SereneHome Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 With all my big plans to do American History in K and start SOTW in 1st - we did pretty much nothing. I am trying to decide on where to go from here. While I really like the idea of 4 yr rotation, since it hasn't worked for us yet, I don't mind doing it differently. But I would like to take into consideration my two youngest ones. I certainly don't want to do SOTW1 with 7 yr old this year only to turn around and do it again with 5 yr old next year, etc. I can include the 5 yr old with whatever we'll be doing, but I don't know how much retention he will have and again - am I doing the same thing next year and the year after that? So - for those who have gone through this - how did you handle it and how did it turn out? Thank you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 My kids are 18 months apart. For the first few years we did everything together. Our goal in the early years was to develop curiosity and interest in learning new things. It didn't really matter to me how much history the younger retained at that point. Actually, it didn't even matter for the older. They did retain the bits that were most interesting to them. Honestly, I would just bring the 4-year-old along for the ride too, if he will listen (while playing quietly, maybe) while you read and talk. You can expect more in terms of narrations and such from the older, but the others can be involved too. Most people I know with multiple kids, fairly close in age, have done it this way. For those who tried to keep everyone on their own grade level in everything... burnout ensued. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 My kids are 18 months apart. For the first few years we did everything together. Our goal in the early years was to develop curiosity and interest in learning new things. It didn't really matter to me how much history the younger retained at that point. Actually, it didn't even matter for the older. They did retain the bits that were most interesting to them. Honestly, I would just bring the 4-year-old along for the ride too, if he will listen (while playing quietly, maybe) while you read and talk. You can expect more in terms of narrations and such from the older, but the others can be involved too. Most people I know with multiple kids, fairly close in age, have done it this way. For those who tried to keep everyone on their own grade level in everything... burnout ensued. :iagree: When the dc are young, combining them tends to work quite well - at least for us. It's when they're older (10+) that combining begins to work less well. Every family is different , though. Try combining, and if it really doesn't work then you can separate. I do find that my enthusiasm diminishes if I have to cover the same material two years in a row. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 :iagree: When the dc are young, combining them tends to work quite well - at least for us. It's when they're older (10+) that combining begins to work less well. Every family is different , though. Try combining, and if it really doesn't work then you can separate. I do find that my enthusiasm diminishes if I have to cover the same material two years in a row. Yes! I am on my second round of ETC and I can already tell that I will be falling asleep the third time around. I am curious, though, if my 5 yr old is sitting on SOTW1 right now and then SOTW2 next year and so forth, by the time he is in 4th-5th grade - wouldn't his knowledge be lacking since he didn't cover it as much as my oldest? In other words - when do the littler kids "catch up"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Yes! I am on my second round of ETC and I can already tell that I will be falling asleep the third time around. I am curious, though, if my 5 yr old is sitting on SOTW1 right now and then SOTW2 next year and so forth, by the time he is in 4th-5th grade - wouldn't his knowledge be lacking since he didn't cover it as much as my oldest? In other words - when do the littler kids "catch up"? I think in the "end" (say maybe end of 8th, since you might do different subjects in high school for your history/social science credits), all the kids should have about the same knowledge. But it may not be exactly the same knowledge! For example, the kid that does Ancient history in 1st and 5th may actually by the end of 8th remember less ancient history than a sibling who had it in 3rd and 7th? My DD (oldest kid) actually remembered very little ancient history last year from when she was in 1st. I don't regret doing ancients in 1st because she had a lot of fun at the time and liked the picture books ,activities etc...but she could have just started in Ancients in 5th and not really been "behind" because she didn't really start out remembering much of anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Remember that some kids will naturally be more interested in some areas/time periods than in others. One of my kids - the older - has a very strong interest in military history, specifically World War II. He has studied a lot about that on his own, He naturally has more knowledge in that area than the younger one but it's not because he got more exposure through our regular studies. But she has stronger knowledge in other areas. I think it's a very rare person who has a very strong grasp on *all* of world history, from ancients to modern times. And of course the youngers will have more time after the olders are up and out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Girls' Mom Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 My girls were two grade levels apart. We all did the same history until last year, which was my oldest's senior year. It worked out fine. When their ability in writing differed a lot, I would alter the writing/research assignments to suit, but the reading was always the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 Thank you all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 In my mind, there are always going to be gaps in history education because there is so much of it (what am I saying... there will be gaps in any subject :) ). But as a PP said, depending on the students' ages in a given rotation, one might remember more of one period than the other. If you're going to hit the rotation again in higher grades, oh well. I will have two 'batches' of kids - two years apart, then 4 1/2 years, then 2 years apart. I'm blending the first two (who are only one school year apart in all our local calculations) in science and history for the foreseeable future, at least elementary, expecting age-appropriate output from each one. I hope to do the same with the next 'batch'. One way I'm trying to address the retention with SOTW is by using the audiobook, since they really love listening to it. We did Vol.1 last year with activity guide when I had K and 1. This year we'll do Vol.2. We are listening to Vol.1 in the car this summer, to be sure things are fresh. They love it. And since I bought the audio books before we were officially using them for school, they've actually heard 1-3 already. They like going deeper with the Activity Book for a volume in the school year. I hope to continue keeping SOTW in the audio rotation for a good while, even after we move on to other things. It helps that our whole family enjoys listening. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Yes! I am on my second round of ETC and I can already tell that I will be falling asleep the third time around. I am curious, though, if my 5 yr old is sitting on SOTW1 right now and then SOTW2 next year and so forth, by the time he is in 4th-5th grade - wouldn't his knowledge be lacking since he didn't cover it as much as my oldest? In other words - when do the littler kids "catch up"? My 4 and 6 year olds are going through SOTW 1 right now, and they are both retaining about the same amount...though usually completely different aspects of the story. My 6 year old is very keyed into the whats, wheres and hows. My 4 year old is much more likely to remember stories about people and how they acted and lived. We are keeping things very simple - they color the coloring sheet (if they want to) while I read the chapter. We discuss the review questions and my 6 year old orally narrates one thing he remembers from the chapter (sometimes my 4 year old also chooses to narrate something). If there is an easy, interesting project we do that, otherwise we do the map work. While this is working beautifully for now, I have already given some consideration to what we will do if the 4 year old isn't ready to handle modern history as a 2nd grader. Since DS3 will be a kindergartner then, we might just pseudo-skip SOTW 4 and do a year of American history with all three boys instead. I would probably still have DS1 read SOTW 4 on his own and discuss it with him, but I wouldn't worry about going light on modern history in 4th grade and revisiting it in depth when he is in 8th (and the other two are in 6th and 4th). Wendy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 I teach to the oldest child and let any other children come along. I'm not worried about "retention." I'm more concerned with exposure, especially for such young children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SereneHome Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 I teach to the oldest child and let any other children come along. I'm not worried about "retention." I'm more concerned with exposure, especially for such young children. Right, but then do you re-teach the younger ones all over again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamiof5 Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Just finished ECC with a 7,9 and 11yr old. I have to say I am very impressed at how much the youngest retained. Yes, I believe that when they start those cycles that young ideally they will be able to revisit later. This was a scary concept for me at the beginning, but witnessed something sort of similar with my oldest who went to public school. And let me add, I feel she didn't do a fraction of what the youngest are doing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 My boys (two years apart) have always been combined with history. They were 5 and 7 when we started. History at this stage of the game is just about reading interesting stories and exposure. I love ancient history for this age because it is really interesting. We never did any more for history than read aloud for the first several years. They played with legos and such while I read. SOTW is perfect for those ages, read in small bites. Don't overthink or make it hard. :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Right, but then do you re-teach the younger ones all over again? No. That is, if we were doing a 4-yr cycle, each child is going to eventually be the oldest one, right? And they're all going to go through the cycle more than once, right? They'll all get it eventually. :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aotiengoi Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 I would alter the writing/research assignments to suit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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