history, should I switch?

[Elizabeth86]

I'm asking about SOTW for my oldest for next year for his 4th grade year.  He will just be turning 9 a couple months after we start school.  For history, we have done VP Old Testament & Ancient Egypt for 2nd grade, he is currently doing VP New Testament and Ancient Greece & Rome.  I like it, but would be willing to do something different.  He LOVED OT AE, but NT Greece & Rome not as much.  I don't feel he has retained quite as much as OT AE.  He gets worked up about the tests because he can't remember the dates.  I don't care about the tests or the grades, but he does.  He doesn't want to skip them, so I usually just help him.  I have a few reasons for considering switching.  I had my eye on trying My Father's World, but I'm not ready to jump into something new.  I noticed they used SOTW and I know many recommend it.  Somewhere in the very early days of me researching homeschool curriculum, I ran into negative reviews about SOTW volume 1 so I always disregarded it.  I do prefer my ancient history to line up with the Bible.  I noticed MFW does use volumes 2-4 of SOTW.  We would be doing Middles Ages, Renaissance and Reformation with VP next year so it would be a good spot to try out SOTW 2 I think.  Another reason I wanted something different is because I think ds prefers learning with me instead of online programs.  I was all about them in the beginning because I wasn't very confident.  I'm feeling better about that now.  How is SOTW scheduled?  I was hoping I could do history one week and science the next and get a good portion of both done. This is another reason I want to get away from VP.  VP doesn't schedule any science until k-6, so 5 days of history is just fine, but we love to make time for science and even though I'm not teaching history, ds isn't up for history and science on the same day.  Also, it would be nice if we didn't get it all done in a year, then no big deal.  I don't like the pressure from vp that we have to stay on schedule.   I understand you read SOTW and there is an activity book and supplemental books and projects?? I see many say they just read SOTW.  Am I going to go all in?  I also have a 2 and 4 year old in the mix too, so super busy of course.  I want to do enough, but I don't want to get too overwhelmed.  Is there another approach or curriculum you suggest I take a look at?  

[8filltheheart]

I just want to reassure you that any approach you take will be fine. He's only going into 4th grade. For perspective, history in our home has no tests, no worksheet activities, etc.(All the way through high school graduation. 😉 They have been able to take tests the US CLEP exams and still score very high.)  We read books and have conversations. Every 3 weeks or so they research a topic in history in more depth and write a history paper.  

For example, my 4th grader and I studied British history this yr.  We read through The Story of Britain: From the Norman Conquest to the European Union.  We stopped to follow rabbit trails and read additional books like Macaulay's Castle and Cathedral, The Magna Charta, The Crusades, Joan of Arc, etc.  We have had lots of wonderful conversations, but I also do not care if she remembers more than just generalities bc I know that she won't.  We can be convinced that we have covered a topic is so much depth and with such wonderful activities that they can't possibly forget, and then they do.   It is just part of the process.  Kids learn and then forget.

[PeterPan]

VP history once a week, done. Read the card, do an activity, hand him a pile of books.

[Calm37]

I just played the SOTW audios. My girls enjoyed coloring the pictures in the activity guide while they listened to it. Sonlight 6th & 7th had some timeline stickers that went along with SOTW at the time. Not sure if they still do. But history was the one subject I never tested! In high school, they had to complete the reading, discuss the lessons, and do some writing for their grade.

[73349]

All we did with SOTW was read and discuss, and put up a timeline. One year I bought the activity guide PDF and... we wound up doing like three things from it. DS liked the story. He got interested in history and will now read history books in his free time, and bring up comparisons in conversation (sometimes to things I didn't retain myself 😬).

No need to require written output for elementary history unless it supports your other goals.

[EKS]

On 5/7/2020 at 6:09 AM, 8FillTheHeart said:

I just want to reassure you that any approach you take will be fine. He's only going into 4th grade. For perspective, history in our home has no tests, no worksheet activities, etc.(All the way through high school graduation. 😉 They have been able to take tests the US CLEP exams and still score very high.)  We read books and have conversations.

This. 

Also, if it makes you feel better, my younger son, after just doing read alouds and discussions, led his History Bowl team to nationals as a 5th grader (at the time it officially started in 6th grade).  My point is that he knew the facts even though we never drilled them.

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by EKS

[Janeway]

I love Story of the World. It is the one curriculum that I have always used with every child. For us, we listen to it in the car. Then, at home, I just pick and chose which activities, if any, I am going to do with the kids. I do a lot of the map activities. I try to do some of the hands on activities, but definitely not all. She provides tons of activities so you have a good variety to choose from, so don't think you need to do them all, or even one a week. As for the books to read along each chapter, I have looked at her suggestions, but it is not one of those programs where you have to read those. She does not provide comprehension questions for the books or anything. It is wonderful to read for enjoyment and to pick books that interest you and your child. I tend to buy what I find for cheap, from what various reading lists have, like Sonlight, MFW, etc etc etc. We can even go to the library and just go to that section in the library and look at all the books we want and picks ones we like. We never do additional reading for every single chapter. 

[2_girls_mommy]

SOTW has a lot of chapters. We always aimed to do one chapter a week in two sessions. Most chapters have two sections, so one day 1 we would read a section, do the map work and coloring sheet, do oral and written narration. On second day we would read a section, do the coloring sheet, do a narration, and do a quick activity. We often did more involved activities too, but I had a separate time in the week set aside for those. We also read tons of picture books alongside wherever they fit in the day- individual reading, a quick one during history time, audio books in the car, bedtime, etc. 

We could never finish a book in a school year, because there were plenty of weeks when we were too busy to finish a chapter, and we ended up doing it over two weeks. So often in the summer we would just finish reading the book aloud, no extras, to finish up before the start of the next year. 

We couldn't have on our schedule, taken only every other week on history, but we didn't do science and history on the same day. We did history on Tues/Thur. afternoons and science on Wed. afternoons, and then finished any science experiments or history projects on friday or both, but no writing or book work on those days.