My son has chosen to read SOTW for history on his own. I had switched back to LifePacs for my daughter as it just wasn't working for us at all trying to get them to cooperate for a lesson was more of a headache. Now he would like some worksheets to go with it? I can't find any, unless I sit down and type the questions up that are in the activity guide. Anyone know of any year-long project he can do on his own with it? Or of worksheets? Maybe a timeline book that's guided?
Why not have him create lapbooks for the various sections such as one on mummies, one on pyramids, on on ancient egypt as a whole, one on ancient india, china, the greek, romans, mythology, get the picture. It will keep him going, he can do his own research or you can by the project packs from hands of a child like I do to make life simplier on me. Also for example while reading about the pyramids and mummies just type those 2 key words into google add the word lesson plan and you get tons of worksheets, and lesson expanding ideas.
So do you have the activity book? I used that a lot! I have a copy machine thing at home so I'd just copy the pages off for them to do. Can you do that? I mean, the activity book has all sorts of stuff in it to do to go along with the stories in the book, so if you DO have it, I'm not sure what you'd be wanting??? If you DON'T have it, then I recommend that you get it!
The stories/material covered in SOTW 1 seems to track right along with the popular Childrens Enc's on history and ancient world history. There are some of these Encyc's that are "internet Linked". I think they are by Usbourne or something like that. I looked into these and found that the links are on the publishers website and you can link out from there to other sites at no cost even if you don't have the encyclopedia. You just need the starting website link. Perhaps someone here could post those if they have those Encyclopedias. From these starting points you could find websites that relate to each topic as you go along without doing all of the searching. I am sure you will find some print outs in the mix.
I have the activity book - but he's in the 5th grade and seems to find the activities in this one a little younger than his level. Does that make sense? So he wants some quiz type things to go along with it. I might just do the worksheets I find with the subject - that makes sense.
They do have a higher level activity book, I'm told. Like there's one for elementary, one for middle schoolers and one for high schoolers - but I don't know if that is true or not. I like the idea of googling it. Good luck. I'll be using SOTW next year with my then 2nd and 4th grader...hoping the activites aren't too young for my 4th grader! (of course, she's a girl, so she likes all that crafty hands on type stuff).
I just visited the author of STOW's website. Peacehillpress.com. They do not appear to have a workbook for STOW intended for use by older students such as middle schoolers and up. Because SOTW is authored by someone from the classical school of thought, I makes since that SOTW would not be intended for use by such a broad age spread of students. By time kids are in middle school, they are suppose to be approaching history for the second time around not the first. Regardless of one is teaching classically or otherwise it is my opinion that SOTW is just not deep enough for older students. They do have this: I also noticed that the first editions of some of the STOW products are on clearance. Click for more info The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome Susan Wise Bauer's newest book! Using the narrative approach to history so popular in The Story of the World series, Susan Wise Bauer introduces readers to the people, places, and events of the ancient world. This book is ideal for high schoolers or for adults who want the great history instruction their children are receiving. $5 below publisher's price!
That looks good! You're right, the original books were written for the grades she says to teach them in. So the Ancient History is written for first graders, basically, and goes on through to the Modern, which is more of a 4th grade level. I haven't looked through the new versions, so I don't know how they differ from the first editions. We found extra work from MANY sources for my older two when we did the ancient, because it was totally written at dd's level. But we still had fun with the activities. Of course some of the activities we didn't do, just what we felt was good/appropriate. It worked out well. I've said this before, but in case some don't know about it, we added stuff to a timeline while we worked through it, and got the figures and some ideas from www.timelinesetc.com
WOW...that's so funny to hear that about SOTW...I was told that it was intended to be taught on a 4 year rotation...starting over in the 5th year....and going thru it completely three times in 12 years of schooling. I guess I heard wrong. As a matter of fact, I thought Sonlight uses SOTW in middle school - maybe THEY add activites. Hmmmmm....my oldest is going to be in 4th when we START it...uh oh....
When I said taht I think that SOTW is too light for older kids, I was referring to the Story reader portion. I can imagine that if you did all of the activities and read all of the extra reading in the Activity Book, you could take it up to the older grades. Let's face it, if your student could answer all of the questions in the activities manual, they would be ahead of most High School Seniors. If they can find the Nile on a map they would have most ps students beat.
That's the right info. It IS rotation. I'm thinking she wrote these books for the first round, and then figured you could use stuff from "The Well-Trained Mind" book starting in 5th and on or something. I'm not sure. Do you have "The Well-Trained Mind"? However, my oldest was in 7th grade when we went through it, and, as I said, we found other stuff to add to it to make it more his level. He did reports, and research and I made up quizzes, etc. Same with my middle ds, who was in 5th. There's sooooo much available that it wasn't that hard! We used History pockets as well. If your OLDEST is in 4th grade, it's very doable! Do you have the activity book already? Have you looked through it? Some of it may be a bit too young/easy for her, but I think it is very doable for multi-grade up through 4th or 5th, because she gives books and websites and things to check out as well that can enhance your older child's understanding and so they can get info. at their level.
we're just starting to use in in the new year and dd10 is in grade six - well, technically.. 5 years in PS, so she says "grade 6" but we're working all over the place in terms of "grade level" ....but the thing is, she's never done any history really, so we have to start young....it's the same with our geography - we're using "galloping the globe" and that's designed, as it says, for k-4 ....but she's never done any world geography at all, so... (and yes, i'm kicking myself for having assumed that the schools were doing their job - i've gone through feeling like a rotten parent for taking so long to realise what was wrong with everything, but it's silly to get stuck on that - we go from here, that's what's important...) i think it all depends on the child
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!!! That's so true! Can't get hung up on the past, it won't do any good! Gotta move forward from where you are, that's all you can do!
Well, I don't have any of it yet...not buying until next year....probably June when our convention comes to town. I have read Well Trained Mind but don't have a copy of it. I guess for my oldest I'll add some of the extra reading. I do recall that the activity book has a list (and as someone else said on this or another thread). I need to go as planned...I also have an edhelper membership so i could make vocab lists, etc. from that and do puzzles, quizzes, etc. Maybe. Sometimes planning is the hardest part.
yep - i realised that the time i was spending feeling that way was about as productive as whacking my nose on a wall. pretty much just as painful as well.
It gets used ina 5 year rotation you heard right, the 5the fifth year you study your countries history then start over. For higher grades you do less hands on and more supplemental reading though since it will be their second time through it.Sonlight uses the reader not the activty guide in middle school. My kids are currently grade 3 & 4 and we are using vol 1. They are getting lots out of it,, I jsut added lapbooking and extra reading to the activities in the book to expand ideas further and it seems to be going great.
I got some notebooking pages yesterday from homeschoolestore.com and also printed stuff out for him from edhelper.com I figure he can report in the notebooking pages and I'll print him out some work from edhelper in it to keep it a little harder - otherwise yes for a 5th grader just reading through it it's very easy. We just couldn't do it with both my kids.... my daughter is enjoying 3rd grade history through LifePacs though...
Chicamarun- We use Lifepacs now...my eldest is in 3rd. She's LOVING learning about the US States. Are you adding anything? I've been using edhelper.com to add stuff around the states that border the one the unit is about...just so she learns a little about them. I'm SHOCKED that she can name every state on a blank map! She doesn't know capitals all that well, yet, but is learning them. COOL...We're slow, and we started later in Sept than I wanted too...so we're only on Unit 3 - Washington....and she's about to write a report about Washington. It will be her first official report ever written so I'm helping a lot, but it's neat to see her so excited about it. She said the other day "I'll never look at an apple the same way ever again!".
Well, you're at a very important place--Washington State! No WONDER she's excited! :lol: Chicamarun: I also had my older ones do summaries of each chapter, with some extra research thrown in, and extra reports on some of the people and places. With the reports, maps, and activities and some of the cooking projects and pictures, they ended up with a very good sized notebook of activities that they had done! They loved all the hands on stuff, which we did a lot of!Maybe your kids would like more of that kind of thing? (although maybe you're already doing that!) I'm adding some pictures of just a few of the things we did that the kids enjoyed: making lego pyramids--dd kept going and made the Nile and added Palm trees, making papier mache' stuff for making a tomb, and their Heieroglyphics and cuneiform.
