What's the idea behind hist/geo for grade 1 or 2?

[CookIslandsMommy]

Hi there,

 

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about whether a Grade 1 or 2 child should be studying world history/geography at this age?

 

We are planning 2012 social studies/hist/geo for homeschooling.

I just can't seem to find the right fit and then I was wondering what the premise is behind teaching world history from grade 1 or 2.

 

I am sure I didn't study world history or geo until much later on.

 

I see that there are so many 4 year or 6 year chronological history curriculums.

 

I really want something that does not chop and change, Ideally I would prefer something that is scripted....that's when I started wondering whether a child this age should be learning history more than just the basic bible history.

 

I am just a little confused as to how to work out what to do.

 

Help :)

Thanks

[warneral]

After reading The Well Trained Mind (which I highly recommend), I wished I had homeschooled from the first so I could have done that! The idea is that there are three stages of learning.

1. Grammar Stage (gr 1-4) - brains are sponges and can memorize facts

2. Logic Stage (gr 5-8) - start to analyze what, why, how things happened

3. Rhetoric Stage (9-12) - ability to internalize and come up with their own, well thought-out ideas

 

The idea is you start at 1st grade with the ancients and do a 4 year cycle of history and the kid ends up passing through the time periods at 3 different stages in their brain development. In first grade, I would argue that it is also important to impart a love for the subject and make it fun and meaninful to them. They will NOT fully understand but that is why you pass through 2 more times during their education.

[warneral]

If I could do it all over again I would have done the Story of THe world the first 4 years, followed by Mystery of History for the second. Supplement with lots of great living books and in the logic stage, teach them to write and analyze what they are learning.

[2_girls_mommy]

I have looked at 1st grade/2nd grade social studies curricula. I would much prefer to teach my children exciting world history than "what is a community." Seriously. I don't need a book and vocab word to teach what is a community or a fire fighter or a post office. A field trip to the fire dept and post office and quick explanation of the word, "community" does that and leaves time for real information.

 

BTW, I was public schooled at an awesome elementary school. I have no complaints whatsoever about my elem and middle schools (besides stupid peer stuff) and we DID learn world history. In fact, besides a one semester high school humanities course, the only ancient history I learned was in elem. In Middle school it was modern history. In high school I took American History and State history. In college (a business/tech major) I took one semester of modern history.

 

And I still remember the lectures I had on serfs, the middle ages, and all of that cool stuff from elem school as I teach my girls. Of course I have read a lot more on my own since then too, since I love history.

 

Anyway, because of my own positive experience w/history I would not think of leaving it out for my girls.

[boscopup]

The "social studies" done in first and second grade in school is pretty pointless, I think. My kid knew what a fire fighter was since he was 2. :tongue_smilie:

 

I'm doing the 4 year cycle. My 2nd grader LOVES history. He loved it last year too. At this stage, it's all about exposure, not retention. History is one of DS's favorite subjects!

[acurtis75]

Others have answered with the more technical answers on why it's important but I would also add that it's fun. At that age children love fantasy and stories and reading about Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc is exciting for them. We started SOTW when dd was 5 and history immediately became her favorite subject. It's a lot more fun and interesting than social studies and what is normally covered in ps now. We started biblical history before SOTW and I've found that we refer back and forth often and it's given her a great reference point. It adds meaning to her lessons in Sunday school that she is familiar with the Babylonian empire from our history studies. It's also nice that she knows where to find places on a map.

 

I don't have a formal geography curriculum but we do Kathy Troxel geopraphy songs for 5 min. or less per day and it's given her good context for all of her reading. My goal wasn't necessarily for her to be an expert on geography but to understand when we read a story about Africa where it is compared to Mexico or Australia. Around the World in 80 Tales is a good book that we've referenced for geography also.

[Rivka]

I think the primary reason to do history and geography, and also science, in the early grades is because it's nice to have interesting content studies to spice up what can otherwise be a long slog through basic skills.

[forty-two]

I'm doing (informal) world geography this year in K, and planning world history in 1st, mostly to give dd some pegs to hang knowledge on, as well as help give her an idea of place and time. So as she reads or hears about places and people and events, she already has a basic framework in place to slot that new knowledge into.

[Farrar]

I think you're doing a few things at this age with social studies and science. First, you're laying down information for the future as cultural reference points. I don't expect my kids to remember all the details of what we do, but I do expect that they'll remember the outlines so that when we do it again (the whole point of doing a cycle) then they'll have a memory of it and a general sense. I also think this is the time when you're really forming kids' opinions and emotions toward these subjects in general. I think a 6 yo who gets excited about learning about bugs or mummies is someone who will hopefully still have that spark of interest toward those subjects. Finally, I think they're a way to practice beginning thinking skills by helping teach kids to ask questions, put things in order, consolidate information and so forth. You could do that in other subjects, but world history and science are fun.

 

I think with geography, I actually do expect my kids to learn the oceans, the continents, the directions and some other pieces of basic information in those grades.

[mlktwins]

NM

Edited October 12, 2011 by mlktwins
didn't get out of this post before asking my unrelated question :-)

[Heidi]

Hi there,

 

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about whether a Grade 1 or 2 child should be studying world history/geography at this age?

 

We are planning 2012 social studies/hist/geo for homeschooling.

I just can't seem to find the right fit and then I was wondering what the premise is behind teaching world history from grade 1 or 2.

 

I am sure I didn't study world history or geo until much later on.

 

I see that there are so many 4 year or 6 year chronological history curriculums.

 

I really want something that does not chop and change, Ideally I would prefer something that is scripted....that's when I started wondering whether a child this age should be learning history more than just the basic bible history.

 

I am just a little confused as to how to work out what to do.

 

Help :)

Thanks

 

There are curriculums that do just bible history until 4th grade (Kolbe). You can do that. Why not? I personally think history and science are really NOT important in 1st and 2nd grade. It's just for fun. I do it if I want to fill the day with things other than the 3 R's.

[WIS0320]

I think you're doing a few things at this age with social studies and science. First, you're laying down information for the future as cultural reference points.

 

I think with geography, I actually do expect my kids to learn the oceans, the continents, the directions and some other pieces of basic information in those grades.

 

I agree with this. For us, there are things in the "social studies" realm that I want my kid to understand at this point and using historical studies as our springboard puts it into context. For instance, voting becomes a lot more interesting and valued to a 6 year old when they realize that people in ancient China had no rights and could be buried alive if they gossiped to their neighbors about the emperor. I also want my child to learn the locations of the continents, oceans, the United States and the cardinal directions and how to use a map in general and it helps if you are learning about Britain or Egypt or whatnot and can actually put the world into context and show them why maps are important tools and that our world if vast and full of different kinds of people and places.

 

I am not expecting content absorption to a detailed degree, I am using history to suit my purposes of getting other material that I do think is important into her head without it seeming dull and lifeless.

[linders]

That's it, excitement. Yes, they will forget much (most?) of the details of what they learn in 1st and 2nd. They could learn all those names/dates later along with the underlying causes for historical actions.

 

But I fully credit our 1st/2nd grade time spent on Ancients (with SOTW and chicken mummies and flooding the Nile in our backyard) for the fact that my DS11 loves history and chooses obscure nonfiction history books for "fun" reading. And even DS8, well, he has retained an amazing amount of the American History and geography (via mapwork) that we have done the past two years. Made our DC trip much more engaging.

 

Get them excited about this stuff now, before it seems boring later.

[HeidiKC]

My 2nd grader has been listening to SOTW CDs for about 3 years now and he LOVES them. We have the first two volumes, and I'd say he requests these 75% of the time every single night! He has listened to each CD dozens of times. And it amazes me what he has learned! He knows all KINDS of stuff, and understands the locations (we have a world map on the kitchen wall) and time periods. And he's really excited about it all. And rather proud of what he knows. He'll talk about something and I'll ask where the heck he learned that, and of course the answer always is, "Story of the World CD"!!! Highly recommend!

[sagira]

I think the primary reason to do history and geography, and also science, in the early grades is because it's nice to have interesting content studies to spice up what can otherwise be a long slog through basic skills.

 

This. Ds' favorite subject last year was History (have to ask him now), and my favorite subjects to teach are Science and History.

[Ummto4]

If I could do first and second grade over, then I would do only FIAR as social studies, along with stories from history from books like 50 Famous Stories or 50 Famous People and stories in American history (Fritz books).

 

I will reserve SOTW or chronological history only when interest arises.

 

I was feeling insecure about not doing chornological history back then with primary grade kids. But then I found that the level of retention and understanding for chronological history for that age group is not good enough to justify spending time with it. In contrast, history stories and doing social studies in FIAR/homeschool share resulted in better retention, not to mention higher enjoyment aspect.

 

Just my two cents.