Mothering › Forums › Education › Learning at Home and Beyond › jumping in to sotw3?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

jumping in to sotw3?

post #1 of 8
10/12/11 at 10:03am
Thread Starter 

SO, we started story of the world 3 this year -- we've never done the other sotw's - or any history curriculum before.  My boys are 2, 4, 6 and I thought this one would have a lot of fun hands on projects (I've seen a lot of cool stuff for the first volume - but, I wanted to do a more current time period.  We have lots of great 1800s/1900s farms/fieldtrips and we're planning a trip to colonial williamsburg next year...  so I wanted to prepare/incorporate all of that kind of stuff.  (we're also learning about all of the states this year so we're more US-centric than sotw, really...)

 

The boys HATE whenever I bring out sotw, and I"m not seeing a whole lot of fun stuff to go along with it... (we're only 2 chapters in).  (ok, 1 of the experiments would have been cool if it had worked).  I have the activity book too because I didnt see a lot of bloggers using this volume like i did/do with vol1. 

 

Anyone have any advice?  A better kids history?  Should I just make my own timeline and find books from the library to go along with things?  I'm about to have #4 and I wanted something that was already planned out, so I could just follow along...  I don't mind supplementing/getting books for the library/etc...  but would love a primary source that I could just look at and say - ok, this week we're talking about xyz and go from there....

 

thanks!!!

Reply
Reply
post #2 of 8
10/12/11 at 2:26pm

I think that SOTW is too old for any but your 6yo, so I wouldn't push it on your younger two.  My 6yo actually loves SOTW 1 because of all the wars and conflicts.  To a boy I guess that is just really "cool". 

 

Another thing to look into to learn more about the revolutionary period is a series called "Liberty Kids".  It used to be on Netflix atleast.  Really cute animated sereies that teaches quite a bit.  We watched that in preperation of going to CW as well as DC and Mt. Vernon last Spring.  My oldest was 5-6 when we watched the series and 6 when we went on the trip and he LOVED it.

Reply
Reply
post #3 of 8
10/12/11 at 9:05pm

Do you think they might just be too young for it? I though SOTW was intended to start with 5 or 6-year-olds, and to be worked through on a four-year rotation so that kids would be 7 or 8 at the earliest when they got to SOTW3. Ages 2, 4 and 6 seems pretty young. Not that the material would be conceptually beyond your older two necessarily, but the presentation wouldn't really have worked for mine at that ages. Mind you, my kids aren't much for colouring sheets and school-like crafty things anyway. We did a few of the more enticing activities during SOTW1 and 2 but by the time we got to 3 they wanted "just the beef." It was a quick read and we did it alongside Canadian history as we're Canadian.

 

Miranda

Reply
Reply
post #4 of 8
10/13/11 at 5:14am
Thread Starter 

It does seem more geared to older kids...  I went back and re-read some of the first book and the language seems like it would grab them more (and its totally for the 6 year old, but anything he does...he brothers NEED to do too...)  I'm just not into that time period right now... 

 

We will totally check out liberty kids - I do remember seeing that on netflix! :)

Reply
Reply
post #5 of 8
10/13/11 at 10:57am

Story of the World One is more geared towards your oldest. The activity book that goes along with SOTW1 has a lot of great things to do with kids in the 5-8 age range.

Reply
Reply
post #6 of 8
10/14/11 at 3:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by happy1nluv View Post

Anyone have any advice?  A better kids history?  Should I just make my own timeline and find books from the library to go along with things?  I'm about to have #4 and I wanted something that was already planned out, so I could just follow along...  

 

thanks!!!



With that age, I would just make the timeline and grab books from the library.  It doesn't need to be stressful.  Are you just wanting to focus on the US history (because of your trip) or do you want "World History"?  Personally, at that age, I would just hit the most interesting aspects of US History for the time period.  Shake up some butter in a jar!  Skip electric lights (or eliminate as much electricity as possible) one weekend and use candles or lanterns, fire/wood stove for warmth, games/stories for entertainment.  

 

Amy 

Reply
Reply
post #7 of 8
10/15/11 at 5:18am
Thread Starter 

Amy -- I think thats a great idea.  I was hoping to find a resource that would list the highlights - give some book recommendations and have projects listed that we could do, but i dont think im going to find one (thats what i thought sotw would be... a compilation of stories and activities)  ...but its way too world centric for what I want for this year...  So I guess this year we'll wing it, and next year we'll start with sotw 1 and do world history...

Reply
Reply
post #8 of 8
10/16/11 at 7:54am

I was going through my bookmarks, and came upon this one:  http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/booksandmaterialslist.html

Scroll down the list to topics during your desired time period.

 

Your new plan sounds good; I'm glad I was able to help.

 

Amy

Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Learning at Home and Beyond
Mothering › Forums › Education › Learning at Home and Beyond › jumping in to sotw3?