History for 2nd Grader

[Maurrean]

I'm starting to consider which history curriculum to buy for next year, when my DD will be in 2nd grade. This year we tried the Story of the World, but found it a bit boring.

 

It may be too early for this, but i'm inclined to prefer a curriculum that discusses the WHY's and not just the what's. Why a president made a decision, including religious considerations, etc. and not just what decision they made.

 

Has anyone heard of Drive Thru history? Looks good, but i don't see on their site where they list what grades/ages their product is for.

[KrissiK]

I'm just curious as to what you found boring about SOTW. You're not the first person I've heard say that, but my boys love it, so I'm just wondering...

 

Regarding the "whys".... I don't know your child, but I know my kids and they definitely aren't there yet, they're 5 & 6 years old. I taught jr. high for 11 years and "why" is very much up their alley. I think SOTW is great because it gives the kids a great concrete foundation in history and it gives them interesting facts they're likely to remember. Such as... today's lesson being the Minoans jumped over bulls for fun. Anyhow, I'm not trying to get you to like SOTW if you've btdt and didn't like it, but personally I would encourage you at your child's age to be concrete because developmentally, that's where they're at at that age.

[blessedmom3]

We love Mystery of History . She does give some opinions as to "why" but not much ( and I like that ) .

 

You might like Abeka History , we are reading it now and then as a read aloud to keep my kids "fresh" with their American history but I wouldn't use it as a stand alone curriculum.

[Dawn E]

My daughter is in 2nd this year, and we are enjoying A Child's History of the World by Hillyer. We read through the story and then work through the outline and enrichment activities included in the workbook from Calvert.

[AK_Homesteaders]

We tried SOTW, too. Like you, my boys were bored. They had fun with the activities and additional books I read to them, but they really didn't learn a thing from the SOTW book. I think it was because they could not relate to it in the least.

 

I had it all planned out how I wanted to cover history --- chronologically starting from Creation when my boys were in 1st grade. I gathered lots of books that I thought were great supplemental reading. But, no matter how engaging the books seemed to me, and no matter how wonderful the pictures were, my boys just could not relate. My husband reads to the boys every evening while I clean up the kitchen and wash dishes. He started reading a biography about someone like Daniel Boone or someone from that period. The book was written for much older children, but my boys LOVED it! They would act out parts of the book as they played, use expressions they'd heard from the book, and ask questions.

 

Then I found TruthQuest History. At first I was a bit worried about covering only American History in grades 1-5, but the more my husband and I discussed it, the better I felt about the program. We can still teach them things about ancient civilizations as they come up in our Bible studies, but we don't need to dwell on the darkness of those pagan people. I think that is too much for such young children. They need to be grounded in our Biblical belief system before they get caught up in others.

 

One of the things that constantly bothered me while using SOTW was that I freqently had to stop at the points where pagan ideas were discussed and explain to my children why we don't do that. One of my sons asked me how we know that we're right and they are wrong because they believed in their gods just as much as we believe in the One God of the Bible. I think he was beginning to believe that one belief system is as good as any other.

 

Children believe what they are told. If we read about all these pagan beliefs, and do activities about pagan beliefs (like mummifying a chicken or building pyramids), then those ideas really stick with children. I began to wonder why I would teaching them all these things while they're so young if I don't want them to believe it. I don't teach them about witchcraft because I don't want them to think about it right now. Children, as they get older will eventually be exposed to many things that oppose our beliefs, but that doesn't mean that we should expose them to such things while they are still very young. I know there are many people who totally disagree with me, but those are my reasons for quitting SOTW less than halfway through the first volume. If other cultures had been presented differently, without so much about their religious beliefs, I think it would have been much better for this age group. But, it is hard to separate some cultures from their religion.

 

I recently got my first TruthQuest guide, and it looks wonderful. The parents can choose any books on any of the topics that they would like to read with their children. You are not locked in to specific books and other resources, and you can do as much or as little with the program as you want. We already have quite a few books, and my boys are getting excited about history now. I realized that is the point. At this age, we don't need to cover everything in history and they don't need to remember every detail. They need to have fun with it and love learning. The best way to achieve that with my young boys is to present history in such a way that they can relate to it.

[KrissiK]

I haven't really had a problem with the "idol worship" in SOTW. We are a conservative Christian family, but for some reason, my kids understand that those were false gods and ours is not. Even the part about when that one Egyptian pharaoh tried to convert the country to mono-theism my kids got all excited because they thought the Egpytians were finally going to worship the one true God. Honestly, I have no idea if they were or not. I know that God revealed Himself to various people who were not related to the Israelites throughout the Bible (think Job, Melchizidek), so I guess it's possible that pharaoah worshiped Him, but we'll never know. Children are so different in how they perceive things.

[Sue G in PA]

Drive Through History is for older students, imo. We have all the DVDs and my ds will sit and watch them, but as far as going in depth...nah. Not yet. Have you looked at Heart of Dakota or My Father's World? Your dd could do Adventures in MFW or one of the programs for HOD. It's more than just History but both are great programs. I doubt a 2nd grader could really grasp the "whys" yet, but that's just my opinion. I know mine couldn't!

[Laura W.]

I agree with a previous poster, who suggested Truthquest. The older guides have comments about each main topic being introduced, and "why" issues are brought up. I haven't used younger guides, but the samples I've seen have a commentary section for parents to read to their children, and get the students thinking about why each topic is important, and a little bit about why certain things led to other things. The ThinkWrite assignments may help you discuss those "why's" at your dd's level, also.

 

Another program you might like is Beautiful Feet Early American History. Some of the books bring up "why's" of things.

 

Blessings,

 

Laura

[AK_Homesteaders]

Yes, Laura. I'm glad you mentioned the ThinkWrite activities and the comments section. I read the comments to my children at the beginning of each section. They might only be a few sentences, or a whole page, but they tell a little about the upcoming person or event, and they get the children thinking about what was really going on, along with "why" so it makes more sense to them and helps them tie things together. The ThinkWrite assignments are scattered throughout, and are very helpful, too.

 

Krissik, maybe I didn't explain it well in my post. My children do understand that the ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman gods were false. But they also understand that those people believed in those gods just as strongly as we believe in the one True God of the Scriptures --- the One we believe in. My sons questions went much deeper than I expected out of 6 year old, but his ability to understand the answers was limited because of his age and the immaturity that goes with it. He wanted to know HOW we know we're right and they were wrong. No matter how many passages in the Bible I could have shown him, it still all basically boils down to faith. None of us can PROVE that our belief system is absolutely true and right.

 

That son is a very deep thinker. Actually all of them are, but this one often does not tell me along the way what he's thinking. He waits until he has thought it through and come to his own conclusions. It is sometimes difficult to undo that when his thinking is flawed, and I was concerned that since this is not a "black and white" issue, that he might gradually begin to develop what I consider too much of an open-minded approach to religion --- one of "oh, what difference does it really make? They have their gods, we have ours. One is as good as another and it all works out the same in the end."

 

I think we all try very hard to and are very careful to see how what we teach (both directly and inadvertently) could affect the future for our children. I have had conversations with people who where brought up in very religious Christian homes, but who now do not believe in God at all. They were raised with the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, Santa Clause, wishing over candles on a birthday cake, and many other things. As they matured, they found out these things were all false, even though their parents assured them of their validity when they were younger. They gradually, unconsciously began to lump every "belief without absolute proof" into the same category.

 

I know other people who say they have spent their adult lives drifting from one religion to another in search of the Truth. Some have told me that when they were younger in school, they did lots of fun projects in school when they were studying the different world religions. At the time, they were strong in the Christian beliefs of their families, but they just thought these other religions and gods were just kind of neat. At the time it did not cause them to go against the teachings they'd been getting in church and from their families, but both have told me that it had a strong influence over them and kind of stuck in their minds. Every culture had very strong beliefs and faith in their gods, just as we have very strong beliefs and faith in our God. They were apparently very good at putting themselves in the shoes of the people they were studying, just as my son appears to be.

 

Right now, my son knows the other gods are completely false and he has talked about how silly those people were to believe such foolishness. But, even though he can rationalize it in words, he very well MAY end up years from now FEELING that since we cannot absolutely prove that our beliefs are right, then our beliefs are not superior to the beliefs of anyone else. He may not end up feeling that way, but to me it is just not worth the risk. I introduce my children to other cultures as they come up in our Bible study, but I no longer go into any detail with them (at this age, but I will do much more later with them). I'm not trying to convince people not to teach the ancients to young children. It does not affect every child the same. The concern for me is that we have no way of knowing how what we teach them now will affect them in the future, and my husband and I have decide to approach their history education differently.

 

On the lighter side of it, my children just don't get as excited about ancient kings and pyramids as they do about explorers and pioneers. At this young age, I want my children to really get EXCITED about learning everything they can. If they get excited about the things we study in history now, they'll be much more likely to continue to love learning about it later, even when the topics don't thrill them as much. Right now, they're having a blast pretending to be Jedediah Smith, Daniel Boone, Sam Adams and Paul Revere. They're turning into little "history buffs" and they don't even know that we've been having history classes. For them, this is just a fun part of their day. That's good enough for me! :)

[JenC3]

If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents - the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else's. But if their thoughts - i.e., Materialism and Astronomy - are mere accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It's like expecting the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk-jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset.

-C.S. Lewis

 

My children have asked the same question and it comes up throughout the bible with various groups of non-believers and Jews who strayed from God. They understand that God sent us Jesus to not only forgive our sins and teach us about God, but that this was God showing himself to us as human. I think you should teach whatever History you feel comfortable with and that you feel is best for your children, but I always worry about the "outside influence" talk I hear from lots of Christians. We have to be able to understand our theology and defend it because it IS true, not just because we "think" it might be.

Edited April 15, 2010 by JenC3

[kalanamak]

I'm starting to consider which history curriculum to buy for next year, when my DD will be in 2nd grade. This year we tried the Story of the World, but found it a bit boring.

.

 

I have it on CD and kiddo listens to it from time to time. He suddenly comes up with something like "Charles the Hammer", so I know he's heard it.

 

At this age, I think history is either too complicated or too Bowdlerlized. My 7 year old cannot really comprehend why everyone seems to keep invading each other. So, I have stuck with doing our spine with science, and, besides SOTW on tape and a few questions here and there, we read, read, read the resources from SOTW workbook, WTM and History Odyssey. Books on Marco Polo, the Aztecs, the Vikings, etc. We wander through Usborne books, Time Traveler's books, You Wouldn't Want to Be books, children's versions of the epics (Beowulf), Leif the Lucky, etc. etc. etc.

At 7, these have more impact, IMO, than chapters in SOTW. We do do maps and globes at every turn.

 

We just finished Tales From the Silk Road, and it was fabulous. Kiddo sat through everything, and went back afterward asking for re-readings to clarify the geographical intros to each tale.

HTH