SOTW Three Year Schedule?

[Milknhoney]

Thinking about taking three years to go through the four books with my youngest. Is there already a schedule somewhere for this? 

 

Thanks!

[Caviar]

Bumping, I'd like to know also.

[lilyandsparrow]

That seems fast to me, but I guess it depends on how quickly you'd like to cover the material and how thorough you'd like to be.  Will you only be reading through the books, or will you be doing the activity guide and tests as well?

[2_girls_mommy]

I can't even imagine trying to cover it all in 3 years! Its hard enough trying to finish one volume a year for me. :)

[KeriJ]

For us, the audio version would be our best bet.  We are listening through Volume 1 in the car this year.  We end up listening to more than I've planned each time, so we get through it rather quickly.  (in fact, technically it's our second time through this year) So for us, I wouldn't worry about a schedule.  I would just listen to about a book and 1/3 each year to finish in 3.  We don't do much of the extras though, so maybe that makes more of a difference. 

[HomeAgain]

What is your goal for history?  I think you would be missing a LOT if you condensed it further than it is.  I'd much rather look for a 3 year history guide than try to condense a 4 year set of books.

[TheAttachedMama]

Yes, here is a schedule.....  

 

:) :)

 

If I remember correctly, there are 42 chapters in each book.  Right?  (Correct me if I am wrong)

 

42 chapters X 4 Books= 168 chapters total

 

168 chapters  / 3 years = 56 chapters per year

 

56 chapters / 36 weeks in a school year =  about 1.555556 per week

 

------

SO.....If I were you, I would plan to read about 2 chapters per week and that will give you some slack time for sickness, holidays, breaks, or busy times.    OR, you could build in some review weeks.

 

Day 1:  Read a whole chapter (pick a child randomly to narrate after each section)*

Day 2:  Map Work and Project time (if you do projects)...or read some additional books together

Day 3:   Read next chapter (pick a child randomly to narrate after each section)*

Day 4:   Map Work and Project time (if you do projects)...or read some additional books together

Day 5:  OFF

 

I think this is a reasonable schedule if you only have 3 years.   The chapters are NOT that long, so you could probably fit this in easily.   If your children are reading fluently (or when they do read fluently in the next 3 years), schedule in some independent history reading and I think you have a DYNAMITE history program going on.   :)

 

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* ETA:   Since you are only doing this with one child, I would flip a coin after each section.   If the coin lands on heads, he/she has to narrate.   If it is tails, YOU have to narrate.   :)   (Or just have him skip a narration.  But my kids think it is hilarious when I have to narrate.)   This makes things sort of fun and encourages him/her to listen the entire time since they won't know when they will have to give a narration.    In our house, the first person narrates and everyone else must listen quietly without interrupting or making corrections.   When they are done, we others are allowed to correct anything and add things that the other person forgot.   

 

 

Edited May 20, 2016 by TheAttachedMama

[EKS]

I sort of did this:

 

Year 1: SOTW 1

Year 2: SOTW 2

Year 3: SOTW 3 (about 1/3) then switched to K12's History 4 (which is totally excellent!)

 

 

[Cake and Pi]

If you do history every day and plan to do one section per day, it will condense it quite a bit.  For example, in SOTW2, there are 42 chapters, but only 105 sections.  It's similar in SOTW1, but I don't know about 3 or 4 -- haven't seen those yet.  If you did one section 4x/week, you could save the 5th day for projects/activities/supplemental reading and do the whole year in 26ish weeks.  If you school on a 36 week calendar, you'd do all 4 books in 2.9 years (assuming SOTW 3 and 4 have a similar number of sections to 2).  And yes on the audio books.

[Milknhoney]

I maybe should have explained my thinking on the three years. When I did SOTW with my son, I felt like we put so much effort into it, that by the time we finished the reading, the questions, the narration, and the maps, that then doing the extra literature was just an added burden. And the extra literature was supposed to be the fun part. So for logic stage, I ended up using an encyclopedia as our spine, which took a lot less time to read and summarize than SOTW, and left extra time for the literature. Except then I felt like we weren't covering things thoroughly enough. So next year I decided to have my son go back to SOTW and I'm going to buy the PDF of the comprehension questions. I have finally decided that despite what it was meant for, the full curriculum is really better for older students. So for my younger, we'll listen/read through it, but spend the bulk of our focus on the fun literature. That's why I think zipping through in three years is doable. I've already spent first grade doing an American history survey, so three years on world history will get us back on track to have a full four years of SOTW in logic stage. 

[Lori D.]

Since each book has 42 chapters (x 4 books = 168 chapters total), if you divide the 168 total chapters over 3 years, that comes out to 56 chapters per year.

 

If you read 2 chapters per week, you finish those 56 chapters per year in 28 weeks, which also gives you 8 weeks (in a 36-week school year) to either slow down or skip a few weeks, or insert supplements and hands-on projects, or follow a bunny trail of interest...

 

That type of schedule breaks into 9-week quarters very nicely, with every 7 weeks covering 14 chapters and giving you 2 weeks at the end of that "unit" for catch-up, review, supplements, bunny trails. Here's a sample of what that would like:

 

YEAR 1:

 

1st quarter

week 1 = Vol. 1: intro, chap. 1-2

week 2 = chap. 3-4

week 3 = chap. 5-6

week 4 = chap. 7-8

week 5 = chap. 9-10

week 6 = chap. 11-12

week 7 = chap. 13-14

weeks 8-9 = end of unit: catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail

 

2nd quarter

weeks 10-16 = Vol. 1 chap. 15-28 (do 2 chapters per week)

weeks 17-18 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

 

3rd quarter

weeks 19-25= Vol. 1 chap. 29-42 (do 2 chapters per week, with the last week do just 1 chapter)

weeks 26-27 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

 

4th quarter

weeks 28-34= Vol. 2 chap. 1-14 (do 2 chapters per week)

weeks 35-36 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

_______________

 

YEAR 2:

 

1st quarter

week 1 = review last year's material (all of Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 up through chap. 15)

week 2-8 = Vol. 2 chap. 15-28 (do 2 chapters per week)

week 9 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

 

2nd quarter

weeks 10-16 = Vol. 2 chap. 29-32 (do 2 chapters per week)

weeks 17-18 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

 

3rd quarter

weeks 19-25= Vol. 3 chap. 1-14 (do 2 chapters per week)

weeks 26-27 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

 

4th quarter

weeks 28-34= Vol. 3 chap. 15-28 (do 2 chapters per week)

weeks 35-36 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

_______________

 

YEAR 3:

 

1st quarter

week 1 = review last year's material (Vol. 3 up through chap. 29)

week 2-8 = Vol. 3 chap. 29-42 (do 2 chapters per week)

week 9 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

 

2nd quarter

weeks 10-16= Vol. 4 chap. 1-14 (do 2 chapters per week)

weeks 17-18 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

 

3rd quarter

weeks 19-25= Vol. 4 chap. 15-28 (do 2 chapters per week)

weeks 26-27 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

 

4th quarter

weeks 28-34= Vol. 4 chap. 29-42 (do 2 chapters per week)

weeks 35-36 = end of unit (for catch-up / review / supplements / bunny trail)

_______________

 

BEST of luck in finding a schedule that works for your family! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

_______________

 

ETA:

 

I maybe should have explained my thinking on the three years...

...for my younger, we'll listen/read through it, but spend the bulk of our focus on the fun literature...

 

Do note that the 3-year plan gives you one LESS year to get in all of that fun literature, so you'll want to pick your fun literature carefully to make sure you get in the ones that are the "must reads" for your family.

 

Also, be prepared to be okay with most of the time your fun literature reads being slightly "off track" with your history time period. Because you'll be moving quickly through history with SOTW, and because literature books (readers or read-alouds) take more time, most of the time your fun literature books will be either behind or ahead of your history time period. :) As long as that doesn't stress you or your DC out, then you'll be fine.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Lori D.

[Coco_Clark]

I maybe should have explained my thinking on the three years. When I did SOTW with my son, I felt like we put so much effort into it, that by the time we finished the reading, the questions, the narration, and the maps, that then doing the extra literature was just an added burden. And the extra literature was supposed to be the fun part. So for logic stage, I ended up using an encyclopedia as our spine, which took a lot less time to read and summarize than SOTW, and left extra time for the literature. Except then I felt like we weren't covering things thoroughly enough. So next year I decided to have my son go back to SOTW and I'm going to buy the PDF of the comprehension questions. I have finally decided that despite what it was meant for, the full curriculum is really better for older students. So for my younger, we'll listen/read through it, but spend the bulk of our focus on the fun literature. That's why I think zipping through in three years is doable. I've already spent first grade doing an American history survey, so three years on world history will get us back on track to have a full four years of SOTW in logic stage.

In that case I would zip through the chapters that aren't going to offer any/very little fun literature, and plan to stop and smell the roses during the more generally popular topics. Instead of a simple 42 times 4 divided by 3 pace that would give equal time to every chapter.

 

We are spending 5 or 6 years to go through the 4 books that way. Book 1 was easily finished in a year. But books 2 and 3 took a year and a half each. There was just more available for rabbit trailing.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Coco_Clark

[Lori D.]

...We are spending 5 or 6 years to go through the 4 books that way. Book 1 was easily finished in a year. But books 2 and 3 took a year and a half each. There was just more available for rabbit trailing.

 

 

... I have finally decided that despite what it was meant for, the full curriculum is really better for older students...

… so three years on world history will get us back on track to have a full four years of SOTW in logic stage. 

 

 

Milknhoney -- I'm coming back to your thread, esp. your second post after thinking quite awhile about this. I really DO think that SOTW vol. 1 and 2 are geared for young elementary grades, so that would be perfect for your 7yo DS. BUT, I also really DO agree with you in some ways that SOTW full curriculum is really better for older students. Certainly, I think that SOTW vol. 3 and 4 are about difficult issues and are written for older children -- more like ages 10-11 for vol. 3 and ages 12-13 for vol. 4.

 

Here's my thinking: If you do a 3 year cycle, you'll be missing out on the optimal learning for DS by doing vol. 3 and vol. 4 when DS is a bit young for them. AND if you then turn around and re-use SOTW for logic stage, DS will be too OLD for vol. 1 and 2, which are very likely to feel pretty "babyish" to DS after having just finished vol. 4 (which is written at a late elementary/early middle school level, and is the most complex book). And, I just don't think most students want to re-do the same books/program in back-to-back History cycles.

 

Instead of speeding through all 4 volumes of SOTW in 3 years (when the second half of the books are "off" in being a good fit with DS's age), only to turn around and re-do them again for the next 4 years (when the first half of the books are "off" in being a good fit with DS's age), why not spread out/slow down, and do ONE 6-year cycle as Coco_Clark suggests?

 

That allows you to hit each SOTW volume once at the optimal age for each book -- AND to also have real time to do all the interesting extras and fun literature books. AND, it gives you a 7th year before high school for hitting American History, OR, do a State study, OR, to set aside History for a year and do a World Cultures / Geography and Comparative Religions / Worldviews study before moving into high school… (We did that last option, and it was fantastic prep for our high school studies!)

 

And along the way, in every year, yes: do enjoy the fun literature books that match up with the History. BUT, be sure to ALSO enjoy classic literature and "don't miss" good books that fit DS's age and interests whether they fit with the History you're currently studying or not! The classical model of 3 cycles of chronological History works for many -- but it can also be rather enslaving and cause you to miss out on a lot, or cut short student interests.

 

Stretching out the chronological History in the elementary/middle school years to one longer cycle allows for more flexibility, while still keeping your History orderly. And if you find that in the last 1-2 years of a 6-year cycle your students are forgetting some of the things learned in the first few years, because Modern History (last 150 years) is so global, you have enough time to take a quick side trip unit study of specific Ancient or Medieval history to hit the highlights of key events/people and how they were foundational to the Modern History being studied. :)

 

Not at all trying to be a rebel or dislodge you from your plans if you know what will work for your family -- just throwing in some thoughts and options to possibly consider as you plan. BEST of luck, whatever you decide. :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Lori D.

[Milknhoney]

Lori D. - I so appreciate your insights. I think you may just have hit it right. "Enslaving" is the perfect word to describe how I feel about history!! I've spent the last six years trying to figure out how to break free. I had thought doing less would be the answer, but maybe doing it all but spreading it out over more time is what I really need (thanks Coco_Clark too). And you are right about the age appropriateness of the levels. One of the many reasons I chose to start first grade with American history was to make her a year older for the more mature stuff. And trying to squeeze back down to three years would cancel that out. Really my only hesitation with one long cycle is forgetting the early stuff. My son doesn't remember a THING from his early grades. Of course, he doesn't remember a thing from the beginning of this school year either. So maybe we really have nothing to lose! I will be giving this more thought. 

[EKS]

I maybe should have explained my thinking on the three years. When I did SOTW with my son, I felt like we put so much effort into it, that by the time we finished the reading, the questions, the narration, and the maps, that then doing the extra literature was just an added burden. And the extra literature was supposed to be the fun part. 

 

I prioritized the supplemental reading.  In fact, if you just discussed the reading in SOTW and did the supplemental reading (not all of what's suggested, just what looks good to you), you would be doing just fine.

 

For SOTW 1 and 2 (we switched to a K12 history course a little way into 3 as I mentioned above) I had my son do an extremely informal oral narration where my main goal was to find out what he thought was important and interesting about the reading (and many times it differed quite a bit from my own interpretation).  If he missed something I felt was key, I would mention it.  Rather than narration, it would probably better be called a discussion.  We tried the questions, but ditched them fairly quickly.  I had my son do the bare minimum on the maps.  We did very few projects.

 

I continued with this approach, more or less, for my (younger) son's entire history education and history ended up being his favorite subject.