The Story of the World - a review (part 2)

{This is a two part review of The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child series by Susan Wise Bauer.  This post will cover the final two books in the series, Vol. 3 – The Early Modern Times and Vol. 4 – The Modern World.}  The previous post covered the first two books in the series, Vol. 1 – Ancient Times and Vol. 2 – The Middle Ages. }

The first year of Story of the World, I was teaching only a 1st grader, the next year a 2nd grader and a Kindergartner. There wasn't too much adjusting for age differences because I was primarily just teaching one child, and the others would listen along, but not really be expected to be responsible for any real content or activities. It was just fun stories. For Year 3, we had both a 3rd grader and a 1st grader and for Year 4, I was teaching all three boys - 4th grade, 2nd grade and Kindergarten. So for the last two years of SOTW I really had to deal with making adjustments for teaching multiple ages. In addition, as SOTW progresses, the work required in the activity book advances and the subject matter (20th century especially) becomes more mature - slavery, holocaust, civil rights, 9/11. In this post, I thought I would share how we negotiated those challenges in our family.

Additionally, Year 3 and Year 4 cover the time periods of the development of the American nation, but since it is a World history program, the emphasis is not on American history. I wanted to make sure that we covered more in that subject area than was offered, so I will share some supplementary materials we used to make sure the boys knew enough about our country's history.

Adjusting for Different Ages

Year 3 of the SOTW was pretty easy to adjust for differences in ages.  All the boys like the coloring pages (it gives them something to do with their hands while I read aloud.)  After reading the chapter section, I would do the comprehension questions orally.  My 1st grader was better at remembering the details and the competition helped motivate the 3rd grader to try hard and remember the answers.  I didn't ask the 1st grader to narrate, at least not every time.  I did begin using the test book this year, but written responses were required only from the oldest, we used the questions in a game-show type review for the others.

Year 4 required the most adjustment for the ages.  Instead of narrating, the book begins to teach outlining and writing from an outline.  We all worked together on completing the outline, but not even the oldest was outlining on his own by the end of the year.  We worked on writing from an outline in our writing curriculum, so we didn't work on it here as well.  We used the tests for both the 4th grader and 2nd grader to do comprehension reviews (much more than the previous year.)  The 4th year of SOTW doesn't include coloring pages anymore, so I ordered a file of coloring pages from the publishers website.  This gave us at least one picture to color for the younger kids (2nd and K), and we also used a few Dover coloring books or online resources as well.
SOTW 4 Coloring pages
Dover Coloring Books (History)
American History Coloring Pages (free)
History Coloring Pages (free)

Adding More American History

The other thing I adjusted for in Year 3 and 4 of SOTW was to add more American history either by spending more time on the stories they did cover, or by adding stories that were left out that I wanted to include.  (How did I add more and still finish one book each year?)  We still read all the stories in the book, did comprehension questions and map exercises.  I didn't do nearly as many of the enrichment activities for these chapters.  I wouldn't say we "skimmed" those chapters, but we didn't linger long on them.  My pace was generally to read one chapter section each day (5 day schedule) and complete the coloring page and map activity for that chapter.  At the end of the chapter, we would spend one day to review the content and any additional reading or activity we had time for.  When we reached a chapter on the Jamestown colony or the Pilgrims we might spend an extra day or two on the sections - completing extra enrichment activities.  We would usually find a historical literature selection to spend even more time on those areas, even after we had moved on in the history text.  (Literature selections we used are at the end of this post.) 

Certain events were significant enough to spend two or three weeks camped out on them and completing a mini unit study. 

Year 3 Mini Unit Studies

13 Colonies (2 weeks)
(library books)

The Revolutionary War (4 weeks)
The American Revolution (Landmark Books) by Bruce Bliven, Jr.
The American Revolution by Alden R. Carter
Land Battles of the Revolutionary War by Diane Smolinski
History Pockets:  The American Revolution (Evan-Moor Publishing)

 (Toy soldiers are great for boys learning about wars - this is the Battle of Bunker Hill.)


Between year 3 and 4 we studied Colorado history by traveling to lots of historical sites for our summer camping trips and reading books on famous people from the time.

Year 4 Mini Unit Studies

Civil War (4 weeks)
Field of Fury by James M. McPherson
History Pockets:  The Civil War (Evan-Moor Publishing)

Westward Expansion  (1 week):
Library books and History Pockets:  Moving West (Evan-Moor publishing)

World War I (1 1/2 weeks):
Library books and
Truce by Jim Murphy
Coloring pages

World War II (3 weeks)
The Good Fight by Stephen E. Ambrose
Coloring pages, library videos, great grandparent interview

Several subjects didn't involve full unit studies, but we focused our project work or extra reading on those subjects:  the great depression, civil rights, space race, fall of communism, 9/11 and the war on terror.

We also wanted to make sure that we memorized all the Presidents of the United States and did a quick overview of what they were known for.  We put each president on our timeline, learned a song to memorize their order and watched a great series on the presidents that gave a quick but helpful overview of each president.  We watched these segments as we came to their time in history.  I recommend this series:   Disney's The American Presidents Video series (Vol. 1-4)

Whew!  That is how we worked in a little more time in American history and still maintained the context of overall world history from the Story of the World.  I hope that is helpful to you if you are using SOTW and wanted to emphasize American History to a greater extent.

Now for our literature lists:

Historical Literature We Enjoyed with Vol. 3

Pocahontas by Joseph Bruchac
Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Robert Bulla
Voyage to Freedom by David Gay  (About the Mayflower)
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes  (Revolutionary War)
Kanousky, the Indian Boy and David Brainerd The Indian's Missionary (www.graceandtruthbooks.com)
Stowaway by Karen Hesse (About the travels of Captain James Cook)
Duel!  Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words by Dennis Fradin
Seaman by Gail Langer Karwoski  (Lewis and Clark expedition)
Stolen Man:  Story of the Amistad by Barry Louis Polisar
Amos Fortune by Elizabeth Yates  (Slavery) Excellent!!!
Journey of Jesse Smoke by Joseph Bruchac  (Trail of Tears)
The Boy in the Alamo by Margaret Cousins
The Francis Tucket series (Books 1-5) by Gary Paulsen (Oregon Trail, westward adventures)
Zeb Pike, Boy Traveler by Augusta Stevenson
Kit Carson by Ralph Moody

 Historical Literature We Enjoyed with Vol. 4

(This list is my longest, it includes read alouds, independent reads for the two older boys and picture books...)
Hard Gold by Avi (Colorado Gold Rush)
Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (homesteading)
Courage to Run:  A Story Based on the Life of Harriet Tubman by Wendy Lawton
The Drinking Gourd by F.N. Monjo (Underground railroad)
Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine (slavery)
Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation by Patrice Sherman
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln (Illustrated by Michael McCurdy)
Abe Lincoln goes to Washington by Cheryl Harness
Abe Lincoln, the Boy Who Loved Books by Kay Winters
Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln by Jean Fritz
Iron Thunder by Avi (The Monitor and Merrimac)
The Story of the H.L. Hunley and Queenie's Coin by Fran Hawk (Civil War)
Abraham Lincoln by Ingri D'Aulaire
Escape by Night:  A Civil War Adventure by Laurie Myers
John Brown:  His Fight for Freedom by John Hendrix  (Harper's Ferry)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Journal of Sean Sullivan, a Transcontinental Railroad Worker by William Durbin
The Battle for Little Big Horn by Marty Gitlin
The Wild West by Henry Brooks
Sergeant York and the Great War by Tom Skeyhill (WWI)
War Horse by Michael Morpugo (WWI)
"In Flander's Fields" A poem by John McCray (WWI)  Great for memorizing!
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom  (We watched the video, also check out this great virtual tour of the Ten Boom home... http://tenboom.com/en/)
Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margo Theis Raven (Berlin airlift)
Balloon Sailors by Diane Swanson (Berlin wall)
Children of the Storm by Natasha Vins (persecution of Christians in USSR)

Miscellaneous...

I'm on vacation with the family this week, camping with the family in the Rocky Mountains!  Today I'm sharing a few great links I've found around the internet and a special discount for books!

First,  I often recommend books on this site through my affiliate relationship with Christian Book Distributors.  (An affiliate relationship allows me to earn a tiny amount on any purchases that you might make by clicking through my site.  This tiny amount might in the future allow me to pay a blog designer to upgrade this blog and increase it's reach.)  Anyway, CBD very frequently has as good or better prices on their books as Amazon, but they don't usually compete because of Amazon's better deal on shipping.  Today, I want to offer you an incentive for buying through CBD by giving you a special discount code for free shipping on orders of $35 or more.  This code is unique to me and can be used three times, so if you want to make a purchase, snag it up - first come, first serve!

Here is the promo code:  379395APFZSB  and here is my link to CBD...

Christianbook.com Home

And my favorite articles and links lately.....

25 Rules for Moms of Boys  This is a fun list of things for moms of boys to remember.

 Our job is to protect our children's innocence  This author brings up some really important thoughts about being too quick to expose your kids to movies and music with violence and sex in them.  She effectively argues from her own experience being over-exposed.  Who can't relate to that!?  I sure can.  I also like how she admits that she couldn't protect them from everything, but that doesn't negate the point at all.

Summer Art and Science Fun  Do you cringe when your kids want to get out the paints and brushes, the glitter glue and the volcano science kit because you just know how much mess it will be to clean up?  Why not take the science and art outside.  This post has some great ideas.

Three links to articles that help me remember what is important: 
Christ is Our Treasure, Not Our Homes
How to Make Life Changing Memories Without Actually Doing Anything Special

Helping Children to Understand the Gospel

Our book club has been learning about the importance of regeneration, or the new birth.  We learned that parents often assume children have been born again based on a child's prayer alone and yet new birth is a miraculous event that bears fruit over a long term.  If fruit is not present in the life of the child as they grow and mature, it is possible that we have mistaken spiritual interest for true saving faith.
I also referred you to an important sermon series on understanding the new birth by John Piper that was pivotal in my understanding of what happens in salvation and in my own salvation experience in particular. 

Today I want to help with another resource that will help you to understand your role as a parent in explaining the gospel to your children and how they come to genuine saving faith.

Helping Children to Understand the Gospel by Sally Michael, Jill Nelson and Bud Burk

Part one of this book talks about preparing children for the gospel.  It uses the parable of the sower (Matthew 13) to explain how parents can sow tend and harvest the seeds of the gospel in the lives of their children.  One thing that was important for me to learn in this section was to understand the "soil" of my children's heart and how that affects the way the gospel is received. 

Most children are not yet "hardened" by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13), so they often respond to spiritual teaching eagerly.  They love to hear the stories of the Bible and sing songs about Jesus-many young children are even eager to pray to receive Christ.  Sometimes this is genuine saving faith, but often it is only a spiritual interest.  We need to discern the difference between spiritual interest and saving faith.  Spiritual interest may be a step on the journey toward salvation, but it is not salvation. (pg. 11)

One of the dangers of misinterpreting spiritual interest as genuine saving faith is that it can lead to spiritual neglect, or encouraging a child to live a life that is pleasing to God without the heart change that is necessary to do so.  "A parent who has presumed salvation may not continue to pray for the child's salvation or continue to encourage the child to trust in Jesus and instead treat the child as a Christian in need only of further sanctification." (pg. 12)  The solution?

The job of the sower is to keep the Gospel in front of the child- to keep sowing the Word of God upon every opportunity; to break up clumps of soil with discipline and training; and the water the seed with unceasing prayer. (pg. 12)

The section goes on to describe the growth in the faith of a child, based on approximate ages and stages and how the parent can be attentive to the needs of each stage.

Part Two of the book is on presenting the gospel to children.  Specifically it explains how the gospel that is usually presented to children is more of a "life-jacket" type of gospel rather than the true gospel of scripture.  Why is this an important distinction?

This changed gospel puts man at its center instead of God.  It presents a plan instead of a Person.  It seeks to comfort but not convict.  it is a message that calls for acceptance of Christ but not repentance.  it simply encourages acknowledging true facts rather than embracing and submitting to the One who is both Savior and Lord.  It enslaves men to works instead of freeing them to do good works.  (pg. 30)

What follows is a clear presentation of the important themes that children need to know and how to present them in a way that will be understandable to children.

Part Three of the book is perhaps the most practical as it is a devotional guide for families in 10 lessons.  This is a great resource for fathers to lead their families in as part of family worship or devotion time.  The devotions are short, clear and include helpful hands on illustrations that require little to no preparation time.  This is an invaluable resource for parents and children alike to clearly understand the gospel.  It will not only help you explain the gospel to your children, but probably also help you to understand it better yourself!

Helping Children to Understand the Gospel can be purchased from Children Desiring God in either print or electronic form.   You can also check out their other resources for parents here.

 

This post is linked to the Kids in the Word Wednesdays blog linkup at  ThePelsers.com  Check out the other posts for more great ideas on keeping your kids in the Word!

Motivating Summer Read Alouds for Boys

My boys are great readers, but sometimes it can be difficult helping them to choose books to read.  It can be hard to convince them to try something new.  Summertime is a great time to help motivate them to branch out into new genres, authors or themes by reading aloud to them!  I find that if I read a book to them they might not have chosen themselves, they may end up liking it and search out others like it for their own independent reading in the future.

Here are some great books that might motivate your boys to read more!

Series

The idea here is YOU read aloud the first book, they get hooked and ask for more - so put them on the independent reading list for next school year!

1.  Redwall Series

Redwall: Where Legends Are Made--A Tale of Redwood By Brian Jacques

There is an almost endless supply of books in the Redwall series.  Once your boy starts, he will be hooked.  (Even if he does think he is too old for books about a mouse.  Promise!)

2. Mr. Tuckett by Gary Paulsen (The Francis Tucket Books)

There are five total books in this series, about a boy captured by Indians while going West on the Oregon trail.  Read the first aloud and let him discover the rest!

Classic literature

If you want your son to appreciate healthy food instead of just Twinkies and pizza, you present him with good quality foods to develop his appetite.  You don't continue to feed him Twinkies and pizza and sigh, "Well, at least he is eating!"  The same thing is true of classic books.  If I don't want my son to read a steady diet of books about bodily noises and underpants, I put before him a banquet of imaginative, exciting classic books.  Enjoy them together - pretty soon the other stuff won't sound nearly as appetizing.

3.  Swiss Family Robinson

The Swiss Family Robinson By Johann Wyss / Penguin Putnam Inc.

If you want, try this as an audio book and listen in the car.  He may not understand everything, but with a captive audience, you never know what he might like.

4. Classic Starts series

Around the World in 80 Days By Jules Verne / Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Or try an easier start into Classics.  The abridged classics for kids at least introduce them to compelling story lines, without all the complicated subplots and antiquated vocabulary.

Favorite authors

Find some new authors that have great books for boys.  We like...

5.  N.D. Wilson

Leepike Ridge By N.D. Wilson / Yearling

Written by Doug Wilson's son, a homeschooled kid (now adult).  He has several other books for children as well.

6.  Marguerite Henry

Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West By Marguerite Henry / Simon & Schuster

Books about horses aren't just for girls!  Marguerite Henry has written quite a few horse books that had significant "boy" appeal for my little cowboy.

Non-fiction

Boys usually do pretty well with non-fiction, but it may be hard to find something more substantial than magazines and The Dangerous Book for Boys.  Here are a few we will be trying...

7.  Sterling Point biographies

Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness By John Mason Brown / Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

A well written biography about a true life hero can be very inspiring to a boy!

8.  Sports biographies

Through My Eyes By Tim Tebow with Nathan Whitaker / Harpercollins Publishing

We live in Bronco country, so our recent sports hero has been Tim Tebow.  Great to read aloud together so you can talk about it when you watch him on TV.  Have Dad read this one with the boys (he can explain the plays better than I could.)  Not a Tebowmaniac?  How about Jeremy Lin, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton... any other suggestions?

 

What you didn't think they would like....

9.  Little House on the Prairie series

On the Banks of Plum Creek, Little House on the Prairie Series #4 By Laura Ingalls Wilder / HarperCollins

Let's face it, your boys won't pick up a book with a girl on the cover.  But, if you read it TO them, they will enjoy this one!  My boys identify with Pa and Mr. Edwards, but they are pretty impressed with Laura, a real tomboy.  They have often said about certain tomboy-ish girls we know, "She's cool.  She's a Laura Ingalls kind of girl."  HA!

 

Don't neglect...

10.  The Bible

Summer is a great time to read the bible together.  Not just a story Bible, but the actual text.  Start from the beginning and just keep reading.  I know... what about when we get to Leviticus?  Well, you could skip around, or you might just keep on reading.  Carrie Ward has some great suggestions in her book Together about her journey to read the WHOLE Bible together with her kids.  This is a quick read for Mom's summer reading list and may inspire you in your Bible reading with your children!

Together: Growing Appetites for God By Carrie Ward / Moody Publishers

You can also find more from Carrie at her website, An Everyday Mama

Find more great summer read aloud suggestions at the

Many Little Blessings blog linkup!

Join us at Gospel Centered Homeschooling on Friday for the beginning of a new book club!  We are reading Gospel Powered Parenting by William Farley together!  "Like" GCH on Facebook, or subscribe by email to join the conversation!