Where to start with TWTM for a logic stage kid?

[Night Elf]

Now that my son Jeffrey is getting back into an academic routine after 6 months of unschooling (DH's decision to return to schooling), we're trying to find the right balance of materials for him. He's currently using Life of Fred and Singapore Math, and K12 6th grade History and Lang. Arts. I'm not really happy with the K12 classes though.

 

We would like to put more classical into Jeffrey's education. I have read TWTM numerous times over the past 5 years but let's pretend I'm just starting. I have a 12 year old son with no confidence in writing, yet writes extremely well formed sentences and paragraphs. He makes many careless errors in math which is why my DH chose the math programs and levels he has for Jeffrey. Grammar seems 2nd nature to him, he picks up the concepts very quickly and just assesses through every lesson with K12. He hates to read and prefers me to read aloud, though this is something we'd like to work on as I'm working full-time and don't want to do all his schooling at night after work. DH works from home. And most importantly, we must use completely secular materials.

 

In public school, he'd be in 7th grade this year, but I don't feel his work is up to that level. So where do I start with him?

[Rhondabee]

Well, if I came up with something on my own, it would be SOTW 1-4 in 2 years, and I would probably supplement it with some sort of history encyclopedia if only for the pictures and maps. SL Core 6 & 7 does basically the same thing - the bible study is easily ignored - it is *not* embedded in the history or the literature (Pam SFSOM loves SL and maybe she could help you figure out how she used it?).

 

For ease of *my* mind, I would take advantage of SL's schedule, and then just use their literature and read alouds, too. When we did the last half of Core 6 (thanks, Pam!), it was one of the most enjoyable homeschooling experiences for my kids and me, because the decisions weren't up to me! And, because I wasn't worried about planning, we had lots of family read-alouds at night, when we read selections from the WTM List. Then, last year, when we did SOTW-3, I kept the SL selections as read-alouds. Which worked, too.

 

But, if you really wanted to do the WTM selections, here's some tips:

 

First semester, Ancients:

 

Instead of getting the "Tales of" and "Tales from" various countries, just search your library database for "Folktales, (insert country)". You will find LOTS of BEAUTIFUL picture books that will have the same stories. Use these as read-alouds - read one each day. (You might include Aesop's fables here, too.)

 

Then, ds can concentrate on reading:

 

The Golden Goblet (good adventure book for a boy)

 

various Greek myths (I think we used D'Aulaires - was probably recommended by someone here. But, I would choose either that or *one* of the four mentioned in WTM. He can always read more if he wants to.)

 

One book on Iliad (we used Black Ships before Troy)

 

One book on Odyssey (definitely use Odysseus by Geraldine McCaughrean)

 

You will be sick of Greek epics at this point - maybe read one of the historical fiction books like Outcast by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid (We tried reading the Church one out loud. It was horrid!)

 

Do the Last Days of Socrates if you can. The Caesar's Gallic Wars is still the book that my son compares all books to, "It wasn't as boring as that Caesar book... but almost." (I liked it!)

 

Insert the Cleopatra book (if it's at your library) wherever it fits into SOTW

 

*****

 

I don't mind helping you narrow down the other years, if you'd like...I'm just recuperating from surgury, and we don't have TV. Besides, it's helping me plan for next year! Just let me know~

[Night Elf]

Sonlight is definitely a possibility. I'll take a look at Core 6. The most important thing is that I want to get Jeffrey reading and writing every day. I was thinking about SWB's writing plan by outlining and summarizing.

 

Thanks for the book recommendations. We're reading Tom Sawyer as part of K12's literature program. It's been a hard read for us but at least the story line got more interesting. He's just about finished with the 10th book in Hakim's History of US and I'm so ready to get back to World History!!

[Rhondabee]

We did the last half of Core 6, and my ds would choose - he could either outline from SOTW or write a narration or biography. Since he didn't even have to ask me what to read, this worked really well. (And, I could just read his writing to know he understood the material.)

 

Some days they don't have SOTW scheduled, then he either skipped writing for that day, or did a narration. (I usually read the Foster (?) books out loud to him - they were confusing for some reason. Those days we usually skipped writing.)

[Night Elf]

Thank you Rhonda, for your help. My DH and I compared K12 to Sonlight this evening and he preferred Sonlights hands down. He'd much rather have Jeffrey writing summaries and narrations than all the creative writing assignments in K12 which mimics public school. So we'll see how it goes!

[Rhondabee]

Great!

 

I haven't seen the new LA, and even though I ordered the old one (for Core 6), we ended up not using it. I'll be interested to hear how you like it, especially since they had Ruth Beechik evaluate & help revise it.

 

I hope it goes as well for you guys as it did for us~