When and how do you do an in-depth study of your state?

[Nakia]

Living in NC, we already study our state's history a lot as we study American History. In public school here, if I'm not mistaken, students spend an entire year doing NC history for 4th grade and then again in 8th grade. I actually don't think I want to spend an entire year doing NC history, but I would like to incorporate a bit more. Two years ago, my oldest did a workbook type study of NC with some history, along with state facts such as the flag, state bird, etc. She doesn't remember much of it. Clearly, we need more. :)

 

So, I would like to hear what you do with regards to studying your state history. Do you do it over a whole year? We could do it year after next before we start our 2nd round of world history and devote a whole year to it. My girls will be in 4th and 7th grade then.

 

What resources do you use to do state history? Thanks a bunch!

[Ellie]

We didn't take a whole year for our state's history. We just did it naturally over the years.

[SophiaH]

Here are three options that I've looked at that would fit your dc's ages:

 

50 States Under God's State Study

 

A Journey Through Learning's Individual State Lapbooks

 

Notebookingpages.com's State Study Individual Notebooks

[AdamsFamily]

Could you just work through A Beka's Nation Notebook and/or My State Notebook? Your dc could do the research to fill in the notebooks.

 

As far as how much time needs to be spent on your state's history, you will probably need to look up your state's homeschooling laws. NV, where I live, makes no requirements, but some other states have more specific laws, i.e. one quarter/semester study vs. an entire year's worth.

 

Carole Marsh may have created a Big ? Reproducible Activity Book for your state, too. (Fill in your state's name for the ? mark.) This book might suffice.

[carlamom2ansnm]

I'm in California and 4th grade is California History here. Since I'm just pulling my kids out of ps, I wanted to try to at least keep an eye on what they're doing in ps, in case we crash and burn with hs'ing. I'm not expecting that LOL, but I do want to make sure to have a backup in case it happens. Anyway, I found a literature study guide for California state history, which includes 8 or so books. My idea is that dd will read these books in her off time, and we'll do a notebook on it as well. In our state history, 4th graders always have a big mission project, and before the budget crisis, they would take a field trip to a local mission. We will incorporate this into this year as well...or at least that's the plan (keeping in mind that this is my first year of hsing LOL).

[GoVanGogh]

The state I live in has a great deal of history and there are many resources available, both in the public school and homeschool market. I have never found anything I like, though, so have just studied state history "naturally," like a previous poster said.

We visit a lot of museums and historical sites and read 'living books' on our state's history. I'm still not sure if we will study it more in-depth later on, but this method has worked beautifully so far.

[Plink]

I wait until my kids have completed a history rotation including Ancients, Medieval. We then spend time during the next 2 years memorizing the states along with their (Early Modern & Modern) history work. By the time we get back to Ancients I am able to add in a semester of state history and they have enough background that they are able to make connections on their own.

 

Works for us :001_smile:

[robsiew]

I'm planning a state study for next summer. My kids will be 11, 10, 8 and 6. We'll probably do another summer study when they are older too. I'm not too worried when we do it... just that we do it at some point. We'll probably wait and take a visit to the capitol during the year though when things are buzzing a bit more.

[Goldilocks]

I am doing the 50 States Under God for our state as a summer unit. I wanted to do it about at 4th grade because I thought that is what the PS does. I have a (just finished) 2nd grader and 4th grader. When my younger ones are ready to go through it, I plan for my older children to do the lessons with us and add to their notebooks with the ideas and resources given in the teacher's guide.

[Wheres Toto]

We will get a lot of coverage for our state when we do the colonies and Revolutionary War. Outside of that, I'll probably take a couple months to go over the history, geography, interesting facts about our state when we cover US geography.

[Nakia]

Thank you all! Great ideas!

[JudyJudyJudy]

Ds and I did a small study of Georgia when he was in third grade. Because I loved my Georgia history book so much when I was in third grade, I used the same book and added updates to it.

 

Like your state, Georgia public schools cover Georgia in depth in 8th grade, only they do it for a half year instead of a full year. I do plan for ds to study Georgia pretty in depth in 8th grade, but we won't spend as long on it as the public schools do. Of course, as we cover the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, Native Americans, etc., Georgia will be studied again.

[Mom-ninja.]

I have no intention of doing an in depth study of our state. World history, US history, and German history will be enough for us.

[sagira]

We're doing homemade history studies. I've included Notebooking Pages State Study so we'll be studying Florida history alongside. I love the Spanish i influence in our state (Florida).

[jenL]

Here are a few links that may help you.

 

http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/ There's an Educator section here with lesson plans. Some are for high school, but I'm sure they could be tweaked.

 

http://www.history.com/topics/north-carolina

 

http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/kidspg/history.htm This timeline covers some of the major events in our state.

 

http://www.learnnc.org/nchistory/ This is a digital textbook with an educator section that includes lesson plans, worksheets, etc.