Biblioplan American history for a first grader?

[staceyobu]

I keep looking for a first grade program for american history. Today I randomly looked at biblioplan samples... either the 1650 or 1850 one. It looks like just what I wanted. Any feedback on these programs for a young on???

[boscopup]

I haven't used the American History, but I started the Ancient history a few weeks ago. My first grader is enjoying it so far. We are doing the classtime reading (SOTW, Bible, and UILE) with narrations, sometimes the K-2 readers if the library has them (and they are good choices), and the maps and timeline. We are not doing the family read-alouds at this point, but their choices also look good (I'm saving those for next time through when all 3 kids are in school... right now, family read-aloud time just doesn't happen with a toddler who wants to read HIS books! :D).

 

The program is certainly written well for a first grader as well as other grade levels, and it is well delineated as to who should be reading what.

 

Hopefully someone will chime in on the volume you're looking at! :)

[monalisa]

I am doing Year 2 of BP with a 2nd Grader. I like it a lot, but am also using the SOTW AG and the maps that go along with that. I think the BP maps are too complex for a 1st or 2nd grader (unless you have an older kid using them too). Also, I made the mistake of buying some of the books that are way too much for a 2nd grader (Famous Men of the Middle Ages for example, plus the study guide;totally did not need this for 2nd grade). If you like the looks of it, I'd say go with it but do what they suggest and just use the K-2 readers and use the 3-5 readers as your read alouds mostly. I've found in year 2 that a good number of the family read alouds are too much for 2nd grader (too heavy of content, for example there is a book about Sheherazade scheduled for year 2 that involved harems. Not what I wanted to be reading about at this age). My advice would be get the spine you want and the Usborne Int. Linked History Encyc. (which is great for this age) and then get the scheduled books from the library but don't stress if you can't find them; for a first grader, doing some of the scheduled books along with SOTW and UILE will be plenty.

 

Had I known about BP last year, I would have used it with SOTW 1 for 1st grade because I would have liked to had more Christian/church history as we studied the Ancients (even though we really enjoyed SOTW).