Would it be wise to have your 6 year old and 8 year old study these subjects/topics together? It would be easier on me (Newbie:love but what about them? I've found so many ideas on grammar and math but not as many on science and history. What do you love/hate about these? Story of the World- reviews go from ppl loving it to ppl saying that some of the facts are wrong. Child's History of the World The Childrens book of America I'm still looking for a science guide..... I like SCM THe Outdoor Secrets but it says good for k-2
I would absolutely have them together! We've always done and plan to do science & history together as much as possible. I plan year by year to overlap what I can (we are classical/eclectic, so we use a cycled approach and can repeat things every few years using the same general content, but at the levels appropriate for each sibling). I've chosen to use Mystery of History and Apologia Young Explorers Science. MoH is for K-12, with activities for younger (K-4), middle (5-8), and older (9-12), while SotW is only for elementary. MoH is also Christian, while SotW is secular(ish). Apologia's YE series is 6 books, all of which are appropriate for K-6th. There are astronomy, botany, anatomy (no sex), and three zoologies (air, water, and land). All children learn the same content, but you'd expect more notebooking and independent experiment work from a 6th grader than you would from a kindergartener. I've chosen to do one book per semester (a lesson per week) so that we're able to do all 6 books twice (1st thru 6th grades) before starting the middle/high school series in 7th. We did astronomy first, and while my son learned a LOT, he didn't retain as much as an older child would. Going through it the second time when he's older means he'll learn more quickly, having already been introduced to everything before, and his little brother will be able to join in for the first time. So far, my oldest has been through the whole series once, and has been through the zoology air book twice. The second time through, he did it all on his own, and it's amazing how much he learned! We're starting zoology water this semester for the second time through (older) and first time through (younger). Right the moment, we've taken a year off from history. We're doing geography together with Galloping the Globe as a general guide (not using all of it... just the geography part). We do a continent at a time, and we pull in culture, folk tales, etc. from specific countries, times periods, or religions as well. My younger (4) can name all the continents and oceans, all the countries, rivers, and major bodies of water for Asia, and quite a few of the countries of Europe. He can also name most of the U.S. states. All of that knowledge came from free online games here: http://sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm. My older (7) has Asperger's and is completely obsessed with geography. He can tell you the population of obscure islands that I can't even pronounce. :lol: My point is... YES! You can and should keep your kids together whenever possible. It encourages them to learn from each other and work together, and it's one less headache for you.
We do everything except math and reading together but I do expect a bit more understanding from my 8 year old than my 6 year old. (My 8 year old struggles with phonics so he does do some phonics with his brother, even if it's just a review...public school kindergarten was disaster and I'm still trying to undo some bad habits from his time in PS...) Plus my 8 year old does lots of science on his own, occasionally his little brother will be interested, but not always, and that's okay. (hehehe-usually he's interested in his big brother science when an experiment is involved LOL) Apologia is great to teach together. The notebooking and/or Jr notebooking journals are worth the money (IMHO) This is our current stuff Orange subjects done every week. Yellow subjects are done the 1st full week of the month, blue subjects are done week 2 of the month, purple are done week 3 of each month and pink subjects are done on those not full weeks of the month. White lessons they do together, light blue lessons are for my Kindergarten son and green lessons are for my 3rd grade son. Homeschool Lesson Plans by SonitaLewis, on Flickr
My 6th and 4th grader do the same curriculum for everything except Math. I do expect more from my 6th grader and I modify his homework to be a bit more complex. Also, he's an excellent speller so this semester I decided to stop his spelling curriculum and have him teach his sister her spelling curriculum. This is working well - he LOVES being the teacher and I think my daughter likes the change up too! We do Apologia Science, Sonlight History, Excellence in Writing (through Classical Conversations).
Mine are 2 years/grades apart and we also do history and science together This is our first year with SOTW 1 - LOVING it for the most part. I find that supplementing it is key for us - tons of books, videos, research on things, etc. I have seen some talk that there are some mistakes, and I have also noticed that Bauer may mention some of these things at the end of the chapters. I think some of it may honestly be an attempt to make things make more sense for the kids. I find that jumping around date-wise to be confusing in general, though using the timeline cards is a good idea. I have my 4th grader sometimes do a little extra, like notebooking pages I found online with a photo at the top to correspond to a chapter in SOTW with writing lines, where he can summarize what he learned that day. We also have added in some little crafts, projects, and food activities here and there with the maps and some of the board games in the activity book. Since we are not young earth, many of the science programs are not jiving with our brand of Christian beliefs, so we picked up R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey last year in 1st/3rd that provides all hands-on learning - great for the younger ones and more multisensory learners! We use the Core Knowledge books and some lesson plans I find online, lapbooks, various units DH or I put together, and supplement with videos, experiments, and books. In the spring, we will add a nature study. Next year I will be purchasing a new curriculum and am looking into that still.
My boys are 2 years apart. I did science and history together for several years until it was obvious that it wasn't the best fit for my kids. My boys are quite opposite when it comes to learning styles. For instance, I have one child that learns well by doing and other by listening and reading. Right now we keep to the same topic, but they use different materials. They do the science labs together as well as an invertebrate study that we are doing. But my oldest uses a science textbook while my younger son reads living books and projects.
Yes, yes, and yes! My first two are two years apart, and there's almost three years between the younger two, which means there's five years between #1 and #5. Even so, we did history and science together. We did Mystery of History, and Considering God's Creation. By then, my oldest was starting the older Apologia stuff, so she was doing science on her own. The younger two continued together. We used Great Science Adventures for science; that worked well for us!
