Any experience following the wtm plan with multiple ages?

[homeschoolwarrior]

In the book she explains how you could go about this. Does anyone have experience making it work? It seems like most large families who are following a classical path use a more laid out curriculum such as TOG, Biblioplan, etc. Any experience following the WTM plan with children in multiple levels?

[Coco_Clark]

Kind of. I mean, I used SOTW 1 with a first grader. Then I did SOTW 2 and then 3 over the next 3 years (we rabbit trailed a bit). As we did so I continually added students. They just joined in. This week we finished SOTW 3 with 4th, 3rd, and 1st graders.

 

Granted, they are all in that K-4 age group. I'm aware most large families have a *ahem* more generous spread than I do. Which makes it harder. But we read the SOTW chapter together, narrate or do the comprehension questions together, do any activities together...then the kids get different ability-appropriate extra reading assignments and do either oral or written reports on them. I don't see why middle school kids couldn't follow that model. You just keep upping the extra reading.

 

Next year because I'll have two kindergarteners joining us I'll be skipping SOTW 4. It's just too mature subject wise. We are doing intensive geography instead. But I'd likely make that decision even without the 5 year olds. And after that we are all starting over again with SOTW 1.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Coco_Clark

[stlily]

Are you referring to history study with multiple ages? If so, we study history together. I have a 7th grader, First grader, Kindergartener, and a preschooler.  We read SOTW together then my 7th grader reads the sections in the Kingfisher encyclopedia that correlate.  She also writes narrative summaries,  outlines, does map work, keeps a time line and does A LOT of extra reading from library books or books we own.  While she works on that, I work on narrations with  my next two. They also do map work and additional reading. We follow the recommendation in TWTM fairly closely. Hope this helps. Let me know if there is a specific question you have and I'll try to share what we do.

[Ausmumof3]

In the book she explains how you could go about this. Does anyone have experience making it work? It seems like most large families who are following a classical path use a more laid out curriculum such as TOG, Biblioplan, etc. Any experience following the WTM plan with children in multiple levels?

Yes and no. I came late to WTM. Here's how it looks in my house now.

 

Ds10 was ready to go back to year one history of the history cycle. Dd8 has listened to some of his history but not all of it. So we all read Sotw together. My 5 year old usually joins in too. For each of the kids I put books on hold from the library a few weeks in advance of where we are studying. I give them assigned reading that's more at their reading level which advances the level to be better for my older one.

 

We didn't opt for Latin but my dd wanted it. She does Latin while ds10 works on Italian.

 

Every body works at their own level for maths. They all work at their own levels and sometimes on separate programmes for spelling, handwriting and writing.

 

For science i decided to combine this year. Ds had done the four different science years. Dd had only done biology and earth science. I was weighing up starting him again and putting dd back in biology for another year or putting them both in chemistry. The clincher was that I wanted to use RSO and the chemistry looked best for covering both their ages so we did that. Ds5 sometimes joins in and sometimes doesn't. I put various books from the NSTA science booklist on hold and they are bedtime reading for him.

 

We combined in artistic pursuits which has been great for all my kids. I have first language lessons level 3 which we try to do altogether 1 or 2 x per week. My son didn't remember much from the first time we did it so we're doing it again. When I have free curriculum money I might look for something else. I also try to do critical thinking with him once a week.

 

We don't do as many hours of study as the WTM recommends but it works ok.

 

What works best for us is to combine content subjects and separate skills subjects.

[2_girls_mommy]

I don't have a large family, but I have always followed WTM with different ages. I have 2, two years apart, plus I have hsed a much younger niece alongside for several of those years, and now we have a toddler of our own. When she starts K, the olders will be 10th and 12th grades. So when she officially starts her WTM rotations, I will have 1st and 11th grades.  I will actually be able to have them in the same history rotation at that time because of the way that the mdd's history cycle lined up with the older. So they will both be in ancients. But they won't be doing much together. i can still see the older listening into the SOTW read alouds and all of us watching documentaries together on the topics.  Honestly, even some picture books and Dover coloring books are informative enough for high schoolers to get something out of, though there are plenty that would bore the pants off of an older kid.   My 3 yr old right now is already used to sitting in and coloring while I read from long books to the olders and watching history documentaries with us over lunch. None of that is going to change.

 

My oldest did the straight WTM cycles, and the next jumped in where we were: 

1st grade:                  life science, SOTW1

2nd grade:                 earth/space, SOTW2   **** until then the younger one just did some preschooly stuff and participated as much or as little in history/science/art, etc. The next year she started her cycles: 

3rd and 1st grade:    chemistry, SOTW3  I did Prima Latina together with them that year.

4th and 2nd grade;    physics, SOTW4   after that year, odd started logic stage work, but we kept with the cycles. So she worked from the Kingfisher encyclopedia. Also at this time the older one moved on to LC1 for latin, and I didn't continue with the younger until she was in 3rd.  

5th and 3rd grade:    Logic stage WTM ancients using Classical House of Learning Literature ancients, SOTW1 for younger. I read aloud to both from SOTW1, and then older did her KHE work while I worked with younger. Both colored together, did mapwork together, and did projects together. Science also now separated. Both stayed with a mostly life science year, but we did one unit study together at home, but most of their work was from separate textbooks at a co-op. We continued that ever after, though the co-op has mostly kept the separate classes in the same general topic area when possible.  younger one started again with PL and older was onto First Form for Latin.

6th and 4th grades: Logic stage WTM middle ages and CHOLL middle ages, SOTW2 , LCI and Second Form Latin. We did a Robotics team for science for part of the year. 

7th and 5th grades: Logic stage work for both from WTM recs and KHE and lots of read alouds.  LCII and Third Form for Latin. Older started the Apologia Science route for high school with the physical science.

8th and 6th grades:  Logic stage work for both, focusing on American History and State History using a JackDaws packet, KHE, and lots of library books and field trips.  First Form and Fourth Form for Latin. Older took a biology with lab class and I gave her two high school credits for latin I and for biology. She scored a perfect score on the NLE level 1, so I am comfortable giving her the first language credit early.

9th and 7th grade: High school WTM history and literature using all WTM recomendations, logic stage for 7th grader, same topic, lots of read alouds together still. Second Form and the second half of Fourth Form and the NLE level ii exam for Latin, Younger is not ready for the Apologia Science rotation, so she continued on with a younger science text and odd did chemistry. 

 

We plan to continue. I have made allowances where needed for their own needs. You can see that their science and latin routines have not matched entirely.  I choose what I need to for each at their levels. But I have kept the history and lit rotations going as it works for us just fine. I adjust what each needs to do for work. Art, Bible, Music at home we do together, but each has their own interests in those topics that they pursue on their own as well. One takes a co-op art class every year. The other only does the art we do together at home. One loves piano lessons. The other has no interest in music lessons beyond what I made her take in early elementary, so she takes a music appreciation course. One has had more Spanish than the other, just because it has worked out schedule wise for us, etc.