Coco_Clark Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 We've been doing SOTW for a year and a half and while we dont HATE it, we also dont LOVE it. I do feel it moves along too fast, and this year we've dropped book 2 to half time. But I also feel it jumps around too much. We read about one thing one week, and then a completely different place/time the next week. My kids have commented that "Its all the same. They take over the land, build up an empire, the empire falls, over and over and over." I mean, I guess that's history but they think it's really boring. We have enjoyed a few things...Egypt, Rome, Vikings. But I'm realizing that when we are having fun it's because we've left SOTW for a while to dig deep a few weeks. Then we have lots of boring weeks in SOTW until we get to the next good part. In fact, as we were finishing up Vikings before Chiristmas my 7yo asked "How many weeks until the next good part?" :/ At this age (5, 7) I don't think they really need a full world history viewpoint, and I wonder if we'd be better off skipping all the Indian history, African history, ect and simply do something more along the lines of Unit Studies on the Euro-centric topics that DO have lots of good extra reading available at the library. They can get a full world view later. But just skipping those SOTW chapters doesn't seem to work. They reference each other quite a bit. Is there a curriculum like this or that I can do this with? Tapestry seems like it maybe does this, but its soo expensive and seems to really shine with older kids. History Oydssey? Truth Quest? We prefer lit based and can go secular or Christian without many issues. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 My kids love history the most when we have done Simply Charlotte Mason. They have a free curriculum guide on their website as well as teaching tips in the blog series. But you can also buy an inexpensive family guide. For your ages, you can just read the books listed for the lower level and not add all of the family books. We supplement with Draw and Write Through History books, CC sentences and a timeline. ETA: I don't follow the 6 year cycle SCM does though. I condense it into a 4 year cycle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 My kids love history the most when we have done Simply Charlotte Mason. They have a free curriculum guide on their website as well as teaching tips in the blog series. But you can also buy an inexpensive family guide. For your ages, you can just read the books listed for the lower level and not add all of the family books. We supplement with Draw and Write Through History books, CC sentences and a timeline. ETA: I don't follow the 6 year cycle SCM does though. I condense it into a 4 year cycle. What is your plan for doing the above? I've searched for one and haven't found it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 To condense SCM, turn each of the first 3 years into 1 term. The first 3 years are so stretched out because of all the Bible reading. Just skipping all the Bible reading and uber-Christian resources, will reduce the amount of reading significantly. Year 1: SCM 1-3. 1 module per term. Term 1 Egypt. Term 2 Greece. Term 3 Rome. Year 2: SCM 4 Year 3: SCM 5 Year 4: SCM 6 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Coco_Clark, I prefer to be more euro-centric, too, and that is one of the main reasons, I am not a total SOTW die hard. I know EXACTLY what you mean about not being able to skip chapters. Sigh! What I have sometimes done, with some students, is to just use the audio and coloring pages for most of the chapters, and then formally teach a few select chapters. I have one student that really likes to listen and color. I think she is actually wearing out the volume 1 CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) . Edited July 9, 2022 by SilverMoon 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 What is your plan for doing the above? I've searched for one and haven't found it. Chelli, I do it like Hunter described above. But you know how loosey-goosey I am. :) I just pick and choose through the book list. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curlymom Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 We are working through the Usborne Internet-linked Encyclopedia of World History. It isn't a set curriculum but we work through a few pages at a time. My son likes it a lot better than SOTW (he doesn't like just sitting and listening to me read the narrative) and it is easier to jump around or skip parts since each section can stand alone. I add in library books on the time period by doing a quick library search and he will usually draw a picture with a very short narration based on the reading. I have maps but he's not a fan of map work so we usually just find the location on the globe. I started using the 'quick-links' feature recently and it actually is quite good and really easy to navigate. I can't believe I didn't start using it earlier, the links are a huge hit with my kids. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jens2sons Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 There is a great book called "All through the Ages" that sounds like it may be a great fit for you. You do not need any specific curriculum. It breaks down history chronologically and gives you book lists that are specific to every age. It is a book that is used as a resource for the entire family through highschool reading. Check it out: http://www.nothingnewpress.com/books/all-through-the-ages-2/ I own a copy and have found that I no longer need to rely on Sonlight book lists. The author breaks down reading lists for literature, biographies, specific events, etc. I can also say that SCM is an excellent curriculum to use. I'm looking forward to getting back to it when ds7 gets a bit older. It's great for having more than 1 child to teach and now that ds17 is taking all his courses at the community college, the content is a bit too much for ds7. We used SCM last year and we loved it. Where SOW seems to go too fast, SCM has been said to take things too slow. I really didnt have that problem though. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaquitita Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 (edited) Nm Edited December 12, 2015 by vaquitita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 I group SOTW 1 and some SOTW 2 readings by region. I wanted my children to have a stronger sense of each distinct people group. We also do a lot of the recommended readings and activities in the activity books. I love All Through the Ages for supplementing SOTW now and then and for the second and third history rotations. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Have you looked at Beautiful Feet? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Have you looked at Beautiful Feet? I'm getting ready to start Beautiful Feet Ancients in a few weeks with my kids. I can't wait. It looks pretty perfect so far and easy to add in as much as I want or use it as is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aminuteorless Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 I group SOTW 1 and some SOTW 2 readings by region. I wanted my children to have a stronger sense of each distinct people group. We also do a lot of the recommended readings and activities in the activity books. I love All Through the Ages for supplementing SOTW now and then and for the second and third history rotations. I am thinking of doing this next year when we start SOTW for the same reason. I want us to rest in one culture and enjoy it before moving on. Would you be willing to share your groupings with me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Sounds like why we left SOTW... I have found that the spine of VP cards and materials guiding our studies using Truthquest materials to dig deeper (binder builder and history timeline cards mostly) with Sonlight readers and read aloud are a great fit. We get to set it up in units so we spend longer on one group of people and the kids get to actually interact with the material. The Truthquest materials are great for that as well-- set up in units with hands on notebooking/lapbook type stuff with lots of lit. You use as much or as little as you want. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to go out on a limb and try out using book lists from All Through the Ages and others and see if using just living books for History works for us. I'm a bit nervous that not having a spine at all will make us lose the connections that SOTW provides... But we will see how it works out. I can always just pull SOTW back off the shelf. And can still use the Activity Guide for projects and map work since I already have it. We plan on staying in the Middle Ages for the rest of this year, its a huge interest point. So next year my plan is to get us to atleast the American Revolution for the year after. If living books alone don't work I can find an American History spine for that year fairly easy I imagine :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to go out on a limb and try out using book lists from All Through the Ages and others and see if using just living books for History works for us. I'm a bit nervous that not having a spine at all will make us lose the connections that SOTW provides... But we will see how it works out. I can always just pull SOTW back off the shelf. And can still use the Activity Guide for projects and map work since I already have it. We plan on staying in the Middle Ages for the rest of this year, its a huge interest point. So next year my plan is to get us to atleast the American Revolution for the year after. If living books alone don't work I can find an American History spine for that year fairly easy I imagine :). I think loving books in a unit type order with the SOTW AG will be great :) we considered it several times and wish especially in the beginning we would have done that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Sorry about the formatting. I cut and pasted it from a 2 column document that had the table of contents from SOTW 1 as it is in the book in the left column and my arrangement by region in the right column. If I knew how take this regional arrangement and put it in two columns to utilize the space better I would have. Instead it's a loooong list. You can change the order of regions covered in the middle, but I suggest keeping the beginning as is for the Intro., Mesopotamia/Middle East and Greece and then ending with Rome. SOTW2 begins with a recap of Rome.Intro. To History Unit Study Introduction: How Do We Know What Happened? What is History? 1 What is Archaeology? 3 Mesopotamia/Middle East Unit Study Ch. 1: The Earliest People The First Nomads 7 Nomads Become Farmers 9 Cuneiform 21 Ch. 5: First Sumerian Dictator Sargon and the Akkadians 32 Ch. 6: The Jewish People God Speaks to Abraham 35 Ch. 7 Hammurabi and the Babylonians Hammurabi’s Code 46 Ch. 8: The Assyrians Smashi-Adad, King of the World 51 The Story of Gilgamesh 53 Ch. 16: The Return of Assyria Ashurbanipal’s Attack 115 The Library of Nineveh 118 Ch. 17 Babylon Takes Over Again! Nebuchadnezzar’s Madness 122 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon 124 Ch. 21: The Medes and the Persians A New Empire 155 Cyrus the Great 158 Ancient Egypt Unit Study Ch. 2 Egyptians on the Nile 2 Kingdoms Become One 14 Gods of Ancient Egypt 18 Ch. 3: The First Writing Hieroglyphs and Cuneiform 21 Ch. 4: The Old Kingdoms of Egypt Making Mummies 25 Egyptians Pyramids 28 Joseph Goes to Egypt 39 Ch. 12: The Middle Kingdom of Egypt Egypt invades Nubia 88 The Hyksos Invade Egypt 90 Ch. 13 The New Kingdom of Egypt The General and the Woman Pharaoh 93 Amenhotep and King Tut 97 Ch. 14: The Israelites Leave Egypt Baby Moses 103 The Exodus From Egypt 106 Ancient Greece Unit Study Ch. 18: Life In Early Crete Bull Jumpers and Sailors 128 King Minos and the Minotaur 131 The Mysterious End of the Minoans 135 Ch. 19: The Early Greeks The Mycenaeans 137 The Greek Dark Ages 138 Ch. 20: Greece Gets Civilized Again Greece Gets and Alphabet 142 The Stories of Homer 145 The First Olympic Games 152 Ch. 22: Sparta and Athens Life in Sparta 162 Life in Athens 165 Ch. 23: The Greek Gods The Golden Apple 169 Ch. 24: The Wars of the Greeks Greece’s War with Persia 173 The Greeks Fight Each Other 176 Ch:25 Alexander the Great Philip and His Son 180 Alexander’s Invasions 183 The Death of Alexander 185 Ancient China Unit Study Ch. 10: The Far East: Ancient China Lei Zu and the Silkworm 66 The Pictograms of Ancient China 70 Farming in Ancient China 73 Ch. 32: China: Writing and the Qin Calligraphy in China 239 Warring States 243 The First Emperor & The Great Wall 244 The First Emperor’s Grave 248 Ch. 33: Confucius China’s Wise Teacher 251 Ancient India Unit Study Ch. 9: The First Cities of India The River Road 59 They Mystery of Mohenjo-Daro 62 Ch. 30 The Aryans of India Life on the Ganges River 222 The Castes of Ancient India 226 Siddhartha 228 Ch. 31: The Mauryan Empire of India The Empire United 233 The Jakata Tales 235 Ancient Americas Unit Study Ch. 26: The People of the Americas The Nazca Drawings 188 The Heads of the Olmecs 191 Rabbit Shoots the Sun 194 Ancient Rome Unit Study Ch. 27: the Rise of Rome Romulus and Remus 198 The Power of Rome 202 Ch. 28: The Roman Empire The Roman Gods 205 The Roman Builders 208 The Roman Gladiators 210 Gladiator School 213 Ch. 29: Rome’s War With Carthage The Punic Wars 217 Ch. 34: The Rise of Julius Caesar Caesar is kidnapped 254 The Consuls of Rome 257 Caesar and the Senate 260 Ch. 35: Caesar the Hero Caesar Fights the Celts 263 Caesar Crosses the Rubicon 265 Caesar and Cleopatra 268 The Death of Caesar 271 Ch. 36: The First Roman Prince Augustus Caesar 274 Ch. 37: The Beginning of Christianity The Birth of Jesus 278 Jesus Crucified and Resurrected 281 Ch. 38: The End of the Ancient Jewish Nation The Destruction of the Temple 285 Ch. 39: Rome and the Christians Nero, the Evil Emperor 288 Christians in the Catacombs 291 The Emperor is a Christian! 293 Ch. 40: Rome Begins to Weaken The British Rebellion 297 Rome Divided in Two 299 Ch. 41: The Attacking Barbarians Attila the Hun 302 Stilicho, Roman and Barbarian 304 The Coming of the Visigoths 307 Ch. 42: The End of Rome The Last Roman Emperor 310 The Gifts of Rome 312 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 A Child's History of the World by Hillyer is a book that covers prehistory to the fall of the USSR in 419 pages. Some prefer that as a spine. It's a more "bird's eye view" than SOTW is, but it hits the most important parts of world history in a very engaging, child friendly way. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aminuteorless Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Thank you for sharing your re-organization with me, Homeschool Mom in AZ. This is helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaquitita Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Is the rearranging of the SOTW chapters in History Odyssey similar to this? To group all the chapters about a certain area together? When looking over the HO sample I could see the chapters were rearranged but didn't know why. It seemed dumb at the time, why read both SOTW and CHOW out of order? But maybe this is why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 The HO rearrange seemed odd to me as well, when I looked at it. Honestly, I don't understand how people are successfully rearranging at all. In the past whenever we have tried to skip a chapter, it has referenced the chapter skipped almost immediately. Are you reading a bit ahead to avoid those lines? Do you just explain that you will be getting to that later? Do your children not notice? Mine always do :/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Usually the references are a short recap. I skip the recap if we haven't covered that content yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy to monkeys Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Chelli, I do it like Hunter described above. But you know how loosey-goosey I am. :) I just pick and choose through the book list. KeriJ, Have you used Year 1 (Modules 1-3) with an early elementary student? If so, which resources did you keep? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I don't have any curriculum suggestions, but I just wanted to chime in to say that we just finished our second year of SOTW and I don't love it, either! I adore Susan Wise Bauer and have several of her other books and I love her talks, etc., but I think SOTW is so...uninspiring for young kids. I wish the materials were more visual and beautiful. (All the coloring pages, etc. in the activity book are just so awful. I just really dislike the overall style of the illustrations, etc.) Like you, the best part of our history study this year was when my daughter went off on a weeks-long tangent to study Queen Elizabeth I. I am thinking I might go totally rogue next year (my girls will be in third and first grade) and just do something totally different for history. I'm even considering just doing interest-led stuff for the next two years and then returning to the classical history cycle with the ancients when my older daughter hits 5th grade. Anyway, not sure if any of my thoughts have been helpful, but I wanted to let you know you weren't the only one who isn't crazy about SOTW. (I want so badly to love it, but I just...don't.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Well, I would recommend that you could use HO without SOTW world, but I got slammed for doing so in another thread. :confused1: It worked well enough the first three years, but the fourth year leans heavily on SOTW (about half the lessons are solely based on SOTW) because Usborne doesn't focus on American history, for obvious reasons. We supplemented heavily with picture books, read-alouds, History Pockets (which are listed in HO), videos, etc. You can see how we used it the first two years. Unfortunately, I have too many irons in the fire right now and my blog has not be updated with Early American content. http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20History http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Medieval%20Times 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_thurm Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 There is also Diana Waring's History Revealed. They have an elementary activity guide that I really like for the younger kids. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea_lpz Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I don't have any curriculum suggestions, but I just wanted to chime in to say that we just finished our second year of SOTW and I don't love it, either! I adore Susan Wise Bauer and have several of her other books and I love her talks, etc., but I think SOTW is so...uninspiring for young kids. I wish the materials were more visual and beautiful. (All the coloring pages, etc. in the activity book are just so awful. I just really dislike the overall style of the illustrations, etc.) Like you, the best part of our history study this year was when my daughter went off on a weeks-long tangent to study Queen Elizabeth I. I am thinking I might go totally rogue next year (my girls will be in third and first grade) and just do something totally different for history. I'm even considering just doing interest-led stuff for the next two years and then returning to the classical history cycle with the ancients when my older daughter hits 5th grade. Anyway, not sure if any of my thoughts have been helpful, but I wanted to let you know you weren't the only one who isn't crazy about SOTW. (I want so badly to love it, but I just...don't.) We are going to hold off on the history cycle and spend 3/4 in US history. My dd did mfw for k and 1st. They do a sort of "the world around us" for k and a brief intro to ancients in 1st followed by US history for 2nd for a mini cycle. We ended up taking our time with our history spine by adding in a lot of good books from their book basket and then doing projects inspired by that plus we did 2 6 week units on American Girls- Felicity & Kirstin. We did the Welcome to their World books and got bios related to the time. Lots of fun but only got as far as Vikings - 1800. Anyhow we're having so much fun I think we'll do 1800's next year and 1900-present for 4th. Then we'll do a history cycle. I might throw in CHOW as a read aloud just to give the overview briefly. We are reading through The Bible Story right now. I feel like that gives them some overview to the ancients. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 We are going to hold off on the history cycle and spend 3/4 in US history. My dd did mfw for k and 1st. They do a sort of "the world around us" for k and a brief intro to ancients in 1st followed by US history for 2nd for a mini cycle. We ended up taking our time with our history spine by adding in a lot of good books from their book basket and then doing projects inspired by that plus we did 2 6 week units on American Girls- Felicity & Kirstin. We did the Welcome to their World books and got bios related to the time. Lots of fun but only got as far as Vikings - 1800. Anyhow we're having so much fun I think we'll do 1800's next year and 1900-present for 4th. Then we'll do a history cycle. I might throw in CHOW as a read aloud just to give the overview briefly. We are reading through The Bible Story right now. I feel like that gives them some overview to the ancients. Thanks so much for this input! Your ideas sound amazing. It's funny you mention American Girl - my girls are crazy for the historical novels, and the associated history books ("Kit's World", etc.) are actually really great. I'm really tempted now to just do a delight-driven course like this for the next two years, focusing on US history like you've done, and pick up the classical history cycle in 5th. I think it would be so much fun and really get my girls into history, so they're all the more receptive to the classical cycle as they get older. Thanks so much for the inspiration! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Seconding VP or Beautiful Feet. Thanks for the list, HM in Az! That will help my planning for this year enormously. Saved me time and time is precious this busy summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea_lpz Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Thanks so much for this input! Your ideas sound amazing. It's funny you mention American Girl - my girls are crazy for the historical novels, and the associated history books ("Kit's World", etc.) are actually really great. I'm really tempted now to just do a delight-driven course like this for the next two years, focusing on US history like you've done, and pick up the classical history cycle in 5th. I think it would be so much fun and really get my girls into history, so they're all the more receptive to the classical cycle as they get older. Thanks so much for the inspiration!There are 12 historic dolls with 6 books each. You can do 6 per year and get a 36 week school year for two years. I can recommend some sources. Portraits of American Girlhood is a 36 week curriculum based on the original 6 girls- Felicity, Josefina, Kirstin, Addy, Samantha, Kit, and Molly. The other 12 girls you can find resources online. Lots of free lap books and blogs on using the American girls dolls are online. Another source is the Prairie Primer. It's a one year curriculum based on the Little House books and is a unit study approach covering history in the 1800's. I have it but haven't used it yet but plan to do at least a couple of the books when we get there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 KeriJ, Have you used Year 1 (Modules 1-3) with an early elementary student? If so, which resources did you keep? We didn't actually use Year 1, but when I made out my plan for ancients, I was going to combine 1-3. We did a complete year of module 4 though. We did some of module 5, but I tweaked it so much, it probably didn't resemble it by the end. :) ETA: I tend to just stick with the books listed for grades 1-6. I use CHOW for a family spine. Books I have used and plan to use this fall are: Boy of the Pyramids, The True Story of Noah's Ark, The Pharaoh's of Ancient Egypt, Archimedes, Galen, Jashub's Journal, City and Pyramid. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenniferB Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Lately I've been moving toward using myth, folklore, fairytale, poem, songs of the people. It's more interesting and I think gives a better picture of the average folks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenniferB Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Lately I've been moving toward using myth, folklore, fairytale, poem, songs of the people. It's more interesting and I think gives a better picture of the average folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaya Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 To condense SCM, turn each of the first 3 years into 1 term. The first 3 years are so stretched out because of all the Bible reading. Just skipping all the Bible reading and uber-Christian resources, will reduce the amount of reading significantly. Year 1: SCM 1-3. 1 module per term. Term 1 Egypt. Term 2 Greece. Term 3 Rome. Year 2: SCM 4 Year 3: SCM 5 Year 4: SCM 6 skipping the bible readings and uber-christian resources, is the rest of it relatively secular or is it all religion-heavy throughout? I really would like to use SCM but prefer a secular curriculum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmandaVT Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Well, I would recommend that you could use HO without SOTW world, but I got slammed for doing so in another thread. :confused1: It worked well enough the first three years, but the fourth year leans heavily on SOTW (about half the lessons are solely based on SOTW) because Usborne doesn't focus on American history, for obvious reasons. We supplemented heavily with picture books, read-alouds, History Pockets (which are listed in HO), videos, etc. You can see how we used it the first two years. Unfortunately, I have too many irons in the fire right now and my blog has not be updated with Early American content. http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Ancient%20History http://bluehouseschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Medieval%20Times Thank you for sharing your blog!! I love what you did with HO. We're going to be doing Medieval times next year and this is a huge help! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Sonlight cores would work too. We did core b and then just continued with Child's history of the world after that (core b only uses the first half of chow) and are doing focused work on certain sections that are interesting, like Vikings, medieval castles etc in more depth. Sonlight briefly covers other parts but tends to do focus on the major periods (Egyptians, Greeks, Romans). So basically with chow and maybe usborne world history you can do what they do by having a well stocked library and getting extra resources for the most interesting bits. My kid reads chow for fun. And he is not really into school work much. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mswin15 Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 We do SOTW but I found the Simply Charlotte Mason Stories of the Nations and Stories of America. I like the narrative form like SOTW but the stories appeal more to me and aren't trying to do so much. I have to use SOTW at our UMS but I also read the SCM stories because I enjoy them more (sorry). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 We do SOTW but I found the Simply Charlotte Mason Stories of the Nations and Stories of America. I like the narrative form like SOTW but the stories appeal more to me and aren't trying to do so much. I have to use SOTW at our UMS but I also read the SCM stories because I enjoy them more (sorry). Good to know, because I own Stories of the Nations but haven't used it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Sonlight cores would work too. We did core b and then just continued with Child's history of the world after that (core b only uses the first half of chow) and are doing focused work on certain sections that are interesting, like Vikings, medieval castles etc in more depth. Sonlight briefly covers other parts but tends to do focus on the major periods (Egyptians, Greeks, Romans). So basically with chow and maybe usborne world history you can do what they do by having a well stocked library and getting extra resources for the most interesting bits. My kid reads chow for fun. And he is not really into school work much. Thanks for posting this. I'm planning on using CHOW next year and I've been thinking that I'd really like to just do a chapter a week and add in history memory work or whatever reading we feel like. I was second-guessing myself but your post reassures me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 (edited) ... Edited July 13, 2016 by Guest 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 Uh - this is making me really second guess my decision to use SOTW 3 next year. I have been noticing the jumping around in planning and have already been worried about it. I am hoping that because dd is in grade 5 and already has done some history she'ss be able to make it fit together, but I still feel like it is kind of boring. FWIW, up until grade 4 we did "stories" for history rather than following a chronological plan. So a mix of things like 50 Famous Stories, OIS, mythology and regional fairly tales, nice things we found at the library, For grade 4 we used ACHOTW, reading a chapter a day and using a timeline, and we supplemented by doing British history, which had a fair bit of crossover, but we looked a lot at more social history things as well. I feel like she go ta good sense of the history and she now says that it is her favorite subject. I tend to agree that the jumping around regionally isn't great. I think it is just a bit too much to build a scaffold of history on, even really for adults who are just learning history. We've concentrated on the history of the west, with some little forays into other things hear and there, largely to give a little more context. I feel like a good sense of European and North American history will put them in a good position to learn other histories later without being so overwhelmed. I think this is really the strength of narrative history for children, it feels like it makes sense, there is a logic to it. When there are too many threads it begins to seem random. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arliemaria Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Uh - this is making me really second guess my decision to use SOTW 3 next year. I have been noticing the jumping around in planning and have already been worried about it. I am hoping that because dd is in grade 5 and already has done some history she'ss be able to make it fit together, but I still feel like it is kind of boring. FWIW, up until grade 4 we did "stories" for history rather than following a chronological plan. So a mix of things like 50 Famous Stories, OIS, mythology and regional fairly tales, nice things we found at the library, For grade 4 we used ACHOTW, reading a chapter a day and using a timeline, and we supplemented by doing British history, which had a fair bit of crossover, but we looked a lot at more social history things as well. I feel like she go ta good sense of the history and she now says that it is her favorite subject. I tend to agree that the jumping around regionally isn't great. I think it is just a bit too much to build a scaffold of history on, even really for adults who are just learning history. We've concentrated on the history of the west, with some little forays into other things hear and there, largely to give a little more context. I feel like a good sense of European and North American history will put them in a good position to learn other histories later without being so overwhelmed. I think this is really the strength of narrative history for children, it feels like it makes sense, there is a logic to it. When there are too many threads it begins to seem random. I would like to hear more about these early years resources since that is what I'm trying to plan. As discussed on the AO history thread my plan for Y1 is AO, but worry that I should be doing more with Ancients since that is the majority of WTM talk. I have SOTW 1 and the supplemental resources. Did you study OT history? I may just wait and use SOTW as a supplement like Memoria Press does for summer reading and not include it as a spine. I may just use the OT readings for mapwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 I would like to hear more about these early years resources since that is what I'm trying to plan. As discussed on the AO history thread my plan for Y1 is AO, but worry that I should be doing more with Ancients since that is the majority of WTM talk. I have SOTW 1 and the supplemental resources. Did you study OT history? I may just wait and use SOTW as a supplement like Memoria Press does for summer reading and not include it as a spine. I may just use the OT readings for mapwork. We have mostly used SOTW as something to listen to on car rides. We only have vol. 1 and I don't know if we've ever listened to all of it. Since they've enjoyed it, I almost feel bad turning into work. Dd has had several early American coop classes. We supplemented those at home with books from the Childhood of Early Americans series and the relevant D'Aulaire biographies. Last year we read through A Child's Study of Famous Americans. We never got around to Eggleston's Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans. You can download for free. We read some children's biographies of figures in world history that we got free on the Kindle. I remember there were things by James Baldwin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 We have mostly used SOTW as something to listen to on car rides. We only have vol. 1 and I don't know if we've ever listened to all of it. Since they've enjoyed it, I almost feel bad turning into work. After all I said earlier, someone gave us a copy of SOTW audio, and we started listening to it in the car today. Every time I tried to turn it off, my youngers kept asking me to turn it back on. So I think we'll listen to it throughout the summer and read supplemental books from SCM and BF during the school year. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I would like to hear more about these early years resources since that is what I'm trying to plan. As discussed on the AO history thread my plan for Y1 is AO, but worry that I should be doing more with Ancients since that is the majority of WTM talk. I have SOTW 1 and the supplemental resources. Did you study OT history? I may just wait and use SOTW as a supplement like Memoria Press does for summer reading and not include it as a spine. I may just use the OT readings for mapwork. I have a few differences with the WTM method, and one of them is my feelings about child development. I have reservations about the whole division of the trivium int stages anyway, but in so far as they are applicable, I think WTM begins the grammar stage too early - properly speaking I think it should begin around age 8, or seven if you are early. Something like age 5 to 6 or 7 I would consider a sort of pre-school period that involves learning to read, the physical mechanics of writing, arithmetic, and lots and lots of stories. As far as history stories, I think you could probably loosely group them by period, if you wanted, but that is almost as much for the enjoyment and ease of the reader as for the child. Children that age aren't so concerned with timelines or chronological history, or the difference between myths and historical tales and straight history - they just remember the story and the people in it. I wouldn't make a point of studying OT history either - I would just read selected stories and explain anything necessary to understand them before the reading, and I would choose on of the gospels to read in full, probably Mark for the first year. I might not do much mapwork for year 1 at all, it would depend on the age of the child, in my experience small kids have a very very poor grasp of the kinds of distances and such that the maps represent. I would concentrate on geography around my home that the child can experience herself, maybe even drawing a rout that she followed on a walk. Paddle to the Sea is a nice bridge in that they are following a connected narrative along with the map, but I still found doing it that my elder daughter in yr 3 who had read it in year 1 got more out of looking on when her sister did it, as far as the map work went. And it helped that they had actually been to the locks on that river and others so they could connect it to places they knew. There is nothing wrong with SOTW if you think they will enjoy it, it might even be more successful used that way. We keep OIS in the car and it is very popular. The workbooks and questions that go with SOTW are really not really CM-friendly in any case and probably wouldn't be used even with an older child. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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