Wha the heck is "social studies" and why does my son love it?

[Halcyon]

(I am being a bit tongue-in-cheek, here. I do kinda know what social studies is....)

 

Today I bought a couple of workbooks from Barnes & Noble for my younger son. I bought a Brainquest 2nd grade, and one other one. Both of them had "social studies" sections, which my son immediately glommed onto. Now, I know social studies is taught in public schools, but I never had this subject myself and don't really understand it. It seems to be a hodge podge of cultural and geographical trivia (for lack of a better word) without any particular rhyme or reason. For example, in the "social studies" tab of one book, there was a map worksheet, a sheet on the Statue of Liberty and something about state birds.

 

Anyway, can someone explain to me what social studies is, exactly? And since my son seems to be gobbling up the social studies section of these workbooks particularly quickly, can someone recommend a Social Studies workbook, if such a thing exists?

[eloquacious]

History, Geography, Civics ... the "social sciences," so to speak.

[eloquacious]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_studies

 

 

Much like "Language Arts" Which combines grammar, writing, reading instruction, literature, poetry, etc. Basically a sort of catch-all field to make it easier for schools to integrate studies and have fewer classes/teachers.

[Critterfixer]

It actually makes a whole lot of sense that a boy would enjoy that kind of study and format. I've read before that boys will naturally gravitate toward tables of information like encylopedias, books of world records, etc. It seems to be something they like.

I've seen it with my two 7 year old boys. When my husband moved his books into my already crowded book case he had two books. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (which I bought for him!) and a treasured book from his childhood--Mysteries of the Unexplained, a sort of encyclopedia of trivia which he loves to read and re-read. Go figure.

[Halcyon]

It actually makes a whole lot of sense that a boy would enjoy that kind of study and format. I've read before that boys will naturally gravitate toward tables of information like encylopedias, books of world records, etc. It seems to be something they like.

I've seen it with my two 7 year old boys. When my husband moved his books into my already crowded book case he had two books. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (which I bought for him!) and a treasured book from his childhood--Mysteries of the Unexplained, a sort of encyclopedia of trivia which he loves to read and re-read. Go figure.

 

 

Ha! This does make sense, then. My younger son in particular loves two books: 500 Things You Never Knew about History and 500 Things You Never Knew About Science ;)

[Ellie]

I don't do "social studies" or "language arts." :D

[Critterfixer]

I think I read that in the Michael Gurian book about boys. He strongly recommends that little boys and older boys be given reading that relates to what they enjoy the most. A little girl might want her free reading to be a story book. A little boy might rather read a list of facts or a magazine article on something he is interested in.

[mom31257]

Social studies for elementary students usually encompasses history, government, economics, geography, and can even cover things like holidays, communities, and citizenship.

 

This site usually has lots of links to great activities. The Complete Book of Maps and Geography is a good one for that subject.

 

I used a first grade GA series in this book series. There are only four states, but some of it would apply anywhere.

 

This site has games from the chapters in a public school social studies Grade 2 book. It would give you an idea of what social studies covers.

[mom31257]

I think I read that in the Michael Gurian book about boys. He strongly recommends that little boys and older boys be given reading that relates to what they enjoy the most. A little girl might want her free reading to be a story book. A little boy might rather read a list of facts or a magazine article on something he is interested in.

 

:iagree:

My son prefers non-fiction reading much more than fiction reading. My husband read the encyclopedia for fun when he was a kid.

[CarenM]

back when we were in school Social Studies and History were one in the same :huh:

[Hunter]

I adore reading children's social studies books: geography, archeology, sociology, economics, the United Nations, and anything else in the social sciences area of the library. History doesn't stand alone very well without being supported by the other social sciences.

 

BrainPop has a nice assortment of social studies videos.

[leeannpal]

I am still a social studies teacher at the middle school level in a private school. In my classes we are studying a region of the world, for example, the Middle East, by learning about the physical and cultural geography, history, religions, economics and politics of the area. I love that it gives the student a chance to have a comprehensive understanding of the past and present of people groups.

[foxbridgeacademy]

DD also liked Soc Stu WB, there was always something to color, a map to "figure out", a cute story about an African girl and her goat. It's very fluffy but if used right can be a transition tool into higher levels of History, gov., culture and economics. At least thats what I would tell myself when we pulled out those kind of workbooks.

[sagira]

:iagree:

My son prefers non-fiction reading much more than fiction reading. My husband read the encyclopedia for fun when he was a kid.

 

I am the exception. I enjoy reading nonfiction more, love facts, and I did read encyclopedias for fun. Titillated describes me when I read a heading starting with "10 things you didn't know". Those titles get me every time :)

 

Back at my school, we had History and Geography separately. Then one year (I think it was 9th grade) we had something called Social Studies and it was about people, culture, religion, differences, a little bit of psychology.. I didn't get much out of that class. But we watched a few movies.

Edited August 5, 2011 by sagira

[Rosie_0801]

Social studies is what you have when you put perfectly honorable disciplines like history, geography, anthropology and economics through a blender and serve the sludge with a spork and a place mat to colour in.

 

Rosie

[Running the race]

Your post reminded my of my son in third grade. He took the ITBS test for the first time. He came home and emphatically stated, "I LOVE social studies. What is social studies?"

[Halcyon]

Okay, so assuming I want to add in some "social studies" just for fun for my little guy, where might I go, in terms of workbooks? I am going to do some History Pockets (not exactly social studies, I know)-other ideas?

[MomLovesClassics]

My son does not enjoy social studies at all. We did a VA last year to discover that instead of K12's history they used social studies. When he first got the book and looked through it he was disappointed. He wanted to know why it was important to put slang from other areas into a textbook. According to him the textbook was full of gibberish scattered with bits and pieces of real information.

[amyrjoy]

This is for third and fourth graders, but there's is a Daily Skills (Skillbuilding?) Social Studies book. I got it to use this year for my DD for a supplement.

[kandty]

back when we were in school Social Studies and History were one in the same :huh:

 

I had never even heard the word "history" for a a subject in school until I was in high school (and I think just one class I took had the name history in it). Everything was called social studies. When we started homeschooling I was so confused as to why I was suppose to teach my kids history! I thought that was a high school class. I had to really think about what we did in "social studies" in school to realize that they sometimes taught history under that name. :lol:

[DragonFaerie]

It's always been my understanding that "social studies" was for elementary grades and was a very broad, generalized study of geography, history, and cultures around the world. By late middle school and high school, the studies become more focused and in-depth and are therefore broken out into different areas like world history, US history, economics, world or US geography, etc.

[Ellie]

Social studies is what you have when you put perfectly honorable disciplines like history, geography, anthropology and economics through a blender and serve the sludge with a spork and a place mat to colour in.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

 

"Language arts" is the same way. :D

[Superfly]

Okay, so assuming I want to add in some "social studies" just for fun for my little guy, where might I go, in terms of workbooks? I am going to do some History Pockets (not exactly social studies, I know)-other ideas?

 

We were at Mardel looking for Social Studies workbooks and my advice would be to look through the content carefully since it varies greatly. I was very disappointed that many of the workbooks spent over half the book covering citizenship. That would be great it were covering things like American history, public service, voting, etc. BUT, the citizenship in most of the books I checked out covered things like recycling, planting trees, preventing global warming, protecting endangered species, etc. They did not cover the traditional topics that I would like to focus on, or they did so sparingly at the end. We ended up getting a geography/mapskills workbook. We will be using Abeka My America and Our America for civics. They cover American traditions, songs, symbols, famous people, and world cultures. They are not really workbooks though.

[Halcyon]

Thanks all. I did find some Social Studies type stuff on Teacherfilebox.com, to which I have a subscription. THings about Clara Barton, Abraham Lincoln, maps etc. I appreciate all the responses :)

[mom31257]

We were at Mardel looking for Social Studies workbooks and my advice would be to look through the content carefully since it varies greatly. I was very disappointed that many of the workbooks spent over half the book covering citizenship. That would be great it were covering things like American history, public service, voting, etc. BUT, the citizenship in most of the books I checked out covered things like recycling, planting trees, preventing global warming, protecting endangered species, etc. They did not cover the traditional topics that I would like to focus on, or they did so sparingly at the end. We ended up getting a geography/mapskills workbook. We will be using Abeka My America and Our America for civics. They cover American traditions, songs, symbols, famous people, and world cultures. They are not really workbooks though.

 

That is the frustrating thing about social studies stuff that's out there currently. I've found some older SS books that I like much better. Kids today are taught so much about taking care of the environment and animals, but very little about how to actually look after people.

 

Our neighbor was cutting down a tree on his property line because he was putting up a fence. I was out in our cul-de-sac when some neighborhood kids came around looking. They were so upset that he was cutting down a tree. Good grief!! I quickly told them that cutting down one tree on a property line was not going to affect oxygen levels. When I told them that 70-80% of our oxygen actually comes from algae, they were very surprised. I guess teaching them what's politically correct is more important than teaching them the facts! :001_smile:

[chepyl]

We did Social Studies through 6th Grade, 7th grade was Civics and State History, 8th Grade was American History. I remember "creating" our own country in 6th Grade. We had to have a name, major business/exports, then all the symbols (flag, bird, flower, etc). It was fun. That is what social studies always was - random projects and studies of some geography, holidays, government, and culture. We learned key history points: Columbus, Pilgrims, Thanksgiving, Washington, Lincoln, Slavery, Revolution, Civil War, Declaration of Independance and the Constitution. Nothing in depth, just general knowledge that the people existed and the events happened.

[Mommy22alyns]

We have this book (and hey it's dirt cheap). http://www.amazon.com/Concise-Geography-Encyclopedia-Editors-Kingfisher/dp/0753458454/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1312562712&sr=8-4

 

It's fun to thumb through and read about various places in the world.

 

 

Oooh, thanks for the tip!

[Rosie_0801]

Okay, so assuming I want to add in some "social studies" just for fun for my little guy, where might I go, in terms of workbooks? I am going to do some History Pockets (not exactly social studies, I know)-other ideas?

 

I don't know about workbooks, but have you looked through the picture story section at the library with this in mind? There's all sorts of books that could be grouped together for mini-unit studies. This was a nice one I found at our local: Sasha Visits Bali There's more in the series, but I haven't come across them yet. There are books on world holidays and all that sort of stuff. I find some of them kind of lame as stand-alones, but if you group them for context, add some photo books and documentaries, you could make something enjoyable.

 

Rosie

[Create Your Ritual]

That's funny you ask as it was my dd's least favorite subject in elem. school when she was in ps. She didn't enjoy the hodge podge arrangement of things and often would ask, "Why do I need to know this?" ;-)

 

She enjoys history though and I personally prefer the idea of starting with the beginning of recorded history and then eventually getting you YOU, your town, your state, your country. I always felt it was more of fitting YOU into the whole of the world approach to learning. Maybe I am mistaken with all ps social studies arrangements, but ours wasn't that fun for her.

 

I don't discount the material as being valuable though. I just don't always think every kids appreciates the arrangement of how it is presented in ps.