SOTW and combing ages.....

[4kiddies]

I plan on using SOTW 1 next fall with my ds6. By the time I do SOTW 4 I will have added in at least my dd(now 4) and dd (now 2). That means that my dd(now 2) will be 6yo as we are doing SOTW 4. What should I do? Should I hold off on starting SOTW 1 for another year? Should I try to do each SOTW book over 2 years? Should I just start in the fall and add them on as I go? Is it not possible to combine my children? Am I making any sense??:glare: Thanks!:001_smile:

Edited March 30, 2009 by 4kiddies

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

I plan on using SOTW 1 next fall with my ds6. By the time I do SOTW 4 I will have added in at least my dd(now 4) and dd (now 2). That means that my dd(now 2) will be 6yo as we are doing SOTW 4. What should I do? Should I hold off on starting SOTW 1 for another year? Should I try to do each SOTW book over 2 years? Should I just start in the fall and add them on as I go? Is it not possible to combine my children? Am I making any sense??:glare: Thanks!:001_smile:

 

I have a DS6, DD4 and DS2 so I'm in the same situation. Mine are each 19 months apart. Here's a cut and paste from another thread. I've gone off the 4 year cycle but it gives you an idea of one possibility.

 

What I truly feel is that you should just proceed with whatever plan feels right, what gives you a sigh of relief and peace.

 

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Here's what I'm doing. (I have three kiddoes, each 19 months apart and I WILL NOT teach more than one era of history at once...or this would be me.:willy_nilly:) I had the same problem...that if I start my oldest in first grade with SOTW I, my youngest would be K for early modern and 1st for modern. Not OK with me. (I find SOTW 4 very heavy for that age, although some people make it work and like it fine. I've read it and I don't feel good about it personally.) So, my solution was this:

 

1st/K for oldest and middle: American history (Explorers - Civil War)

2nd/1st for oldest and middle: American history (Civil War - Present)

 

There is an amazing selection of American history books for grammar stage kids and I can still hit some world history in these two years as we discuss the context of what's going on in America. I feel very, very good about this choice. At first, I kept clinging to the notion of starting my oldest with ancient history and that I was depriving him of the precious history cycle being perfect but then I thought about my younger two and how they were never going to have a perfect cycle either if I just folded them in. For me personally, this choice is the perfect compromise for respecting all my kids.

 

After two years of American history, we will do

 

3rd/2nd/K - Ancients

4th/3rd/1st - Medieval

5th/4th/2nd - Early Modern

6th/5th/3rd - Modern (and even at 2nd/3rd grade, I'll probably edit and tweak for the youngest--do some separate readings to shield him from more of the ugliness)

 

I try to keep in mind that my older two will have already hit the high points of world history in their two year American history rotation so they won't be waiting until 5th and 6th grades before they know what WWII was about, you know?

 

After this, I'm leaning toward doing another two year study of American history using Hakim's History of US and then taking up world history again. Some people will not deviate from the three, four year world history cycles and that's fine. I get that there is 98% American history taught in schools and that it is a travesty. For me though, I don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I'm OK with doing two four year cyles of world history and two 2 year cycles of American history. It's a good compromise for us. You have to find what makes you breathe a sigh of relief. That's what made me sure that starting this way was right for us. It just felt perfect and my mind was at ease.

[JudoMom]

I just add mine in as we go along. To be honest, I've never given much thought to doing it otherwise. It's worked well so far. We're finishing up our first cycle (we're nearing the end of SOTW 4), and will be starting round #2 in a few months.