If you do NOT use SOTW . . .

[EliseMcKenna]

would you please tell me why, and most importantly, how you handled history instead? 

 

I'm even wondering if it might be just fine for us in 5th grade. I am not convinced it's going to be a great fit for us this year, though, with 8 and 6-year olds. (Really, I'm mostly concerned with keeping the 8-year old's attention.)

 

 

[HS Mom in NC]

After SOTW we do a rotation with Greenleaf Guides and the Famous Men of Rome/Greece/Middle Ages/Renaissance/etc. Series. It's geared to late elementary aged kids.

 

I think SOTW would work just fine for 5th graders as long as they're expected to do narrations or a written summary without narrating if they have the skill set. They can be taught to outline what was read (like is demonstrated in SOTW 4 Activity Book.) They can also do a lot of reading on the recommended lists in the SOTW Activity Books to bulk up history a bit more.  The SOTW reading can be an introduction and you can go more in depth with additional fiction, non-fiction and literature readings on the recommended reading lists.

 

What do you mean keeping the 8 year old's attention?  Is the child ADD? Does (s)he have a processing disorder? If so, you should post in the learning challenges board. Have you been doing narrations with the 8 year old so far with other things? When you have to do a narration, you have to pay attention. If there's nothing required of you after you listen to mom read it to you or you read it to yourself, there's no need to pay attention.

[Soapy]

We do use SOTW, but I just wanted to say that we don't have any trouble with it holding their attention at 7, even for my wiggly boy. The sections are short enough and mine have always been super attentive.

[ScoutTN]

I am not using it for my 5th grader this year because we are doing Ancients and the reading is too easy for her and I would like her to have a more challenging text. I chose K12 Human Odyssey, along with some literature reading. I will be teaching writing as SWB suggests this year and much of Dd's outlining and rewriting will come from HO.

 

Ds will use SOTW 1 this year, though and I expect Dd will listen in. Zero trouble holding their attention! We have listened to the audiobooks several times.

 

We skipped SOTW 4 because it seemed all wars and just too heavy and not so fun. We did VP 1815-present instead and that was fine.

[EliseMcKenna]

What do you mean keeping the 8 year old's attention?  Is the child ADD? Does (s)he have a processing disorder? If so, you should post in the learning challenges board. Have you been doing narrations with the 8 year old so far with other things? When you have to do a narration, you have to pay attention. If there's nothing required of you after you listen to mom read it to you or you read it to yourself, there's no need to pay attention.

 

 

I'm planning a lit-based curriculum for this year, and I worry about too much reading aloud. It seems like just about everything I look into requires quite a bit of read-aloud time.

 

ETA: I mentioned keeping everyone's attention because we're also coming at this year as unschoolers. We've never done formal lessons of any kind up until now, so I really don't know what to expect. I'm just eager to make it an engaging, fun year!

[Aurelia]

I think the first couple of volumes of SOTW would be too "babyish" for a 5th grader. They were for mine, anyway. You could do the first volume of SOTW as an audio book and just ask her to tell back 1-3 things she remembers from the section, and eventually progress to having her tell you what she thought the most important thing was. The activity guides have some good ideas to reinforce the concepts/add fun, and also have comprehension questions you can ask. Volume 1 is geared to a student not used to doing narrations, so it ramps up slowly. 

[Aurelia]

Oh, and we dropped SOTW after doing volumes 1 and 4. DD much preferred A Child's History of the World. Calvert sells a package with the text and workbook if you want to make history a more formal subject. It's geared to 4th grade. Sonlight uses CHOW in their first and second grade cores (B and C, I think) as a read-aloud spine. 

[TheAttachedMama]

I'm planning a lit-based curriculum for this year, and I worry about too much reading aloud. It seems like just about everything I look into requires quite a bit of read-aloud time.

 

ETA: I mentioned keeping everyone's attention because we're also coming at this year as unschoolers. We've never done formal lessons of any kind up until now, so I really don't know what to expect. I'm just eager to make it an engaging, fun year!

 

I use a literature based curriculum....and I do SOTW.   I've had no trouble with SOTW keeping my 8 year old or 6 (now 7) year olds attention.  

 

My advice is that you don't have to read EVERYTHING every day and all at once.   You can spread the readings out throughout the day alternated with some seat work.   (Or you can alternate days.)  Feel free to savor the books and go at things with a relaxed attitude.   If you are looking at your curriculum, instead of scheduling 180 days worth of reading, feel free to spread it out. 

 

I typically do poetry, bible, etc. after breakfast.  Then we do seat work for awhile.   Then we will loop through our content subject reading.  (Science alternated with history...not both everyday.)   Then at night, we are doing our literature read aloud books before bed.   (They are always good listeners at that time because they have learned they can stay up later if they can convince me to keep reading.)

 

You can even purchase the SOTW audiobooks and put it on while everyone eats lunch.   That way you have a captive audience.   (And you can take a break from reading.)   Then you can ask the narration/review questions from the activity guide "game show" style to both kids when the chapter is over.    OR, you can keep the audiobooks in your car and do the same.

 

I also purchased some blank composition books and have the kids draw a picture of their favorite part of the chapter. 

[kiwik]

No one in our house could handle SOTW1 or CHOW. I tried editing the latter but I was still irritated by it. Since we after school history because NZ PS doesn't do history and my kids are now 6 and 8 I have decided to go for a very brief overview book along with a What on Earth sticker book timeline and whatever the library has in the way of You wouldn't want to be, Marcia Williams books etc. After that I intend to try Usborne World History with slightly more advanced books. Or maybe the Story of Science with the What on earth science timeline. I figure if I go through the whole lot 3 times with increasing depth we will all learn a reasonable amount.

[ALB]

I don't think you'd have a problem getting young kids interested in the first 2 volumes.  After that they were a bit harder for youngers to follow, IMO.  We stopped using SOTW partway through volume 3.  It was just too much jumping around from place to place and we became frustrated that we weren't remembering many details along the way.  I know the purpose of SOTW is exposure, but we also really appreciate mastery-based curriculum.  We switched to Memoria Press full grade level plans, so we are doing Famous Men of Rome now for 4th grade and did Greek Myths last year.  5th grade will be Famous Men of the Middle Ages.  I like going deeper into an era and really getting to know the people/ timeline/ geography of the events.

 

We still use SOTW as a read aloud now and then.  We did really like volumes 1 and 2 for first and second grades, though!

[Slojo]

I kind of don't use anything. Now that's not entirely true. I've taken a much looser approach to history in Grades 1 - 3. We have slowly been reading our way through the book "From Then to Now" to get a broad sweep of history, and "working" our way around the globe using a curriculum inspired from the Waseca Biomes curriculum which takes a continent approach to studying the world. So instead of time periods, we've studied people groups, key historical moments, historical figures, etc... while studying the biomes -- and animals and plants that live within the different biomes on a given continent. It is a biomes rather than geo-political approach to learning about the world. In fact, we haven't focused on countries much at all, except to explain them in the context of the stories we are reading and studying -- and I've emphasized that country boundaries have changed over the historical eras... and may change again. 

 

I select 4 - 8 key "living books" texts per continent, a few historical events or figures to study, and lots of documentaries, cultural stories set in that particular place (selected from various time periods), and selected projects associated with those figures and events. I handle history by putting the history facts up on a customized wall timeline "as we go" - because of the books I've selected, our history is generally chronological, but I do not emphasize that too much. We also put up history facts that we run across in "non-history" readings. If it had a time and a place associated with it, and it was of interest to us, we put it up there.

 

For example, for our study of the African continent, we studied the following topics:

 

- Toys and Games within African cultures (how to play and history) - this was to get them interested in the continent. I often begin with a study of how children live (or lived) in a particular place, and getting them curious about how that came to be. 

   Â§  Galimotos

• Mancala

- Early Humans and Migration out of Africa

- Cave Paintings

- Rise of Early Civilizations

     - Mali

     - Egypt

- Aesop (many argue evidence of his roots to African cultures) and the presence of animal stories within several cultures

- Modern day topics

    - Modern-Day Maasai

    - Modern Day Nobel Prize Winners: Nelson Mandela, Wangari Matthai

 

We've done Africa, Asia, Europe and a bit of Oceania, covering a bit of prehistory, ancient, modern and contemporary in each area of the globe. We are coming to the Americas in the coming year. We have generally skipped over wars, colonization, slavery, and modern day economic devastation to many of the countries on the African continent - we will approach those complexities in a few years when they are older. The sweep of history is broad right now, and eclectic. But my children have a pretty decent grasp of when and where things have happened, including the introduction of new information before I've told them WHEN in history something has occurred. They say things like: "Well, human beings didn't master metalworking until X, so that probably happened ______." They are often pretty close, and can make a reasonably intelligent connection between two or more things on the timeline. 

 

I took this approach because I didn't think an explicit focus on history was necessary at all. I also generally think that history for younger kids especially gives short shift to non-Western cultures, and I was more interested in them getting "the big story" of history right now rather than details. I will focus on details and a more systematic approach in the upper elementary and middle school years. I also wanted to delay some of the complexities of history like that mentioned above, but also wanted some balance between representation of the histories of various people groups across the planet. We are a family of color, and I am very cautious with the "rah-rah" Western culture -- and, "oh, yeah, some other people lived, too" bias of many resources for young children. 

 

It sounds like my purposes are different than yours, but I've found good success with using the "From Then to Now" as a general spine and then supplementing with resources and stories that fit in with the time periods and places of study.

[Lori D.]

We didn't use SOTW. The volumes were written/published too late for us to use them -- DSs were too old. For History for grades 1-8, we never used a purchased/packaged History program or text, and instead had a great and educational time with:

 

- library books from the children's non-fiction section

- purchased non-fiction books from various curricula providers

- historical fiction titles, pulled from various booklists and chronological history curricula providers

- feature films set in the historical time frame

- documentaries

- doing some go-along hands on projects of interest

- delving into foreign cultures (making food, listening to music, playing the games, reading the myths) at different time periods

 

We kept our History studies "tamed" by limiting how many times/week we did History, and for how long at a time we did it. If we found we were starting to "fall behind" from my "master list", we either gave ourselves more time for bunny trailing, or skipped some things on the list, or both. There's always later for hitting it a second time. And, no one is going to get ALL the details of ALL the history of EVERY nation, so give yourself permission to be flexible. :)

 

While we had originally planned to do three 4-year chronological cycles of history, we ended up doing a 6-year chronological cycle -- which allowed for lots of bunny trails of interest, plus a nice long unit on our State's history / culture / geography, and a year-long special focus on U.S. History. In middle school, we then took a break for a year of World Cultures and Geography / Comparative Religions.

 

The DIY approach really allows you to use the materials and methods that are available to you and that best fit your children's learning styles and interests. JMO! Best of luck in finding what works best for your family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[JMe]

We don't use SOTW. It's honestly been a little tough to keep my confidence in my choices when others around me are all about SOTW or CHOW and memorizing all sorts of amazing stuff. That's awesome for them, but in the area of history, I'm a little more unschool-oriented. I don't know if you're coming at it from a Christian perspective or not, but what I've used with my 7 and 5-year olds for social studies this year (and will continue through next year) is God's World News.  Here's a free download sample issue. It's not quite a magazine, not quite a newspaper. It looks at a variety of areas of social studies from around the world and spanning topics from the beginning of time. It also includes a few puzzles/activities. But what I love most? My kids are CURIOUS! They want to know more more more, so off we go to the library!

*Note - please don't rule it out if you're interested in the concept but have a secular approach. Take a look at it because it's really not that hard to work around the "religious" information.

[Storygirl]

I chose not to use SOTW with my children, because I didn't want to jump around from culture to culture. I wanted to camp on Egypt for awhile and do fun Egypt crafts. Then we did the same for Greece and Rome and a few other cultures/time periods. I cobbled together many library books and used History Pockets to make our studies active. I really found that the Magic Treehouse Fact Trackers books were perfect for my kids around age 6 to 8. Lots of information in an accessible format, and there were Fact Trackers for most of the periods of time that I wanted to study. I did read them aloud, but if your kids can read a Magic Treehouse book, they could handle them on their own.

 

I did incorporate a lot of other books (because I can't help myself), but I think that the MTH books alone could act as a sufficient spine for that age. Another plus: if you want to own them instead of checking them out of the library, they are inexpensive.

[Hunter]

It took awhile for SOTW to grow on me. I have a student that did VERY well listening to the CDs and coloring.

 

I don't usually talk too much about my history opinions here, as they aren't shared by most, but you are new and haven't heard they yet. I think hiSTORY is a STORY, and that each books says far more about the AUTHOR than the events being written about. Gradually I am looking more and more for history that is stories, even if those stories are less "accurate"; I don't believe in the theory of accurate history anymore.

 

This year I'm planning on the Baldwin Stories/People books for the beginners, Van Loon's Story of Mankind for the advanced

http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/catalog/displaycatalog.php?catalog=world

 

And Haaren's Famous Men series for the Intermediates

http://www.mainlesson.com/displayauthor.php?author=haaren

 

I'm still pre-reading the books so won't be able to give a review for awhile.

 

Also, be aware that I have developed a huge tolerance for racism is books, and don't elevate any one human rights violation above others and just basically think that humans are pretty nasty creatures that probably should NOT have been spared in the flood, if there was one.

 

I also read books above a student's level if it's CONVENIENT to do so, and on the other end of the spectrum use "baby" books all the time, if they cover topics a student has not covered/mastered yet.

 

Life is short. We spend way too much time worrying about stuff that doesn't matter. Stick to your deep CORE Waldorf ideas but don't get distracted by all that wax and wood and busywork. If the kids are warm and fed and hydrated and have slept enough, and your school choices are not torturing them, use what YOU enjoy using. Your enthusiasm will be catchy.

[HS Mom in NC]

I rearranged the readings for SOTW 1 and some of SOTW 2 by region to avoid the jumping around. I read chronologically within each region. It's very easily done.   I started with Mesopotamia and ended with Rome.

[kiwik]

sorry.

[Hunter]

Layers of Learning is more hands on that many literature based curricula. If money isn't too tight, it might be a useful resource for you.

http://www.layers-of-learning.com/homeschool-curriculum-catalog/#yearone

[Ecclecticmum]

I did wander away from Literature based schooling, as my kids prefer to choose their own literature, and me force-feeding them lit as all of school did make them balk because of their different learning types.

 

My eldest is project based, and after doing a more project-based unschooling, she finally settled in to that, and I went into more of a Montessori route. My eldest does best with me as the teacher, without a book, explaining stuff from my point of view or making up my own stories, similar to Steiner route (I did try Oak Meadow, but a whole long 30 minute story about a haystack, to introduce the letter H, and then having to artistically draw it twice, well, when I could just hold up a flashcard and say "this is H" and move on, whilst holding her attention, I don't see the point. So really not fond of the way Steiner Reading/Math is done. We could of continued upon the Unschooly-interest based road with montessori, but due to the kids diabetes, everything is kept on a tighter rein, and after having to many nosy-body people on the medical team trying to cause problems, I moved over to T4L as a quick catch up, and so I can throw something visible at the team should they bother me about it (:p), we are only just moving off that now. I purchase her whatever nice books she wants to continue her reading (I tend to get stingy with toys, but with non-twaddle books, if I can swing the money, I'll get it, this is how I grew up too. I had the school bookclub orders and I could choose whatever I wanted, as ong as my mom had the funds there. I also tend to get lots of secondhand books now and again, and keep an eye out at charity stores etc, that is how I have managed to build up a nice kids library of books, plus I put a cheap foam mattress in the corner of the lounge (queen size) put a nice quilt on it and threw about a dozen pillows down there, my daughter will often sit there and read.

 

My middle boy is better with something independant, short and can keep his attention, so we are staying with T4L for him, plus curricula needed for his needs. He relies on other people too much as a crutch and tends to read body signals etc to get answers, with the computer program, that has stopped happening.

 

My youngest is a worksheets and activities girl. She likes to get straight to the point, do the sheets with mom (anything together with mommy :) ) then do lots of activities and play. She is not upto too much reading. And she's not fond of computer school, even with all the bells and whistles, unless she is sitting on my lap and interacting with me. I'm going to start GVS with her.

 

I gave all of this as background so you will understand where I come from, to say, I am going back to SOTW. I didn't get through more than a few chapters when we stopped several years ago, but it gets across History in quick, short lessons, and I have looked everywhere on History stuff and everything tends to be too much literature and stuff that would not hold my DD's attention, or completely boring.

 

At the end of the day: If they don't pay attention to the book, I can read the paragraph myself, and recite it in my own words, as my own story - that they will pay attention to. Or on our weekly trip down to the bigger town, I can put the audio version on (and they can't escape mwah ha ha ha) and ask the activity book questions as they walk around the mall.

 

In the end, it gets history done. My kids are not classical kids (woe is me *cue violins*) and trying to fit them into that mold doesn't work, but story of the world is quick, and the story-like nature of it makes it easy to remember.

 

 

I've tried a lot of less-lit & lit based history curricula, and in the end, I've come back to SOTW. This time I'm going to keep it simple (I added all this etra stuff last time). I've tried Hideaways in History, kids loved the projects and the extras, but the main spine was horrible. In most of the curricula, my kids love the projects, activities, and "further enrichment" stuff, but the main/spine things they have always hated and refused to listen to. Story of the World is the best I have come up with.

 

So not sure what type of kids you have (you would know best) this is just how it happened for my kids.

 

Its ridiculous to me, there aren't more project-based, interesting, get dirty and in there history things, as history is SO interesting, but most curricula seems to make it boring, the closest I have found to making it more "our way" is the History spiel/performance Montessori uses (which is very involved, long and hard for me to remember and collect all the neccessary bits for one little performance), and Connect the thoughts (which is very classroom based and doesn't get across much per lesson, its a little weird for me).

 

Story of the World is the most palatable of all the History Curricula for my family and get done quick, and has activities for all sorts of learners in the Activity guide.

 

Hope that helps :)

[Guest robyanhuz]

The sections are short enough and mine have always been super attentive. 

[eternallytired]

I waffled about this for a long time.  The stories of inaccuracies scared me off a bit, and I worried that if I had too open-and-go a complete resource, I may not go through the effort of finding extra resources with competing explanations or more information.  I got E.H. Gombrich's Little History, but I find that his audience lived about 50 years ago in Europe, so even though I want it to work, it doesn't feel right.  I've ended up looking at a few timelines of world history to put together a scope and sequence of study, and then filling in each culture/time period with a bit from Usborne and a handful of resources I've found in online lists.  We read some books, I make up lots of hands-on projects (my kids LIVE for the projects), we add some notes to our timeline and summarize our learnings for our notebooks, and I call it good for an early elementary into to world history.

[SilverMoon]

By fifth grade mine had outgrown SOTW, and by sixth grade they were literally offended by an assignment to read SOTW. They adored it in grammar stage though, and fondly think of their time spent in it. (DS/6th even asked me to get our volume 1 autographed when I had a chance to meet SWB....lol.)

 

There are lots of good options for logic stage kids. Genevieve Foster's World of _____, History Odyssey textbooks from K12, History Odyssey schedules from Pandia Press (PP and K12 are completely different and not related), the history encyclopedia method explained in TWTM, and such.

[Tohru]

For my eldest, I did history the way the original WTM suggested - not sure if it's changed in the updated edition.

 

We used the Usborne History as a spine,

Picked library books to go with time period in the the 2-page spread

Added in projects (cooking, art, crafts, writing, whatever - we mixed it up quite a bit)

 

For this year I'm actually using Winter Promise's Hideaway's in History (guide, journal, crafts, and hideouts, but not the history storybook.) Even though it says K-1, I'm finding it is fun and easy to implement for older ages too. I drag out each week and add in extra library books for the time period we're working on.