I need history help(logistics more than anything)(MOH, SOTW, Biblioplan)

[Janeway]

I use Story of the World, which I do not intend to give up. We love the stories. I have owned the activity guides for years but never really used them. I did use them for about a year, when I just had the one child home schooling. Then we did the mapping activities and everything. 

Then everything fell apart. Our habit was always to listen to the stories in the car. Then we would dive deeper at home, reading books and doing an activity sometimes. But ever since we replaced my minivan and the new minivan has no disk drive, history has fallen apart. Add Covid to that and we are rarely in the car all together anyway. 

I also have one level of MOH, but again, no longer have a disk drive in the car so cannot listen to the disks. 

I have a very hard time getting the kids to obey and get together and just listen to the stories we need for history. To add to it, it is so hard to copy papers from the activity guides for SOTW. I have the original books for the activity guides so they are all bound. I could pull the pages out that I wish to use, but then I really have no idea how to store the pages. I do not wish to punch holes in them, etc. I just do not know what to do on this so I struggle a lot. The MOH activity guide is the same way. 

I am trying to decide if I should just move on to another program, or if I should purchase new activity guides, or if I should just go ahead and tear apart the current guides and figure I will just toss them out when done...or is there another way? Also, I am considering just using SOTW for stories and using a different program? I am completely uninterested in programs that involve spending hundreds of dollars on a variety of literature books for history. I already own tons of books and do not want to be tied to buying tons more. 

Also, I am having a discipline problem. Every time I get more than one child in the room together, they play off each other. They get so hyped up and goofing off that they cannot hear a single word. And it really wears on me to bring one child in and listen to the story or read it, and then send that child out and bring the next one in, and so on. But that is literally what I have been doing the last few months. I am trying to read books with them but they bounce off each other so much that I have to read to one at a time. I am completely over doing this. Right now, Story of the World 3 is playing on a cd player while the other kids are upstairs playing. Later tonight, while the child who is listening now does something in his room, I will play the exact same story for a younger child, and so on. Any discipline suggestions? I hate punishing for this behavior as it takes all fun out of the lesson, but something needs to change.

Also, I am considering Biblioplan, but it seems pricey. Any opinions on that?

Also, does anyone have a schedule that lines up MOH with SOTW?

Edited July 26, 2021 by Janeway

[HomeAgain]

I buy the pdfs of the activity pages just because I don't want to tear my guide apart.  They're pretty reasonable.  Even with the updated versions of the pdfs, I just tweaked the maps slightly if they had different instructions.

 

I have a low tolerance policy for group work.  I will excuse a child and have them do something different if they cannot behave in a group.  For constant issues, I don't mind putting up dividers between the kids as a deterrent before taking that next step.  It's something that needs a lot of practice if kids are in the habit of annoying each other - I'm talking months of zero-tolerance, calm removal before it settles.

[Lecka]

If it would solve a bunch of problems — you could put a CD player in your minivan.  We had a stereo system changed and I was very surprised how little it cost.  

[Lecka]

Or alternately maybe you could pay again for it as a download and play it as a download, if it would make it much easier to have it play in the car.  

[Kiara.I]

I buy the student pages for the activity guide separately.

 

You could buy the stories as a download, or rip the CDs you already have and play them off your phone.

Or play them at home, to a combined audience. So, to the discipline issue.

First step, family meeting. Regular ones, weekly. Anyone can put anything on the agenda. Address this issue. Ask them how THEY want to solve it. Brainstorm ideas. Choose together which ideas you'll try, and assess how they go at the next family meeting. Then if needed, choose a new one.

Possible suggestions:

There is a set time for history and a set fun thing after it, announced ahead of time. If you have to spend time pausing and correcting behaviour, or worse, replaying for a separate child, then that's the time that would have been for the fun thing. Make it CLEAR that this costs them time.

Have them each make a separate fort space before history starts. They stay in their individual forts for the reading.

Every person does hard PE time before history. Tired out kids play up less.

Whoever causes disruption has volunteered for dishes after dinner. (Remind before the reading starts.)

Have fidget toys available.

Have them work on the colouring page from the activity guide while listening.

Deliberately and in detail teach them what TO do while listening calmly.

 

 

 

 

[caffeineandbooks]

17 minutes ago, Kiara.I said:

There is a set time for history and a set fun thing after it, announced ahead of time. If you have to spend time pausing and correcting behaviour, or worse, replaying for a separate child, then that's the time that would have been for the fun thing. Make it CLEAR that this costs them time.

Have them each make a separate fort space before history starts. They stay in their individual forts for the reading.

Every person does hard PE time before history. Tired out kids play up less.

Whoever causes disruption has volunteered for dishes after dinner. (Remind before the reading starts.)

Have fidget toys available.

Have them work on the colouring page from the activity guide while listening.

Deliberately and in detail teach them what TO do while listening calmly.

So many great suggestions here!

@Janeway, kudos to you for the energy you've been putting into making things work.  It must be exhausting trying to make things happen with no cooperation.  I hope some of the great suggestions above in this thread improve things for you! 

I don't know what the rest of your day looks like, but I wonder about cutting right back to bare basics for a while.  Maybe even over the summer:  while there are no official lessons, perhaps you could pick a chapter book to read to them, a little each day.  Set clear expectations: if they need to go to the bathroom, get a snack etc they should do it before you start, and then they need to listen quietly with hands busy while they listen to a single 5 minute chapter.  Not necessarily sitting still - I have one kid who often walks on the treadmill while I read - but quiet and not annoying their siblings.  If you can build success with that small amount of time, they might be able to slowly extend to 10 or 15 minutes and apply the same behaviors to other listening when school starts back up.

Looking ahead to next year, I'd also be inclined to start with just the bare basics.  Perhaps math, writing and history/science each day, but I wouldn't try adding foreign languages and grammar and such until they're regularly managing a short routine without drama.  Then I'd slowly add to the margins: a few minutes of spelling before writing begins, or an audiobook played at the table during lunch, so that the amount of concentration expected creeps up incrementally.

You don't say that this is making you mad, but when my kids have days like this it definitely makes me mad!  I've found two consequences help *me* cope:  whoever causes disruption has volunteered for _____ (around here it's cleaning the toilet, because it's quick but unpleasant and they can go do it immediately instead of me having to remember after dinner) - this way, although the disruption extends the school day, at least it also ticks something off my to do list.  And sending them outside for a period of time to run off energy.  That way I'm not sitting there stewing or waiting for them to come back - I just go get on with whatever else I need to do that day, and we pick up where we left off when they come back.  Again, it means school isn't "finished" until later, but they tend to come back in with good moods and better self regulation, and in the mean time I will have prepared dinner or just read a good book for a while.

[Janeway]

15 hours ago, caffeineandbooks said:

So many great suggestions here!

@Janeway, kudos to you for the energy you've been putting into making things work.  It must be exhausting trying to make things happen with no cooperation.  I hope some of the great suggestions above in this thread improve things for you! 

I don't know what the rest of your day looks like, but I wonder about cutting right back to bare basics for a while.  Maybe even over the summer:  while there are no official lessons, perhaps you could pick a chapter book to read to them, a little each day.  Set clear expectations: if they need to go to the bathroom, get a snack etc they should do it before you start, and then they need to listen quietly with hands busy while they listen to a single 5 minute chapter.  Not necessarily sitting still - I have one kid who often walks on the treadmill while I read - but quiet and not annoying their siblings.  If you can build success with that small amount of time, they might be able to slowly extend to 10 or 15 minutes and apply the same behaviors to other listening when school starts back up.

Looking ahead to next year, I'd also be inclined to start with just the bare basics.  Perhaps math, writing and history/science each day, but I wouldn't try adding foreign languages and grammar and such until they're regularly managing a short routine without drama.  Then I'd slowly add to the margins: a few minutes of spelling before writing begins, or an audiobook played at the table during lunch, so that the amount of concentration expected creeps up incrementally.

You don't say that this is making you mad, but when my kids have days like this it definitely makes me mad!  I've found two consequences help *me* cope:  whoever causes disruption has volunteered for _____ (around here it's cleaning the toilet, because it's quick but unpleasant and they can go do it immediately instead of me having to remember after dinner) - this way, although the disruption extends the school day, at least it also ticks something off my to do list.  And sending them outside for a period of time to run off energy.  That way I'm not sitting there stewing or waiting for them to come back - I just go get on with whatever else I need to do that day, and we pick up where we left off when they come back.  Again, it means school isn't "finished" until later, but they tend to come back in with good moods and better self regulation, and in the mean time I will have prepared dinner or just read a good book for a while.

I am so making them clean the toilets! Thanks for the idea! I love it!  With the older kids, I used to have them wash a portion of the baseboards as it so tedious. 
 

We already did the slow start and stick to the basics. I have been very laid back about subjects beyond basics, never ever shooting for anything beyond the 3r’s. But I am so over/fed up with that. Daughter even got about ten months of deschooling and then ever since, soft schooling. But, it is time to move on. My kids did not even know what the Revolutionary War was when I asked a month or so ago. So we just really need to get serious about school.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Janeway

[kiwik]

This may seem like a stupid question but why not buy a disc player.  Then you could have each child listen to SOTW in turn with headphones.

[Mona]

1 hour ago, kiwik said:

This may seem like a stupid question but why not buy a disc player.  Then you could have each child listen to SOTW in turn with headphones.

I was thinking this, too. Headphones would help them pay attention while deterring them from hearing and distracting each other.

I bought Biblioplan this year because I have a ton of history resources already from homeschooling for so long and it schedules so many different resources like a buffet that you pick and choose from. Plus, it is only three days a week. I don’t think it would change anything in your situation though because you would still need them to sit for the reading together.

I remember when my older kids were young, I had to make partitions from poster board to keep them from distracting each other. 

So, I vote for headphones and pdf activity sheets to make it easier to print what you need.

Maybe, some physical activity before sitting down to read would help release some of that energy so they can sit and focus.

 

[Janeway]

50 minutes ago, Mona said:

I was thinking this, too. Headphones would help them pay attention while deterring them from hearing and distracting each other.

I bought Biblioplan this year because I have a ton of history resources already from homeschooling for so long and it schedules so many different resources like a buffet that you pick and choose from. Plus, it is only three days a week. I don’t think it would change anything in your situation though because you would still need them to sit for the reading together.

I remember when my older kids were young, I had to make partitions from poster board to keep them from distracting each other. 

So, I vote for headphones and pdf activity sheets to make it easier to print what you need.

Maybe, some physical activity before sitting down to read would help release some of that energy so they can sit and focus.

 

 

2 hours ago, kiwik said:

This may seem like a stupid question but why not buy a disc player.  Then you could have each child listen to SOTW in turn with headphones.

I never thought of doing headphones. We do have the disk player playing it. 

[cabercro]

On 7/28/2021 at 12:43 PM, Janeway said:

 

I never thought of doing headphones. We do have the disk player playing it. 

You can buy headphone splitters (cheap) that plug into the disc player. Then they could listen at the same time through their own individual set of headphones. I wonder if having them in the room together but in that little sensory chamber of their headphones (maybe facing away from each other or with a divider) would be a good baby step forward.