-12 kids in 6-7 grades.  

 

My kindergartners to my 8th graders, everyone studied the same history and science units.  What they did within those units, though, was based on their age/ability.  

Consequently, when I was homeschooling both of my kids, they did those subjects together also.  Aside from the sanity issue, it makes it easier and more enjoyable to have a fuller class for discussion.  

[MerryAtHope]

I enjoyed doing history with my kids together. We separated when my oldest hit 8th grade and wanted to do it more independently (though sometimes we are covering the same topics still, sometimes different). Both have worked well here, just different seasons!

 

Merry :-)

[SebastianCat]

We are also Sonlight users, and have done history together up through this year (6th & 4th grades).   We will separate next year.   I chose to separate them because my younger child is at the youngest end of the recommended age range for the Cores she's done, and I want her to have some time to mature before she hits Cores G and up.   

 

Using SOTW for your kids' ages would probably work well.   I'd probably combine them for the remainder of elementary school for your oldest, then gradually separate them as you want to expose them to more mature content.

[2_girls_mommy]

Together at those ages.  SOTW 1 is perfect for that.  Mine do memorywork altogether, yet the older has additional memory work.  We have lists we all work on together, then the older has one she is working on by herself that she practices and recites at the same time. Even now that I have one in logic stage using the KHE as her spine, she still sits in on SOTW readings and memory time and read alouds together.  Then she has outlining and timelining to do on her own w/KHE while younger and I do her timelining and narrations together using SOTW A.G.  Younger does the SOTW maps and older is working through the Geography Coloring book instead.  DN 4 listens to read alouds and does memory work with us even.  Your 5 yr old can just listen in and color at this point.  Start getting him used to giving narrations as he gets closer to 1st grade.  But don't require anything until then.  Do any art or history projects related to the time period together with everyone.  Get picture books from A.G. to read aloud to them all, but especially to the younger 2.  And if older is a good reader, have him/her? do extra reading on his own from the older books selections. 

 

Much more fun this way, and easier on you.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

The plan is to have my kids combined.  We will be using Connecting with History starting next year, which is based on the 4 year history cycle and has four different levels of books and assignments.  High schoolers might be separate (though they are included in the CWH program).  We'll see when we get there.  This year we are studying World Cultures, though oldest dd is also studying an overview of world history by herself.

[KathyJo]

We've done history both ways, and I prefer together. Conversations, activities, and experiments are easier this way. Plus, my knowledge of history is still not the greatest; hearing about too many different time periods in one year really hurts my brain.