So, if you cover History/Geography in Kindergarten, what do you use?

[Angel in FL]

I don't want Sonlight or something similar because I already have a LA program chosen but Gracie is very interested in maps, flags, learning where places are, etc. and I think she'd appreciate History in sort of a story format.

 

I've finally decided on McRuffy for phonics/reading and math.

 

Any ideas?

 

Also, would you cover American or World history first?

[momma_pajama]

I'm interested to hear what others have to say about this!

 

I seem to have the same ideas as you, Angel - just ordered McRuffy phonics and Math K this morning!

 

At this age I think the history/social studies/geography is really the fun part - and really just an extra. I just can't seem to find something that seems fun! Most of the options are at opposite extremes - either really advanced and boring, or just coloring pages of Abe Lincoln! ;)

[Angel in FL]

I'm interested to hear what others have to say about this!

 

I seem to have the same ideas as you, Angel - just ordered McRuffy phonics and Math K this morning!

 

At this age I think the history/social studies/geography is really the fun part - and really just an extra. I just can't seem to find something that seems fun! Most of the options are at opposite extremes - either really advanced and boring, or just coloring pages of Abe Lincoln! ;)

 

Funny, I ordered our McRuffy tonight!

 

My daughter loves the flag! She is obsessed. She learned the Pledge on Sunday night and is loving it. She asked about the stars and I told her they were for the 50 states. She knows we live in Florida and our family lives in Alabama but now she wants to know all of the other states. It almost seems like it is time to run with light American History - the fun way. Like you mentioned, though, it is hard to find a nice, even approach.

 

It seems like a good plan and then start SOTW in 1st grade.

[Tracy]

We really used a unit studies/unschooly approach. Grasshopper started with a fascination about monarchies and the American Revolution that grew out of listening to Schoolhouse Rock songs. So we occasionally get picture books of various famous American figures. Then we got a great big map which fascinated her, and she started to ask about specific countries. So I just got a bunch of different kinds of books on each country she asked about--historical fiction, biographies, etc.

[Guest]

We are using Galloping the Globe. It looks perfect for my K'er. :)

[Guest]

We made a huge, table-sized 3-D map of our neighborhood, with milk cartons (painted) for houses, little toy cars, etc. It took several months and was messy, but my daughter was thrilled. We ended up using it as the centerpiece of a block party and everybody had their picture taken beside it.

 

We went from there to children's books on mapping. I remember As the Crow Flies, but no other titles. We hung up a world map and a satellite map of the world, with no countries on it but the greens, browns, and mountain ranges, etc. We started putting stickers on the map when anybody visited (where they were from), when we went on vacation, when we read books about certain areas, etc. This lasted a couple of years.

[musicianmom]

You can do Sonlight without their LA. The core comes with readers, but if you shop for a used core, you can even get it without the readers if you're not interested in those. I'm doing Sonlight K for history/geography, read-alouds, and science. There's no way their LA would ever fit us.

 

I like KarenAnne's idea though! If only I were more organized....

[HollyB]

Have you looked at Galloping the Globe? I plan on using it this fall with my first grader. It's a K-4th gr geography unit study that includes history, science, literature, and Bible. The history is not chronological, however, but I plan on using SOTW for that. It looks like a fun intro to geography. There are many activities such as coloring pages, crafts, cooking, games etc as you study each region of the globe. You can do as much or as little as you like. It also recommends websites and has a great book list.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

Is Galloping the Globe a one year program? DD is really interested in other places, history, cultures, etc. I'm planning on starting SOTW in June of 2011, so I'd love to find something fun we could throw in for a year. I've been making my own plans based on her interests, but she gets interested in almost anything I teach her, so I'd love to make things a little easier for myself!! :D

[MeganW]

We are using Galloping the Globe with Five In A Row. GTG starts with an overview of maps, globes, etc., then goes into countries. It is basically just a list of resources, though, not an open-and-go curriculum.

[Devotional Soul]

We're using Galloping the Globe, along with FIAR, Science All Around the World, and Draw Write Now (and just finished McRuffy K Phonics and Math which we really liked).

 

GTG is basically a map and flag with book lists and activities for each country (plus an intro to geography and Christmas around the world). You can use it at any pace, spending however much time needed for each country. They also have Cantering the Country for US geography.

 

We're basically using it as our library book themes plus some coloring just for fun. I got passports and flag stickers for cheap from rainbow resource, and we pretend to travel to each country. I decided to save North America for last, and then go into US geography and history after that.

 

I've compiled library book lists for the countries we've been to so far:

http://souladventureschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Book%20Lists

[Soror]

We are doing Gallopping the Globe as well- whenever it finally gets here- it has been on backorder from Amazon- my ship date is sometime next month I believe.

[peacefully]

.

[johnandtinagilbert]

Whatever history spine my other kids are using, a map of continents, and worksheets to color from TOG or enchantedlearning.com maps. We lapbook and practice continents and major oceans all year.

[EKS]

We used K12's History K. It does half a year of geography and half a year of American history. My son really enjoyed it and so did I.

[klmama]

www.sheppardsoftware.com

 

My youngest loves geography and has spent hours playing the geography games on this site. The earliest levels can be done by a non-reader.

[~Kirsten~]

Are you willing to pull things together yourself? If so, what we did sounds like it might be perfect for you. We did a country of the month (and you could do one per week, twice a month, whatever you like). We had an atlas and Children Just Like Me as well as Wee Sing Around the World. I printed a free coloring flag from the internet for each country. Then, we checked out tons of books and read stories from the countries. So for France, for example, we read the Madeline books, Mirette on a High Wire, Babar, Favorite Fairy Tales from France, etc. We always found the country on the globe and on a map.

 

There's a great book, Eat Your Way Around the World, that we sometimes used to cook food from the country, though that didn't happen as much as I had originally planned. I often found a craft project, again from free searching, that related to the country.

 

It was positively awesome! I looked hard at Galloping the Globe, and so that and FIAR were a bit of an inspiration, but honestly, GtG didn't seem quite as "fun" as I was wanting for K even though my DD is a workbooky kind of girl. But YMMV. Anyway, we'll do it again with my younger daughter when she hits K age. We found new favorite books and really (all) learned a lot. :001_smile:

[woolybear]

Have you looked at Winter Promise's Hideaways in History? It's expensive, but you could maybe pick out just a few of their resources or make up your own version. It looks fun. I went back and looked. Maybe their Let's Hideaway in History book, Creating Clever Castles and Cars, and the Usborne book of World History would make a nice program. I would just do some of my own notebooking pages with that.

Edited July 3, 2010 by woolybear

[EmeraldGirl]

Is Galloping the Globe a one year program? DD is really interested in other places, history, cultures, etc. I'm planning on starting SOTW in June of 2011, so I'd love to find something fun we could throw in for a year. I've been making my own plans based on her interests, but she gets interested in almost anything I teach her, so I'd love to make things a little easier for myself!! :D

 

We love GTG and you could certainly complete it in one year by being diligent. We are moving more slowly. There is a homeschool mom who has all the printables and more on her blog homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com.

 

Beautiful Feet also has a US Geography unit using the Holling books.

[Karen in CO]

I'm using Around the World in 80 Tales. It has fold tales from 80 countries arranged by continent. I've got a passport and flag stickers from the teacher store and a big laminated world map. We're reading the tale, finding the country on the map adding a push pin to it, finding it on our globe, adding it to the passport, doing a picture narration and writing the name of the tale and the country in the passport with the flag sticker. We're scheduling two a week and stretching out an extra few weeks.

[Angel in FL]

I'm using Around the World in 80 Tales. It has fold tales from 80 countries arranged by continent. I've got a passport and flag stickers from the teacher store and a big laminated world map. We're reading the tale, finding the country on the map adding a push pin to it, finding it on our globe, adding it to the passport, doing a picture narration and writing the name of the tale and the country in the passport with the flag sticker. We're scheduling two a week and stretching out an extra few weeks.

 

That looks like a really nice book.