LCC users, have you used SOTW as a read-aloud and how do you fit in science?

[gandpsmommy]

How much time did you allot for SOTW per week and how long did it take to get through one volume? Also, did your children seem to benefit from it and retain a sense of what happened without doing daily narrations, projects, etc.? Did you do any of the mapwork or activities suggested in the AG?

I'm actually excited about making science more of an unstructured family pursuit than a school subject. Ds4 is very interested in the natural world and has considered himself a scientist since he learned the word at about age 3. He will definitely keep us reading about many scientific subjects. Dh has developed an interest in astronomy and is planning to buy our family a quality telescope. So, I am thinking that we might study earth science next year. I have loved using NOEO Biology I this year because of the real books and the experiment kits. I started out feeling that we had to do a lab sheet for every experiment and be formal about science, but I have realized how young dd is and recently have only required her to draw a picture or write a few sentences now and then about our reading. I still would like to do some experiments with the kids occasionally next year. Does anyone know where I can buy the kind of experiment kits that come in NOEO?

[rivendellmom]

We went through all of SOTW, it took us about 6 months per volume at 2-3 days a week. (we school year round)
I asked the questions from the activity books for the first 2 books and we did the mapwork. The last 2 books we just read as a read alouds. Its hard to say how much was retained. My boys didn't like how the series jumped around between countries. They like the Famous Men series a lot more, and as they got older have read a lot of historical fiction.
As far as science we have not used NOEO. We've used living learning books science when they were pre third grade. We now use a combo of textbooks from McGraw Hill as well as lots of living books for science in grade school.

[Heather in VA]

Well I probably consider science to be more of a priority than LCC intends but that's just me :-). We do science lessons once a week. Then on another day we do an experiment. I usually choose the day we do Bible because it's a shorter day overall. In between my dd reads other books related to science. This year we are working on Biology and she's been reading the Christian Liberty Nature Readers amongst other things. Our book basket from which she chooses her 30 minutes of reading a day has science type books in it. This is for a 3rd grader.

For my jr higher science is a core subject. I just don't think you can do jr. and sr. high science informally.

Heather

[Mama Lynx]

We have continued doing SOTW in a four-year rotation, mainly because *I* like the projects, etc :) And for us, the projects really seal the retention. In most cases, it's the *only* thing they remember from our history studies.

[Jami]

We've been using the SOTW CDs predominately. Every Monday we have a 20+ minute drive to our homeschool arts program and then the 20 min. return trip. So we use that time to listen to SOTW. And my kids enjoy listening to the CDs at resttime or bedtime. They seem to pretty naturally narrate and discuss what they here. I loosely try and pick chapters to listen to that match up with what we're reading in Our Island Story which is our main history text right now. So the Romans conquering Britain and the sections on the Celts, things like that have overlapped nicely.

I seem to have kids that make connections well on their own and retain huge amounts of material. So we can read books from all periods of history or listen to CDs and they make it all hang together pretty well. The same thing works for science. We have several Usborne, Magic School Bus, and other science and nature books and I just encourage them to read about whatever interests them. We go to the zoo and nature preserve and talk about what we see. They explore what small bit of nature they have in the backyard. In the spring we'll plant flowers and vegetables. My son, in particular, loves learning about space and the ocean. So he brings home stacks of library books on these things and I try and wade through them with him. ;)

My children are very young still, but so far just having plentiful books and a readiness to talk about what they're interested in seems to be working in history and science.

Jami

[Wendy in ME]

We basically follow a LCC schedule instead of modern studies, we have world history. We study this once a week for 2 hours using SOTW, maps, act. guide questions and some added reading assigned for free reading time. This is working very well for my 4th grader. He also does 1 narration during his writing time during the week.

For science, we are informally studying life science once a week for 2 hours. This is working very well for us. The boys are enjoying it and tend to also add a lot of additional science reading on their own.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I have given the SOTW books to each of my olders for their after school reading. They go through a couple of books a week, usually one I hand them and one they choose. I sneak a lot of history and science in this way. To let my 4yo (and Daddy) in on the loop with SOTW, I have been checking out the audiobook series from the library and just purchased one. I own the activity guides so that if the kids are particularly smitten with a chapter, I can extend it into their play. This recently happened with Egypt.

For science, I started a monthly nature study group and more recently, a SpiralScouts circle. The boys get kits for holidays and birthdays, including a subscription to the Young Scientist Club. We have a home library stocked with tons of science picture books which the boys constantly peruse in their free time. The boys play science games online, especially enjoying Ology, EdHeads and Lawrence Hall of Science, and watch BrainPop. I leave science tools laying around them, like a scale, a thermometer, magnifying glasses. We have a good telescope too. The other day I went to check because they were taking an unusually long time brushing their teeth, and they were doing water temperature experiments in the sink and bathtub with the thermometer. They really like The Magic School Bus, too. So, most of it is the enriched environment strategy, but we also have a formal science lesson once a week.

[St. Theophan Academy]

We use the CD's and listen to them in the car - this year we are listening to the Middle Ages. I also do what I call World and Modern History component instead of Modern Studies - meaning we are sort of staying on a 4 yr history rotation, but it is very laid back. This also includes our geography studies.

As for science, we are reading the Apologia Astronomy course this year, but not doing much other than reading it and a few supplemental books about astronomy (and the occasional experiment if I really get motivated :) We also do nature studies informally, meaning whenever I feel like dragging the baby out we take a nature walk, but really I feel like this is well covered independently and with my husband's help. My kids spend a lot of time outside, and the 3rd grader has begun on his own to start a nature journal, drawing when he feels like it. Also, my husband is a big outdoorsman, so when he is off they are usually outside fishing, hunting, building something, or in the summer planting and caring for the garden. Oh, and of course in the spring I consider the many wonderful pets brought in from the creek and studied- snakes, snapping turtles, lizards, fish, frogs etc - to fulfill our animal studies :)

Anne Marie

[King Alfred Academy]

We use the CD's and listen to them in the car - this year we are listening to the Middle Ages. I also do what I call World and Modern History component instead of Modern Studies - meaning we are sort of staying on a 4 yr history rotation, but it is very laid back. This also includes our geography studies.


I just read LCC and the only thing I am really hung up on is not studying history in the four year cycle. It makes more sense to me to study it chronologically. Would you mind explaining in a bit more detail what your schedule looks like for the week and how you are rotating your history in?
Thanks so much!

***I just read your post on another thread and that gave me a clearer idea. Would you mind listing the subjects you do on a particular day, if you do it that way? Also, I am still interested in hearing more about your 4 year rotated history schedule.**
Thanks again!

[Wendy in ME]

I am also doing history on a 4 yr cycle rather than modern studies. We label our subjects: Literature, Bible, World History, Classical, Science. Because we are on ancients, world ,literature, and classical overlap this year. For classical we are trying to catch up by doing Ancient Men of Rome 1/wk as part of Latin and D'Aulaires Greek Myths for classical. For literature so far we have The Children's Homer and The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus. We are also planning to read Theras and His Town. For World History my 4th grader is doing only SOTW w/copywork, maps, narration, and oral review questions. My 5th grader is doing HO level 2. They are doing some lighter historical fiction on their own as free reading in the evenings. I do know that the new LCC will be arranged into more of a world history approach so I am anxious to see that in the spring.