redsquirrel Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 I am giving very serious consideration to enrolling ds2 in the second semester of the WTMA ancient history class. If I don't do that, I am giving equally serious consideration to enrolling him in the medieval history class next year. I have a couple questions and I am hoping someone with some experience can fill me in 1. It uses SOTW 1 and then SOTW 2. How does that work for older kids? We used those books for years 1-4, I am not sure how it will work to use them again for years 5-8. 2. I have no other way to say it, but the syllabus for ancient history looks pretty challenging for a 5th grader. But, I know what you see on paper can be very different from the experience for the student. I was worried about ds2 being in the expository writing class for the same reason, but it has worked out really well. It is challenging, but the teacher has done a nice job getting the kids ready for the assignments, so when I sit down with him he is well prepared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 ok, so just over 100 views but no advice, lol. Any suggestions about where I should cross post this? In the K-8 curriculum forum? The general chat forum? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skirch Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 My dd is in the medieval class this year. I was concerned at first, because it felt like they were just reading the chapters and taking the quiz. I can do that at home - and did the first time we did SOTW.Things got ramped up this week though. They started their timelines, and are researching and writing a paper on a topic they've read about in the first few chapters. They have good discussions each week too that dd looks forward to. Which writing class is ds in? Dr is also taking expository 1 with Mr Hummell and loves it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 My dd is in the medieval class this year. I was concerned at first, because it felt like they were just reading the chapters and taking the quiz. I can do that at home - and did the first time we did SOTW.Things got ramped up this week though. They started their timelines, and are researching and writing a paper on a topic they've read about in the first few chapters. They have good discussions each week too that dd looks forward to. Which writing class is ds in? Dr is also taking expository 1 with Mr Hummell and loves it! Thank you so much for answering. Ds2 is in expository with Mr Hummell and is liking it as well. If I enroll him next semester, it will be in ancient history. I am so torn about this b/c we have used SOTW already and I have good resources for logic stage history. When I did this with my older boy I found that WWS just so dominated the writing that I dropped the writing component of history about halfway through year 7. It just got to be too much. Keeping history to discussion only and matching it up with our literature kept it manageable and allowed him to keep working in science, Latin, grammar etc. But then I think that someone else might make it more 'fun' for him.... Le sigh...decision, decisions... How are they expected to write their paper? Do they have to go to the library and get books out? Do they hand in a bibliography first, that sort of thing? Has their been discussion of thesis or is this mostly a report on a past event type thing? Feel free to tell me to take my questions to Academy, lol. I felt like I knew what the expository class would look like but I feel sort of blind when it comes to the history classes. I am not sure why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
go_go_gadget Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 My DS10 is in the class now, and it's a good challenge. The biggest challenge, actually, isn't so much the content but the time management to handle the workload. The quizzes vary rather wildly in length, so he's learning to check to the quiz early in the week and budget time for it (I say ''learning,'' present tense, because he hasn't totally mastered that yet). He also ran out of time to submit a good rough draft of his first essay, and his essay score reflected that. They're allowed to resubmit for up to one letter grade's improvement, and he's doing that. He has plenty of room to grow in this class, which is what I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted October 11, 2015 Author Share Posted October 11, 2015 Ok, this is very helpful. DS2 gets VERY stressed by deadlines. He does fine with them, always meets them, but he can let his anxiety about them run away with him. So far, he is doing just fine with only the expository writing class, but maybe I will hold off on adding the history class until next year. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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