"Story of the World" History Curr. home schooling question...?

Question

I have three kids I currently home school, 10, 8 and 5. The 10 and 8 yr olds are halfway through the vol. 1 Story of the World and I want to start my 5 year old on it soon. If you are familiar with the schedule the Well Trained Mind for history and science, you know we need to start biology and the ancients at 1st grade and so on and it's a 4 year cycle. Because we didn't start our kids all at 1st grade, I wonder how I can make this all work without having them all on 3 different history/science schedules.

If you are well versed in this particular curriculum, could you please email me? My questions are many, thank you so much for taking the time!

Answer 1

We used Abeca, so not familiar with the one you are using, plus it was long ago.

However, as an educator of sorts, I don't think you need to hew to the strict curricula, when there is another reason not to.  

You may want to talk with the supplier, but one of the virtues of home schooling is the ability to modify.  As long as the important points in history are covered, and the level is not too great for the children to handle, or too elementary to maintain interest, you ought to be able to "cut and paste" and get the essentials

Sorry I cannot be more definite, but watch out for back references that are not known, to fill in, and getting the important facts learned, and otherwise use your freedom of choice in filling in and whatever is necessary.

I do congratulate you on taking on a home schooling project like this, and I know home schooling did help my kids a lot.

Hang in there, feel free to innovate, and my experience was that the manufacturer can offer good points if asked.  At least ours did.  

We also dug up some money for a good-reputation church-related school later on, with sports and music, and it worked well also, until we ran outta money!  

And there are some associations of home schoolers in the areas I lived while the kids were kids, tied in to an extent with good colleges, and that also I have seen to work very well, for collective things like music, drama, etc.  Check such out, too, for later times.

Go for it, and good luck.

Answer 2

I am familiar with TWTM and have friends that use Story of the World.

IMO, in order to make the schedule work FOR you instead of just working you, you should omit the word "need" as in "I need to..."

The best part of homeschooling is taking great ideas from great sources and tailoring them to suit your needs.

If you get locked in to the idea that "you need" to stay on a particular schedule or you will fail, then you will drive yourself nuts (personal experience speaking here)

the easiest thing to do is start your little pumpkin where the other two are now. I do remember reading on the website that you can begin wherever you want. That is one reason for the four year schedule, if you miss part, it will come around again.

And, with a five year old, you will be just skimming the surface anyway, so it is really not going to make a big difference in the big picture if you start him "in the middle" so to speak.

Answer 3

We use "The Story of the World".  And I've read "The Well Trained Mind" and follow some of their ideas.  (I've adjusted the ideas to fit our family though.)

My 5 y.o. loves to listen to the stories in the books (and we're currently about 2/3 of the way through volume 3).  And that's mostly all the 5 y.o. does.  We don't journal, but I do have the 5 y.o. draw pictures to go with the story while I read to the kids.

Don't worry about the exact grade level.  The ideas behind "The Well Trained Mind" can still be used even if you are not exactly following their schedule.  Make the curriculum ideas work for you--that's the beauty of homeschooling.

Personally, I'd try to get all 3 kids onto the same schedule in order to make things work easier for you.  Otherwise you are adding stress for yourself.  Plus the kids will get more out of the lessons if they can all be doing the same topics at the same time (even if the older ones are doing projects or something that are too much for the youngest to do, he will still learn a lot from watching and listening to them and he'll be motivated to learn a lot more).

One way is to just start the 5 y.o. in the middle of volume 1 with the older kids, so they're all doing the same stuff at the same time.  You can choose to do some extra with the 5 y.o. to have him "catch up" (and be familiar with history up to that point) by going back and also reading the other stories to him on his own.  Or read some library books to him on some of the ancient peoples that he's missed.  Or don't worry about it because he probably picked up some of it from his siblings and you know that you'll cover those eras in history again in 4 years.

Or another way to handle it would be to have everyone start over since they're currently in volume one.  Start the book over with all of the kids.  The older ones can read it to the youngest.  The youngest will learn it for the first time and the older ones will get more out of it by reviewing it all again.  To keep the older ones from being bored, you could have them plan some additional activities to go with the stories.  (If you are using the activity books, they could pick some activities that were skipped the first time through.  Or pick their favorites to share with the youngest sibling.  Or use their knowledge and imaginations to come up with something new--maybe put on simple plays of the stories for the youngest sibling or make posters to illustrate the stories for him or whatever sounds attractive to them.)

Mostly though, don't worry about following the plan so that each child's grade level matches what the curriculum says.  Instead, follow the overall idea.  If the youngest starts with studying chemistry instead of biology, that doesn't matter as much as the fact that you know that you'll repeat the subject in four years in more detail.  (Besides, most 5 year olds wouldn't be considered first graders, so whatever you do with the 5 y. o. will put him ahead of the average child.)

Relax!  And try to enjoy learning the material with the children.  They'll all learn a lot more if mom isn't so stressed and if she seems to enjoy learning.

Answer 4

I know some of gals on The Swap do Story of the World.   You may want to pop over there and see if anyone there has any ideas.

www.theswap.com

Answer 5

I don't use WTM but have friends who do and I love the SOTW books.

Anyway, as far as I know you don't have to have three different history/science schedules. Homeschooling is about being flexible. Have your kids all work together on history/science even if it's not"right". You'll drive yourself crazy otherwise and won't be a happy mom!

Answer 6

My sister uses the well trained mind and story of the world. What she does is alternate days on what she is reading. For example on Monday and Wednesday she will read from the world history and on Tuesday and Friday she'll read from American history. She has 5 kids all in different levels but it's amazing how much the 5 yo will pick up that the 12 yo won't.Good luck