History/Science for a 7yr old?

[Mommamia]

If you had to quickly come up with a plan for history(social studies,geography,history) and science for a 7 yr old what would you choose?

 

I'd love input from any been there/done that homeschoolers?

Also, I'd love to hear what anyone with a 7yr old is doing for those subjects.

 

Thank you!

[GoldenMolly]

At that age, last year, we read alot of books from the library about famous people in history, used Scholastic Success with Maps, looked at a wall map of different places as they came up, started playing Risk even if it did not make alot of sense to her, and started a timeline. I don't think they need alot at that age but I know others differ in opinion. I also am not a WTM'er but the discussion here is too great to not hang out:D, so take it for what it's worth.

 

Molly

[AmyP]

I'm doing SOTW 1 with my 5 & 7 yos. For science we are doing a biology year. Right now we are doing NOEO Biology I, but we are going through it pretty fast. After we finish it I plan to do more biology studies a la WTM.

 

Amy

[Chloe]

at that age I like Beautiful Feet's Early American History Guide for Primary Grades. It has notebooking suggestions, but no real crafts or activities. You could easily add your own or get History Pockets. For science I would just do nature study or pick a different topic of interest every couple of weeks and read library books on it.

[Carol in Cal.]

For history, I would do SOTW1 with lots of extra books from the AG, and whatever local field trips about history that I could find within driving distance, even if they are not directly related to your current topics of study. Bonus points if they ARE related, of course, but generally, I think field trips to living history and history museum sites are valuable at this age because they help kids to picture concretely what it was like to live in a former time.

 

For science, I would use Magic School Bus books, reading them over and over and over, and plan lots of long local field trips to science museums, zoos, nature sites, or natural history museums. On those field trips, it is important to get him thinking about the principles and observations that are presented, and to that end I found it helpful to join two locations and visit frequently for a long enough time to really get bored enough with the superficial lights and bells to want to dig deeper into the material.

[Building Up]

My 7yo will be doing Sonlight's Core 1 and Science 1 (for second grade). We did Core K last year and everyone loved it!

[2_girls_mommy]

I have a 7 year old. We are doing Story of the World vol. 2 w/the A.G. for history, geography, and literature. It does even cover some science topics slightly.

 

We will be covering Earth Science and Astronomy/solar system this year. I have purchased so far: The Usborne First Encyclopedia of Earth (internet linked,) The Usborne First Encyclopedia of Space (internet linked,) the Magic Schoolbus Lost in Space, several Eyewitness books on Earth and Fossils, Several readers on different weather topics, two scholastic kits: one of a weather station, one on measuring time. I have a very cool Hands On Earth Science Experiments book checked out from the library. I will plan corresponding experiments from it and recheck it often. It might be one I eventually purchase. It is through grade 8. We use The Well Trained Mind for how to do this. I truly did not spend a lot on these books. I have picked them all up on sale and used whenever I had an oppurtunity. I could make do with less and use the library more as long as I had the encyclopedias on hand which I bought used on Amazon.

ETA.. if I was in a real pinch I would follow What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know and use the library and online plans to flesh it out.

[rwjx2khsmj]

We are doing SOW and incorporating science ideas from our reading/history through Ancient Science by Jim Wiese. Also looking at biology beginning with Creepy Crawlies and the Scientific Method by Sally Kneidel.

[EmeraldGirl]

How about looking at Galloping the Globe? It is more Cultures than a time period of history, but also covers Geography, and Science by studying Animal Habitats of the Countries you explore.

[LadyAberlin]

Science Excursion and maybe WP American Story.

[EKS]

K12

[MamaBlessedThrice]

If you're doing American history, I second the Beautiful Feet suggestion. I wrote my own schedule for a U.S. History overview this year for my K/1st graders using the Beautiful Feet books but also adding in a few other living books to flesh it out to cover Native Americans through the Civil War (I threw in a unit on pioneers and Lewis and Clark). If you're interested in my schedule, send me a PM and I'll send it to you. It would be easy to do the Beautiful Feet but add in hands-on projects from the Laurie Carlson series of books and do weekly narrations/notebook pages.

 

If you're starting the 4-year history cycle, I'd just get SOTW Vol. 1 and go through it. With the Activity Guide, which you definitely want, because it's so great to have the book suggestions and maps and notebook pages all laid out for you.

 

For science, we're doing the God's Design for Life series. (It's young-earth Christian, so if you're secular, you might want to look at something else.) We're not trying to do all three of the books in one year; it's just too much. I'd do just the Animal Kingdom book and do one lesson a week, or double up with the Animal and Plant kingdoms if you want to pick up the pace. You would want to supplement with books from the library, but that's easy enough to do, and I like that these books are laid out in a 35-week format with projects and quizzes built in. Easy. (Also, if you want to do the Animal Kingdom book from the God's Design series, you can PM me if you want and I'll send you my schedule for that with coordinated book suggestions for each chapter on a K-2 reading level.)

 

HTH!

[krisp]

My second grader will be doing a combination of sonlight/moh/veritas press for history. Really, you can get a list of the books they use for history (veritas' website breaks out the history portion better than sonlight) and read the ones your library carries. I found that our library carries about 80% of the books recommended for Greece/Rome (yes, we're a bit behind on the 4yr cycle ;) ). I have sonlight 1 and the VP Greece/Rome and Middle Ages/Reformation/Renaissance teachers editions if you want me to look up anything :) (Just trying to save you money/time....)

 

She'll be doing Apologia Zoology 1 along with lots of library books. I think she attempts to check out the entire science section of the library each time we go, so we should have plenty of science reading this year ;)

[abbeyej]

I would use (and have and am using) SOTW for history/geography. For science, I'd stick with something simple like reading library books on interesting science topics and buying the "Discover and Do" DVDs from Sonlight (I don't *recall* any religious content in these) and the "non-consumable" kit and matching grade-level kit so that we have all the materials on hand to reproduce any experiment we like.

[BillieBoy]

We did History Odyssey Middle Ages level 1, lots and lots of reading and R.E.A.L. Science Earth Space from Pandia Press. Both secular.

[Wendy Inman]

I have a 7 year old :) We are using SOTW 2 with the activity guide. Lots of extra reading from the library (books are listed in AG) DS has thoroughly enjoyed SOTW 1.

 

For science we are a year ahead in the rotation so we're doing R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey's Chemistry this year, with lots of extra books :)

 

Last year for Earth science we used Evan-Moor's science works series.. they are awesome and so easy for the teacher! We did Geology, Astronomy, Weather, etc.

[siloam]

Winter Promise.

 

Heather

[Rainbows]

for my 6 yr old we are doing SOTW vol 1 w/AG for history, and Elemental Science Biology for science

[Another Lynn]

Another option would be http://www.amblesideonline.org year 1. Many of the read alouds are free online which would let you try it for a few weeks or more before spending any money.

[japhmi]

DD6 (who's on a 2nd grade level for many things) is doing SOTW2 (with historical fixes by me) and using the Usborne First Encyclopedia of the World / Space for science - complemented with lots of time at the local science museum/planetarium.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I plan to do a term of Accross America by Hewitt for our state study with my then 7, 8, and 9 yr old kids. After this year, I will begin the 4 yr. history cycle with History Odyssey and maybe Real Science or Noeo (however you spell it??) Science. I am not sure yet.

[SABE]

My 6.5 year old/1st grader is absolutely loving Elemental Science Biology.

[ElizabethB]

We're going to finish up RS4K Chemistry. We do library books for the rest of science.

 

For history, I adapt several things, mostly ATTA, but we may be doing Classical Conversations next year for some of our history.

[Amy in CO]

For history/geography we are doing HO Ancients. I have already done SOTW 1 three times with older kids, and I wanted a different take on it. I love the book, so I like that HO uses it, but we will have new activities and reading order.

 

For science, I am actually following SWB recommendations. We have the First Encyclopedia of Animals/Human Body. We read a page or two a day. Then ds writes the name of the animal at the top, narrates a couple of sentences about what he learned (which I write, he is a little behind with reading and writing), then he draws a picture of the animal. He is loving doing this. It is simple for me, which I love. Then at the end of the lesson, he picks out and marks the animal we will read about the next day.

 

We do both history and science 4 days a week. My children would rather do a little each day, than to alternate.

[dragons in the flower bed]

Do you have a good library near you? How well does your 7yo read? Does s/he like to listen to books read aloud? Is s/he a picture book (or comic book) fan? Oh, and are you a religious Christian? How much money do you want to throw into this project?

 

We have a good enough library. My oldest two loved to read when they were seven, and were advanced readers; my six-year-old already is like that, too. I do not like to read-aloud a lot. My bigger ones weren't into pictures much anymore by age seven, but my upcoming two are already such huge comic book fans that I can't see that changing. All of this really impacts how I do history with them, because I use living books. I type the topics in TWTM into my library's online catalog, copy into a text document what the library has, and stretch this evenly over our weeks of school. For my K & 1st graders, I'm using a history overview instead but basically doing the same thing.

 

If there's a quick living books solution, it's probably Beautiful Feet because there aren't a lot of crafts that require gathering materials ahead of time, and all the books used are included in the package. It's not secular and I find it difficult to secularize. It includes a good mix of picture books and chapter books, as my kids would put it. ;)

 

A quick science solution would be to go down to your local Toys R Us and buy a kit from Thames and Kosmos or Wild Goose. These are respected kit-makers. Look at how many experiments are in the box, and figure on doing one per week. If you have time, you could also order a kit from TOPS.

[Donna A.]

MFW Adventures, but it does use American Pioneers & Patriots. That book is only one of the spines, though, and then there's an extensive (optional) booklist of about 400 book and video titles in the back of the TM, as well. All of the books included in the Basic and Deluxe packages are scheduled in the weekly lesson plans. The booklist in the TM is divided up by topic and week # so that you know what fits where. You can either use the library for these, or purchase some of the titles as desired. (The author has asterisked some titles that she recommends for purchase, if you choose.)

 

http://www.mfwbooks.com/adventures_my_fathers_world.htm

 

If I wasn't using a complete, prepared package like MFW or HOD, for a 7yo, I would find an American history spine that I like and build my own study around that spine using notebooking, themed drawing books (like Draw, Write Now or Draw and Write Through History, TruthQuest or some other good booklist, maps and flashcards, and the library. Oh but wait... MFW has already done that for me! :lol:

 

Personally -- and this is JUST my opinion -- I think that the MFW TM allows for more flexibility than the HOD TM, just because of how they're laid out.

 

Now if you want a lot MORE flexibility in your planning, I think that Galloping the Globe or Cantering the Country might be a good choice.

[Phoatogirl]

For science I would visit the local science museum (consider purchasing a pass if you have a good museum) and read lots of library books on the topic of his choice.

 

For history I would pick a topic and read historical fiction for that time period.