Making SOTW *more* chronological???

[Momof3]

This is starting to really bug me. Why isn't SOTW chronological? I'm working through the Ancients now...prepping for this summer/fall. I just *really* don't like that it bounces all around the timeline. I understand SWB is trying to keep cultures together, etc... I think I'd rather have the *flow* of history, especially since I'm trying to teach this alongside key Biblical events. 

 

(I know my kids aren't technically ready for a timeline by WTM grammar/logic standards, but they do like to see the big picture, and I think we'll do some simple 'timelining' for fun. :)) 

 

Does anyone know of a schedule or system for using SOTW (particularly the Ancients) chronologically? Or do you have some other remedy? ;) I can*NOT* switch curriculum at this point. :) 

 

Thanks!

[StephanieB]

I used BiblioPlan Middle Ages this year and it scheduled SOTW chronologically.  I believe it does for the other 3 years as well.

[ByGrace3]

This makes me laugh. SOTW is chronological...in fact so chronological that the jumping around drives me crazy. We will use Biblioplan the next time around because it ISN'T straight chronological (well, for Ancients at least --it instead groups it by cultures.) SOTW was Egypt, India, china, back to Egypt, Greece, back to Egypt...

[Guest]

History Odyssey Level 1

 

http://www.pandiapress.com/

[Aspasia]

This makes me laugh. SOTW is chronological...in fact so chronological that the jumping around drives me crazy. We will use Biblioplan the next time around because it ISN'T straight chronological (well, for Ancients at least --it instead groups it by cultures.) SOTW was Egypt, India, china, back to Egypt, Greece, back to Egypt...

This is what I was thinking. SOTW is all about being chronological--that is why you can be talking about Greece one day and China the next...which I HATE. I would LOVE it if it were grouped by civilization/culture. In fact, I've tweaked our use of it because it felt so choppy and confusing to me (not to mention dd).

[SarahW]

Well, I agree with the OP. There are some odd chronology going on. It's been a while since I looked at it, so I can't exhaust all the issues. But I do remember that Boudica is one glaring example.

[momma2three]

History Odyssey Level 1

 

http://www.pandiapress.com/

 

This is what we use.  It orders SOTW in the order that the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History goes in.  However, OP might not like it because it also secularizes SOTW a bit, and makes optional the chapters with the Bible stories presented as fact.

[Walking-Iris]

I like History Odyssey, but I will say that the way SOTW is written makes it somewhat difficult to rearrange. It's like rearranging the chapters in a novel and still understanding what the plot is.

 

I originally bought all 4 levels of SOTW in one go, because i had hoped to cover what we wanted, but quickly realized it's nearly impossible to change or tweak SOTW. 

 

HO does the best job of this I feel. Although HO is secular, IMHO it doesn't secularize SOTW (I don't see how one could do that unless they rewrite the books). HO is simply a schedule of readings and other activities. 

[Aspasia]

I like History Odyssey, but I will say that the way SOTW is written makes it somewhat difficult to rearrange. It's like rearranging the chapters in a novel and still understanding what the plot is.

 

I originally bought all 4 levels of SOTW in one go, because i had hoped to cover what we wanted, but quickly realized it's nearly impossible to change or tweak SOTW.

 

HO does the best job of this I feel. Although HO is secular, IMHO it doesn't secularize SOTW (I don't see how one could do that unless they rewrite the books). HO is simply a schedule of readings and other activities.

Yeah, reordering it doesn't solve all the problems. I finally abandoned the actual text. We're studying history by civilization. I am just using the SOTW activity guide for its book lists and project ideas. But mostly, our history program consists of a big book list and notebooking pages, with the occasional project or game from the activity guide. We're enjoying the content much more, and it just makes more sense.

[HS Mom in NC]

I rearranged SOTW to be less chronological.  I think children that young don't have a good grasp of time anyway, so I rearranged SOTW by people groups all through SOTW1 and some during SOTW 2. As cultures spread and interact more, it's harder to do people groups individually.  I do each people group chronologically, but let's face it, if you're doing more than one people group in any type of format, it's actually impossible to be rigidly chronological because events happen simultaneously all over the world and regents and eras over lap.

 I particularly wanted my youngest to have a stronger sense of each people group, rather than doing the typical American thing and lumping people by continent or sub-continent or doing little at all to distinguish one people group from another. My youngest is adopted from S. Korea and I am SHOCKED at how ignorant the typical American is about the differences in Asian people groups. They say amazingly stupid things. I don't mean kids-I mean adults who are "allegedly" well educated because they have a degree or two.  It's embarssing really.  

 

We do a timeline with timeline figures that we update weekly with the people and events we've been studying.

 

I used SOTW books and the accompanying Activity Books with lots of the living books and hands on activities suggested in them with what is now sold as  MapTrek by Terri Johnson to keep my kids up to speed on the geography.  It's divided into the same 4 sections of history that SOTW is, or at least it did when it was sold as the version I have: Backline Maps of World History. We make lapbooks and notebooks of all our assignment from each unit.  That includes narrations from each section of SOTW which I read aloud.

[HS Mom in NC]

I should mention I didn't use the activity book for SOTW 1 because I was using the relevant issues of Learning Through History Magazine.  HEre's the example of what we did for Mesopotamian cultures.  Also did units with SOTW as our spine for Rome, China, Greece, Egypt, India, and Africa (not Egypt.)
 

Ancient Middle East Unit Study

• Note that there are few read alouds listed her related to Mesopotamia.  During the read loud times every day I was usually reading My Bible Story by Dena Korfker.
• Note that I had my daughter do a narration of almost every chapter of SOTW. I wrote down what she said, then she copied what I wrote as a handwriting assignment.  All were saved for the lapbook.
  
  

   

  SOTW=Story of the World 1 by Susan Wise Bauer

  UBWH= Usborne Book of World History

  KHE=Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

  MTWWA= Mapping the World with Art DVD

  BMWH= Blackline Maps of World History

MTWWA- Video #1 Mesopotamia or BMWH- First Cities and Early Civilizations 4,000BCE pg.14

Make a map of Mesopotamia. Watch the Mesopotamia chapter of Mapping the World with Art on DVD and copy it onto watercolor paper (One step at a time.  Take breaks as needed and get back to it if that works better than doing one long session.)   Paint it with watercolor paint and when dry, label with a sharpie marker.  Add any cities or features not included on the DVD as you read about them in your studies.  Put in some sort of file folder or container for your lapbook.

 

SOTW- The First Nomads Become Farmers pg. 9-13

UBWH- The First Settlers pg. 4-5

KHE- First Farmers pg. 8

 

Draw and paint domesticated animals.  (You could simply print some out if your child doesn't enjoy drawing or tracing or if you'd rather put your time and energy elsewhere.) Using a simple drawing book (like the I Can Draw Series) either draw or trace on watercolor paper various domesticated animals to go into 2 categories: animals people breed to eat and animals that people use to help them work.

 

To trace onto regular paper (as opposed to thin tracing paper) put a flashlight into a coffee mug and turn it on facing up. Then get a large clear plastic container without a lid.  Put it upside down over the coffee mug and flashlight. The bottom of it should be the flat surface you use like a table.  Put the image to be traced on it with the light directly underneath.  Put a regular piece of paper (we used watercolor paper) on top of the image to be traced.  It should be very easy to trace the image because the light is shining right under it.

 

Copy work reads, "Some domesticated animals are raised by people for food." The animals she traced and painted are: chicken, duck, pig, sheep, horse, rabbit, cow, goat on one page for the lapbook.
Copy Work reads, "Some domesticated animals are raised and trained by people to help with work." The animals she traced and painted are: horse, camel, goat, dog, cow on another page for the lapbook.

 

UBWH- Jericho pg. 6

UBWH- Catyl Huyuk pg. 7

BMHW- The Sumerians of Mesopotamia 5,000BCE-2,000BCE

UBWH- First Great Civilization pg. 8-9

 

Make small simple clay pots and decorate them. Talk about the importance of food storage as it relates to building civilization. Take photos and print them out for your lapbook. Keep them handy for the trade game.

 

Make art with dried staple foods that the ancients stored in clay pots.  Beans, corn, rice, lentils, etc.  Get a piece of cardstock and cover with a fairly thick layer of Elmer's type glue.  Use a sponge brush for spreading. Place the staple foods in a design on the glued cardstock. Pour a thick coating of Elmer's glue over them and let them dry for 1-3 days. The glue dries clear. Put in the file or container for your lapbook.

 

Play the Trade Game.  You need: something to be your river-we used a long scarf.  Something to be your boat(s)-we used small tupperware lids.  Something to be your domesticated animals-we used two dozen small plastic horses.  Something to store your crops-we used the small clay pots.  Something to be your mountains-we used large building blocks.  Something to be your metals-we used a couple of handfuls or change.  Something to be your ports (for the different villages and towns along the river.) We used flat plastic counters but you could use different pieces of paper, washcloths, potholders, etc. Something to be your crops-we used the leftover staple foods from the art project.

Decide where upstream is and put your mountains/blocks at that end of the river along with your coins and a town/village.  Along the river set a town that specializes in animals and another that specializes in crops and pots.  Now have your boats start at each port with a little of what they specialize in.  Sail up and down the river trading what you have for what you need until each port has some of everything available in all the towns/villages along the river.  Take photos and print them for your lapbook.

 

SOTW- Hieroglyphs and Cuneiform pg. 21-24 (Only read the cuneiform parts save the hieroglyphs for Egypt unit study.)

UBWH- Invention of Writing pg. 10-11

Read aloud the Gilgamesh Trilogy by Ludmilla Zeman

 

Make a signature seal out of clay.  Roll out a cylindrical shape and carve designs into it backwards. Make sure it's hallowed out enough on the inside to run a cord through it for a necklace. (A skewer worked well for us.)   Let it dry and roll it into wet clay.  Talk about royal and common signature seals and how they were used in trade and food storage. Take photos and print them for your lapbook or since they were often worn around the neck, use them as a decorative element on a ribbon that holds the lapbook closed.

 

SOTW-Sargon and the Akkadians pg. 32-34

 

If I had had more time I would've also looked up on the internet for a very simple, inexpensive basket weaving project for Sargon, since the story tells of him floating down the river in a basket.  When I was a kid we did one at Sunday School when we read about Moses. Take photos and print them out for your lapbook.

 

KHE- Sumer and Akkad pg. 9

UBWH- Daily Life pg. 12-13

SOTW- Hammurabi’s Code pg. 46-50

UBWH- Rise of Babylon pg. 30-31

KHE- Babylon (Hammurabi) pg. 21

SOTW- Shamshi-Adad pg. 51-53

UBWH- Graves at Anatolia pg. 32

SOTW- Ashurbanipal’s Attack pg. 115-118

UBWH- Kings and their Palaces pg. 54-55

KHE- The Assyrians pg. 22-23

 SOTW- Library at Nineveh pg. 118-121

UBWH- The Assyrian Army pg. 56-57

SOTW- Nebuchadnezzar’s Madness pg. 122-123

UBWH- City of Babylon pg. 58-59

KHE- Babylon Revived pg. 36-37

SOTW- Hanging Gardens of Babylon pg. 124-127

 

Coloring page of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon from the internet or build the Hanging Gardens of Babylon out of various sizes of shirt boxes stacked on top of each other (largest on the bottom, smallest on the top) and secured with lots of Elmer's type glue or a glue gun and then attach to a cake board (available at Walmart or at party or craft stores.)  Paint it all a sand color.  Buy a very cheap fake plant that can be cut up into pieces and stuck into the holes all over the hanging gardens structure.  Paint pathways and flowers and the Euphrates on running on the cake board. Take photos and print them for your lapbook.

 

Assemble your lapbook with everything you’ve saved-narrations, photos, assignments, projects.

 

 

[Dory]

I have been following Guest Hollows timeline and it puts SOTW chronologically as well as numerous other books, movies, and extras that flesh it out.

[Tmhearn]

Second vote for Guest Hollow. :-)

[MommytoFour]

I have a schedule that has the chapters of the bibles in order, and then has the corresponding chapters in SOTW, MOH, videos, projects, read alouds, readers, and several other resources with each day of the week (for 36 weeks). I have no idea where I got it but I can email you a copy (it's too big to attach here) if you are interested. Just message me and let me know.

[happypamama]

History Odyssey Level 1

 

http://www.pandiapress.com/

 

We really like HO Level 1 (using Early Modern for 3rd grade this year).  It does jump around cultures/locations a bit, but it moves SOTW around too.  DS1 seems to like it; he's finishing up colonial America now and will move on to the American Revolution soon.

 

I'm not really sure that any one way is perfect.  Last year we did SOTW ancients straight through, and that was pretty good, but sometimes she does have you go to a different location to make the chronology work, and then back to an earlier location later.  I don't think there's any way around that -- somehow, somewhere, sometime you are going to have to jump around a bit.  At least with HO, it's chronological for a particular location, which seems to work well for my son, because it's "here's what the major parts of American history are," rather than "here's some Europe, here's some Africa, now back to Europe, oh, and hey, here's some America, but now let's jump back to Europe."  Otoh, that approach lacks a little of the "this is the big age of revolution" stuff that puts it kind of in perspective, so it's a trade-off, and I suppose that's why we do history multiple times, and with timelines later, so that kids can get a solid idea of both what made America America and how it all fits in with the bigger perspective of the whole world.

 

ETA: I did find it relatively easy to correspond SOTW with the Bible; there are a few lists online, but I mainly picked our selection of Arch paperbacks and corresponded them with SOTW.  (I personally found that SO fascinating myself!  I had had very little ancient history before last year, other than what was expressly in the Bible, and it was really interesting to me to see what else was happening in the world, and where the events mentioned in the Bible fit in.  As a Christian, I felt like that really added credence to the Bible's events -- they weren't some randomly fabricated stories, but real events that took place in context of a big world.  Like, it helped me understand why exactly Jesus was born *then.*)

[EKS]

I actually stopped using SOTW midway through volume 3 because I felt that it's adherence to chronology was getting in the way of making sense.  We switched to K12's History 4, which is chronological but also groups its lessons thematically.  Much more coherent.

[Coco_Clark]

I'm in the "make SOTW less chronological" group. The jumping around drives me batty but I don't really know how to rearrange chapters while not throwing it out as your spine and demoting it to reference. They seem to build on each other so strongly.

[PentecostalMom]

I have a schedule that has the chapters of the bibles in order, and then has the corresponding chapters in SOTW, MOH, videos, projects, read alouds, readers, and several other resources with each day of the week (for 36 weeks). I have no idea where I got it but I can email you a copy (it's too big to attach here) if you are interested. Just message me and let me know.

 

Sending you a pm.

 

[llifeon18wheels]

I have a schedule that has the chapters of the bibles in order, and then has the corresponding chapters in SOTW, MOH, videos, projects, read alouds, readers, and several other resources with each day of the week (for 36 weeks). I have no idea where I got it but I can email you a copy (it's too big to attach here) if you are interested. Just message me and let me know.

Also sending you a PM

[mamaof4happykiddos]

I have a schedule that has the chapters of the bibles in order, and then has the corresponding chapters in SOTW, MOH, videos, projects, read alouds, readers, and several other resources with each day of the week (for 36 weeks). I have no idea where I got it but I can email you a copy (it's too big to attach here) if you are interested. Just message me and let me know.

 

Sending you a PM also. Hope you don't mind.

 

[Carol in Cal.]

I thought that SOTW was very chronological, and I used supplemental books that we read over and over without necessarily correlating them to the SOTW text (full of folk tales, biographies, and mythology) to keep the various cultures fresh and distinct in our minds while we were studying other ones.  It worked out extremely well to be able to say, OK, we are back to Egypt now.  Let's pull out that book about Hatshepsut and look at the pictures to remind ourselves what Egypt looks like again.