Rethinking Kindergarten History/Geography - help!

[rochellek]

So, we had week 1 of homeschooling this past week, and overall I'd say it was a real success. We are secular ecclectic homeschoolers with an eye towards the Well Trained Mind and Core Knowledge.

 

I am happy with what I'm doing with Math (RightStart) and Language Arts (Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Handwriting Without Tears, and lots of library book read alouds). I've got science covered pretty well through programs available to me locally. It's social studies that is stumping me.

 

I planned, for the first half of the year, to follow Core Knowledge's approach to Kindergarten History and Geography, covering a basic overview of world geography and map skills, then early American History that would coincide with Thanksgiving and President's Day. In the second half of the year I plan on starting The Story of the World and the accompanying workbook.

 

The problem I am facing, is that I am utterly exhausted trying to piecemeal together the history/geography lessons I hope to teach in the first half of the year. I love the "What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know" book, but even though it is written very well to read aloud to a child, it is not structured to reinforce key concepts with projects, worksheets, etc. Core Knowledge does sell a set of lesson plans (and the Baltimore Curriculum Project has their free online lesson plans) but I find that these are written for a classroom, not a homeschooler, and I just don't have the time to sort through the expansive lesson plans that are offered. I don't need all the learning objectives and jargon. I just need the key nuggets of what to teach - know what I mean?

 

I have lots of book lists on teaching about the explorers, Native Americans, pilgrims/settlers, etc., but that still leaves me with the task of putting them into the right order and figuring out how to tie it all together. It seems silly to reinvent the wheel when I know there must be great comprehensive resources out there.

 

So.... I am very open to suggestions for a good American History and Geography curriculum for Kindergarteners that is simple to use and reasonably priced. I do not necessarly need an all-in-one curriculum (meaning, I'm happy to get books from the library), but I am open to anything.

 

Sorry this is SO long winded! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

Rochelle

[Guest]

I would just wait on it. No rush. get the basics down and start SOTW next year. Your child will not be behind. OR simply read the Core Knowledge K sections slowly out loud, grab some extra books if your child gets hooked on a topic and let the rest go. It is only K, after all. Keep it simple, keep yourself sane.

 

HTH!

[nd293]

So, we had week 1 of homeschooling this past week, and overall I'd say it was a real success. We are secular ecclectic homeschoolers with an eye towards the Well Trained Mind and Core Knowledge.

 

We're coming from more or less the same place as you. But honestly, I think formal social studies at K level can be overkill.

 

My situation was a little different, as we were afterschooling the first few years, but what we did was to focus on lots of fun pre-history stuff (evolution, creation stories from around the world, dinosaurs, early man), including the very first bit of SOTW - what is history and archeology. We made dinsoaur models from paper mache, and did a "dig", reconstructing a broken plate I buried. We focused on fiction read-alouds about the period, especially myths, and I looked for colouring pictures, crafts, mazes, word searches etc.

 

For geography we did some country units. Again, fun stuff - fiction reads, folk tales, cooking and crafts.

 

HTHs

 

Nikki

[easygoer]

I am a big fan of Core Knowledge's history sequence. This is how I reconciled the issue you are facing:

 

IMHO, the teacher packages offered by Pearson are very easy to use without the child books (2 of them are easier than the other two, but all are worth having for me)

 

http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZu4y&PMDBSUBCATEGORYID=&PMDBSITEID=2781&PMDBSUBSOLUTIONID=&PMDBSOLUTIONID=6724&PMDBSUBJECTAREAID=&PMDBCATEGORYID=815&PMDbProgramID=16341

 

What I did for these was to make my own cards with a photo/image to illustrate each lesson. The student books designed to go along with the lessons have one photo per page, which is usually either a photograph or a well-known artwork (for example, in a reading about Jefferson, Rembrant Peale's famous portrait and the painting of Monticello are both included, on per page, printed large for the children to look at while they are listening.)

 

The lessons are structured with the children looking at a photo while listening to a longer passage. There are a few words of vocabulary, Socratic-y questions, suggestions for further discussion etc. They are nice teachers manuals, really. The unit on Native Americans is somewhat different from the others, but that is also the easiest unit for me to improvise more (we live in an area with a rich NA history, etc.)

 

To go along with the world geography lessons, I bought a few files from Montessori Printshop and printed them on cardstock. I like to use their 3-part cards without separating the labels from the photos which gives me two matching labeled photos of each and we play Go Fish and memory matching games with them; I did this with the landmarks from each continent.

 

http://www.shop.montessoriprintshop.com/Geography_c31.htm

 

If you don't have it, I highly recommend Hirch's book Books to Build On, for recommending both reference books and read-alouds to find at the library.

 

To plan out our year, I used the teachers manuals to break the material into weeks, and then beefed up the weekly reading with the few other resources. The Draw Write Now books (which we've been playing with for a while) also have some nice go-along's for both geography and NA studies/early settlers.

 

CK's plan is really light and easy. One day a week with a read-aloud on another day and a game or a craft would easily fit the bill.

 

I also made this .pdf chart of Hirsch's history progression because I felt like I wanted to see it graphically laid out. (It irritates me to no end that it's 'sideways' by default because it prints in landscape, but if you download it into Adobe you can at least rotate it in the View menu.)

 

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B3AhyK8fpx8eMzZmYjNjYzktYTQ3Yy00ZDQwLWI1N2ItYjI5MDRkODlhMTMx&hl=en&authkey=CJmhmeQO

[Mert]

If you already have the books, you could use something like Guest Hollow, http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/americanonline.html, as a guideline or spine. This curriculum is actually for elem age kiddos, but you could just use it to get your books and such in chronological order. ~hth :001_smile:

[Samiam]

Not to be rude or snarky, but your question is so typical of a first-year HS'er homeschooling their oldest child. I was there once, several years ago. It's a good question to put out there for others in your situation.

 

Stop looking for History/Geography/Social Studies curriculum and spend some time reading and reading, and reading some more old posts on this forum.

 

There's no reason to do that for K. Focus on the basics, and then just add fun. Go on fields trips, add in hands-on, read books. Those early years of elementary are the best time to go on field trips...you will find at the child ages, school work, at least if following WTM, allows less and less time for field trips. Take them NOW, K-2nd should be loaded with fun days, not loaded with curriculum.

 

If your day works so you can do Hist/Geo, great, but it doesn't sound like yours is....is sounds like you are doing more than enough for K, and that's wonderful. If you really want to do something for Hist/Geo, just pick a topic, any topic, check out a few books, maybe a video, find a fun activity free if you feel the need, and call it a day.

 

IMHO, it's a bit overkill for K......but that's me...doesn't have to be you...but just speaking from experience, my own and countless others I have read about here.

[sbgrace]

bosket2, that was kind of rude or at least came across that way to me! It could have been phrased differently anyway.

 

OP, I'm glad you're rethinking knocking yourself out to make a from scratch plan for those areas. I agree you don't have to do history or geography in K but it can be fun and exciting and if you really want to follow core knowledge you'll want to cover at least some topics that aren't covered in first grade. Most of the geography and history I noticed they hit again in first grade so I wouldn't sweat it or cover things that she doesn't find interesting.

 

That said, I found an entirely planned out K history and geography (and art, music, literature, science) based on the core knowledge sequence. They look really fun with lots of hands on at the K level. Sometimes the music, literature, or art weaves in with the history as well.

http://learningsharingcaring.blogspot.com/2010/08/lesson-plans-art-music-social-studies.html

 

For our K we focused on the basics but I'm adding some units based on the above now as we finish our K year because I didn't want to miss the neat ideas.

Edited August 30, 2010 by sbgrace

[HomesteadMommy]

Our favorite geography study for the younger grades is Galloping The Globe. Its a unit study book, and has lists for each country. There are sections for culture, literature, science, geography, history etc. You could easily leave out any topics that are not needed. Its very easy to use and our kids love it.

If I remember right, the first section covers the continents, oceans, maps, then moves into explorers. After that it covers 1 country at a time.

 

http://www.geomatters.com/products/details.asp?ID=75

[angela in ohio]

There's no reason to do that for K. Focus on the basics, and then just add fun. Go on fields trips, add in hands-on, read books. Those early years of elementary are the best time to go on field trips...you will find at the child ages, school work, at least if following WTM, allows less and less time for field trips. Take them NOW, K-2nd should be loaded with fun days, not loaded with curriculum.

 

If your day works so you can do Hist/Geo, great, but it doesn't sound like yours is....is sounds like you are doing more than enough for K, and that's wonderful. If you really want to do something for Hist/Geo, just pick a topic, any topic, check out a few books, maybe a video, find a fun activity free if you feel the need, and call it a day.

 

IMHO, it's a bit overkill for K......but that's me...doesn't have to be you...but just speaking from experience, my own and countless others I have read about here.

 

Yep.

 

Rochelle, you will notice that the older the poster's dc in this thread, the more they are telling you to relax a bit. That should tell you something. Once you have homeschooled dc into the 11-12 yo range, kindergarten becomes so much clearer. :001_smile:

 

You will not reinforce key concepts to a kindergartener with worksheets. What your dc will carry on (and what will determine later success, as studies show) is the experiences they have and the stories they hear. Read good books about great figures and events in history, go on as many field trips as you can possibly afford, and just focus on the basics (math and reading.)

 

Just take the list of books you have and read them. It's that simple. :001_smile:

[sippycupcentral]

We are doing about the same thing. I purchased SOTW, but after doing the first 2 lessons I plan to hold off until next year, itt was a lot to devour. Now I plan on learning countries, cultures, globe work, bodies of water for our K year. Good-luck

 

Karen

http://sippycupcentralmom.blogspot.com/

[Guest TheBugsMom]

So, we had week 1 of homeschooling this past week, and overall I'd say it was a real success. We are secular ecclectic homeschoolers with an eye towards the Well Trained Mind and Core Knowledge.

 

I am happy with what I'm doing with Math (RightStart) and Language Arts (Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Handwriting Without Tears, and lots of library book read alouds). I've got science covered pretty well through programs available to me locally. It's social studies that is stumping me.

 

I planned, for the first half of the year, to follow Core Knowledge's approach to Kindergarten History and Geography, covering a basic overview of world geography and map skills, then early American History that would coincide with Thanksgiving and President's Day. In the second half of the year I plan on starting The Story of the World and the accompanying workbook.

 

The problem I am facing, is that I am utterly exhausted trying to piecemeal together the history/geography lessons I hope to teach in the first half of the year. I love the "What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know" book, but even though it is written very well to read aloud to a child, it is not structured to reinforce key concepts with projects, worksheets, etc. Core Knowledge does sell a set of lesson plans (and the Baltimore Curriculum Project has their free online lesson plans) but I find that these are written for a classroom, not a homeschooler, and I just don't have the time to sort through the expansive lesson plans that are offered. I don't need all the learning objectives and jargon. I just need the key nuggets of what to teach - know what I mean?

 

I have lots of book lists on teaching about the explorers, Native Americans, pilgrims/settlers, etc., but that still leaves me with the task of putting them into the right order and figuring out how to tie it all together. It seems silly to reinvent the wheel when I know there must be great comprehensive resources out there.

 

So.... I am very open to suggestions for a good American History and Geography curriculum for Kindergarteners that is simple to use and reasonably priced. I do not necessarly need an all-in-one curriculum (meaning, I'm happy to get books from the library), but I am open to anything.

 

Sorry this is SO long winded! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

Rochelle

 

For Geography you could get the Children Just Like ME books. Take one childs country and study it. Get a large wall map and have your child locate where they are and where the other childs country is. Discuss direction you go to get there, type of weather in that country compare to yours, landscape and other geological stuff. Make an outlive map of the country and have child color it. If you want to add more, get some library books for the country being studied.

 

For American Geography, study the states by region, this breaks things up into chunks for the young child. Get a Dover color book on the US States to color. This is a great book because it also has key symbols for each state on the state map (bird, flower, etc). There is a US Map book (really it is just 2 pages) that opens up and comes with state stickers, this is fun for them to 'build" the US as they learn each state (Amazon has it). Add in Library books and you have US geography covered.

 

I'm not sure what the Core Knowledge says to cover for US History, but spend about 3 days a week on one happening/person. Read a book the first day on the subject, color a page the next day and ask child what he remembers about the subject, jot what he says down and you could make a copy page for him to do with what he said or copy it neatly to put along with his color page to make a notebook page. Make a craft n the 3rd day that fits the subject.

 

PM me is you want some concrete ideas on US History, I am putting together a US history course for my 1st grader covering key historical people/happenings and if they coincide with what the core Knowledge covers I can let you know what I am doing for them.

[EKS]

We used K12's History K, which does exactly what you're wanting to do. We added in supplemental reading with the books we had on hand.

 

My son LOVED this course. It was relaxed and age appropriate.

 

I don't know if you'd consider K12 courses to be reasonably priced, but we really enjoyed History K, and it was so EASY for me to implement.

Edited August 30, 2010 by EKS

[EKS]

 

There's no reason to do that for K.

 

I completely disagree.

 

Getting oriented with geography really helps once kids start history in 1st. With my older son, I often wished we had taken time to go over some basic world geography before launching into history--but that year I was a first year homeschooler, homeschooling my oldest child, and didn't know any better.

 

As for the American history in K, having a bit of that prior to starting a 4 year world history cycle, where they won't see American history again until 3rd grade, is also smart. I didn't realize how helpful it was until we had finished. But *a lot* of books that are great for 1st and 2nd graders have to do with American history and it was nice for my son to have that background.

[2_girls_mommy]

I don't have any suggestions for a well laid out curriculum either. But I do like Core Knowledge as well. I don't do a specific Social Studies or History for K either, like most of the PPs. But I found that w/What Your K Needs to Know and the subsequent grade books, that picking up a few library books and reading directly from the book are enough for a brief overview. Especially if you are going to add SOTW next year for a more thorough history program.

 

One thing I do like to do is remember to add some kind of craft when I can. When you look for library books, remember to get some that include some hands on things and do one or two of them. I don't usually even plan this sort of thing out. We read a book, we see some activities. If we have time we do one then. If not, I keep in mind what I need to have on hand and the next time we have some extra time we do it and talk about what we read or read another book on the topic. We do a lot of the reading at bedtime on our topics.

 

When you learn the 7 continents as laid out in WYKNTK, you can trace the map directly out of the book on to paper as suggested and just practice the continents on real maps and globes often. That was the only activity I really needed to use for that w/my last Ker. Everytime we came upon a map somewhere we did a quick review.

 

Anyway, have fun w/your Ker. It will work out!

[JZMom]

We have similar approaches. I'm a total amateur, but I'll share what I did. I aimed to combine WYKNTK, my state's standards, a little FIAR, lots of holiday stuff, and things that just looked like they'd be interesting into a loose unit study approach. Is that eclectic enough? LOL I'm planning on about 45 mins of "social studies" a week, and if we don't get to everything, I'm not going to sweat it. It's going to be more for fun here, but I do want to keep up with the state standards just in case. Mostly, we'll just be touching on subjects. For example, when I listed Europe, we'll read the couple of pgs in WYKNTK that apply, look at in on a map, glance at a few flags, read a book or 2, and call it a day.

 

I don't have formal lesson plans made up, but do have an outline, and some books selected. A lot of the books are the ones suggested in WYKNTK, but some I pulled off of other reading lists. I tried to pick way more than we'd need, just in case some weren't interesting, or if they didn't come in through inter-library loan on time. I also printed off some coloring pages and/or came up with art project ideas for each month.

 

I'll list the basic themes, and if anything grabs you, let me know, and I'll list some of the books and projects. I also have the corresponding pgs for WYKNTK on my outline, when applicable.

 

Sept- Labor Day, occupations, community helpers, work=money=goods and services, etc. Also, Japan, based on FIAR's Red Clogs

 

Oct-Columbus Day, maps, globes. Also, FIAR How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World and The Giraffe That Walked to Paris

 

Nov-Thanksgiving, Veterans Day. FIAR's Cranberry Thanksgiving, Europe

 

Dec-Cultural similarities and differences in general, Asia

 

Jan-local stuff, MLK, slavery, Africa, North America. Also, FIAR's Madeline, so a little more France possibly.

 

Feb-Presidents' Day and American symbols (White House, bald eagle, etc).

 

Mar-St. Patrick's Day, Ireland, Australia. Also FIAR's Ping and Dancing Bear, so a little on China and Russia

 

Apr-Antarctica. FIAR Papa Piccolo/Italy

 

May-Mexico, Cinco de Mayo, South America, family celebrations and traditions

 

June-nothing much

 

July-technically on vacation, but 4th of July, etc.

[stripe]

Just take the list of books you have and read them. It's that simple. :001_smile:

If I may add something to this suggestion -- take in the local sites. Go see any interesting local attractions, like battle grounds or the state capitol or your city hall or whatever. Take any opportunity if you're traveling with your kids to see interesting sites there or on the way. I think K is a good time to take advantage of this because you have more free time.

 

I also think looking at a map and / or globe helps. Both to find where something is (the country a friend's parents are from, where the characters in a book live, where a country in the news is located) as well as just free exploration. This gives them a chance to observe, say, where the US is, where your state is, and big countries (like China and Russia) as well as anything else that interests them, such as Chile's long, skinny shape, or Australia all by itself, or the boot of Italy.

[Stacy in NJ]

Not to be rude or snarky, but your question is so typical of a first-year HS'er homeschooling their oldest child. I was there once, several years ago. It's a good question to put out there for others in your situation.

 

Stop looking for History/Geography/Social Studies curriculum and spend some time reading and reading, and reading some more old posts on this forum.

 

There's no reason to do that for K. Focus on the basics, and then just add fun. Go on fields trips, add in hands-on, read books. Those early years of elementary are the best time to go on field trips...you will find at the child ages, school work, at least if following WTM, allows less and less time for field trips. Take them NOW, K-2nd should be loaded with fun days, not loaded with curriculum.

 

If your day works so you can do Hist/Geo, great, but it doesn't sound like yours is....is sounds like you are doing more than enough for K, and that's wonderful. If you really want to do something for Hist/Geo, just pick a topic, any topic, check out a few books, maybe a video, find a fun activity free if you feel the need, and call it a day.

 

IMHO, it's a bit overkill for K......but that's me...doesn't have to be you...but just speaking from experience, my own and countless others I have read about here.

 

:iagree:

 

I totally agree with this.

 

Relax, you're making this harder then it needs to be. There is no perfect history/social studies sequence for a kindergartener. Do your core subjects and then read, read, read, and do hands on projects and field trips with other homeschoolers. Period.

[Stacy in NJ]

Really, in K, it just. doesn't. matter.

 

Christina, you win the prize for the most efficient and accurate response. :001_smile:

[nono]

My dd liked to color and wanted to learn cursive (which she is doing now in 1st). So, I simply had her color world flags with good quality pencils in K. www.flagspot.net has coloring pages available. Then, we'd find the places on the placemat map of the world I found at KMart. I used this to develop her fine motor skills for writing cursive while giving her a taste of how we divide up earth politically.

 

Maybe you could link the flag coloring to the readings in What your Kindergartener... It's pretty painless to try to see if it works for you and your child. Then, once you get your footing, if you're both digging geography, then you could look for more crafty ideas. In other words, the flags can buy you some time. :)

[2_girls_mommy]

Thanks to those who linked the Baltimore curriculum plan. I have been using What Your X grader needs to Know books as a spine for different subjects over the years, and did not know this existed!

 

I did a whole year of 1st grade music from WYFGNTK one year by myself. And now to see it so easily broken up into plans for me. Wow. That would have been nice.

 

Sorry to hijack :tongue_smilie:Return to regular programming now.....

[Satori]

Someone mentioned Geopuzzles, we love them! We started them at age 4 in Kindergarten. Why not learn while having fun? We also did FIAR to cover social studies.

 

Since we started SOTW in first grade, I totally think learning geography basics is an excellent idea for kindergarten. So to prepare, we spent time reading books and (gasp!) doing a geography workbook once she turned five, right before first grade started. I'm so glad we did, she just loves geography and the mapwork in SOTW is very interesting for her.

[HootyTooty]

Also don't forget that there is a CK yahoo homeschool group that you can ask some questions to figure out how to make it work in a home setting.

[MissKNG]

Here's a suggestion - the Early American History Guide from Beautiful Feet:

 

http://www.bfbooks.com/s.nl/it.A/id.282/.f

 

Then use the library to get the books needed.

 

ETA: Sorry, I forgot you said you were secular. I'm not sure how easy this guide is to turn into something secular.

Edited August 30, 2010 by MissKNG

[Samiam]

bosket2, that was kind of rude or at least came across that way to me! It could have been phrased differently anyway.

 

 

 

Maybe so, but again, I started my sentence that it was not my intention, so I would have to say that is the way YOU took it...which often happens in the world of words. Had I been standing in front of you and speaking these words, you would have seen my smile and tone, and known it was not meant to be rude. Plus I am a girl who does not really waste time with words. Let's get to the point, and move on. So you might have worded it differently, but I worded it that way ;).

[6packofun]

I'm sorry, but our dc's geography knowledge in grade school was/is correlated very little (maybe not at all) to what they could understand in Kindergarten. I think that Jack Knowlton's book, Maps and Globes, and maybe the Geography A to Z, are plenty for all of K. Add in Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney and a few hands-on things and you've got Geography for K and possibly even first grade.

 

(A couple other great books: Follow that Map! by Scot Ritchie, As the Crow Flies by Gail Hartman, and maybe the child's own state book from the Discover America State by State and/or Count Your Way Across the USA series. All of these titles are a fun way to learn the basics and spark interest without creating an official Geography class or curriculum for young kiddos. No lesson plans needed. Go from large concepts--the world, continents and oceans, countries--to smaller, detailed ones. Done.)

[cmarango]

I think that geography is great for this age and my dd loves it. I can see how your amount of planning would get overwhelming though.

 

I had originally decided to go with the Galloping the Globe book, but when I tried to implement it I found several things:

 

1. Half the book is worksheets of the word search and mazes type. For me this is busy work and not what I want our studies to be.

2. Our library does not carry many of the country specific books that are suggested.

3. Quite of the few suggested books are dull or above the level of my dd.

 

So, I took the concept of 1 country every 2 weeks and decided to just pick out books myself. My dd decided to choose Africa as the starting point. I just look to see what is available at my library, nonfiction and literature selections, and then when we are ready to start that country we locate it on our globe. We begin reading the books and looking at all of the pictures. I try to point out what the climate is like, food that is eaten there, and animals that can be found in that country. We also color the flag and put a flag sticker in our passport. I usually find an activity for us to do in our readings, for example, for Kenya we made bead necklaces, for South Africa we cooked, and for Nigeria we are going to make some masks.

 

Keep it enjoyable for everyone in the family. I think that the goal for this age is to make sure your child is aware that there is a larger world out there.

[rochellek]

OP here.

 

First let me say that I am not at all offended by anything that has been said on this thread. I am both amused and excited; I relish the feedback from those that have been there before me. The suggestions have been fantastic and I look forward to exploring them all.

 

I am reminded of how, growing up, my mom was always pointing out that I was just going through "a phase" and my passion of the moment would change over time. That may have been true (or not), but still... everyone needs to go through the process for themself. I wish I could start this journey with complete confidence, completely relaxed, and with a crystal ball... but that's just not the way it is. Even after reading WTM, Holt, and oodles of blogs and websites, I still worry that my children will somehow miss something important along the way. I see what other homeschool kids are doing in our area and can't help but compare. As much as I know this is fully the right path for us (homeschooling), it also scares the crap out of me sometimes.

 

But I do know that even if I have the grandest of plans, my precocious daughter has plans of her own. Somehow we will strike a balance, I am sure, and it will be a learning adventure for us both. My goal for K was to do 15 minutes of learning to read daily, 15 minutes of math, and 20+ minutes of read aloud time, and 10 minutes of "something else" (history, science, handwriting, etc.). An hour of "school" daily. (We do tons of art and music, so I don't even count that in homeschool stuff). Today was a perfect day in that DH took our two year old to a doctor's appointment this morning, and I had uninterupted time with my daughter. We did a lot of work, but she was already burned out by the time we got to math. So I let it slide. If I think there is an opportunity maybe we will do it later, but I highly doubt it. So maybe we'll move to Language Arts 3 days a week and Math 3 days a week and fit other stuff in where we can. I'm flexible. Really. Trully. I do know, though, that she LOVES worksheets (I could care less) and she seems to be interested in history. I think she is old enough to understand the history behind Thanksgiving... and I'd like to share that with her. And I'd like better ideas as to how to do it than I could think up myself. But everyone is probably right -- I'm overthinking it and can just read a whole bunch of books. But I will check out the resources mentioned and see what fits for us. All I know is that it would be easier if it were all in one place, rather than taking out 5 books from the library and realizing that 4 of them are over her head.

 

Keep the great info coming and THANKS THANKS THANKS!

 

PS - I cannot wait until my heart stops racing and I'm a bit more on "auto pilot!"

Edited August 30, 2010 by rochellek
minor edit

[sandra in va]

My personal fav for K-1st grade is Five in a Row. It is a lovely way to teach! It covers some Am history, some geography, along with just "world around me" kind of topics. Best of all - it is really fun b/c it centers around wonderful children's literature. You can play it up or down depending on your time. Rainbow Resource carries it.

 

We used it with my oldest two many years ago and something like 5-6 years later we came across some foam blocks while unpacking our new printer and my son threw them in the air. I had no clue what he was doing. He said he was trying to figure out what the weather was going to be. <huh??> He then told me he thought they resembled Japanese clogs and he was doing what the characters in the FIAR book did (the one about the red clogs). That's serious retention! I think they remember so much b/c there is a huge hook that all the details hang on - the book itself.

 

Sorry for going on so long, just adding another curr to consider!

[Mert]

I thought of a couple other websites that have lesson plans or age appropriate hands on activities. Just wanted to throw some more ideas out there.

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/5622573/Countries-and-Cultures-of-the-World

 

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/master_geography_index.php

 

http://www.homeschoolcreations.com/Geography.html

[cmarango]

But everyone is probably right -- I'm overthinking it and can just read a whole bunch of books. But I will check out the resources mentioned and see what fits for us. All I know is that it would be easier if it were all in one place, rather than taking out 5 books from the library and realizing that 4 of them are over her head.

"

 

I would not worry too much about this. I have checked out many books that have been both above and below my dd's level. As long as there are pictures in it and you feel comfortable paraphrasing the information then you will be fine. The pictures you can enjoy together and then when she asks about a particular picture you summarize the info for her. Also, if you check out several books then there are bound to be some that you read in the entirety, some that you look at the pictures, and others that you just never get around to. In the beginning this bothered me somewhat (list checker here), but this method leads to a more relaxed pace in my experience.

[JessReplanted]

But honestly, I think formal social studies at K level can be overkill.

 

:iagree: