SOTW 3 - How many extra books per chapter?

[shawthorne44]

 

I apologize if there is another thread on this.   I found one thread which had links to several SOTW threads, but the links are broken.  

I am planning for 3rd grade and SOTW3.    SOTW3 will start earlier than I planned because DD decided that she is DONE with the medieval ages.  I can't say I blame her.  It is very dreary.  I think it was a book on medieval women that was the dreariest.  She wouldn't sit still for another castle book even.  We are year-round homeschoolers, so starting now is fine.  For her first two years, scheduling was daunting to me and she was so young.   Also, except for AP American History I never finished a History textbook and rarely even got to the middle.   So Finishing each cycle is important to me as a homeschooler.   So, we did books in waves in order of importance.  So, all of SOTW first.  Then the matching Horrible Histories books, which are much beloved.  Then the other books.  But this year is third-grade and I think we can be more purposeful and do more activities..  So, I was thinking one week for each SOTW chapter.   I have access to several big library systems and I can find at least three extra history books on each chapter and about the same from the literature sections.  

Now to the big question, about how many extra history books and how many literature books did you do for each chapter.   I thought we'd do narration after SOTW always, activities sometimes and map work most of the time.  

 

[HomeAgain]

Well, I don't sort it out that way.  Next year we're doing SOTW 3.  My current plan has it deconstructed to do side by side history: 2 days a week of world history from SOTW, 2 days a week American history with A Young Person's History Of The United States/activities (I have it broken down into major time periods I want to cover each month), one read aloud for every 5 chapters' worth of SOTW (either American or World, but probably a focus on American read alouds), and a book basket each week of world history books from the library.

So my first month looks like this:
ch. 1-5 SOTW, focus on beginning colonies in the U.S., a read aloud on Jamestown, library books on the world history portion of SOTW and readers about the Powhatans, John Smith, and whatever else our little library has.  During his reading hour he can choose from any of the extra books in the basket to browse through.

[Homebody2]

We read one chapter a week of SOTW for 4 plus years. I always ordered picture books from the library to go along with each chapter (1-lots, depending on the topic and what was available.)

There was never a plan other than read a chapter a week and complete the maps. Lots of times we read a few picture books, too, or sometimes the kids read books on their own. My plan was just always to have books available, so I never assigned any independent reading. I sometimes read a chapter book out loud that went along with the time period. When the oldest was in 4th, we read 2 or so time period chapter/ literature books together

History has always been loved in our house. I admit that I enjoy it, so my enthusiasm shows. My opinion is to have fun and read to your kids at this age, maybe do some projects, too. Exposure to the past is really all that's needed at this age. 

We're finishing up ancients again (end of 5th grade and not SOTW), and this is the first year my 11yr old has had assigned history readings (I still read aloud the core text.) I'm so glad I waited until he was older to do that! He enjoys reading about history on his own now because he has 4 years of hearing engaging stories about the past. He's genuinely interested in learning more!

[shawthorne44]

We do enjoy history.   So far, the bulk of the history, well all of it, has been read-alouds as a part of bedtime which is really long in our household.  

[2_girls_mommy]

We did similar to Homebody2. We checked out all that our library had. I would browse many of them and gain insight just for teaching and discussing, even if I never actually shared some with the kids. I had a library basket of all of the picture books. On days we read SOTW, I would also do a picture book or two if there was time. I did however have assigned reading. I followed WTM pretty closely for elem. school which meant that each kid's assigned reading came from the the SOTW selections. So during independent reading, I would either let them choose a book, or I assigned one that they read from. 

We also always have longer read alouds going. I might choose a longer book (something like a longer chapter book on Robin Hood or King Arthur myths from SOTW2 ( can't think of anything specific from vol. 3 right now,) that I read a chapter a week from aloud to the kids during our reading times.  

[shawthorne44]

I really liked that SOTW activty book had the read-aloud ages as well as the independent read ages.  Last year we had the activity book, but I barely cracked it open.  

[NotesFromTheParsonage]

We do a lot of supplementation, but I don’t supplement every single chapter. Our supplements for SOTW 3 focused more on the American Revolution. We actually finished up early, so now they are cycling back through and hitting some of the subjects a little more intensely during this third term. The Who Was and What Was books are good for the 3rd/4th grade age. My kids also really enjoy the You Wouldn’t Want To Be... series books. They like the pictures. And as most of my kids are boys, they like the sometimes grisly details of those books. George Vs. George was a big hit for SOTW3. My 4th grader loved The Courage of Sarah Noble. I tend to focus more on chapter books than picture books for the above 3rd grade crowd, though we did use some picture books like the George Vs. George and You Wouldn’t Want To Be... books. The Activity Guide had a lot of recommendations. I also used Ambelside Online for resources. I just looked up the corresponding years for history and combed through their recommended reading. I made a master list of everything and then just chose the resources that appealed to me most. 

[shawthorne44]

That is interesting on the Who Was books.   I've had my eye on them but I wasn't sure when to start with those.

 

[shawthorne44]

I have been mulling over the replies.   It seems like we'll just add in as many books as we get to in a week.   Since history read-alouds are a part of bedtime, it is year-round even on vacation.   I think after 42 weeks of SOTW3, we will do an American History cycle.