Prehistory? Would this be confusing?

[MorganClassicalPrep]

I can't WAIT until September gets here. I've decided that after September 1, I won't make any changes or second guess myself anymore... mostly because that's when I'll be ordering our new curriculum!! :D

 

So I was thinking of doing American history this year (K). Then starting the 4 year SOTW sequence. But then I got to thinking... what about prehistory? Does SOTW cover this or should I plan on doing this on my own?

 

Would it be too confusing to do American history for the first half of the year, then take a couple week break and do a prehistory unit before starting SOTW in 1st?

 

If you've done prehistory, how long did you spend on it?

 

This is so difficult! I'm so worried about missing things... and she's only 4.5! What's it going to be like when she's 14 or 15??

:tongue_smilie:

[celticmom]

SOTW Book 1 Ancients has a chapter on Prehistory. There is also a chapter that covers the definition of history and archaeology.

[Laura Corin]

I think your plan sounds good. Personally, I like to weave US history into world history as we go along, but there's nothing wrong with doing it separately. SOTW has a very brief section on prehistory, skating around issues such as the age of the earth and the evolution of human beings. As secular home educators, we used the first sections of the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History to investigate prehistory more fully.

 

Laura

[nd293]

I think it's a great plan. SOTW does little more than give a nod to prehistory, so there's plenty of room there for expansion.

 

As secular homeschoolers we covered creation myths from around the world, then read a few beautiful picture books on evolution. We covered archeology (as per SOTW) and did a "dig" in the backyard (I broke a plate and she found (some of) the pieces and re-assembled it. We read about dinosaurs and made a paper mache model of a dinosaur (using a balloon for the body). We read about prehistoric people, and read "The First Dog" and "The Cave Twins" as supporting fiction.

 

My dd was probably the same age as yours, and I guess we spread that over 6 months, doing it very casually.

 

Nikki

[patchfire]

I had a nice prehistory study planned for over the summer, and of course life intervened, and we got about a third of what I had planned accomplished. ;) Hey, we'll finish it soon, and we went to a couple of different natural history museums in that time, too.

 

Anyway, no, I don't think your plan would be too confusing. :)

[Wheres Toto]

I plan to do a brief overview of early US History this fall (Native Americans, Pilgrims, Revolutionary War, Civil War, Westward Expansion) then a Continents study including geography, habitats, culture, then Prehistory before starting SOTW1. I'm using the free Mosaic Myths, Maps and Marvels World History program - Story of the World Option with Prehistory/Evolution - as a base and filling it in with resources from all over the internet. Satori has a ton of great information on her blog about prehistory with lots of fun activities and resources.

 

This seemed to make sense to me. I wanted them to have at least a familiarity with the main points of US History. Doing some Geography will help them understand where things are happening with history and Prehistory seems to be a logical place to start going Chronologically. My main confusion will be figuring out what goes under History and what goes under Science. ;)

[kalanamak]

There is so much fun stuff of K on pre-history, we spent a whole year on it, capping off with Maroo of the Winter Caves as a read aloud.

Look at Usborne books, The First Dog, You Wouldn't Want To Be A Mammoth Hunter, the time traveler's do ice age, etc. etc. For video, Walking with Dinos, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, etc.