lea1 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Do most people skip history and science for K or do it informally versus doing it formally? What do you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquinas Academy Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I do it informally. This year my K'er listened to a number of our history and science read alouds, went on nature walks, and did some science experiments that his siblings were doing. I also read some other history and science books based on his interests. That was it. :) He'll start more formal history and science next year in 1st grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Informal/none. I didn't homeschool my oldest in K, but if I had it to do again, I wouldn't worry about history in K still (they didn't do any history in school K either). Some people do geography in K. I do geography as part of our history (mapwork every week), so I haven't felt a need to do a separate geography course as of yet, and we do have a globe to look at if we need to. My middle son won't do history or science in K officially, but he will tag along with his older brother some. He's doing K reading and math lessons right now, and he is NOT sitting in on history because he's not ready for ancient history yet (he's still figuring out real vs. myth). He's supposed to be "K" when we hit early modern, so he may still not sit in on history as much, and that's totally fine. For K, I want math, reading, and writing, so that he'll be ready for the history and science in first grade. :) He sits in on science sometimes now, but what DS1 is learning is sometimes over his head. Instead, I let him look at the pictures in the Apologia books (or as he calls them, the "Animals on Green Mountain books" :tongue_smilie:), and we just talk about the world around us. Nature walks are great for K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 We do books such as Magic School Bus and Magic Tree House with the Research guides. Ds loves those books. We will read different books about things he is interested in. He was very into mummies for about 3 months and so we read all we could find on those. Right now he is not really into anything so I am just reading fun read-alouds to him :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellesmere Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 For science, informal. We are going to use BFSU but starting slow and not on a strict schedule. This is our first year, so I'm not speaking from vast experience of course! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea1 Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 Thanks so much for the feedback. This has been very helpful. We do books such as Magic School Bus and Magic Tree House with the Research guides. Ds loves those books. We have read some of both of these books but I did not know about any research guides. Could you tell me more about them and where you found them? Thanks everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5Wizards Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 We did Elemental Science Intro. to Science this year for K and my DD really enjoyed it. I don't feel that science and history are "necessary" for K or anything, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissKNG Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 (edited) Both -My big girl devours science so I decided to use a formal curriculum and do stuff informally (supplement). We went through Sonlight Science K and Singapore Earlybird (together). We are several weeks into Noeo Chemistry I. We also use *everything* Magic School Bus - videos, readers, chapter books, picture books. She also enjoys the "Let's Read and Find Out" books and there are leveled readers geared towards science that we've read. For the summer, we are taking a break from Noeo to work in the stuff in my signature (Science based Youth Program, Complete Book of Our Solar System, Moving Beyond the Page items). Edited May 31, 2011 by MissKNG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissKNG Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 (edited) Oh yeah- The Cat in the Hat Learning Library books and The Cat in the Hat Knows Alot About That picture books and readers are a huge hit. And she likes the show too. She also likes to play the Sid the Science Kid games on the PBS website. Another PBS show and website game: Wild Kratts! Edited May 31, 2011 by MissKNG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissKNG Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 National Geographic - there are some shows she can watch that she loves - plenty of animal shows and some human body shows (I skip through some stuff like surgeries, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest momk2000 Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 We are just finishing up McRuffy Science for K. Dd loves it, and is always asking to do Science. For Social Studies, we used A Beka's K level Social Studies workbook along with library books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Food4Thought Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 We do hands on experiments - Mudpies to Magnets is a great book of science experiments for K. I haven't done history for K. Maybe a few living books here and there, and some talk about actual people, but no curriculum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Thanks so much for the feedback. This has been very helpful. We have read some of both of these books but I did not know about any research guides. Could you tell me more about them and where you found them? Thanks everyone! I just get the research guides at the library. They are the same size as the regular books. They are non-fiction books to go along with the stories. You can read a little about them here. I personally had to change a bit of the wording (we are YE) but other than that we just love them. If you are not YE then you are good to go as is :001_smile: Click on the topics and you can see the book and the general jist of what is in it. They are great for a light intro to different topics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyoflearning Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 I use HOD LHFHG (starting K/1st early but at slow pace when we get to it) which includes History/Bible and some Science. In the fall we plan on continuing HOD (and finish whenever we get there). In the fall we will also start CC which incorporates some Science and History. The CC History happens to correspond with where we'll be at in our HOD guide. My daughter loves Science, so to compliment CC, we'll do Little Otter's Science (FREE) when we can. http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/science/little_otters_science/little_otters_science.html I do have to say that our primary focus right now is Handwriting and Math with plenty of playtime and Character training. The rest fits in where it can. If my daughter was not reading well already and needing more challenges, I would mostly stick with the 3 R's and Character training with fun Science books when you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daffodil Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Pretty informal here. For science we're using BFSU at a slow pace. For history we just read. This year we used Children Just Like Me and lots of picture books about various countries and cultures. Next year I'm planning to focus on American history using Betsy Maestro's books and whatever else looks interesting at the library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 I'm doing Kindy with my third next year. For history, I plan on doing some social studies type stuff with library books about holidays, community helpers, and maybe some tag along with the older kids on some of the topics. For science, I'll have him learning the same topics as the older kids but at his level. The olders are doing astronomy, geology, and meteorology. My kindy student will be learning about the sun, moon, stars, and planets on a simple level. He'll inspect rocks with us, make a volcano, read about earthquakes, and other stuff like that during our geology unit. For meteorology, he'll learn calenders, seasons, weather, read library books about weather, and perhaps tag along on some science projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingmama Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Yes I (will) do history and science for K because we have to follow state standards which have 8 learning areas:glare: History for K (in the schools) here = Family History. Real history doesn't start here (again in the schools) till 7th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 We do it informally, we're starting formal studies next year in year 1 We use Kinder as the gentle introduction to the subjects. Since we use Sonlight (p4/5), we have Berenstein Bears big book of Science. We go with extra activities listed in the Instructors Guide, and also use the P4/5 Science Supplement from Handle on the Arts. As far as I am aware, it does not include history. We don't do anything really for History. We have a Social Studies book, that starts off with "About Me" and ends with "My world" for this year. We also have lots of chapter and picture books reagarding dinosaurs, and the history of Australia, and have informal/casual chats about history. Once we get to next year we'll start Story of the World - Vol1 and associated stuff, and we are also going to do Australian Book Traveler very slowly (hopefully over 3 years), plus galloping the globe over 3 years as well, so theres a lot of history compacted into those 3 things. This year we are concentrating on reading, phonics, maths & crafts. To me, in the Preschool years & Kinder, the most important thing is 1. Getting them to love books & 2. Getting them to read. So we use Sonlight which is a lit based approach, Singapore Maths Prek( 2 yr program), Happy Phonics Games, and the Supplements for our Sonlight yr from Handle on the Arts. The preschool years are about motor control, coordination, and fun, and the kinder year is to gently introduce the rest of school. I hope that helps in some way xxxx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnegurochkaL Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 I did Science formally/informally for K. We did Galloping the Globe, Five in a Row and "Let's science it" with my daughter. My son who was 3 last year did study rainforest topic with us and some Zoology topics this year. We will be studying Plants this summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 In K we did BFSU slowly, the first third, and had fun. No History until 1st Year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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