4th - 5th Grades - Is EX1850 too hard?

[cbollin]

EX1850 - Is this too hard for 4th & 5th graders?

I am planning to use Ex1850 next year for my will be 4th and 5th graders. Do you feel like it will be too challenging for those ages? Do you find it more suitable for the oldest child to be in 6th-8th grade range?
I would also just like to hear how you like it as well? Thanks,
Linda

Linda, I just remembered, you were thinking of using EX1850 this year with 4th and 3rd grader. I'm glad you went with ECC instead.

We just finished week 9.
My 5th grader is doing fine with EX1850. She has done ECC, CTG, RTR. My 2nd grader is "in ex1850" as a 2nd grader. We started with ECC before Adventures was released. So --- there are plenty of us who will have 5th graders in EX1850 as the oldest child.

You have to be willing to treat them as 5th and 4th graders. If it says "optional" reading, then skip it for younger set, or just browse the section. That would be with the book called Building a City on a Hill. It is designed for much older students, but really is designed for a teaching tool, not a give to the student and let them read it on their own. It will spark valuable discussion, as the teacher's manual puts it. :)

I found it harder on me because I was learning how to teach 2 levels from the same curriculum. I was used to having the younger student in a separate program and anything else that she got from older sister's program was icing on the cake. So, that's been the biggest problem for us. I spent a few phone calls to MFW office getting any and all advice --- time well spent. Even my 2nd grader is doing fine.

EX1850 is designed for 4th-8th grade with a supplement for 2nd/3rd graders.

There is more writing involved than in CTG/RTR--- but you adjust for that based on student's ability.

Some of it depends on what all your students are doing this year and what their levels are. Some of it depends on mom's willingness to adjust the amount of history reading. I found it most helpful to read the history sections the night before (instead of 5 minutes ahead of time like I had done with CTG and RTR ahem.) Then it was easy to give SOTW to my 5th grader. And teach from Exploring American History to both student. And then --- any additional material from Buildling a City on a Hill, only went to the 5th grader. For example, this week --- we didn't do the full chapter on William Penn from this book because I felt like my 5th grader covered enough from the other books and a Schelessinger video from book basket for it to work. And of course, this book will be finished next week for us when we do week 10. So, I'll have different experiences with different books in about a few more weeks. :)

Another factor to consider is that there is a lot more information to cover during this time frame. Historians have more written records to go on. So -- the pace is a little faster than other years of the program. There is just more to cover. But, this is going to be an issue no matter what american history/world history program you use.

The Bible memory work is the book of James. We are doing surprisingly way better than I anticipated. The pace is quicker.

I described my first week in EX1850 to someone in this way. It's a lot like jumping into a swimming pool instead of walking down the stairs into that same pool. When you jump in, it is a different experience. EX1850 is jumping in. RTR -- you walk in using the sloping stairs.

Honestly, I'm enjoying the year.

--crystal

[Linda in Mo]

Thanks for the reply crystal!
Yes, I am so thankful for the advice here on this board because I was sure I would go with Ex1850 for this year. I am glad you all helped me change my mind. We are having a great year with ECC so far (just finished week8). We just love it!

I just got a little concerned about the difficulty level of Ex1850. I have looked at some of the books and know it will be a much heavier year but we are so looking forward to getting to American History. I am sure we will do fine and I will make any adjustments as we need them.

Thanks,
Linda

[DS4home]

My 5th grade son really wants to study Am. history and I think exp-1850 might be to much for him. I really would like to stick with MFW . We have really enjoyed ECC this year. Any comments would be appreiteated. Oh, I also will be doing mfw k and pk this next yr with my 4 and 6 yr olds. I thought they may enjoy the activities and read-alouds in Adv.

I have a 5th grade boy currently doing EX-1850. I wasn't sure what to expect of him at the beginning of the year either, but he has really done just fine with it. I decided to start off doing everything to see how he did, then scale back if I could see that I was loosing him. I haven't had to scale back at all really, maybe a bit on writing his summaries, but he has had a good year!

I have heard it said before, that it is much easier to teach at your oldest child's level and scale down for the younger ones, than it is to teach at a younger level and try to beef it up. I think this is a good rule of thumb, and something to consider. The amount of time needed to make it work (ie: finding things that are not in the curriculum - to beef it up) would be a big consideration at my house. My time is usually at a premium

If you really want to stay with MFW, I would recommend moving right on to CTG. I think your son will really enjoy it, mine did He is the perfect age to get all 4 history years in before high school, so he's not going to miss anything!

Here's a thought, maybe you could just do a mini-unit on American History this summer? Is there something in particular he is interested in that you could pull together some books and maybe do a field trip for just a week or two? Maybe even do it a couple of weeks before you plan on beginning school this fall. Do a fun history unit (without the math and boring Lang arts stuff ), to kick start the new school year! I'm just brainstorming on the fly here, more ideas to think through.

Dawn

[cbollin]

Hi,
I'm trying to decide between beefing up Adventures for my 4th grader next year or using Exp to 1850. She is an avid reader but also needs hands-on projects to cement ideas. Without violating copyright issues, could anyone give me a few examples of the types of projects and how frequently they occur in this program?

My second concern is the level of violence in the books. She is a very, very sensitive child regarding violence (we've skipped many of the missionary biographies in ECC this year due to this) so I'm wondering how much violence there is at this level versus Adventures. I'd like a solid, in-depth two year study of American history but I'm not sure if this program would be appropriate for her. Any advice would be greatly welcomed

Thanks,
Carin

Hi Carin,
Many of the same kinds of activities that are in ADV for the history projects will show up again in EX1850. it's been 4 years since I've done eX1850. What do I remember 4 years later without picking up the manual and looking?

Some of them will be simple to do and clean up and just be a demo to learn something (such as building boats from foil and testing them in waves to see how the journey was a bit dangerous across the ocean. Some are cooking projects (hasty pudding, or in state study a regional dish. Peach cobbler. or in Russian week in EX1850, we made manyak. (yum! is the word in my house with that dish!!! yum yum and we still make it on occasion, but that recipe was in EX1850 and not in ADV)

Some involve singing songs, and some are "paper and pencil". variety of activities. I seem to remember once upon a time noting that most of the ADV activities for history were included in EX1850. Oh yeah , there was the Pilgrim and Indian games sections. the popcorn thing too.

my mind is blurring details between eX1850 and 1850 mod, so I'll hush now and hopefully someone who has done either program more recently can chime in with "this was my favorite." or "this was the one the kids liked" or "this is the project that we came back to later and it was fun" or something like that. I'm trying to do some from memory.

How often? usually 1-3 things per week like that in most of the mfw programs, but you have to realize too that sometimes over the week, you'll get a small project in history, but then there is a project in science, or an art, and cooking. so it gets distributed so that you aren't too heavy on a day, or at least you can spread it out a bit over the week.

Level of delicate topics in books:
EX1850 is written in mind that the oldest child in the family will be more than likely be a little bit older than your child and is getting to be older to handle more delicate topics under parent's guidance.
ADV is written for 2nd grader and younger.

You might consider previewing the read alouds, and really taking note of the book basket notes on books in EX1850.

My middle daughter is kinda young and sensitive, so when reading missionary biographies, I some times would tell her ahead of time "this is going to be a little sad part but let's see what God does in it." So, there were times that I guided her gently through a stormy section. I wish I could remember details about the read alouds in EX1850, but it was my husband who read those to oldest child, while I read younger supplement to middle gal (who was 2nd grader that school year).

On the other hand, one crazy idea might be to just get the Basic package and then do your own read alouds from books that she would like to hear, or instead of getting deluxe read alouds, consider the younger read alouds?


hoping you get some other answers. It's been very quiet on here this weekend.

-crystal

[Julie in MN]

I agree with Crystal that there is plenty of hands-on in EX1850. There are also lots of optional hands-on in the SOTW Activity Book in 1850MOD. Hands-on shouldn't be a problem, as long as youtake the time to do it.

As for violence, the two things that come to mind in EX1850 are the first chapter of Amos Fortune, and of course the Revolutionary War. There were a couple of other revolutions after that in SOTW, in Haiti and France, I believe.
I would be more concerned with the next year, 1850MOD. Lots of wars and nuclear threats and such. I'm not sure how you could spend two years on American history and not get to some modern political struggles?

HTH, Julie

[TriciaMR]

We'll be starting Exp-1850 next week (Yay!) I had been planning to do the 2nd/3rd grade supplement with my 4th grade son. He is reading pretty well, but still needs a lot of practice (reading is one of his struggles, we suspect dyslexia, it runs in his extended family). Writing/spelling is also another problem, but we'll be trying to pay special attention to that this year. He can think of things to say, but I write them down and then he copies them. I know that doesn't have much to do with history, just trying to give you an idea of where he is at. Anyway, I have the books for this supplement anyway (we started doing american history with sonlight a few years ago, but abandoned it after a couple of months to come to MFW.) I ordered the few I didn't have from MFW. So, this is really our first time thru american history. We didn't do adventures.

I'm thinking it would only take 20-30 minutes to do the supplemental stuff with him? Is that a correct assumption? He would still be sitting in on all the other readings. I don't expect much from him on the notebooking pages. He colors them or has me write what he wants to say. He's very good at illustration too. He did a lot of the animal book during MFW 1st grade and I'll have him use those mini books as readers. I guess what I'm worried about is that it might be too much of a work load for him? I don't want to stress him out. He is easily stressed out. But I thought he might enjoy the simpler books, and the books are really good, IMHO. I guess I could start doing it and jump ship if it doesn't work out, just wondering if there are any with experience to this issue.

Thanks for any help.
Rebecca

That is probably a good plan... Do you have older kids doing Exp-1850, too? My boys were 2nd graders when we did EXP1850. I didn't have them listen to City on a Hill at all. Some of the other History they did, but mostly I just had them doing the 2nd/3rd grade supplement. (2 of my 3 are dyslexic, so I get that. Just keep LA, handwriting, math at his level... They do progress, just slower than a "typical" kid that age.)

[rebeccal2002]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, he has two older sisters, 7th and 8th grade who will be doing Exp-1850 with him. I'm thinking that I'll still do the supplement with him.

[Joyhomeschool]

I think if it were me, I'd either skip the 2nd and 3rd supplement OR have him do it as a reader. We've read Squanto (which my 6yo LOVED!) and the Pioneer and Patriot book so far and my 3rd grader (who is really more of a 4th grade but we dont want him to graduate too early) is a bit bored by the 2/3 supp.

He really likes the Exploring American History and Story of the World more than City on a hill.

[jasntas]

Both mine are dyslexic and my dd is starting 4th grade also. I purchased the 2nd\3rd grade supplement as well. We haven't technically started our school year yet. (We have been 'summerschooling' all summer, though.)

Anyway, I am planning on starting with the supplements as well but I'm thinking we probably won't stay with it unless she wants to because she is able to retain much when being read to and probably doesn't need the supplement.

She reads pretty well but not quite at grade level yet. I would NOT have her read the books herself UNLESS I was confident she could handle it. I'm thinking that the assigned reading might be more than she could handle. Unless she were to only read a paragraph or so and I read the remainder. Or we were to go back and forth but I know what my child can handle and I'm sure you know what yours can handle as well.

My ds, on the other hand, still struggles with reading but has an amazing memory when it comes to being read to or when an activity or movie or any other multisensory activity is involved. Definitely don't leave out the multisensory activities!

[rebeccal2002]

My ds, on the other hand, still struggles with reading but has an amazing memory when it comes to being read to or when an activity or movie or any other multisensory activity is involved. Definitely don't leave out the multisensory activities!

My DS is like that! He can recite an entire movie, it seems, after seeing it once! And music lyrics, too. I have to make sure to do the activities for his sake, he retains so much more that way! Thank you for reminding me to not slack on that. Have a great year!