Help me. It's just not getting done.

[plain jane]

:sad:

 

History that is.  I simply can't get my kids excited about history for the last year and a half and it has fallen to the backburner in a big way.  I need to change this but I don't know what to do at an age-appropriate level.

 

Since September my 7th grader has been doing Mapping the World with Art instead and has read several books on Rome- the Dorothy Mills book being one, the others, I can't recall, but I have assigned several.  There has been little to no output in history relating to Rome- just reading.  I'm not happy about this.

 

My little guys (4th and 2nd and K) are slogging through SOTW.  We do a reading per day with discussion questions afterward and a narration.  I do assign the extra reading if they are interested but more often than not, they simply aren't.  We don't do the map work as I felt like I was just dragging them through it, kwim? They're just not digging it at all.  They have been doing Expedition Earth instead and are really enjoying the geography focus but I really want to get them back to learning about history too.

 

We've been stuck in Rome for oh, a year now.  I've posted on the Logic stage board but can't find my posts and frankly I'm lost.  Everything else is going really well.  The kids are not behind in anything else but I'm starting to panic.

 

I mostly need some solid guidance for my 7th grader.  I'm reading to move past the fall of Rome with her.  If you were in my shoes... with 4 kids to teach history to, 3 of whom could really take it or leave it (and would REALLY prefer to leave it if given the choice) and one (7th grader) who is really interested but needs some guidance when it comes to what is required of her....

 

What would you do with them?  I'm thinking of going back and having her read HO and OWAT but what to do for output?  I try to do reading on these boards but then I get sucked in and hours have gone by and I'm still not clear.  I need some solid suggestions that I can start implementing *tomorrow*.

 

And my little guys?  They just don't like SOTW.  I don't think there's much retention.  I'm thinking maybe HIW passport projects for middle ages and renaissance?  Are those meaty enough for my 7th grader to join in on?

 

Please don't say TOG.  We did Y1, except for the last 6 weeks and it was too much for me.  I can't handle buffet type materials because I have this weird need to do it all.  I can't choose so I need to step away from the program for now.

 

I'm sorry to ask again about this.  Someone kick me in the *** and tell me what to do. :gnorsi:

 

 

My biggest hurdle to getting done is not just the lack of interest in my littles (that can be overcome) but mostly that both my oldest and littles need me.  My oldest is an independent (and motivated) worker but I feel that she should have me there to have discussions with her and go over things and just, well... talk.  And my littles, well they need me to drag them through the program. It's not a pretty picture, but that's the truth.  I need to read SOTW (or play the CD) but make sure they are all listening.  They need me to hover over them and history is one of those things where I find it exceptionally difficult to be there for both levels at the same time.  Probably because it's my weakest subject and I can't seem to do both at once (or with anything else going on- I can't do science with one and history with the other).  Maybe I need to let go of the idea of doing history with my oldest but then I feel like I am shortchanging her education.  Of course, on her own is better than what's going on now, but I do want to strive for better ideals.  I could use a hand implementing a plan.

[OneStepAtATime]

:grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

Brain too tired to think of anything useful right now for your specific circumstances but I totally get it and I totally sympathize.  We hit a history snag this year and had to revamp, but I don't know that anything I am doing currently would help.  I will sleep on it and try and come up with something useful tomorrow.  In the meantime, hopefully someone else will chime in with a laundry list of useful suggestions and you will be all set by breakfast...one can hope, right?  :)

[TianXiaXueXiao]

I can't say I'm completely into the program, since we are just starting out with it ourselves, but have you tried MOH? It is very religious which is ok for us but we don't necessarily share the young earth perspective of the author. What I do like about the program is that it is adaptable for all ages and it is open and go, get'er done! hth

[KathyBC]

Sounds like you are done with Rome, lol. You must be near the end of Ancients? Personally, I would just keep reading SOTW to the younger ones until it's done and call it good. (Maybe excuse your Ker or give that one something to do while reading, like a colouring page, etc.) I don't know how many other subjects you have going on, but reading a section per day is pretty doable.

 

For your 7th grader and output, have you thought of IEW history-based lessons? I'm not sure if you would want to start with Ancients, or just move on and use Medieval  (to go with SOTW 2).

[Hunter]

My younger son learned history almost primarily from videos we got from the library. I had to travel to a neighboring town that was more than willing to get me several a week through interlibrary loan.

 

We were so busy with math, Greek and Latin, that I just plugged in a video at snack time. I watched it with him, and would pause it a few times for some discussion. When the video was over, we went back to the math, Greek, and Latin. No output.

[8filltheheart]

I'd find books to read aloud to the older 2 together so that you can spend time discussing them together in attempt to engage them both.   If you want to stick chronologically, you might look for books on Charlemagne or on the birth of Islam.     Then, for the younger 2, I would look at something Paddle to the Sea or Seabird.

[Chris in VA]

Can Rome and start fresh with SOTW 2.

 

Vikings, Battle of Hastings, Castles, Black Death--what's not to love?

 

Skip those sections that are boring--like the development of the English language...lol

 

Don't ask for a narration or ask the content questions for every section--just do one per chapter. For the littles (1st-2nd), two things they found interesting should do it. Do it orally, clean it up, write it down, and present it as copywork. One section a day (feel free to leave out a chapter or two or a section or two once in a while--like the language thing above...), and then one project a week. Or not. Skip the narration on the section sometimes and just take pics of the project and ask them something about it--that's also narration.

 

Read a few wonderful books alongside--Viking Adventure, Castle Diary, Adam of the Road, At The Sign of The Sugared Plum...

 

Here's a bunch of vids to go with SOTW 2--watch a few as you come to the chapter.

 

It's my very favorite of the SOTW books, and you will enjoy it!!

Some steps I would take:

 

1. Give yourself 3 hours to go thru the book and the Activity Guide, and draw up a plan. Limiting how long you have to plan will help you not get overwhelmed and making quick decisions will move you along.

 

2. Pick what you want to skip in SOTW. You don't have to do it all.

 

3. Pick a book to read alongside (read aloud)--pick, say, 8 books to read aloud, and don't worry if you don't get them done in the week you are on that topic--just read til they are done and move along. If the kids think they suck, ditch it after giving it a good go (I always say something like, try it for 50-100 pages, then let it go if it's just a slog). If you aren't familiar with ANY of the books from the AG, look at the time period and topic and see if Sonlight has one for that time, or just read a synopsis online and make a guess. You are not locked in. If none look good, let that be a topic that doesn't get a book to go with it. If you find you want to read too many, let some be "read on your own" for the olders.

 

3. Pick ONE activity and one "alternate activity" for each chapter, and MAKE yourself pick, say, 5 chapters (OR MORE ) that you will NOT do an activity for (this is to train your own self not to feel bad when you let go of the need to do "everything").

 

4. Get the first book you will read aloud from the library.

 

5. Write out an undated plan and follow it. Don't put dates on it, just do the next thing.

 

6. Every 6 weeks, review your plan. Too many activities? Trim. Too much reading? Cut it down. Kids don't like SOTW--too bad. Stick with it. Maybe skim the chapter yourself and then tell them the content, then watch a video to go with it or do an activity to go with it. How to summarize?--just read the chapter yourself and look at the sample narration in the AG, and tell the kids THAT. Then do a pertinent activity.

 

HTH

 

ETA:

Ah, in rereading your post, I see your sevvie needs a bit more guidance. I'd go ahead and do SOTW, and for output, let her pick some topics to explore further. There are, what, maybe 18 weeks more before the end of the year? So have her start SOTW 2 and beef it up. Every couple of weeks, or even more often, let her pick an aspect to go into deeper. Use the Kingfisher or other encyclo and have her write a very short paper--1-2 pages at first, on a narrow topic. If she wants to look into castle defences, for example, let her research the different types of castles (there's a paper topic right there) and find out how they were defended. Or, perhaps she wants to try her hand at cooking medieval style, or draw up a poster of 8 different herbs/medicinal plants and how they were used (draw, write out latin name, brief sentences on use). Or maybe research Islam and pick one holy day, or one practice to write about. Or, make an illustrated letter like a monk. Or memorize a passage of Shakespeare. Or watch a play. Or...LOTS to do.

So, read the chapter, decide on output, do output. If the output is a project that reasonably takes longer than a week, move on with the reading while you continue with the output (but give a deadline).

 

 

ETA:

 

Also, remember that retention is not the goal for littles--EXPOSURE is the goal. Some retention is nice, of course! But don't stress if they don't remember details. Broad strokes, backround info, first exposure to let them know history is interesting and fun and approachable. Details make things interesting--little stories, little facts, etc--but they don't need every detail and they don't need to retain a bunch of names or places, just some of them. It's ok!! They will retain more on each pass thru the material.

[Miss Marple]

I'd suggest Mystery of History. Very easy to use (we are TOG dropouts). Gets the job done :)

[Tracy]

My littles have learned tons from just listening to SOTW audio CD's.  No mapping.  No narrations.  No planned activities.  No scheduling.  Just listening to whatever stories they want to whenever we are in the car.  They are the ones that use those stories in their pretending.  (A couple of weeks ago, ds5 traveled to negotiate a peace treaty with the Carthaginians, and last week at the bank, dd8 took the pens attached to the desk and pretended she was Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence.)  It sounds like you have SOTW AG's, so just get some recommended books from the library to go along with what they happen to be interested in at the moment.  

 

And most importantly, do not wallow in a time period just to get it done.  Decide how long you are going to spend, and then ditch whatever you don't have time for.  I know that this is hard for you, but you have to learn to do it if you ever want your kids to like history.  If you want to spend three weeks on Rome, then at the end of that period, take back the books you got from the library, even if you didn't read them.  Forget the activities that you thought would be so fun but didn't have time to get to.  If you still feel like doing them when summer comes, then do them then.  You cannot love history (and neither will your kids) if you are going to get bogged down in your schedule and expectations.  We are just finishing our last year of the 4-yr cycle, and I have learned that it is so refreshing to just move on.  They are little, and I want them to love it, not feel burdened by it.  Believe me, I totally get where you are coming from.  It is painful to take any book back to the library that hasn't been read, much less a history book, but I force myself to do it for everyone's sanity.  

[Berta]

My littles have learned tons from just listening to SOTW audio CD's.  No mapping.  No narrations.  No planned activities.  No scheduling.  Just listening to whatever stories they want to whenever we are in the car.  They are the ones that use those stories in their pretending. 

 

This is what we do too. I have the CD's and we listen in the car. I bought the first set of CD's to take on a 12 hr car ride with us. After the first hour I looked over and my DH had the phone charger cord around his neck, pretending he was going to hang himself. You either love the stories, or hate them lol... Now we only listen to them when he isn't with us.

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

You got good suggestions for your littles.  For your big girl, why not move on to the OUP Medieval and Early Modern World series?  You could get the student books that go with each volume, then she'd have on-level output to do along with her reading.  You could meet with her to go over her output and discuss the reading every couple of days . . . or even once a week.  Maybe assign one short composition each week on the topic (from that week) of her choice?  I'm not usually a big proponent of student guides, but I recently got a couple of these and they look pretty good at guiding the student to pick out the main ideas from the reading and dig into them a little deeper.  Since you are using and liking that series anyway, maybe it is just time to move on with it?

 

My understanding is that the Teacher's Guides have ideas about how to pull the chapters together, and ideas for writing assignments, etc.  I haven't seen these in person, though, but it's another possibility in getting help to decide what kind of output might be appropriate for her.  In general I think this series is very engaging and very well done.

[kiwik]

 

Can Rome and start fresh with SOTW 2.

 

Vikings, Battle of Hastings, Castles, Black Death--what's not to love?

 

Skip those sections that are boring--like the development of the English language...lol

 

Don't ask for a narration or ask the content questions for every section--just do one per chapter. For the littles (1st-2nd), two things they found interesting should do it. Do it orally, clean it up, write it down, and present it as copywork. One section a day (feel free to leave out a chapter or two or a section or two once in a while--like the language thing above...), and then one project a week. Or not. Skip the narration on the section sometimes and just take pics of the project and ask them something about it--that's also narration.

 

Read a few wonderful books alongside--Viking Adventure, Castle Diary, Adam of the Road, At The Sign of The Sugared Plum...

 

Here's a bunch of vids to go with SOTW 2--watch a few as you come to the chapter.

 

It's my very favorite of the SOTW books, and you will enjoy it!!

Some steps I would take:

 

1. Give yourself 3 hours to go thru the book and the Activity Guide, and draw up a plan. Limiting how long you have to plan will help you not get overwhelmed and making quick decisions will move you along.

 

2. Pick what you want to skip in SOTW. You don't have to do it all.

 

3. Pick a book to read alongside (read aloud)--pick, say, 8 books to read aloud, and don't worry if you don't get them done in the week you are on that topic--just read til they are done and move along. If the kids think they suck, ditch it after giving it a good go (I always say something like, try it for 50-100 pages, then let it go if it's just a slog). If you aren't familiar with ANY of the books from the AG, look at the time period and topic and see if Sonlight has one for that time, or just read a synopsis online and make a guess. You are not locked in. If none look good, let that be a topic that doesn't get a book to go with it. If you find you want to read too many, let some be "read on your own" for the olders.

 

3. Pick ONE activity and one "alternate activity" for each chapter, and MAKE yourself pick, say, 5 chapters (OR MORE ) that you will NOT do an activity for (this is to train your own self not to feel bad when you let go of the need to do "everything").

 

4. Get the first book you will read aloud from the library.

 

5. Write out an undated plan and follow it. Don't put dates on it, just do the next thing.

 

6. Every 6 weeks, review your plan. Too many activities? Trim. Too much reading? Cut it down. Kids don't like SOTW--too bad. Stick with it. Maybe skim the chapter yourself and then tell them the content, then watch a video to go with it or do an activity to go with it. How to summarize?--just read the chapter yourself and look at the sample narration in the AG, and tell the kids THAT. Then do a pertinent activity.

 

HTH

 

ETA:

Ah, in rereading your post, I see your sevvie needs a bit more guidance. I'd go ahead and do SOTW, and for output, let her pick some topics to explore further. There are, what, maybe 18 weeks more before the end of the year? So have her start SOTW 2 and beef it up. Every couple of weeks, or even more often, let her pick an aspect to go into deeper. Use the Kingfisher or other encyclo and have her write a very short paper--1-2 pages at first, on a narrow topic. If she wants to look into castle defences, for example, let her research the different types of castles (there's a paper topic right there) and find out how they were defended. Or, perhaps she wants to try her hand at cooking medieval style, or draw up a poster of 8 different herbs/medicinal plants and how they were used (draw, write out latin name, brief sentences on use). Or maybe research Islam and pick one holy day, or one practice to write about. Or, make an illustrated letter like a monk. Or memorize a passage of Shakespeare. Or watch a play. Or...LOTS to do.

So, read the chapter, decide on output, do output. If the output is a project that reasonably takes longer than a week, move on with the reading while you continue with the output (but give a deadline).

 

I am doing something similar for afterschooling. I have read SOTW2 and will choose 4 to 8 areas - probably just English history ones at this point with other bits thrown in. I won't ask for output or projects unless they want to though I may buy the student pages for SOTW2 to assist me. We will just read out loud and talk. Must choose my first topic now I think of it.

[Another Lynn]

You've gotten lots of better suggestions above that I only skimmed.  I will say that we had a hard time with history during the logic stage after it had been a favorite subject previously.  It was very frustrating.  I would stop worrying about comprehension, retention, narration, mapping, etc.  In short I would can all output except discussion.  Address your skill subjects (writing) some other way.  For the younger ones, let them listen to SOTW (on CD - even better!) and move on.  Put the "extra" books on a shelf and require X minutes of reading per day.  For the 7th grader - much more difficult to find something interesting.  If she liked Dorothy Mills, let her read more of those, or the Guerber books.  Require written narrations if you want or just discuss it with her.

 

Of all my kids, the oldest engaged the most with history (when he was younger) and he mostly listened to Diana Waring on CD and SOTW on CD and read lots of books. 

[alef]

We have read Hillyer's A Child's History of the World, listened to Story of the World CDs, and I have a shelf of TOG recommended books I occasionally read from and the kids browse through as I interests the.

[Saddlemomma]

You could always stop doing Rome, and pick up MP's Famous Men of the Middle Ages Package.  It's open and go and can be done independently. That way you could read the stories out loud to everyone and have your oldest do the workbook and memory cards. 

 

The littles could color appropriate coloring pages (found free on the internet) while listening. You could do it as one class a week, or you could read the chapter out loud, then have your oldest work on the workbook for the rest of the week with her doing some extra research on the topic and a short outline of the events that took place.  That way, your littles will be getting the "story" and your oldest would have some output.  It doesn't need to be a ton.  The workbook is easy to follow yet provides depth.

 

If money is an issue, you can find the actual ebook online from Gutenburg press or booksshouldbefree.com and just purchase the workbook and cards.

[Ellie]

Get a textbook for your 7th grader and call it done.

 

Or let her do a Beautiful Feet Books study guide.

 

For your littles, instead of doing something published, get some fun historical fiction and read aloud, without worrying about a four-year history cycle--Jean Fritz's books on the American Revolution (Why Can't You Make Them Behave, King George? And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?....and others), or Robert Logan's (Mr. Revere and I, Ben and Me). Do some field trips and just enjoy the time. Maybe there are living-history days of some kind where you live--go to them and just hang out.

 

In short, relax. History should be enjoyable, and you should do whatever it takes to make it enjoyable, even if it means there's no output, lol.