miracleone Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 How do you teach history to a 2nd grader? Do you pick a timeline and expand on the topic until you cover from past to present? Example: Egypt - do you start with ancient Egypt, do bunch of crafty things (my child likes to do crafts), read or look at books about Egypt and learn up to the life at present Egypt? OR - do you just skim on the ancient civilization and keep going? Is retention at this grade level important or it's just an intro and it doesn't matter if they remember most of the facts? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in WI Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 We view it as an intro to the subject. We do the four year history cycle, so I know we will cover the same material two more times, each time with increasing depth. We use The Story of the World series in 1st - 4th grade, so if you were starting with the first book (Ancients), we would study one country/civilization/group of people, write a narration on that topic, do a related craft and/or other activity, and read other picture books on that topic. Then we would move on to the next country/civilization/group of people. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialmama Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 I would suggest picking up a copy of The Well Trained Mind and Story of the World Volume 1 and start from there. You're not looking for mastery of anything at this age. Just pegs to hang future info from. Keep it fun, and fill them with facts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pata Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 We use Story of the World (SOTW) with some additional books that pertain to the topics studied (ie. when we studied Columbus, we read Pedro's journal). We also keep a loose timeline, we use maps and coloring pages and we do narrations for each chapter. Occasionally we will do a project or activity (I highly recommend the SOTW activity guide for this). At this age, I don't expect a ton of retention, my goal is to introduce the topics to her and hope that she picks up a few things that will serve as pegs for later learning. The WTM grammar stage section has a very good explanation of how this is done. Hope this helps you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miracleone Posted March 2, 2010 Author Share Posted March 2, 2010 Oh, thank you very very much for your suggestions and advice. I have the SOTW book and also the CHOW and can't decide which one to use. But looks like the SOTW seemed easier to read and understand :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 IMO you need the Usborne Encyclopedia and a few picture books. A timeline isn't important at this age, but I like to use the history lesson to get geography in. They will learn the continents, major rivers and mountain ranges, and some countries (though some have changed their names now). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Robyn Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 I like to think of it as them gaining hmmm... I've never tried to word it before so excuse any mess that follows and keep in mind that these thoughts are from my own mind, so not supportable by research or anything like that- I like to think of it as them gaining the information that will help them just function in our society. Sometime in life (maybe when they're watching Scooby-doo) there will be hieroglyphics and they will know what those are and this will help them follow along. I don't expect them to remember how to write their name in hieroglyphics though. So, it doesn't give them any kind of mastery of the subject, it just exposes them to things so they're not totally clueless when they hear the things come up later. My thoughts are similar to the WTM idea, but not the same. I think this is good even if you don't study the same things three times. I'm concerned with this general recognition helping in life whereas the WTM discusses it in terms of how it could help academically. BTW - Level 1 of History Odyssey is very craftsy (at least as far as I've seen so far). My children really enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 Just teach it as one big story, with lots of little stories along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 We read tons and do a timelines and watch movies and memorize some facts as we go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miracleone Posted March 2, 2010 Author Share Posted March 2, 2010 Did anybody ever use A Child's History of the World? Did you like it? Did anyone use SOTW and preferred that to CHOW? Why? Thank you again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StartingOver Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 Did anybody ever use A Child's History of the World? Did you like it? Did anyone use SOTW and preferred that to CHOW? Why? Thank you again. I used CHOW years ago, and am using SOTW this time around. I may also read some from CHOW. I was talking to my older kids about this, and 2 of the 3 felt that if we skipped CHOW all together, that the younger kids would miss out on something ( they have recently read SOTW too ). The older children really loved CHOW. I didn't use CHOW with them till 2 -3 grade. I like the way SOTW is written for even younger children, and much easier to understand. I especially love the CD's as do the younger children. I am playing it by ear. ;-) If you are like I am and can't decide...... maybe you can use both ? http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/chowsotw.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 The activity guide that goes with SOTW will flesh out the program beautifully. I can't imagine doing history without it.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 We view it as an intro to the subject. We do the four year history cycle, so I know we will cover the same material two more times, each time with increasing depth. We use The Story of the World series in 1st - 4th grade, so if you were starting with the first book (Ancients), we would study one country/civilization/group of people, write a narration on that topic, do a related craft and/or other activity, and read other picture books on that topic. Then we would move on to the next country/civilization/group of people. HTH! Here too. We love SOTW here, and use readalouds and United Streaming videos to supplement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 We started SOTW1 mid year with my first graders (I did a whole other post about why and how) and my boys love it. No timeline, no dates, but lots of stories and people and... well, I'm developing my own views about early childhood education and retention and all that. I'm not sure how important it is for young children to actually retain (as in be able to recite who's who and what's what), but I know that I am building a broad foundation of people, ideas (yes, we've discussed ideas such as why a military dictatorship is bad, why just laws are good - Hamurabi, etc.) and even if my kids don't remember the specifics at the end of the year I believe that introducing them to World History at this young age is fundamental to a good education. And, when we do get to round two of the 4 year cycle, I know a lot of this will come back to them. And they remember stuff - things come up, like they saw a Pyramid playset in an advertisement and they know all about what pyramids were used for and they for sure remember the Sphynx and why he was built. So, I think this part of their education is very valuable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amsunshine Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 Another plug for the SOTW activity guide. It is an invaluable resource. We do SOTW with the activity guide and the Mosaic history schedule (www.bringinguplearners.com). My dds are in 1st and 2nd grade. They like the history pockets and I like the way the Mosaic schedule groups civilizations together. I'll be using the new Mosaic spreadsheet for SOTW2 next year, along with the activity guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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