60-day returns • free shipping on USA orders $129+
History modules too mature?
- This topic has 11 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 4 months ago by
.
Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
- Posts
I am having a hard time deciding what to use for history. My son is 8 years old and going in to 2nd grade. I had originally thought about using Story of the World 1 and 2 (we made it through part of vol.1 last year) but I’m really being pulled towards the history books that SCM suggests. For example the “Our Little…cousin of long ago” series, etc. I had purchased both sets of Yesterday’s Classics last year, so I already own those titles. What I’m troubled with is that since my son is the only child left in the house, there are no other kids to share the lessons and I’m afraid that the SCM modules may be too mature for him. For example, the Bible selections, the geography selections, etc. The history books for grades 1-3 are sometimes the exact same books for grades 4-6. Should I hold off and just continue with SOW due to having only one child and his age being so young? We didn’t purchase Module 1 last year, however we did read Boy of the Pyramids and my son really liked it (and so did I). We also read some from the AO history lists and he seemed to be more interested in those and remembered more than what we read in SOW. SOW seems to jump around and although it’s not real literature, I keep going back to it because I really like it’s activity guide. I need some advice please. I’m trying to think this through so I don’t keep jumping back and forth.
What you are going to find, if you look ahead, is that your son probably wouldn’t get back to this module by grade 6 – so he won’t read these books that cross over grades 1-3 and 4-6 a second time. By the time he gets back to this module he’ll be in 7th or 8th grade. So if you like the books on the list then go for it!
Will some be over his head? Maybe, if you require him to read them on his own. But as read-alouds they will probably be a good fit. Every child is an individual, so sometimes books don’t fit, but honestly the scripture readings will probably be more difficult than the other books.
Not sure that is helpful!
I am also wondering about the geography and Bible aspect of the modules. They seem a bit mature for his age.
Hopefully someone else will chime in who has some experience with this module! I would say go with your gut because you know your child best.
We are about a month into SCM’s Gen. – Duet. I have an 8 year old boy and nothing has seemed over his head. We aren’t reading Letters to Egypt because so many people suggested not doing it with our ages (I have a first grader, too). But the mapping and the picture books for geography, the Bible stories, the “things they left behind” and the Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors….he seems to be doing fine with all of it.
We did SCM’s Gen-Deut. when my 8 yo was 6-7. For Bible we read out of the Vos Children’s Story Bible, which we both really enjoy. She really enjoyed doing the geography part – drawing the maps and reading the recommended picture books together. We did not do Letters to Egypt either, but considered doing Sojourn in Africa (some with the younger ages used this instead, I never got around to buying it though). Of course we loved Boy of the Pyramids and the other picture books. I thought she wasn’t too enthused about Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors, but would hear her say something about what we read later on sometime, so it did stick more than I thought. We didn’t finish reading it though because I had a baby. We did continue with the picture books. She was a good reader even then so she read them on her own a lot too.
If you wanted to do a different time period, you could always go with a different SCM history module. I know some with younger elementary start with module 5 because the book recommendations are really good. This is what we’re planning on doing this year because my daughter wanted to learn about native Americans, so we skipped the other ancient history modules and we’ll cover them when she’s older. Just an option. Hope this helps!
Charlotte Mason talked a bit about not underestimating our children. Often, if we give them a real chance, they rise to the occasion. I read the 4-6 books to my 9 & 8 yo dds and they did just fine! We even read Letters to Egypt and they actually liked it. Give them a try…if they don’t work out, then return to SotW. =)
I use the YC books too and really enjoy them. I sure have learned a lot since educating my children using CM’s philosophy and methods, LOL.
Is there a particular time period you’re looking at? For example, in the Joshua through Malachi and Ancient Greece study, the Our Little Cousin books are listed for grades 4–6 simply because I thought they would be interesting even though they were written for a younger audience. (Good living books are interesting to a wide range of ages, right?) And as mentioned above, you could use the Vos story Bible if you thought it would work better in your son’s case.
The only necessary geography books in the Visits to the Middle East study are Material World and Hungry Planet, which are mainly photographs. And the optional recommended reading books listed are mostly picture books.
Probably the best thing to do would be to take a look at samples of the books listed; maybe read part of a chapter to your son and see if he “gets” it. You can find links on the Suggestions for Where to Find the Books page for the Our Little Cousin books, which are in public domain, and follow the link for Story of the Greeks to see a sample. (If you’re thinking of a different time period, you’ll find the same type of book list with links for each on the SCM Curriculum Guide.)
I am interested in module 2. I also own Story of the Greeks as well as Our Little Cousin books. We used SOW part of last year up to where Greek history started and that’s where it makes sense for me to pick up from there. Thank you everyone for your input. It has really helped me. I appreciate the quick responses as I am in a time crunch to put things together.
We read the My Little Cousin of Sparta and Athens when our boys were 9 and 12/13. They loved them, and I would have happily read them when they were younger without any problem.
We did Gen- Deut with my 2 youngest last year, and we will do Joshua- Malachi this year. My children are now 7yo girl and 6yo boy. This year they will be in 2nd and 1st grades, so last year was 1st and K.
Any material that I found to be too much, I modified. For example, we did our Bible reading from our children’s Bible, or from my regular Bible, and we discussed what we read as we went along, but we did not do the commentary.
We did Visits to Africa which was wonderful and the kids loved it! For the map work we often colored the maps, discussed the countries and we cut out the names of the countries and pasted them on. As we progressed through the year and writing skills improved I had the actually write the names of the countries. My kids have often pulled out the Hungry Planet and Material World books (part of the Visits to Africa lessons) just to look at for fun.
The book selections were wonderful- my daughter really enjoyed them all, even Ancient Egypt And Her Neighbors. I got a couple Ancient Egypt Bellerpheron coloring books for them to color during read alouds and it helped them sit for the readings if they could keep their hands busy as well.
We did not do most of the lessons as written but adjusted it to fit their maturity level. Even so my little kids know more about Ancient Egypt and the continent of Africa than most adults. 🙂 My main goal with History/Geography last year was to develop the habit of inquiry and interest in those areas and it couldn’t have been more successful.
I am VERY excited about the coming year since they will both be more able to do more and start to really dig in to things this year. 😀
I used the history guides when we were just starting out. My oldest was in first grade and the others listened in. We just read the recommended books for 1-3 grade (maybe not all of them) and did some projects to go along. We also read the bible readings straight from the Bible. I believe in giving kids good or great material to learn from (who doesn’t? ) and imo nothing is better then the stories right from the Bible. They won’t remembered it all but then neither do I. And as someone else mentioned you won’t cover the same books when you go through the rotation again.
Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
- The topic ‘History modules too mature?’ is closed to new replies.