If not SOTW, then what...?

[Motsy802]

My son is going to be in 2nd grade next year, and I'll also have a daughter going into kinder. My son and I attempted SOTW last year, but it was torture for us both. We got through MAYBE half of book 1 before I threw my hands up and quit. He was bored out of his mind with it. I was bored out of my mind. He barely paid attention. It was a mess. He learned absolutely nothing from it. I know that some people rave and love SOTW, and I really want it to work for us because I feel like we'd be missing something otherwise, but I can't risk losing another year of history because I decide to try it next year again. 

 

He loves books so I'm thinking we'd be better off doing something with more a CM-type approach? I have been checking about Beautiful Feet the last couple of days and wanted to know what others thought of it? Also, what other suggestions/ideas can you give me on a curriculum for him? Like I said, I think something that uses books might be best for us, but I also want to make sure he's not in a program that is too "easy." I want to feel like if we decide to switch later that he'd be capable of making a switch. TIA!

[Amy M]

I just want to throw out there that it could be better this year because he's more mature and has more stamina to listen. I felt that way too at times with my son last year; we're 11 weeks into SOTW 2, he just turned 7, and I feel it's going better this year. Anyway, have you considered My Father's World? (Their year of US history for 2nd or 3rd grades)

[shawthorne44]

Could you try the audio book version?  

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I bought a Beautiful Feet Books guide to supplement for American History.  I liked the books they selected.  I liked the character education woven in.  I am a Christian, and I believe history is His Story, if you will.  But I thought that some of their framework for understanding God's Providential role of history went a little too far for my liking.  It's easy to adjust, but it's something to be aware of.  My Father's World has some great reading selections too, but they have science and Bible included.  Amblesideonline outlines a CM history curriculum, and Sonlight is a program some of my friends use that focuses on reading literature.  That may also be a good fit.  FWIW, my son did Ancients in 1st grade with SOTW in school, and we did SOTW 2 at home.  I am not a fan of the first SOTW, and I do not plan to purchase it for our second cycle.  But we had a great time with SOTW 2, and we loved utilizing the Activity Guide for more book selections at the library.  If it's not for you though, don't push it it if there's a better approach for your family.

[lacell]

  I am not a fan of the first SOTW, and I do not plan to purchase it for our second cycle.  But we had a great time with SOTW 2,

 

Why were you not a fan?

[HappyClassical]

Could you try the audio book version?

We used SOTW 1 for kinder, before stopping to put it up while we focus on the 3rs before 1st and tackle it "formally" for first grade.

 

My DD and DS find it boring but if I put in the audiobook (which I personally find not very exciting), the kids LOVE it. We listen to the chapters when going to music or tennis lessons and then build from there... Some resources that tie easily with SOTW to make in more engaging:

 

SOTW Activity Guide

Usborne History Encyclopedia or Ancient History

Evan Moor History Pockets - Ancient Civilizations

Ancient Science by Jim Weiss

Map Trek (they have multiple versions of maps and I really love them)

Eat Your Way Around the World.

[pitterpatter]

Not sure whether you would start with Medieval Times or Ancients again. This is what we've done so far...no SOTW. Not my thing. We use use Usborne and picture books and History Odyssey for map study.

 

http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20History - Ancients

 

http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Medieval%20Times - Medieval Times (We finish up history for the year today. I'm a couple of lessons behind on my history posts, though)

[Murrayshire]

Have you looked at Guest Hollow? She has history and science schedules, book selections, video, etc! Wonderful, FREE, idea for you!

 

My kids loved Liberty Kids to throw into their American Study!

[Pink and Green Mom]

Did you just use the text or did you use the activity guide?  I think the activity guide is what "makes" SOTW.  I'm not sure my kids would have gotten much out of it if I just read the book to them.  When mine were younger I would read the book on Monday and do the activity guide narrations, we would look at the corresponding Usbourne pages on Tuesday, do the map work on Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday read library picture books on the subject and do an activity from the guide.

 

If you want to use just books from the library, I would see what topics are covered in SOTW to use as a guide.  With the exception of maybe one or two chapters, we never had a problem finding lots of choices of age-appropriate books at the library.  You could make a "book basket" for the topic and let your son pick and choose.  You could do a narration page for the books, let him draw a picture of what he learned, etc.  Trust me, that is much more thorough than anything they are doing in public or private school at that age for history.

[sweetpea3829]

My first year of teaching history (the kids were 1st grade) was a flop, as well...and I was using Tapestry of Grace.  I SO wanted TOG to work for us...I love the idea behind it...but I really think my kids were (and are) just too young to grasp what Tapestry wanted them to grasp.  

 

So we did SOTW this year and found it to be a better fit for a gentle introduction to history.  I plan to use it for the remainder of elementary and will reassess in the middle school years.

 

My point, though, is that your 1st grader might not have been ready.  I have a Ker heading into 1st this year, and I do not plan on starting him with history this year at all, aside from perhaps listening in to the older kids' SOTW2.  

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

In response to an earlier post, I wouldn't say I had strong feelings against it or anything.  There were parts of it I liked, but for ancient history, I wanted more understanding of the Biblical history.  We are considering Tapestry of Grace for the logic stage.

[CardinalAlt]

We use CHOW, along with an Usborne world history book for more images. We read 4-5 chapters at the beginning of a month, do narrations for each chapter, along with Usborne browsing, then decide what most interests her from that chunk. We get library resources to dive deeper in those areas for the next few weeks.

[Tanikit]

I am using SOTW2 with my 6 year old - but we do it very informally. Often I do not even ask her what we read about at all. Sometimes she does draw a picture or even write a narration, but what works best is just to talk to her about what possibly might interest her. And then also to find books that fit the time period - (We are reading Little Lord Fauntleroy now because she wanted to know what Earls and peasants were) - she also learns more from well chosen books than from SOTW2 itself. I am not actually too bothered about history in elementary though so that might be why we do not struggle - if it isn't working we just stop for a bit.

[happypamama]

My third grader has been using one of the Usborne encyclopedias along with SOTW, and it's been a good combo for him. You could use Usborne instead. It has pretty pictures, so maybe that would engage kids better than SOTW. If he's not an auditory learner, the visual might be better for him. My son is not an auditory learner, and while he did okay when I read SOTW to him last year, this year he's been reading it to himself, and he's retaining a lot more of the information that way.

[Guest]

Someone on here had a great idea. She used just the SOTW Activity Guide without the actual book. She used the extra book selections listed in the AG and the Usborne encyclopedia as her program.  I am shamelessly planning to copy her as I have tried repeatedly to read SOTW with my younger guys. But they will devour real picture books. I will use the AG for the framework, the book list, the maps, the coloring pages {if they fit}, and the activities. Or I might just go with History Odyssey level 1. 

[EKS]

K12's elementary history sequence is excellent. 

[Terrabelle]

It has been awhile since I used them, but when my older children were little, we used both Truthquest History and Biblioplan.  Both are recommendations of "living" books (that you can check out or purchase) that are related to the time periods you are studying.
Terri

[dbaeimers]

I know I do not post here a lot, but I did want to give my two sense.  SOTW is not for everyone.  I tried it the first year, gave up after a few weeks.  Went back to it again the next year thinking it must work, and gave up after a few weeks.  Its just is not for everyone.  No matter how you slice it, I am just not going to mummify a chicken.  I am just not.  I might build a moat out of dirt and grass in the first few weeks of the school year when we are all excited about the year, but come March when we are all so sick of school it is not going to happen.  Its ok.  There are some people that just love that kind of learning.  I am not one of them.  I am also not a fan of reading out loud to my kids (Terrible I know).  I wish I loved reading out loud but I don't.  The audio tapes might help with that, but I do think they would.  It is ok if not every curriculum works for every family.  

 

For other suggestions, what I have found to work best for our family for grades k-2 is the Scolastic non fiction Step Into Reading leveled readers.  They are written for a young child, at their reading level.  We have done this for both science and history.  My girls have learned so much from those leveled readers.  They work on their reading at the same time that they are learning about Abe Lincoln or George Washington or about Pyramids or snakes or butterflies.  I required 2 non fiction books per day.  For this year for 3rd grade we did Abeka in addition to the non fiction readers, however I am not sure if I will do that for 4th grade next year or not.

 

Good luck finding something that will work just right for your family.   

[Crimson Wife]

Someone on here had a great idea. She used just the SOTW Activity Guide without the actual book. She used the extra book selections listed in the AG and the Usborne encyclopedia as her program.  I am shamelessly planning to copy her as I have tried repeatedly to read SOTW with my younger guys. But they will devour real picture books. I will use the AG for the framework, the book list, the maps, the coloring pages {if they fit}, and the activities. Or I might just go with History Odyssey level 1. 

 

We did a similar thing with my oldest but using the Kingfisher. I'd borrowed the main SOTW text from the library but DD proclaimed it "boring". However, she *LOVED* the KHE. To my mind, the KHE is drier than SOTW since it's written to be a reference book rather than a narrative. But I think she liked the full-color illustrations in KHE. So we followed the schedule in the AG and did the crafts, read the recommended books, etc. but substituted KHE for the main SOTW text.

 

DS likes SOTW but it's a bit easy for him. So I'm beefing it up by pairing it with MP "Famous Men of..." series. He really liked the Greeks and Romans books and has already asked me to get the Middle Ages one for next year.

[kristi26]

So we used SOTW for a few years and while DS11 tolerated it (as did DS14 when he was a bit younger), no one really loved it.  We ended up abandoning it a few weeks in this year and did Early American history with other resources.  For DD8 (second grade), we used Liberty's Kids videos, some Horrible Histories videos (she thought they were funny), lots of books from the library, and lapbooks from Homeschoolshare.com to do our American history year.