For 1st grade ancients, what percentage of time spent on the "big" civilizations?

[kalanamak]

I'm using the DP Encyclopedia as my spine, and it has a page for the Babylonians, a half page each for the Minoans and Mycenaeans, but only three pages each for Greece, Rome, Egypt.

I'm figuring a week each on the littler ones and more time on the big ones, but how much more time? Thanks.

[Kristiana]

We essentially followed the SOTW pace of 1 chapter per week, although I put the big civilizations together rather than following the book in straight chronological fashion. I'd have to go back and check my calendar for sure, but we spent about 5 weeks on Egypt, 6 weeks on Greece, and 8 or 9 on Rome. I also spent 2 weeks covering 3 chapters each on both China and India.

hth!

[kalanamak]

hth!

ohhhh, great minds think alike. This is very close to what I imagined, including the China and India.

[mcconnellboys]

This is what my schedule looks like:

Week 1
Intro to History and Pre-historic peoples

Week 2 - 4
Mesopotamia
I couldn't take how disjointed study of this civ was in SOTW, so I'm combining everything up until Persian/Medes and studying it first, at this time. (So this is SOTW chs 3,5; 7,8; 16,17)

Week 5-6
Ancient Egypt

Week 7
Hebrews

Week 8
Ancient India

Week 9
Ancient China

Week 10
Megalithic Europe

Week 11
Aegean Civs (and this is SOTW chs 15 and 18)

Week 12
Ancient Africa

Week 13
Middle Kingdom Egypt

Week 14
New Kingdom Egypt

Week 15
Early Greece

Week 16
Medes/Persians and Parthians/Sassanids

Week 17
Americas

Week 18-19
Classical Greece

Week 20-21
Founding of Rome

Week 22-23
India, Mauryan and Gupta

(I may need to move one week of this back to the Classical Greece time period, as I have a lot more books for it.)

Week 24-25
Qin and Han China

(And I may need to give one week of this to the next time period under study: Rome.)

Week 26-27
Glory of Rome

Week 28
Celtic Europe

Week 29-30
Beginning of Christianity; end of Jewish nation

Week 31
Africa

Week 32
Americas

Week 33
Oceania

Week 34
Japan

Week 35-36
Decline of Rome

[Peela]

Not grade one but our 2nd time through, I spent 10 weeks on Prehistory, and early Ancient civilizations (Sumer mainly), 10 weeks on Egypt, India, China, Africa, covering various Asian religions, 10 weeks on Greece and 10 weeks on Rome. I have loved doing it this way. (we have four 10 week terms in our school year).

[Makita]

.....I put the big civilizations together rather than following the book in straight chronological fashion.

Oh! I wish I had thought of that. It's been a little confusing jumping back and forth. Particularly when we read a bunch of books from the library and they are generally more broad scope.

[TaraTheLiberator]

The only thing I don't like about SOTW is all the jumping around. I don't see how a first grader could be expected to understand the sweep of a civilization if they get a chapter here and a chapter there. We study history in roughly chronological order, but when we get to a major civilization, we do that civilization from "beginning" to "end" before moving on. I think it helps the kids because then, when we study another civilization and mention is made of some aspect of that civilization that we have already covered, the kids have a hook to hang that knowledge on. We group all the SOTW chapters on a place together.

We spent 2 weeks on Sumer/Mesopotamia, four on Egypt, we just spend five on Greece, we plan six for Rome. China and India get a combined 3 weeks, and Africa, which plays a minor role in SOTW, will get several weeks because my kids are from there.

Tara

[sweetfeet]

I didn't like the jumping around either so we use history odyssey. H.O. rearranges the chapters of SOTW so they are in chronological order. We spent 5 weeks on Rome, 6 weeks on Egypt, and we've been on Greece for a long time. We've incorporated astronomy and mythology here because the Greeks really fascinate her.

[Jen in PA]

We also mixed up the order in SOTW quite a bit. I have a young first grader, and I wanted to be able to go in depth on individual areas without changing regions so much, at least for the first half of the year. We did about 3 weeks of prehistoric peoples/how archaeologists gather data, then moved on to the fertile crescent, covering multiple eras there for about 3 more weeks. We spent 10 weeks on Egypt, covering more than one period there as well. DD could have stayed on Egypt for the rest of the year if I hadn't pushed on.... We did a week of Aegean civilizations and are going to be working on Greece, and then Rome, for the forseeable future. I'm saving all the chapters on India/China/Africa etc. for the end of the year and possible unit studies in the summer, since we school lightly through the summer months, and I actually think each of those areas could definitely be stretched for more than a week if we do a lot of hands-on activities.

[Jumping In Puddles]

This is what my schedule looks like:

Week 1
Intro to History and Pre-historic peoples

Week 2 - 4
Mesopotamia
I couldn't take how disjointed study of this civ was in SOTW, so I'm combining everything up until Persian/Medes and studying it first, at this time. (So this is SOTW chs 3,5; 7,8; 16,17)

Week 5-6
Ancient Egypt

Week 7
Hebrews

Week 8
Ancient India

Week 9
Ancient China

Week 10
Megalithic Europe

Week 11
Aegean Civs (and this is SOTW chs 15 and 18)

Week 12
Ancient Africa

Week 13
Middle Kingdom Egypt

Week 14
New Kingdom Egypt

Week 15
Early Greece

Week 16
Medes/Persians and Parthians/Sassanids

Week 17
Americas

Week 18-19
Classical Greece

Week 20-21
Founding of Rome

Week 22-23
India, Mauryan and Gupta

(I may need to move one week of this back to the Classical Greece time period, as I have a lot more books for it.)

Week 24-25
Qin and Han China

(And I may need to give one week of this to the next time period under study: Rome.)

Week 26-27
Glory of Rome

Week 28
Celtic Europe

Week 29-30
Beginning of Christianity; end of Jewish nation

Week 31
Africa

Week 32
Americas

Week 33
Oceania

Week 34
Japan

Week 35-36
Decline of Rome

How did this work out for you? I'm interested in doing SOTW this way. Thanks :)

I didn't like the jumping around either so we use history odyssey. H.O. rearranges the chapters of SOTW so they are in chronological order. We spent 5 weeks on Rome, 6 weeks on Egypt, and we've been on Greece for a long time. We've incorporated astronomy and mythology here because the Greeks really fascinate her.

Sounds like a good plan... but you use H.O. instead of the SOTW activity guide? I already have my copy of the SOTW AG. But I would love a 36 week schedule. :)

[pixeldog]

Excellent thread, I'm taking notes!

[BlessedMom]

Bump

[liltrees]

What does "bump" mean? I've seen it in several threads......:confused:

[skaterbabs]

It means someone is "bumping" the thread up the list of new posts so it will be seen by more people. Kind of like nudging someone and sayingg "Hey, I'm still here!"

[3blessingmom]

I decided to spend 6wks on Early History (Creation -Noah, included secular history lightly), about 8wks on Egypt (I am Christian, so I focused more on Joseph and Moses - adding in lots of library books, loosely following GL guide to AE)

I just started Famous Men of Greece -I plan on spending about 15 wks on it. Then 15 wks on FMOR.

I am not concerned about covering India and Asia or the America's this year. I'm also not concerned about fitting it into 36 wks. I'm finding I prefer to stick with one civilization for a period of time. It seems more like we are "living" with the time/place rather than "covering the topic."

[kalanamak]

Bump

Well, I was the OP, and now that the year has gone on its way, I'll have spent about 22 hours on Greece (I go by hours, not weeks, as I year-round), 22 on Rome but more and more geography comes in as they ranged further afield, and it was time to get some map reading skills under the belt, 20 on Egypt, a couple hours each on Africa and South America and Japan, two 4 hour slots for very ancient and less ancient India, and 16 hours on China, with a general intro to Asian geography in with that. 10 hours was given to Sumar and Babylon and the Scythians, etc, and about 16 to Phoenicia, Minos and Mycenean. I have tried to do art history in my art time, as well, as it is so (obviously) visual, and there are so many nice books with photos.

I am reserving 10+ hours of review in July, and I suspect the last part of Rome is going to yield to yet another Iliad and to Aeneid. Kiddo surely loves those epics. I read 3 (!) versions of the Odyssey to him, and he can't get enough of the myths, either.

I'm sorry to be leaving the ancients, just like I'm sorry to be leaving biology. I like the topics for next year, but I am less confident I can make them interesting, YWIM?