I'm wrapping up prehistory studies from a study guide of sorts that I put together myself to use with my first homeschooler and now the second. It is geared for 1st-3rd grade level (Maybe K-3rd). I initially used it with DD in 1st grade followed by SOTW V1 in 2nd. My DS is just finishing it at the end of 2nd grade and will start SOTW soon. It has thirteen units and can be done weekly or over a longer period of time. I'm wondering if there is interest if I were to make this available as a PDF download for purchase? (I did post this on the Secular Group, but I don't think there's much activity there so cross posting here too. Hope that's OK).

I found a resource for mapwork related to continental drift/pangaea after a bit of hunting for something blackline-ish and suitable: this isn't quite my ideal (if I make my ideal myself I'll upload and share it) but is pretty good AND includes some logic-stage discussion of lines of evidence. It assumes a billions-year old earth, slow and cumulative geological processes, and ancient fossils. I printed out the student pages for us to use today: Wegener's Puzzling Evidence.

In my planning I stumbled across this history portal site, which looks to be quite a find; I thought I'd toss it out and tag it so y'all can find it when you are planning, too! Best of History Websites. "Best of History Web Sites has been recommended by The Chronicle of Higher Education, The National Council for the Social Studies, The New York Public Library, the BBC, Princeton University, -- and many others."

I'm putting together a secular 8 week prehistory and evolution unit for my kids (almost 4 and 7), who are fascinated by dinosaurs, geology, and "cavemen." I'm using Usborne's Internet Linked World History as a spine. I've found quite a few really good resources, and I'd love to hear yours! Awakening Wonders has coloring/notebook pages at different levels. I found prehistory units at the blogs Classical Charlotte, Dottie's Universe, Teaching Stars, and Satori Smiles. I like this Montessori teacher's approach to explaining the Big Bang. The Toilet Paper Timeline seems like a clever way to visualize geologic time. A good critical thinking, math, science, and literature unit based on dinosaurs can be found in the kindergarten tab at Paso Partners. Little City Kids has units on Dinosaurs, the Ice age, Stone age and origins of agriculture. This lapbook on the book Magic School Bus Sunset for the Sabertooth might come in handy for this period as well. Want to make snacks to go along with your units? Check out the Geologic and Paleontologic Cookbook. We'll be having a few ammonites in a blanket and trilobite cookies! They have other activities, too. Fossil Facts and Finds has good information on pre-dinosaur periods, and teaching resources for older than early elementary. And of course, there is Charlie's Playmat (or poster, since the playmat seems to be out of stock.) They have a great list of books about evolution for kids, too. We'll be watching the "Walking With..." series - Walking With Prehistoric Beasts, Walking With Dinosaurs, Walking With Cavemen. We'll be doing a few crafts and activities like the classic baking soda and vinegar volcano, making fossils, egg carton alligator for early reptiles, and playdough Cambrian creatures. And there are a few field trips on our list, to the US Geological Society, zoo, planetarium, and natural history museum. We went to Colorado last summer and there are so many great field trips there! Wish that was on our list this time around! :) Are there other resources I'm missing?

I hope I have not been asking too many questions recently. :D I know this is a possible hot topic but I'm not looking to debate these topics, just teaching them. Do you teach evolution in depth? Dinosaurs? Anything prehistoric? What do you use, or what do you do? I'm planning ds's school year and a bit of a guide for the future (mostly following TWTM, but not exactly as written). I want to combine science, history and geography for a year or so and work off of a timeline from the beginning as known until the ancients, or the start of the people. Is this too big a time period? It's only a few billion years, right? Can't be *that* hard :001_huh:. He just turned 7, so I'm not looking for serious studies, just a way to touch on some key points.

I've been improvising a prehistory unit with my girls and am looking for some more ideas. Old earth/Evolution. I have been utilizing Satori Smiles and Dottie's Homeschooling Universe. Anyone have any more blogs I can look at with this topic?

We just finished SOTW4 and want to take a year before starting the logic stage history cycle. Ds8 asked to learn about prehistory. We will start at the big bang and move forward, but I have no idea what materials to use. I think we will read parts of Hawking's A Brief History of Time together as a read aloud and discuss, and there should be a lot of documentaries when we get to the pre-Cambrian and later, but that's as far as I've gotten. We definitely want secular materials. Also, we want to do a timeline, so any suggestions for how to do a giant timeline from the beginning of the universe to the dawn of human civilization would be helpful too. Whatcha got? :D __________________

What are you using to teach evolution? Books, websites, videos...

I am planning an ancients year for my rising seventh, fourth and first graders. The seventh and fourth grader read very well and could easily do popular non-fiction. I'm looking for ONE or two at the most books on the topics not usually covered by Christian ancient history programs -- history of the planet, human prehistory and human evolution. If you had to pick just one book for your kids to read on human evolution, what would it be? ETA: What is the tone of The Ancestors Tale by Richard Dawkins? I'm not a creationist at all, but I do think life is amazing and sacred and I like some sense of reverence and awe in my science writing.

I'm in the middle of planning my Kindy prehistory lesson and founda neat website I thought I would share. It's the cave of the Cave of Lascaux in France. I can see us turning the lights off and having the girls watch this one night...

Does anyone use or can anyone recommend a prehistory (or it could be science I guess) curriculum that begins as close to the beginning of the earth/solar system as possible? SOTW starts history at the time of humans (which is how history is usually understood). However one of my kids is a huge dinosaur fan and both kids asked me questions after going through chapter 1 of SOTW about life BEFORE humans. I guess I could do this two ways; either start their history curriculum with pre-history (at the beginning of earth) -or- I could keep going with SOTW and life with humans as their history curriculum and work on pre-history and all the animal/plant life here before us as science. I didn't know if with relation to history/pre-history being a "story" it would be wise to start with two stories at once though. Anyone have any recommendations? Thank you!!

... I'm having trouble finding a good one. Nova has a highly-rated "Walking With..." series ("Walking with the Dinosaurs", etc.) but DS reported that it was "just animals eating other animals" and I have to agree. :lol: "Walking with Cavemen" is supposed to be more centered on the life of the people and not just the hunt or be hunted aspect, so we'll try that, but I thought I'd ask if other folks have suggestions? We're doing books primarily, but I've found having at least one good video on a topic that DS can watch a few times helps cement his interest & retention. thanks!

I'm trying to find a good science program for dd next year (6th). I stumbled upon these: http://saxonhomeschool.hmhco.com/en/products/default.htm?level2Code=M0010&level3Code=M31099&level4Code=M000129&level5Code= They have free homeschool lesson plans. I'm still unsure if the labs are doable at home, but I'm strongly considering giving one of these programs a go next year. It seems like an easier solution than PH or CPO. We tried OM earlier this year, but it wasn't a good fit for dd. I'm pretty sure we will use OM for high school science, though. They have a syllabus with homeschool-appropriate labs and lab kits (squee!). What do you think of the Saxon packages? What do you use for science (all grades)? Is evolution taught or even mentioned as fact in what you use? Anyone know of any evolution-based science programs that come with a supply kit packaged for homeschool use? That's what I really want. *sigh*

Is Prehistory covering the time period before Sumer and a secular view? What happened to the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia being a resource for the Logic stage? When did it change? I thought the Illustrated Kingfisher was the original main resource. Thanks