Starting to implement WTM history suggestiions

[JulieD]

I received my copy of WTM today along with the books I had ordered for my kids. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, which is ironic because I ordered these things to help me prioritize and to reduce my lesson planning time.

 

I have a ds8 who is not a fan of handwriting. He has progressed light years in the last year or so, but he doesn't seem to recognize it. This handwriting aversion has affected his writing. Most of it is along the lines of "Dogs are fast. Dogs smell things. Dogs are soft." If we do history narrations, should I write them out for a bit so that he can express himself with longer words? Would it be appropriate to start out with shorter narrations than the one to two paragraphs suggested?

 

I also have a dd6. When she narrates, are we just going for a sentence or two or something more?

 

I did order Writing with Ease level one workbook that I hope to use with both children, although at a faster pace with my son. That is looking like it will work well as I feel he needs a very gentle approach to writing that engages his brain more than his hand. At this point I was hoping he could do both the copywork and narration in one day, probably at separate times. If things go really well, he might not have to complete all the weeks at each stage, but I'm not too optimistic. Part of me has thought I should keep his history narration at about the same level, but I think he will want to say more than one sentence.

 

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

 

Julie D.

[Alana in Canada]

For children as young as yours, you should be taking down their oral narrations. What history spine are you using? I highly recommend SoTW and the activity guide!

 

My daughter is 8--and we've been doing oral narrations--with me writing them down for ages. This summer we progressed to the next step which was simply her printing out what I had written out (based on what she had told me. Kids get really interested in pronouns when this happens!)

 

Then, I started dictating the first sentence back to her and she wrote that--then took the rest to copy out neatly.

 

You may find that the narraions will be too long--not too short as every single detail may seem important to the little ones.

 

Good luck-and welcome to the board!

[KAM]

I write the narrations down for my dd (8). She does really long narrations and I'm trying to get her to focus on what's important so my arm doesn't fall off from writing! I think the goal (per the WTM) is to have the narration be just a few sentences, a summary of the important points. The WTM does seem really overwhelming when you first look at it- I felt like no way could I do anything close to this when I first read it. But it does kind of sink in over time and by my 3rd time flipping through it I felt better about things!

[JulieD]

Thanks very much! I am starting to feel better. I think I will just write down his history narrations for now. We'll see how his writing comes along with WWE. I really want the history to be enjoyable for everyone.

 

Do you use the Usborne or Kingfisher books with the Story of the World or is that and library books enough for now?

 

Julie D.

[Strawberry Queen]

As far as narrations go for your younger child goes, I would ask to tell me one thing that was important about a small section if you start running into trouble. I'm doing sotw 3 with my dd8 and dd6. I find that as the subject matter becomes more complex my dd6 has a harder time telling me what happened. My dd1 did sotw1 in 1st grade and the stories of history are more evident than in sotw3, which has more facts and complicated events; therefore she had an easier time narrating history. Although SWB does a great job of simplifying complex events. :D

 

I'm sure that if you focus on the basics the rest will come. There are so many thing to learn at the begining, so be easy on yourself. Remember that even SWB doesn't follow the wtm rec's to a T for all her kids. ;)

[Colleen in NS]

We'll see how his writing comes along with WWE.

 

When you get your WWE (did you order the main book along with the workbook?), you will probably find all your uncertainties calmed and answered, and get figured out how to conduct writing each week, in all subjects. It just makes the whole writing thing so much easier to plan, teach, and learn. It greatly simplifies (yet expands on) what is written in WTM grammar stage about teaching writing.

[inashoe]

Do you use the Usborne or Kingfisher books with the Story of the World or is that and library books enough for now?

 

For grades 1 to 4 we used Usborne, and then Kingfisher for grades 5 and up.

 

As Colleen said, you will find WWE a fantastic help. I have only started it now with my kids, I wish I had it earlier especially for my son. You might find if your son is writing phobic (most boys tend to be when they are young) that he won't progress that much faster than his sister.

[JulieD]

You were right! I got the WWE book and read it over, and I feel like it really cleared things up for me.

 

Did you feel the Usborne book was a great help, or did you only refer to it once in awhile?

 

Julie D.

[Colleen in NS]

Did you feel the Usborne book was a great help, or did you only refer to it once in awhile?

 

For us, the Usborne book is a pictorial supplement to SOTW. It provides great pictures and a bit of extra information on what we read in SOTW.