SOTW IV advice, please

[southmetromom]

Dear Friends,

We finished SOTW IV chapter 8 right before Christmas. (I'll spare you the circumstances/excuses for our slow progress last fall!)

What do you recommend -- should I double up chapters and try to finish by May, or take it a chapter a week and finish next December? (We take summers off -- but I guess that's another possibility...):confused:

If doubling up, has someone already posted a list of chapters to combine (oh, hate to reveal my lazy streak)!?

I haven't found SOTW IV to be as user-friendly as I, II and III. Maybe I just haven't embraced the differences. My ds is 10. (My dd is 7 and I am doing something entirely different with her until ds begins the Ancients again).

Any advice or pep-talks will be appreciated. Thank you!

Sandy in CO (southmetromom):o

[Colleen in NS]

Dear Friends,

We finished SOTW IV chapter 8 right before Christmas. (I'll spare you the circumstances/excuses for our slow progress last fall!)

What do you recommend -- should I double up chapters and try to finish by May, or take it a chapter a week and finish next December? (We take summers off -- but I guess that's another possibility...):confused:

If doubling up, has someone already posted a list of chapters to combine (oh, hate to reveal my lazy streak)!?

I haven't found SOTW IV to be as user-friendly as I, II and III. Maybe I just haven't embraced the differences. My ds is 10. (My dd is 7 and I am doing something entirely different with her until ds begins the Ancients again).

Any advice or pep-talks will be appreciated. Thank you!

Sandy in CO (southmetromom):o

I'd rather double up chapters than drag it out. Not because I don't like SOTW (I love the series!), but because I like to finish things tidily in June and start a new year fresh with something new. I like to know we are making progress. And if you or your kids aren't particularly enjoying modern history this year (modern history, SOTW or otherwise, is overwhelming to me), then you might be happy to breeze through it and pick what topics interest you the most from now til May and don't sweat what you don't cover in depth. You'll come back around to it again when they are older and can understand more.

Sorry, I don't have a list. I'd probably just go ch. 9/10, 11/12, and so on.

[LanaTron]

We just finished chapter 5 before Christmas break, and I want my 7th grader to use TRISMS History Makers next year in 8th grade. So, we are going to work through 2 chapters each week, in four lessons per week. I'm going to try something like this:

Day 1: Read section 1 and do the questions, map, and outline for that section. Place all timeline figures for the chapter on the timeline.

Day 2: Read section 2 and do the questions and map for that section. Complete copywork from Reading and Writing Copybook (source documents either about or from the time period). Complete one or two simple activities.

Day 3: Same as Day 1, first section of next chapter

Day 4: Same as Day 2, second section of next chapter

I will probably tweak this as we go along, but that is roughly what it will look like.

I already get books from the library from the SOTW AG book lists. I don't try to match up the books to the chapter, as I started them reading the books before we started SOTW 4. I just check out a bunch of books that look good from the chapter or two ahead of where we are, and they pick what they want out of those.

HTH and good luck!

[inashoe]

I found SOTW4 to be very meaty and lead to lengthy discussions. I really value those discussions I had with my son and wouldn't want to rush and miss them.
Ancients in 5th grade is so much of what ds already knows it really doesn't matter if we need to progress more quickly. I know it doesn't work out tidily (I too am the sort that likes everything to be done on time) but I would rather take the time needed for SOTW4 and then speed up when it comes to Ancients next year.

[southmetromom]

I guess I just have to decide!

Thanks again,

Sandy in CO

[Mallory]

We are rushing through SOTW 3, that whole new baby in mid August really has us off this year.

I find I am just skipping some of the non-american chapters.

[Teresa in GA]

Hi,
We're on chapter 21 and will finish by June. There are several chapters where the only thing my 10 yo dd in 4th grade got out of the lesson was: "there was a war/rebellion/whatever, and the group in charge lost and was replaced by another group who turned out to be just as bad". Or something like that. They tend to run together and we can't keep the conflicts straight as far as who is fighting who for what reason. So, my advise would be to get the audio and listen to the whole thing in the car as you drive around so you can at least keep the flow of history and then pick the interesting chapters to focus on and skip the rest.
Good luck,
Teresa in GA

[southmetromom]

I had to laugh, reading your post -- my ds has said the same thing to me after some of the chapters (he is a history buff, but all these uprisings, etc. are just a blur to us now, I'm afraid).

Thanks!

Sandy