Yet another question about SOTW

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  • June 6, 2011 at 2:17 pm
    Sue
    Participant

    Okay, after searching and thinking about history spines over a few late nights, I am more seriously considering using SOTW volume 4 as a world history spine for module 6.  I’m nudged in this direction because it is available to us through our local library (where they give homeschoolers “teacher loan privileges”), it’s on audio disc (nice break for Mom’s voice), and it goes farther into the 1900’s than other spine considerations.

    So, now I am asking for one last opinion on Story of the World.  Do any of you consider it too dry to be included with CM methods?  Do you think the content coverage outweighs any other possible shortcomings?  What do you think of it, in general?

    I am just soooo interested in wrapping up my choices for next year, sticking to my very minimalist budget, and being thoroughly prepared for the wonderful used curriculum sale on Tuesday!

    Thanks,

    Sue

    June 6, 2011 at 4:23 pm
    Wings2fly
    Participant

    I would go with it!  You will be using living books along with it, right?  We have read some of SOTW 1 for Egypt and the stories were better than I thought they would be.  If you try it out and find after a month that it is not working for your family, then you could change it.

    June 6, 2011 at 5:29 pm
    Bookworm
    Participant

    Sue, I tried it with 2 kids.  They HATED it and their comprehension was awful.  I decided I’d be better off just telling them STORIES from world history to add in myself than use that book again.

     

    June 6, 2011 at 5:43 pm
    my3boys
    Participant

    @Bookworm…that is funny 🙂

    Would you happen to have any suggestions for what you would use if you didn’t tell them stories (or like me and didn’t feel you have any to tell)?? I’m kind of in the same boat as Sue and would like a spine.  I didn’t use one last school year but would like to this coming year and see how it goes.  My kiddos are 12/8/5.  TIA.

    June 6, 2011 at 6:05 pm
    Ladyofthehouse
    Member

    Bookworm, curious how old the kids you were using it with were? Also, did you use the book or audio?

    I have SOTW listed as an optional spine for when we do module 1 so I also am anxious to collect data good and bad….

    Thanks

    June 7, 2011 at 3:52 am
    Jennifer
    Member

    I only know that my dh loved SOTW volume 4.  When I was still planning on doing AO this next year my 11 year son would have been reading it himself.  My dh thought it was really, really interesting.  Of course, that doesn’t mean a kid will think so…

    Best wishes figuring it all out!

    June 7, 2011 at 12:25 pm
    houseofchaos
    Participant

    suemom23 – My twelve year old son read SOTW 4 and enjoyed it.  I used it for the same reasons as you – I like a spine and it was easiest for the time period.  Combined with some living books it did the job well for us.

    Ladyofthehouse – have you considered Christine Miller’s Story of the Ancient World?  It may be a good fit for you.

    June 7, 2011 at 1:21 pm
    Sue
    Participant

    Thanks for all of your responses.  I’m thinking we will probably use it for next year, but maybe not in great depth. After all, I probably don’t need to hear their take on the War between the North and the South when we have a variety of wonderful, detailed living books available to us. (Just as one example….)  However, it is available to us rather liberally from our local library, and saving money is a real plus at this point!

    June 7, 2011 at 1:50 pm
    Bookworm
    Participant

    Ladyofthehouse and My3boys,

    I used the book at about 5th-6th grade level, and both of those boys felt very talked-down-to and would complain every time I made them take the book down.  I also think she takes a LOT of time on some very unimportant things, and then skims over some things I thought merited more time. 

    We never use audio books.  We are all totally visual here.  🙂 

    I really don’t have another resource to use that I think is appropriate for children.  In addition to what the children get in their American history books (at this age I use Guerber)  and what they get in the various Genevieve Foster books which is interesting but at times less reliable than I’d like, well, for those topics I just read some books for ME, and then told the kids what I wanted them to know.  For the 19th and 20th centuries, things OUTSIDE typical American history books, I’d find the following subjects necessary to cover, but difficult to find good resources that kids could read themselves:

    1.  The explosion in European imperialism and its impact on Europe and on the native peoples in Asia and Africa

    2.  The realignment in Europe that changed the basic axis of conflict from British-French to British-French vs. German

    3.  The growing instability of Russia and the precipitous decline of Austria-Hungary

    4.  The attempts of China and Japan to reassert control over their own countries

    5. WWI (there is SO MUCH there that is not covered in US history books!) and the Russian Revolution and then the second act of WWI–which we call WWII

    6.  Various attempts to explain what happened in the world at this time (Marxism, expansionism/imperialism, the desire for freedom)

    HTH!

    June 7, 2011 at 1:54 pm
    delightx7
    Participant

    My kids love SOTW and I have enjoyed it right along with them.  We have used Vol I and III so far.  In the fall, we will be using VolIV  along with other living books(assigned at their own grade level) for our study of American/World History 1850 – Modern.  I bought it on Audio(read by Jim Weiss!) so we can listen in the car or at home.  Actually, my kids (15, 13, and 11) have requested that we start listening this summer on trips and such.  We have never found it dry.  i don’t always agree with her perspective on things, but that’s ok – it makes for great family discussion which helps them remember better.

    Robin C

     

     

    June 7, 2011 at 2:46 pm
    Sue
    Participant

    Robin,

    I just checked again, and the audiobook copy my local library has is the one read by Jim Weiss–yay!  (I don’t know if there are other versions with different readers.)  I am thrilled to see that.

    We don’t often use audiobooks, but last year we used one in the fall (“The Witch of Blackbird Pond”) and one dvd at the end of the school year.  We decided to view the Ken Burns’ dvd, “Lewis & Clark: the Journey of the Corps of Discovery,” instead of the book.  It was getting so near summer break that I figured it would provide a change for my eager-to-drop-everything-and-play children, and I enjoyed the cinematography and background music as much as the kids did.

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