KrissiK Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Do you dedicate a whole year to it? Or just a semester? Or do you fit in wherever? I'm trying to map out history here and really having some problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucyfan70 Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I;m doing State History from a Christian Perspective-TN this year. We didn't start until January and I have a feeling the pace we are going we won't be finished until the end of next year. We do it about 3 days a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frugalmama Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Not sure what we'll be using yet, but I do plan to dedicate an entire year to state history. Texas has a LOT of history and events to cover, and really I don't think the 9 week unit that was originally planned in our 4th grade plans will give us enough time to cover it all. I'm not sure how to fit it in though - if we should cover US history first or do them both at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorCalMom Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 We had the same problem here. I didn't have the time to devote a whole year to CA history. And really, I have a list of resources that could take me 2 years to cover! So, we add it in here and there; especially when tied to specific field trips, etc. We try to add it in at least once a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotsofpumpkins Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 We are going to do state history next year. I bought a unit study about our state's history to use as a spine; it's intended to be used 5 days per week for 14 weeks. However, we'll be using it 3 days per week and adding in supplemental literature. So, I'm hoping to stretch it out to take the whole year, or at least most of it. Then we'll figure out where to go from there. I've decided not to worry about long-term plans for history. I'm keeping my dc combined for now and we are going to have fun with it. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeeBeaks Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 1/4 to 1/2 a year I guess. About 1/4 of the year we did California specific, but I also mixed California events into the larger US History picture, and will continue to do that into modern now. Our spotlight on CA was Gold Rush times and we did a nice unit on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Element Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 We're going to do it as a unit study over the summer. We will use library books, an Intellego "Explore the States" unit study from CurrClick, and (maybe) our state's "States by the Numbers" math unit from the Math Mammoth site. (We have purchased the math unit, but I haven't really looked at it yet. It is to be used with grades 3-6, I believe.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatherInWI Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 We did a full year and really enjoyed it! Along with the state history text as a spine, we added in science (a lot on rivers, waterways, and agriculture) and literature (children's lit from our state, or covering the time periods we were discussing). Fun! I miss the elementary years. :sad: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Running the race Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 We've done a co-op class. It takes about 2/3 of the school year. We also take an extended "field trip" of 5 days in June. I live in CA. We could easily spend an entire year on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Every year, I do one lesson per week that covers either civics/government, basic economics, or state history. I find a book from our state homeschool convention, lapbook, or other resource to use for the state history part. Therefore, we usually spend one lesson per week for about a quarter of the year on state history. I think we will get a lot covered if we do a little bit every year. I also hope the kids will retain more information with the yearly review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 We spread it out over time, with field trips and other activities. If I were hsing again in California, I'd use Lesha Myers' book, His California Story, over the course of a year in addition to field trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorCalMom Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 We spread it out over time, with field trips and other activities. If I were hsing again in California, I'd use Lesha Myers' book, His California Story, over the course of a year in addition to field trips. :iagree: ...one of my favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotAVampireLvr Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Our state (MA) is so steeped in history that we plan to do it over the course of two years, once a week. There's just so much to do around here in the way of day trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXBeth Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'd be curious to see, of those who plan to dedicate at least one year solely to state history, what percentage are Texans. I've found that most others are not nearly as obsessed with their state as we are. And I have heard many a Texan say "I'm a Texan first and an American second," but I have never heard anything similar from natives of other states. Anyway, sorry for the rabbit trail. We will do at least a semester of TX history if we continue homeschooling. If DD goes into school from 3rd grade on as planned, we will Afterschool TX history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I love California history. So interesting. That was one of my favorite memories from elementary school, studying the gold rush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMOm Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I plan to devote an entire year to New York state history. Although I live in NC now, I am from NY and am much more fascinated by my own state history than the one I currently live in. The kids will probably take a NC history class at co-op for one semester and I will teach NY history the rest of the second semester and summer. I think it is important for my children to know their heritage as we have a long & proud family history at home in NY. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamakelly Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 We've done the entire year thus far on CA history. It's actually been a nice break. I'm using Beautiful Feet, and adding in extras from the library, and lots of field trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 To me it seems a bit odd because even though I grew up in MA, we never devoted a year to just state history. We just covered it as it came up in U.S. history. I'm having my kids cover CA history as it comes up in U.S. history. I am having DD read Our Golden California by Juanita Houston. I appreciate how the author takes a relatively non-denominational Christian POV that isn't anti-Catholic like many Protestant texts are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2teach0307 Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'm planning on only a semester study of state history with a field trip to the state capital. I'm also figuring that this will be more fun with friends so we'll probably open it up to other homeschoolers and make state notebooks together. I want to spend the other semester doing civics/gov't and go visit our county courthouse, county administration office and mayor's office - keeping it all practical knowledge stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'm thinking about doing just a semester. I've looked on-line at Our Golden California and I just looked up His California Story. I've also looked up Beautiful Feet. I wish I had a whole year to devote, but right now I'm looking at a semester.:( I was just wondering what other people did and how much time they devoted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'm thinking about doing just a semester. I've looked on-line at Our Golden California and I just looked up His California Story. I've also looked up Beautiful Feet. I wish I had a whole year to devote, but right now I'm looking at a semester.:( I was just wondering what other people did and how much time they devoted. I helped proof read the first edition of His California Story, and I was so sad that Lesha wrote it after my dc were taking classes at the c.c. and so it was too late for me to use it with them, lol. Lesha used her own support group as a testing ground for His California Story. Every assignment, every activity, every everything was tried out on actual homeschoolers. I believe she recommends taking a whole year to do it, so that you can work in some of the field trips (and other activities? It's been very long since I've looked through the copy I own, which is stored up in my attic.) I would probably not worry about how long it would take. I'd just read it aloud to the dc, do some of the assignments, and do some field trips. California is a great state for field trips, especially considering that the weather is so good, you can field-trip away all year round. :D We once went to all 21 California missions, 18 of them in just a week. :blink: I would not recommend doing that in a week, lol. We did lots of field trips in San Diego, and some in the S.F. Bay area. I wish we could have done more in Los Angeles, but such is life. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'd be curious to see, of those who plan to dedicate at least one year solely to state history, what percentage are Texans. I've found that most others are not nearly as obsessed with their state as we are. And I have heard many a Texan say "I'm a Texan first and an American second," but I have never heard anything similar from natives of other states. Anyway, sorry for the rabbit trail. We will do at least a semester of TX history if we continue homeschooling. If DD goes into school from 3rd grade on as planned, we will Afterschool TX history. I went to college in TX and found this to be true. I was very surprised at the emphasis on Tx history. I grew up in NJ and state history was always an expansion on the US History we were doing. Which is how I plan to cover it - as we cover a topic in US History we'll spend some time concentrating on what happened in NJ during that time period. With lots of field trips of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrijo Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 I'm thinking about doing just a semester. I've looked on-line at Our Golden California and I just looked up His California Story. I've also looked up Beautiful Feet. I wish I had a whole year to devote, but right now I'm looking at a semester.:( I was just wondering what other people did and how much time they devoted. Jennifer Steward does a unit study with a notebooking approach that looks really good and takes only a few weeks. Check it out here: http://www.unitstudies.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In the Rain Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 My dd did the Moving Beyond the Page state unit. She used some great resources, and learned a lot, but it seemed disorganized. I'm ordering the 3rd grade Studies Weekly for my younger dd. It focuses on history and heroes. I'll have my older dd read through it also. If we are still here the following year, the girls will use the 4th grade Studies Weekly, which is a chronological overview of history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 (edited) I think it is interesting how some states have devoted a large portion of social studies to their state, and how others have neglected it completely. I did some of my growing up in Plymouth, MA and believe it or not, we didn't really cover our state history. When it came up--as it so often did--in the U.S. history books, it just...I don't know was glossed over. It all was a fairy tale, so...I guess it didn't really matter what took place close by, and what took place farther away. It was just stuff on paper we swallowed and regurgitated onto a test. No one cared, even the teacher. We and she had our jobs to do, and that was to have us regurgitate the first half of the book before June. I did some of my growing up in Bermuda and now that I think about it, Bermuda history class was SO different :-0 We were SO connected to it. We had a horrible middle school teacher who didn't even show up most of the time, leaving us unattended, but STILL somehow, we...were connected to what was in that book. Hmmm...as I write this I have some things to think about. I've been doing a lot of geography studies with my tutoring students and with my own self-education. I've been toying around with where to focus next after the zones and biomes and the 5 themes of geography. I think jumping WAY down to state study, is actually the next logical step for us. I was getting lost in continent study and worrying about how none of my students or I seem to have any connection to U.S. history. I think we need to start with out city, then our state, then the US and then a more complete continent study. So I think we need to MASTER blobs, oceans, and zones. Then I need to introduce each continent just enough to solidly introduce the 5 themes of geography. And we need a solid introduction of the biomes that focuses on WHAT the biomes are, but barely covers WHERE they are, and what they are like in each INDIVIDUAL continent. I need to stop the continent DRAWING for now, and just use a few worksheets. Then drop WAY down to the city and work our way back up. The vintage geography texts started with "home geography". Then the next level books started with the zones and worked it's way down methodically. I think with older students, it IS good to start with the zones, but right where that 1st section of the books stops, is where I think I need to drop right down to the content missed in the earlier books. Lots to think about today. But I think US History can't be fully connected with, until a student connects with their closer home. Edited May 28, 2012 by Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SebastianCat Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 We spent a year studying FL state history and it was a phenominal year! In the public schools here, FL history is studied in 4th grade, so we were able to find a TON of resources. We did our Florida history year in between Sonlight Cores C (2nd year of World History) and D (1st year of American History). We'll start back up with D in the fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicMom Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 We are doing a unit this summer using State History from a Christian Perspective. Looks good. http://www.statehistory.net/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelmama1209 Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 I think we need to start with out city, then our state, then the US and then a more complete continent study. I LOVE this idea!!! my plan has been to do a 4 year history cycle (2nd semester of 2nd- 1st semester of 6th), then 2.5 years of state/american history, then another 4 year cycle. the city study will fit perfectly in that 2nd semester of 6th, then a year of state in 7th, and a year of american in 8th. I live in and grew up in florida and we did a whole year of florida history in 4th grade. i still have my "florida history notebook" we had to make that year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 How to Draw ... Sights and Symbols series looks really good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 We're studying California this summer, just with good books and a bunch of field trips! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Literary Mom Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 To me it seems a bit odd because even though I grew up in MA, we never devoted a year to just state history. We just covered it as it came up in U.S. history. I'm having my kids cover CA history as it comes up in U.S. history. I am having DD read Our Golden California by Juanita Houston. I appreciate how the author takes a relatively non-denominational Christian POV that isn't anti-Catholic like many Protestant texts are. This is very helpful. I'm Protestant but I prefer an ecumenically-friendly approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.