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Get er done history?


Meadowlark
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I'm slowly learning about my kids learning style and my teaching style. They don't want to spend tons of time on history. They'd rather be playing. They like the occasional project, but nothing too complicated for me and certainly no time for busywork. What would fit the bill? We haven't done anything so could start anywhere really.

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We are using the SOTW audio CD's, and while listening my kids draw what is happening in a history notebook. After we listen, I ask them to tell me about it and I write it in their journal. I told them if they ever want to stop and read more about anything, or do a hands on project to let me know. This is really working well for us so far and very easy on me and easy to get done.

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Child's History of the World has short chapters, read over snack or playdough, show a few pictures, invite narration... Once a month or so, ask for a person or place from the month's readings they'd like to hear more about. Get a good picture book or two about that topic for more depth. I usually request some kind of response or sharing of what she's learned at that point.

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You don't have to do any history at all. The history we do at that age is very informal and we focus on the STORY. There are lots of good picture books that cover historical topics. For younger kids I Iike to focus on biographies...learning the stories of real people in history. And historical fiction is good too...gives them a feel for how people lived. If you really want to use something formal you might like Elemental History.

 

 

Susan in TX

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Just popping on to add that I'm mostly trying to decide what our history path would look like in the future. I had originally thought we'd stick with HOD or MFW type programs, but I'm now thinking I may end up branching out from those. I've looked at traditional scope and sequences such as BJU, Abeka. Etc., but we're currently doing MFW adventures, and I don't think I want to do another year or more of american history right now. So, that leaves the 4 year rotation. I'm not a big fan of SOTW at first glance, but perhaps I need to give it another look. I DO like the way MFW schedules in a few projects, but not too many...in along with the reading. I kind of want something like that, but I don't necessarily want the whole MFW package.

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For the younger grades, History stumped me.  Like you, I just wanted the basic knowledge.  SOTW did not work out for us.  I do not like to read aloud and I do not like a lot of projects.  I ended up doing non fiction readers for both history and science for 1-3 grades.  They are on the child's level.  My girls learned all kinds of things from those books and there are tons of them on every subject.  This year for 4th grade we are doing MOH, but non of the projects and she is reading it to herself.  I am not sure I will do it that way again as I do not know what she is retaining.  For next year I am thinking of trying an audio CD of either SOTW or MOH.  Overall, I do think they learn more from just real non fiction books.  

 

I tried Abeka last year.  It also did not work out.  They read the book, then at the end of the chapter took a five page test.  Not only did they not do well, they did not learn anything either.  I ended up having them read the books more as readers, but not do the tests.  

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We use Veritas Press self paced online history. This is our first year and my kids are loving it learning the basics and remembering things. None of that would happen if it was up to me. We supplement with assorted books from the VP list, Sonlight, and SOTW. But the supplements are not the focus. They do the bulk of learning through the online lessons and we follow with related books as we have time and interest. Im using the Old testament and Ancient Egypt with a 8yo, 7yo, and 6yo. They do offer a free 2 week trial which was a nice way to preview the program.

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We are very STEM-y in our homeschool and don't spend a lot of time on history but still want a solid understanding of it.  Truthquest has been great for us.  I really like the use of living books, and the flexibility is great.  We can spend as much or as little time on each topic as we want.  There are notebooking, mapping, timeline, and lapbooking components that are packaged separately, so you can just use the pieces that fit your family (or use none at all).  There's not a lot of structure or schedule, but I'm constantly tweaking those things anyway.  We needed flexibility so this has been perfect for us.

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I agree that just listening to Story of the World on cd while playing with legos or painting or whatever might work just fine.  But there are many options.  I wish I had realized just how many when my DD was younger.  She hated history and it was always a struggle to get her to do anything with history.  Making history tie more directly to areas of interest (in her case Art) has really helped.

 

What do your kids really like?  What are their areas of interest?  You can easily do children's biographies of historical figures that impacted some area they have interest in.  For example, if they liked science you could read a children's biography of Marie Curie and watch a movie or use an interactive DVD like the ones linked below:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Marie-Curie--More-Than-Meets/dp/B000F9UEFC/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411569786&sr=1-3&keywords=marie+curie

 

http://www.amazon.com/Marie-Curie-Interactive-DVD/dp/B000IKAFCK/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411569786&sr=1-2&keywords=marie+curie

 

http://www.amazon.com/Marie-Curie-Kids-Can-Read/dp/1554532973/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411569862&sr=1-1&keywords=marie+curie+children%27s+book

 

Then you could do a bit of research on-line regarding world events during the time she was making her important discoveries and see if there were any other specific events/people your kids wanted to delve more deeply into....Keep it light but help them see that no one exists in a vacuum.  History is happening all around us and shaping what we do and who we become.

 

Maybe have them watch the Liberty's Kids series while periodically reading some kids biographies of historical figures of the time.  Do a time line to go with it and call it good.

 

Lots and lots of possibilities...

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I'm trying something different in my homeschool this year that has been working out well. We do Classical Conversations, so I already have history memory work sentences and a timeline. I bought a couple sketch pads from Hobby Lobby, and once a week we read a couple of books (just picture books really) relevant to our history sentence from the library, and I give them coloring pages or pictures I print off for them to decorate their "history notebooks" with. We add a timeline to the notebook pages, my daughter will do some copy work in her notebook and that's it. I love it because I'm not left with a bunch of random coloring pages, they love it because it's craftsy. The only other history thing we are doing is listening to MOH audiobooks to correlate with our timeline. I plan on doing this every year until the Logic stage. The notebooks can be increased in difficulty and what they don't hear the first time around with MOH, they will at some point.  

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