CHOW for 1st and Pre-K? also ? about world history for this age

[Calming Tea]

My ds and dd love to listen to stories far above their reading level. In fact, they have been complaining lately (especially the older one) at most picture books.

This coming year we are open for history...I use CHC and history for first grade is pretty much non existent in CHC.

The year after that we will be doing Early American History with CHC and beautiful Feet books.

So for this year I thought we would do some World history. I have so far planned-

History for Little Pilgrims
CHOW

My budget is under 50.00 ...what else can I get and stay under budget?

And, has anyone had problems reading CHOW aloud to the younger set? My kids normally listen to about 5-6th grade reading level books.

[OhElizabeth]

Not to state the obvious, but I would get SOTW and the AG rather than those two things. Not that I don't like History for Little Pilgrims, but you already have plenty of american ahead, no need to do that now. I like CHOW too, but personally I think with the age of your kids, they'll appreciate SOTW more. You could make your life easy and get it on audio and use the AG with it. Then I'd use the rest of your money to buy some SL read alouds. At that age my dd enjoyed New Toes for Tia and some of the other missionary stories they include in their lower cores. I read her Little Pilgrim's Progress and it was just delightful. The FIAR books would be great with your kids and something you could do while memorizing the Geography Songs from Audio Memory. (memorizing the countries goes well with studying world history, mapping things as you read about them adds to that)

You might check out the Lang's Fairy Tale books from the library. There's a whole series of them, very complexly written, well worth reading aloud.

[Pata]

CHOW is part of SL Core 1 and there are many people who substitute or leave it out because it's boring or too much. It's the reason we are using SOTW instead. We are also adding in the AG, both seem very interesting and I think your dc would enjoy them. The AG has suggestions for other books that you could get from the library if you needed more. On top of that, they would fit in your budget. Hope that helps!

[Calming Tea]

so the census is skip CHOW for SOTW?

But there are four volumes meant to take an entire year...so that's four years worth of history...

So should I get Volume 1? And wouldn't that leave my dc sort of hanging in 500 BC somewhere?

Oh- I love the Geography songs idea!! Great idea!!

And yeah, you're right...I looked at the table of contents for History for Little Pilgrims and it's kind of American History focused during the last half of the book..I'll save that for next year.

I got the Lang books and I hated them. They just didn't click with me. But I'll have enough to keep myself busy with the SL RA's and history...

..so maybe I should do that? Get as much of Core 1 as I can afford along with SOTW Volume 1?

[abbeyej]

Actually, I think CHOW would work great for what you want. If you're definitely doing American history the next year, so you don't want the sheer volume of material in SOTW, then go for CHOW.

I like it very much, as did my children. I don't think you'll find it above their heads at all.

[Calming Tea]

That's a good point...Since I only have one year, the length and volume of SOTW doesn't really fit.

Now I'm stumped though, because I did cruise on over to PHP and the activity guides look like fun.

Is there any activity guide that would be fun along with CHOW, or a world history History Pockets thing to go with it?

[TracyR]

As much as I love CHOW ,, and we don't find it boring at all here .
It would probably go over their head at a 1st grade and pre K level . I have a preKer here and we read CHOW out loud when we do history because actually both my husband and I have learned quite a bit about world history from this book . But my preKer is in no way interested in CHOW .
I think it would be great for children in at least 3rd grade to as far as 5th grade . It is written in a story type format and has about 4 pages per chapter . So its not long and overbearing . Its just written for a PreK or 1st grade audience in mind .
I haven't used SOTW but I would recommend it for now and at least wait a few more years until you have at least one of them in 3rd grade .

Well they do have a workbook that goes along with CHOW that Calvert sells . Its mostly an outline book . But in the back it has small enrichment activities like : recipes ( ex " Monastery soup , Babylonian break making ), build a pyramid , crossword puzzle , make a corn husk doll writing with quill and ink and a bunch of others .

We really like CHOW , I almost thought we wouldn't because of all the review I read about it being boring and too much . So I dreaded it when we got it . But we found we really like it . I think the poor review may come from the fact the book is being used at too young of an age to understand it . So the child isn't really going to get into it if it is over their heads .
My suggestion is you could get it . See if it works for your kiddos . It may since you say they like to listen to stories above their reading levels . If not then you could put it away and try again when they are older. Or just get SOTW , use it for a few years and then bring out CHOW at a later time .

[OhElizabeth]

You need to find some samples of CHOW, maybe on RR or someplace?, and see what you think. We liked it a LOT when we did it in 2nd grade. I think it would have been in one ear and out the other with my dd at preK and young 1st, which is why I suggested SOTW instead. Yes, your kids would love the activities in the SOTW AG. And yes, doing that would tempt you to continue the sequence. Consider it a conspiracy. ;)

If you do SOTW1 with AG next year and don't aim to continue it, you could always just listen to the audio in the car for the remaining books.

[Calming Tea]

okay I'll cruise around and see if I can find samples of CHOW.

My kids do like some pretty heady stuff, but it's not always easy reading it to them when I have to stop and explain to many concepts or vocab words.

Aha! I see...the conspiracy for SOTW ...it all makes sense now.

[attachedto4]

My dd is 5 and is also a kid who can happily listen to read alouds far above her reading level, she also prefers chapter books. We did parts of core 1 last year, when she had just turned 5, because she was tagging alone with her brother, and she did great with all of the SL core 1 material except CHOW. She hid that book when I had to step out of the room and said she hated history. So I put that book away.