For 1st/2nd grade....SS, Geo or History??

[Mommamia]

I'm getting myself so confused. Should I be doing social studies, geography or history with my 1st/2nd grader?

[HollyDay]

Why not a bit of all 3?

[Shelly in the Country]

My ds would technically be in K this year because of birthday cutoffs (he has a mid-Sept. b-day), but he is doing mostly 1st grade kind of stuff this year. For first grade history we start the Ancients in the 4 year history rotation. We're doing Tapestry of Grace Year 1 this year, but for my almost 6yo ds I mostly read Story of the World for history. We do geography as different places come up in our readings for history or literature. I add in age appropriate books from ToG as topics come up in SOTW. We don't do social studies here.

[Aurelia]

We are doing some social studies (MBTP), geography and history (SOTW Ancients) this year.

[Truscifi]

We are following the 4 year history rotation from TWTM - Ancients last year, Middle Ages this year. We use SOTW and love it, and I bought a world map and put it on ds' wall so every time we learn about a new place we go find it and see what it is called now and where it is in relation to us and to the other areas we studied.

[Rainbows]

For first grade we are doing history with SOTW vol 1. I may through in a bit of geography since we are sort of doing Five in a Row (doing book only twice a week most likely) and I can tie in geography to where the stories each take place

 

Side note...I asked my rising 4th grade DD to find California on a map and she couldn't! She is in public school and they really don't spend any time on geography or history......so I may start doing some US geography with her on the weekends (just fun stuff)

[Pretty in Pink]

My ds (soon to be 6 and going into 1st) will be jumping into the 4 year history rotation this year. Since my oldest ds is working through Yr 2 at the dialect level my ds6 will also be working on Yr 2.

 

I am using SOTW as a spine and supplementing with a few fun books taken from the SOTW AG and the TOG reading list (whatever is available at my local library, I'm not spending money on the books for this age).

 

We will do geography weekly (we have Map Aids and there are some maps provided in the SOTW AG). We stop to look at the big wall map when we come across geography in our reading.

 

We don't do social studies.

[Mommamia]

I'm not sure what MBTP is?

 

I think I'm stuck in the idea of how I was schooled and feel like there needs to be a workbook for different subjects. Though really, that is not what I think at all. :)

 

I'm thinking of just reading through A beka My Ameica/My World, SOTW and whatever other readers we are interested in.

 

Does that sound ok?

[Chris in VA]

Starting in 1st grade with Ancients is very, very different from the public schools, so it may sound odd to you. The idea, tho, is to expose kids to a worldview where everything is not filtered thru the "American Experience." This opens them up and allows them to see the world's history as a tapestry of events, peoples, places and beliefs, woven together.

Causes and effects, origins of ideas, influences of cultures on other cultures--all of this can be seen more clearly when history is taught in 3, mainly chronological rotations.

For first and second grade, an introduction to the Ancients (stories, how people lived their lives, famous happenings, etc.) provides a foundation for later discoveries. It's exciting, it's interesting, and it helps them embrace the study of history.

 

That said, we study history, and in the midst of it, cover geography (have to know where things take place) and social studies (because, as we discuss other people's ways of life, we discuss our own, to make connections). For example, we learned about Mali in SOTW 2. We did an activity in the AG, where we learned about their salt trade, and compared taxing practices--we saw how you can trade and tax, but you better make it worth the people's while to come thru your country, or they'd go around the "long" way! I'm not explaining well, but what I'm saying is that we covered economic information while we were doing history--and, of course, we had to know where Mali was! We saw how the geography of Mali influenced the trade.

 

Just some thoughts.

[Mommamia]

Thanks for taking the time to share that Chris!

[Ellie]

History and geography *are* "social studies."

 

I wouldn't worry about what to call it. At the high school level, it's common on the transcript to have "world history/geography" or "U.S. history/geography," but until then, it doesn't matter.

 

Of course, if you're following TWTM, then you have it covered, whatever "it" is. :-)

[skaterbabs]

We began SOTW with Dot and she did NOT like it at all, but she's fascinated with Revolutionary War history (thank you "Liberty's Kids"! LOL) SO rather than push through with Ancients, we're going to give it a year or so and concentrate on the US this year using the "I Love America" vol I program. "I Love America" is a two-volume unit study broken down topically by month. (Sept is the Constitution, for example, later months concentrate on George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Martin Luther King, Jr.)

 

I believe that (for this age) developing the love of history is more important than following the chronological history.