How do you use SOTW?

[ajfries]

We're going to be doing SOTW Ancients this year and I just received the paperback & activity guide. I'm planning on reading the book myself & going through the activity guide to pick out things that sound interesting & beneficial to me.

 

What kind of schedule do you do SOTW with? Just after a general perusal, it seems like many of the activities are quite involved. Would you say you do some, many, all? of the activities? I'm a little nervous because I also got RSO, which is pretty "hands on".

 

There's a little voice in my head that's saying that my first grader really doesn't need to know about the Ancient world and maybe it's all a waste of time :leaving:  Tell me I'm wrong. Am I wrong? Should I consider history a "bonus" at this point?

[Above The Rowan]

As a read aloud as part of our Morning Time. I did buy the AG but found it to be too much busywork and the kids really didnt care for the activities so we moved it to our read aloud basket. They are retaining a lot more since we made the shift. If there is something they seem particularly into, we will do a little extra reading but if not we just review and move on.

[coffeegal]

I printed up the coloring pages and maps from the activity guide.

 

The children colored while I read from SOTW. We usually tried for 3 days, but 2 days a week is more realistic and what I'll be doing with my youngest 2 this year. Usually we covered a chapter a week.

 

After I read the blurb from SOTW, we ran through the discussion questions. This could also work into a simple narration. Have your child narrate a sentence and one of you write it on the bottom of the coloring sheet. Or you write the sentence onto scrap paper and your child copies it.

 

Now it's time for the map work.  We did the map work on Mondays, the first day of SOTW. We'd review the map on Wednesdays.

 

Pick an activity to do. My suggestion is to pick one or two big activities a month and a couple small activities. Don't try to do it all!

 

I also checked out as many of the extra reading books from the library as I could. They were used as read alouds at bedtime, independent reading, and optional reading. The books are wonderful. When my 4th child was working through SOTW Vol. 1, I hopped in the car with a pile of recommended books. All my children quickly passed the books between themselves to read.

 

We've enjoyed doing SOTW. The children learned geography from the regular map work, we brought wonderful picture books home for the children to read, and the children had pegs for ancient history. We were watching a movie once that referenced building the Great Wall of China and the terracotta army. Dh started to explain the history behind the reference, and the children exclaimed they already knew and understood it. :001_smile:

 

As far as doing it with young children, we're swinging around to the ancients this year. I'll be doing SOTW with my youngest 2 children. :D

[kiwi mum]

I have used it in different ways with different kids, at different ages. I had a 14 year old with very poor general knowledge read through the whole set in a year (30 minutes per day). I had a 12 year old straight out of school read the chapter, do the mapping and do the tests. I had a younger child read it in addition to another history program he was using (which had its own activities). I have not used it with a six year old though. I would say do whatever seems interesting to you and the child and don't feel guilty about anything you skip.

[Momof3littles]

We use the AG primarily for mapwork, discussion questions, and supplemental reading suggestions.  They often did the coloring too, but just as something to do while I read, or just as a kind of easy, relaxing thing to do :)  We do some activities, but I focus on the ones I feel are worth the time, mess, effort, etc. to complete.  We do some activities of our own (for ex, making a map out of clay for a particular area we are studying).  We spend quite a bit of time on the supplemental readings.  I have my DS1 (finishing 4th) write a paragraph about certain events, people, etc. that were covered in SOTW, and that goes into his history notebook.  Typically we cover history about 3x a week.

 

This year we did Ancients for the first time for my 7 yo, and it was my 10yo's second time around.  We spent a lot more time this cycle on Greece and Rome than I did during our last Ancients cycle with DS1.

 

edited to add that this is our first year using the PDF for student sheets.  I really like having them printed and in a binder for each child.  They insert their own papers as needed (for ex, DS1's written narration paragraphs about various topics).  I live in a state that requires record keeping to be turned into the SD, so having a nice binder with writing samples, mapwork, etc. makes that much easier.

[MusicMama]

We listen to the book on Cd in the van. We've finished the entire thing about 10 times. 3 times a week, they color from the activity book while I ask the narration questions. My first grader does the map work as well. If an activity looks easy or particularly exciting, I do it. Most of the time, I don't. I figure we will do this again in four years and I can do more cool activities when I don't have 5 kids 6 and under. :) The kids love it, and it takes 30 minutes, tops. Then I check out some books relating to what section we talked about for them to read during their free time.

[Tanikit]

I did Ancients with my 5 year old - she had a lot of fun with hands on activities though I mostly made up my own based on the things I knew my child would enjoy - so making maps in the mud outside was always good, painting on the wall in water also worked well and making playdough tablets instead of proper clay ones also worked fine. Did my 5 year old need to know history? No, but it was an introduction and it was fun for her. At 6 now we are covering the Middle Ages - she is now capable of doing some narrations and even writing a sentence and drawing a picture, but still does not retain much of it. It does however add something to imaginary play and every now and then the stories do come up again. It also gives me more ideas of books to read aloud to her that I probably would not have chosen if left to my own devices (history has never been my favourite subject).

 

We do history about 2x/week, but it will depend on how much science we are doing - if one of those subjects suddenly interest us more then we may drop the other for a short time and do more on the other. Sometimes I just read the section to my DD and do no activities or extras at all - it is all for interest sake, so if it does not interest her then we speed through it. If it excites her, we pull out the projects.

[73349]

I will also be using it with a first-grader. I didn't buy the AG. DS is flat-out opposed to coloring, etc., unless there's a good reason for it, and we are also doing RSO for science (Earth & Space), so I need to be selective about activities. We'll have a wall timeline, a number of supplements for specific topics (some bought, some from the library), and a few activities from Pinterest. A nearby art museum has ancient sculptures and other artifacts to look at.

 

I've allocated a slot for history 4 days a week, but if we're finished with the topic for the week, I'll stop until the next week. Most weeks I have one chapter scheduled. I do plan to combine chapters 12 & 13, 23 & 24, 30 & 31, 35 & 36, 37 & 38, and 40 & 41, so that I can save some weeks for review and not extend history into the summer.

[Desert Strawberry]

We read aloud, one chapter per day, every day for a month. When they were little and we did Ancients, we read every day. Now we have a lot of other stuff, so it's in a rotation with other things. 

 

I ditched the activity guide. It was a lot of busywork, and little benefit. I prefer just to read and discuss. I look ahead at upcoming topics and search the library for picture books for the littles, and chapter books for the oldest. I trust our library to have a good selection of high quality books, though not often the ones in the AG. 

 

We sometimes do narrations, which I then use for copywork and dictation. About once a week, if we don't have those covered with other materials. 

 

For first grade, history is a bonus. He doesn't NEED it. But it's an enjoyable read. We are 5 years in and reading Volume 3. So we definitely aren't sticking to 4yr rotation. You can do it once a week, or break it down into smaller sections, or whatever you want. IMO the point is for him to have exposure to good stories, and enjoy the readings. Real, detailed learning will come later. 

[Pink and Green Mom]

There are lots of things in the activity guide, and we skipped quite a few of them. Some things my kids remember 6 years later:

 

-making the Nile River valley in a disposable baking dish and flooding it

-making our own Hammurabi's code

-making the purple dye

 

This is the schedule we followed.  None of this (except Friday) took longer than 20-30 minutes tops.

 

Monday:  read SOTW, answer the questions

Tuesday:  read corresponding Usbourne pages (sometimes looking at selected websites, etc)

Wednesday:  map work from Activity Guide (would take all of 5 minutes)

Thursday:  read from "book basket" on the subject (I'd get easy readers, picture books, etc. that were suggested or that I found on my own)

Friday:  more book basket, maybe do a project if kids were super interested, maybe watch a video from Netflix/library if I had found anything age-appropriate

[Pronghorn]

We did no activities. We listened to the cds on long road trips. My daughter also listened to it while playing.

[ajfries]

I am loving that there are so many different (successful!) ways to use this curriculum. I'll make a tentative plan and try to go into it giving myself permission to change it up as necessary. :) As a newbie, I definitely tend to allow the curriculum to control me rather than the other way around.

[Guest]

Yes, history is a bonus gravy subject from now through, really, late middle school. Do not beat yourself up or stress over it. I plan to use the AG as a booklist. My kids do not like the actual SOTW books.

[Maela]

We're using it as a read aloud.  We used to do the questions, some projects, and the map work; we got burned out.  I've just recently started asking for short oral narrations after 2-3 paragraphs.

[smudge]

My girls are 6 and 8, we just finished on ancients. I scheduled SOTW for 2 days a week. The first day I read the text, we did our maps (they LOVED the maps) and then the coloring page and narrations. As far as the other activities, I didn't have a lot of time so I would pick and choose. Sometimes we did one, other times not. One thing they loved that I made up was using different colored beans for a mosaic picture. It was one of the later chapters on Rome. I also tried to get library books that could pertain to the lesson, but that was only when I had my act together! haha!

With younger kids you could probably be really relaxed in your approach....

 

[Hannah]

We have a 'history club' with three other families that meets one afternoon to do the activities from the guide.  The moms take turns to prepare the activities.  The presenting moms gives a recap of the story, may ask a few questions and then explains how the activity fits into the story.  As we all have different crafting skills, the kids benefit and I find I'm much more prepared and organized knowing its not only for my own child.

 

This is my second time as it is for one of the other moms.

 

We spend a lot of time in the car, so often listen to the audio in the car.  If we have an additional book, that gets added as a read-aloud. We don't generally do the colouring or mapwork, but look up locations on our globe.

[pitterpatter]

We started the four-year cycle a year early, so DD was five when we studied Ancients. I can tell you that it was in no way a waste of time. Although we didn't use the SOTW program (except for the activity book for book suggestions and a few activities), she learned so much!! She adores history. Who knew a five-year-old would fall in love with Greek mythology? My recommendation would be to pull in a lot of picture books and audio books. Choose simple activities and don't force yourself to complete something elaborate every week. You will get burnt out.

 

Here's what we did for Ancients. I will admit there were some tears in a few of these projects early on because they involve the need for more advanced fine motor skills. Again, try to keep it simple and stress-free for your DC (and you too). If you think drawing hieroglyphs might be too frustrating, buy a cheap set of hieroglyph stamps. Set aside a lot of time and don't rush the projects. Seemingly simple things can take a 6-year-old FOREVER to complete well.

 

Here's what we did for Ancients. You'll have to scroll back to get to the beginning.

 

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

 

Oh, and for map work, if there are a lot of things to label, use sticker labels to make stickers (you write the words on them). My DD enjoyed map work a lot more after I quit making her write out "Mediterranean Sea" every single time.

[Miss Tick]

We scheduled it three days a week. I read one section, then we did the review questions and narration. If it was the end of a chapter we also did the map work. I strewed the suggested books for independent reading. We did an occasional craft if it struck my fancy. Every few weeks we spent some time working on the big lapbook. My kids will still pull that out to peruse occasionally, so that was worth it for us. Every 10 chapters, or do, we put cards in a timeline. That also helped with review and to show where events dwell relative to others.

[Caclcoca]

My middle ds did SOTW Ancients in first grade.  We listened to the audio CD in the car, and we went over the questions from the AG.  We also did some of the read alouds.  He loved the Greek Myths and Black Ships Before Troy.  He is not my activity kid, so we skipped those.  My older two did some of the activities when they were that age.  Their favorites were the cuneiform tablets and the Viking ships.

[Desert Strawberry]

I want to say that the AG for me was a bit overwhelming and made me avoid history all together. There was a lot of good stuff in there, but I found the if I didn't want to devote the entire afternoon to the story, map work, dictation and coloring sheets and-heaven forbid- a craft, we wouldn't do anything at all. 

That makes me sad, because we loved ancients, and wasted a year or more by not really doing history when we got to medieval. We started over last year, just reading, discussing, finding things on the globe, acting out battles and successions, drawing pictures, doing narrations, and just doing our own thing. So much better.

 

Don't feel like you have to do all-or any-of the activities. Use the guide when you want. It's really ok to just read the stories.

[Farrar]

At this point, we're using SOTW4 as an extra resource.  It covers a lot of topics that aren't covered by other books and we use it then.  We no longer read it straight through.  If I were to just read SOTW4 straight up, then by the end, my kids would remember almost nothing.  I've focused on big themes and events and picked the bits of SOTW that fill in gaps I think are worth spending time on.