SOTW 1 - 1st Grader Questions...

[mhblue5]

Hi there,

I have a 1st Grader currently using SOTW 1. We are on Chapter 12 so we are taking it slow b/c we got a late start this year. She generally retains information well, BUT how much do you expect from your child using this curriculum? For instance, there is always mention of a pharaoh or king, the war/invading of another country, etc. Do your 1st Graders remember everyones name and/or the names of the new country? Do they remember all the details? When asked to summarize or if I ask her review questions from the Activity Book she doesn't always remember the details, but I have to be honest here.... neither do I. Sometimes when it's interesting... for instance about cunniform writing or Anansi the Spider we remember the details, but the invading of territory, names of kings, names of new countries when they are conquered go in one ear and out the other for both her and myself. Is this normal? I assume learning one country was invaded several times, but not necessarily knowing the details is o.k. I'm just looking for reassurance or if you feel differently I'd love to hear it.

Thank you.

[King Alfred Academy]

My first grader doesn't retain much either. Right now, I am just trying to get him "hungry" to learn and I am achieving that by using SOTW. He can recall events that have happened and knows the outcome, but as far as people's names, no way. I'm not worried...he will be studying each time period three times, each time more in depth and I'll expect more from him then. Right now we are just having fun doing the maps and the activities from the Activity Guide.
HTH:001_smile:

[A home for their hearts]

I was wondering about this myself. I am using SOTW 1 with my first and second grader. We just started it a couple of weeks ago and I really haven't been that consistent with it yet. My second grader seems to love it, my first grader not so much. I think the important thing to remember here is we are planting pegs as they say in TWTM. The early years are for gathering in new info so when they are older and come across the material again they will have a peg to hang something on. KWIM?
HTH!

[Jolash]

at how much she WILL remember! We did SOTW 1 last year and my son will come up with some obscure fact once in a while that even I don't remember! I'm not really worried about the names/dates etc right now... just a nice overview to get him interested is good and, I think, a successful history year!

Shari

[WTMindy]

I would expose them to the stories, do a fun craft, talk about what you learned, have them do a narration (or narrate to you) and have fun with it. At that age, I highly recommend taking the time to do projects. I think because I did that, the kids associate history with "fun." They have been always been history lovers (love to have history books read to them) and I credit SOTW with that!

We also got SOTW audio book and we listen to it on CD in the car, especially when we go on driving trips. This is great because dh gets to hear what they learned.

We did all 4 years of history, and are on the second cycle. They don't remember everything we studied but they have vague good memories of learning about it, especially when I pull out their old notebooks and they look at their cute writing and pictures that they drew. I also took pictures of all the projects we did, so they LOVE looking at those.

Just think of it as one layer that you are laying and the most important part is to get them to enjoy it now.

[mchel210]

I am actually moving very slow as well with sotw. I am planning on going back and doing notebooking during the next week to cover the stories we have completed already. I am using the cards in the back of the activity book...and we will put one per page with a description.

My kids are 5, 7 and 12. I am only on chapter 16 I think...We are completing all of our other books and then we will work only on math and sotw for a few weeks into the summer.

We talk about the stories as much as we can...but they only remember the main facts...not names.

[Brenda in FL]

We also got SOTW audio book and we listen to it on CD in the car, especially when we go on driving trips. This is great because dh gets to hear what they learned. .

I highly recommend getting the audio book to listen in the car - my kids loved it - I'd ask them what they wanted to hear. (However - the 4 yo always wanted to listen to Anansi - I had to start veto-ing her choices!) It was great for reinforcing what they were learning.

I didn't worry too much about long-term retention. I know they learned alot and enjoyed it!

[jennyberm]

Sounds normal to me! We actually started in July and we're still only on Chapter 17. We're taking it really slow. The DC actually get a lot more out of it when we read the supplemental picture & story books and do the crafts, but they're not really ones to sit and listen to a lot of books. My kids are really, really active. Anyway, I decided that it's best for us to take it super slow and go for a 5-yr plan for history. We're right on track for that.

So I'm not stressed about how much they're retaining because we're taking it slow and just enjoying things. I know we'll cover everything again at least one more time and probably twice more. They'll probably retain much more each time because it will already be familiar. And they definitely know more ancient history than the public school kids! ;)

[Closeacademy]

For us it was more exposure to the story of history rather than a retaining of facts.

My oldest dd still talks about the Greeks quite a bit but we had a lot of fun during that period. :)

[prairiegirl]

I think that the purpose for doing history in the early elementary years is to expose the child to the people and stories of that era. It isn't for mastery of names of wars and dates. THis is the beauty of the 4 yr. history cycle, imo.

We are just about finished our 1st cycle of history. For some reason, my dd remembers Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Queen Isabella, Catherine the Great, these are just to name a few. This delights me. The next time we go through history, we will go a bit deeper so, hopefully, she will remember more of the events of the various times.


Julia
mom of 3 (8,7,5)

[Sasha]

I agree with Prairiegirl. If you're on the four-year history cycle they'll revisit this same period twice before they are done with school. Therefore I really am looking to give them some familiarity and not complete mastery.

With that said, you'll be surprised at how much they retain. Last night we had a homeschool science fair. My two older kids did a shared project on volcanoes. When they were talking about the tidal waves that destroyed the island of Crete my 6 year old piped up and talked about the child bull jumpers.