homeschooling many kids and starting in the middle!

[Michele4]

I'm having a very difficult time decidiing how to start the 4 year cycle as I am starting with one in 4th grade and one in 7th grade. I have read "The Well Trained Mind - A Guide to Classical Education at Home". Can I just start both with acients and just keep going? Can I follow History of the World and then complement for the one in 7th grade, and add The Great Books when he starts 9th grade? I would love some help with this. Thank you.

[maize]

Welcome to the boards!

Absolutely you can start both a 4th and a 7th grader with ancient history.

While many of us here have read and draw from The Well Trained Mind, very few follow it closely; it's a good resource for getting started and seeing how one homeschool path might look but ultimately all of us make adjustments as we go along to fit the needs of our individual families.

Do you have other children in addition to the 4th and 7th graders?

[Michele4]

Thank you for your reply! I do have other children.  Twins who are starting 8th grade. But these two are in school and I will be just supplementing.

[Miss Tick]

Definitely just get started. You may find that your people want to go deeper in certain areas - ancient Egypt  or ancient Rome, for example. Or you might insert a year is American history later. Or you might finish and then focus on us history and government Or the history of fashion, or warfare.... Do what feels right for now, and then when you have to make the next decision we will all be here!

[....]

Have you seen this article?  https://welltrainedmind.com/a/older-child/

Also, here's the link to articles/videos:  https://welltrainedmind.com/articles-videos/

You would be using Story of the World for the 4th grader - not History of the World (that one is for adults).  The 7th grader could listen to Story of the World also, but you're right, you have to supplement with other readings.  

Here's an article on Great Books (but, honestly, don't feel confined to that list - we read just about anything that's considered great literature):   https://welltrainedmind.com/academic-excellence-5-8-history-and-great-books-recommendation/

https://welltrainedmind.com/a/the-great-books-history-as-literature/

Good luck!!

[Emily ZL]

There's so much great stuff in Ancients that it can feel overwhelming to want to cover everything and read all the things. Try to pick a few really good books and stick with those. And really heavily hit the ancient myths -- your kids will remember the Trojan horse and the sirens and the cyclops for a lifetime, when the exact dates of the middle kingdom or which Caesar lived did what will have long past out of memory. And when they read classic literature, they will see those allusions everywhere. 

 

[ElizabethB]

I would make sure they are reading at grade level, my free lessons have tests at the end of the page to check and see.  Even if they are, there is not a lot of good spelling information in most schools, you could do the syllables overview for spelling if they're reading at or above grade level.

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

I would also make sure they know their math basics and review math to make sure there are no gaps.  You can use the placement tests for Singapore math and Saxon math to find any areas that need work.

Good luck!  

[73349]

Hi, and welcome! Yes, it's a good idea to start with ancients and proceed at the pace of your choosing. (I like a spreadsheet for keeping track of which chapter we'll do which week, so I make sure we don't stay too long on interesting topics and then have to rush through others.)

We didn't use the activity guide with Story of the World, but have found it very helpful to have an atlas (here's one with a lot of historical maps) and to borrow from the library's children's non-fiction section. You might like Human Odyssey volume 1 as a more detailed text for your 7th-grader--it's available used for under $10.