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12stars
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Ok here is my ordeal.
I feel very stuck and undecided on what to do with History for my 3 dds they are 1st, 3rd, and 7th grade. I dont know where to turn to or how to even begin.
I was and still plan on using Mater Amabilis, for my 7th but we looked over FSTSS and she has done most of that history last year. So I bought her AYL and I dont know what I was thinking but I sold it  ok I now I remember because I had read that it was dry  So I have been looking over RC history and I am more interested in the 2nd volume but it is hard to navigate through the website.
Anyways my quandry is that I am not sure what history I should go with for any of the girls.
I want to start with Mesapotamia for my 1st grader but my 3rd grder has done it already, I really want to keep their history together. But I dont want to miss any time periods.  
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Claudia in Southern California
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SuzC
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Claudia ~ mine are almost the same grades and I am struggling with the same indecision.
Here's what I'm knockin' around: we could begin with the ancients using a combo of resources (this is the part I can't narrow down!)
As for a spine: Sonlight suggest Child's History of the World for both 6th and 2nd. I may even get older dd to read it aloud to the younger set. (We could also use STOW) I will have the 6th grader read through AYL and her own Saints books, but join us for read-alouds (again SL suggests some similar titles for both age groups). I like the idea of RC History - I need to spend some time looking it over.
I am REALLY trying to keep them together for as much as I can, so I want the history plan to work. I'm just having trouble finding the quiet time to wrap my brain around the logistics.
I was hoping SL would relieve me of some of the "what book/ when" dilemma, but that hasn't been the case. I'll be happy to share what I finally iron out if you're interested.
I'm sorry I'm not much help.
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Suz in TX
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SuzC
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Ok, Claudia, you've "unstuck" me a bit to look at RC History again.  I don't know why I think I can improve on this.
Looking forward to spending more time looking it over after dinner.
What are your concerns with vol 1?
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Suz in TX
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Bookswithtea
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Pssst...I'm doing SOTW with a 3rd and 6th grader next year. Its totally doable to keep them together. We do SOTW on audiobook. We buy the activity guides. Littles color the pictures while they listen. Olders answer the quiz questions and do the mapwork as well. The activity guide has a *million* ideas for cool crafty things to do if you are into that sort of thing. We use SL's reader lists for readers for the oldest child, the youngers read whatever readers they are ready for, and I pick read alouds from my shelf that everyone will enjoy. I did this last year with SOTW 1 (mesopotamia, etc) and in my opinion, this book needs no editing. Vol 2 does, but I can share my notes for fixing that if you are interested.
This is really working well for us. No need to buy SL's guides or anything like that. The activity guide even tells you what pages in core 6's Encyclopedia of World History go along with each chapter, or the Kingfisher book if you have that one instead.
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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mama251ders
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I think it is okay to repeat history for some of your kids if it gets them all together for the long haul. There is always more to learn about any given period of time and it can't hurt any child to have more information about something. You could just repeat someone's year this next year and then you'll all be on the same track. This is what holds me up about using a boxed curriculum. The history is always wrong for us! Good luck!
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SuzC wrote:
Ok, Claudia, you've "unstuck" me a bit to look at RC History again. I don't know why I think I can improve on this.
Looking forward to spending more time looking it over after dinner.
What are your concerns with vol 1?
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I guess not much I was just wondering if it could be doable with 1st, 3rd, and 7th grades. I just need to know if it was ok. I know that my 3rd gr. and 7th gr. need to do the middle ages maybe thats why I hesitate.
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Claudia in Southern California
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Bookswithtea wrote:
Pssst...I'm doing SOTW with a 3rd and 6th grader next year. Its totally doable to keep them together.
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I can't hear you (where's the icon with fingers in her ears!)  Books, I'm pretty sure it's you that convinced me to look at SL. I have read a bazillion of your posts this summer. I'll sit down and search my issue of the day...and there you are with my answer!
There are sooo many great ideas and it's sooo hard to decide!
I love this board and all you wonderful ladies graciously sharing your thoughts. 
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I know that my 3rd gr. and 7th gr. need to do the middle ages maybe thats why I hesitate. Since I would be skipping a whole period for my youngest.
And I know SOTW is great but I just want to keep it Catholic  I have come to the conclusion that we are subjected to the authors subjective view. I know SOTW would make my life easier  but these 2 things just keep poppping in my head and bugging me.
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Erin
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Claudia
When choosing what time period to do I would focus more on what your 7th grader hasn't yet done. I wouldn't worry so much about the younger ones as they have plenty of time. How much is your 1st grader going to remember anyway?
I have RC History and use it as a spine, like yourself I wanted the Catholic view and was tired of having to do extra work. I am going to be truthfully honest and say that whilst it is good in some ways it is not our style in others and I am not enthused about history at present.
This term I did not buy all the books they recommended but tried to also use what we already had to keep costs down, which worked better. For our family's style it lacks a few things, I would like to see lots more hands on, interesting ideas and I have children who read alot, I would like to have more fiction suggestions. I do think for the younger ones it really lacks read alouds.
Having said that I am going to buy the units again but realise I need to adapt it more to suit use. It is good to give me a spine so I'm not starting from the beginning. I'm seriously considering buying SOTW to add for the hands on ideas and I'll just keep combing catalogues for fiction ideas.
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Bookswithtea
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SuzC wrote:
Bookswithtea wrote:
Pssst...I'm doing SOTW with a 3rd and 6th grader next year. Its totally doable to keep them together.
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I can't hear you (where's the icon with fingers in her ears!) Books, I'm pretty sure it's you that convinced me to look at SL. I have read a bazillion of your posts this summer. I'll sit down and search my issue of the day...and there you are with my answer!
There are sooo many great ideas and it's sooo hard to decide!
I love this board and all you wonderful ladies graciously sharing your thoughts. |
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OK, Suz...since you are talking about Hillyer's and SL, I feel compelled to tell you that I really dislike the Hillyer's book...my kids all have thought it was boring. SOTW is a much more engaging text...it just needs some help with a Catholic worldview after vol. 1. Also, the core 6 readers/read alouds have some maturity issues...I don't think I'd use those books with a 10 yr old. I am doing Vol. II this year and I chose all my read alouds from Emmanuel Books rather than SL so I don't lose my almost 9 yr old. You can pm me if you want more details on what we are doing.
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Bookswithtea
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12stars wrote:
| And I know SOTW is great but I just want to keep it Catholic I have come to the conclusion that we are subjected to the authors subjective view. I know SOTW would make my life easier but these 2 things just keep poppping in my head and bugging me. |
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Have you looked at Old World and America? Its not the most engaging text, but its not *bad*, either. If you read it in small increments, I don't think you'll lose the 3rd grader, but you might lose the first grader. It has objective tests/questions at the end of each chapter that you could use with your oldest. I think your 7th grader would need another resource as well to round out the information. MODG has syllabi for 6th-8th grade that use this book slowly with reader suggestions that are all approved by a Catholic provider. You could use that as your spine and maybe just choose some read alouds from Emmanuel books that are Catholic in content to engage the youngers?
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Bookswithtea
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There's another resource that is great, but its OOP. I learned about it from the oh so helpful MA authors, a few years ago. I found mine at a used onlinesite in England. Its called Our World's Story, by Elizabeth O'Neill. It was originally a text in a school and mine has a bookcard in it from "Wyekam House School" in 1932!  The only downside to this book is that it doesn't cover much of the 20th C, and what is there in that time period is inaccurate (for instance, it assumes England is still in charge in India ).
I love history and yes, every book has a bias. No getting around that. And sometimes the most accurate book is written in a boring style, or too old or too young for the child I am focusing on. The best solution I have come up with is to just have several different books that I like onhand. That way when I don't like the take in one book, I can switch to another book for that time period. CHC's Middle School lesson plans use a method in the 7th and 8th grade that I have adopted in other grades as well. Instead of using a spine and following it chapter by chapter, they use events. They list 36 over a schoolyear, and have the child research the event using several different resources, and then write a summary. I tweaked their topics (they have one for American and one for World), chose my own books/resources for the child to either read, be read to, or research on their own depending on the child's age. CHC recommends the Anne Carroll texts for the 7th and 8th, but I don't use them for children under high school age. There's also a world history timeline in that volume that can be used to generate your topics and its easy to see where to fit in saints or other Catholic events. I never use this resource as it is intended to be used, but I have found it to be incredibly helpful in planning.
Edited to add: I completely agree with Erin...it really doesn't matter what you cover with the 1st grader. That'll work itself out in time. Focus on what your 7th grader needs.
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12stars wrote:
I know that my 3rd gr. and 7th gr. need to do the middle ages maybe thats why I hesitate. Since I would be skipping a whole period for my youngest. And I know SOTW is great but I just want to keep it Catholic |
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Sound like just need to be pushed over the edge by someone who will say "DO THE MIDDLE AGES!!!" Uh, that's me. Fortunately, many of us have done a lot of the legwork and are more than happy to share resources that we've compiled. I'm too lazy to link the threads, but if you search this forum for threads like SOTW, Middle Ages, Medieval, you will come up with many suggestions on how to keep it Catholic.
And, more than once you'll see a post from me saying how I've created a document that compiles readings from Catholic and secular texts. (Are you ladies tired of that yet?)
Valerie
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Claudia
I really hope I'm not hi-jacking your thread by asking Books these questions; Books, Would you say that SOTW is more for the under 11s? And have you seen Diana Waring's books? If so how would you compare the two?
I like the idea of focusing on events, makes alot of sense.
12stars wrote:
| But I don't want to miss any time periods. |
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I'm afraid it is inevitable, there is only so much you can cover in 13years, I think the main thing to do is foster a love of history and also equip them with the skills to find out more. I'm still learning, we had a Croatian grandmother here the other day and boy did dd14 and I learn alot about Croatian history particularly more modern politics. So fascinating.
I'm currently finishing off Early Church History -300AD which we started at Pentecost, so pleased we did as all the readings at Mass tied in with our studies at the time, and we are considering jumping over to China as it is relevant with the up-coming Olympics.
See what I mean? It is a big wide world out there and there is no way you are going to cover it all. Though you can have a lot of fun trying 
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Bookswithtea
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I think Erin is right, Claudia, that it is nearly impossible to cover history completely anymore. I have tried so many times now, and I always end up rushing through too much stuff. I'm trying not to do that anymore. Better to know less but know it well, imho.
Erin,
SOTW I is for 1st-3rd
SOTW II is 2nd-4th
SOTW III and IV are 4th-8th.
I think they work really well across a wide age range. The last two volumes are definitely at a higher reader level and the topics have maturity issues in the last volume (I don't know that I'd want to study the Vietnam War with a 1st grader, kwim?). I don't think twice about using vol. 1 with an older child, since our readers and such are at grade level. I use Encyclopedia of World History for extra reading for the older children. Vol. 1 even recounts the Epic of Gilgamesh, which I never heard until college, so I don't think the info is too 'lite' for older students.
I don't have notes yet for modifying volumes III and IV. I keep hoping Valerie will get to them before I do!
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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SuzC
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vmalott wrote:
And, more than once you'll see a post from me saying how I've created a document that compiles readings from Catholic and secular texts. (Are you ladies tired of that yet?)
Valerie |
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Oh...no...don't stop. I just stocked up on printer ink because of you!
Books ~ Thank you for the CHOW opinion. As I mentioned in my first post on this thread - I am having a terrible time choosing the resources.
We have done Ancients once using A Picturesque Tale of Progress. We got a bit bogged down and spent the whole year in Egypt. That dd is not too eager to revisit, but I'm hoping we'll do better this go-around. Plus, the big Tut exhibit is coming here, so it seemed like the right time.
I have Van Loon's Story of Mankind and Gombrich's A Little History of the World. I was considering either of these for oldest dd (I neglected to change dds' ages in my sig line!) and hoping that she would sit in on or read aloud STOW (was CHOW ).
I spent a couple hours looking over RC History and I still think it is a valuable resource, but I'm still left with planning it out. I don't mind the planning at all - it's just knowing how to balance it and of course finding the time to do it.
Speaking of tipping the balance...has anyone covered CWH Vol 1 and Vol 2 in one year? My oldest is not really interested in the crafts/hand-on activities, but it still may be too much.
Thanks!
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Oh wow!! You guys are great  I always feel so blessed to of found this forum Ok so I think I will do SOTW I with the youngers and RC history vol 1 just a reference along with Winter Promise Quest for the Ancient World.
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Claudia in Southern California
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Erin
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Books
I am particularly interested in the Activity book, do you think it really worthwhile to own both the Story Book and Activity Book?
Bookswithtea wrote:
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Didn't Charlotte Mason say something about, 'we are educated by our intimacies?'
Claudia,
Have you decided what you are going to do with your 7th grader?
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Bookswithtea
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Erin wrote:
I am particularly interested in the Activity book, do you think it really worthwhile to own both the Story Book and Activity Book? |
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It depends on what you want it for. You could use the activity guide craft ideas to go along with any number of other spines. That said, the maps and coloring pictures are intended to along with each chapter in the SOTW book. The quizzes are a separate purchase. If you have the time to listen to the child dictate a narration, that would work just as well. This just isn't a good year for me to do that...the baby hates it when I sit anywhere near the computer...
I will say that the activity guides have a wealth of information on how to expand the book with a wide variety of ages. It lists the corresponding pages in commonly owned Usborne and Kingfisher encyclopedia type books, pointers for what to listen for in a narration if you haven't read the chapter yourself, and several different books you could read aloud or have a child read and what age they are appropriate for.
I like the audiobook option better than reading the book aloud. The newer audiobooks are done by Jim Weiss and my girls love them and listen to them over and over again, just for fun. And if need be, the child can do history independently.
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For my 7th grader I was thinking of doing Van Loons History of the worlds and or looking into Light to the Nations I have too look a little more into it I just have not had time today.
It goes from the Ancients to Midevil times.
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Claudia in Southern California
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: I am STUCK and need some help soon
