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Am I failing as an eclectic, classically leaning HSer if...


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...I can't get it going with history and science?

 

I know science is the bane of many HSers' existence, and we DO study science in our own eclectic way, but our lack of history studies makes me feel as if I'm a failure. History is just what homeschoolers do, right? So why do I have such a difficult time with that subject and wish I had a ton of money to enroll my daughters in a class so that I don't have to deal with it? :blush:

 

My 8 year old glazes over when I read SOTW, my 9 year old is ok with it, but prefers to just read the history encyclopedia on her own. I have been too scatterbrained and self-absorbed to properly engage them with the SOTW activity book. For a minute, I looked at TOG and then realized quickly that if I can't do SOTW, then TOG would send me flying over the edge.

 

So, am I failing? Or better yet, how can I fix this problem, if it is even a problem?

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Take a minute to stop, recollect, and look ahead in the activity book. Bookmark the activities you think your kids would like and get them ready this week so you have them in a week or two.

 

I like SOTW, but I do find it's laid out horribly. I'd like a larger activity book, with the book lists, reading, maps, activities, and coloring pages in chronological order - TOGETHER! We're using a smoother guide this year (learning-adventures) and it makes quite a bit of difference in how I plan. If SOTW isn't working for you, find a curriculum that you're using that does work and look at it critically. Why does it work for you? What makes it easy? Then look for those same qualities in science and history picks.

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Can your kids read SOTW themselves? I found my son liked it a lot better when HE read it. Eventually, I started having him read SOTW for "history time", and then we discussed (I preread the chapter).

 

Reading the encyclopedia and getting some extra books on the subject works too.

 

It's awfully hard to mess up history in the elementary years. Even random history books from the library would be more than a lot of schools teach early on. :tongue_smilie:

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People on this forum seem to love their history, but not all homeschoolers put as much focus on it as this forum would indicate. I know lots of families who only do history once a week as a required subject. When I was being homeschooled I never did more than 2 hours a week of history. Plenty of homeschools are literature based, or science based, or focus on other areas. My homeschool philosophies are very focused on the ability to think and analyze and discover, and frankly, memorizing history facts just doesn't fit that goal (but researching a culture and figuring out why they were the way they were does)

 

Your homeschool is what you make it. As long as you manage to cover the general knowledge everyone should have (a basic timeline of important history and some reasonable understanding of modern history by high school) it doesn't have to be a main focus. For lots of homeschoolers, math is that subject that is done because it has to be, and is disliked. Maybe for you, math is great fun, but history is that necessary evil.

 

Don't base your homeschool on someone elses, and remember this forum is just one subset of homeschoolers, if you went on a natural learning forum or an interest-led secular forum you'd find completely different attitudes to subjects than what you find here.

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Your homeschool is what you make it. As long as you manage to cover the general knowledge everyone should have (a basic timeline of important history and some reasonable understanding of modern history by high school) it doesn't have to be a main focus. For lots of homeschoolers, math is that subject that is done because it has to be, and is disliked. Maybe for you, math is great fun, but history is that necessary evil.

 

Don't base your homeschool on someone elses, and remember this forum is just one subset of homeschoolers, if you went on a natural learning forum or an interest-led secular forum you'd find completely different attitudes to subjects than what you find here.

 

I should know this because I've been lurking here for several years now, but I guess I have a thick skull. :tongue_smilie: The thing is, this board is chock full of wise and quite knowledgeable parents who have put history as a forefront in their educational goals, and I am impressed by these people's posts and their children's achievements. Essentially, I'd love to emulate that, not necessarily copy exactly what they do, but establish a more neo-classical, history-rich homeschool environment for my daughters. There's that little nagging thing of not being "into" history myself and finding that my own history knowledge is lacking, though.

 

I'm going to start setting more attainable goals as a start. <crossing fingers>

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Getting the activity book along with books from the library as app said is a good idea if you still want to go with SOTW. Reading it for them self and discussing it with you is another good suggestion. Maybe the CDs. But sometimes SOTW, no matter how much we want it to work, just is not making the cut. I tried using it and doing it with the above suggestions. I even used it as a jumping off point (as in knowing what to study next) and just using books for that time. Never worked. If your child is using the encyclopedia, then have them narrate something they learned and write it down or draw a picture and add a caption...notebook this and you will be amazed at all they learned at the end of the year. The cool thing is they will go through the time periods again and again so no need to worry about lots of depth right now.

 

Another idea...Ancient history was not grabbing my dd. I decided to study geography and American History instead and the switch was great. I figured she did not need World History just yet, study something she is surrounded by. We did a brief overview of AH last year and this year we are using Children Just Like Me as our jumping point for World Geography/Cultures. Next year we are using the American Girl Doll books as our jumping point to restudy American History in depth. Eventually we will get to Ancients and World History but there were other things to study for now. Don't think you HAVE to study Ancients and World History now, your children are young, make history fun and enjoyable. Go to the library and let them pick out a book on a place, time, or biography and go from there. Do mini lessons like this and let them enjoy history. There will be enough time later to get back to World History or the 4 yr cycle.

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Not everyone here puts history at the forefront though. I actually try to not have history take over my homeschool. I do think history is important, but so are a bunch of other subjects. ;)

 

My oldest LOVES history, so he reads a lot of history books, but actual history time in school is fairly minimal. Ok, we're doing Sonlight, so that makes it everyday this year, but that's history and literature combined, and it doesn't take very long. :)

 

History can easily be done with picture books from the library, if that would be more interesting to your kids. Just find what works for you and them. Anything you DO will be better than the history that isn't getting done at all, kwim?

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:iagree: We don't officially start history here until closer to 4th grade.

 

Hmm, this might be a good approach for my 8 year old (3rd grade). Putting off formal history studies and simply reading and talking might work best for her.

 

FWIW, I don't think that every parent here on TWTM puts history front and center for their children, but many do and I've come to believe (maybe erroneously) that it's contributing to their success.

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FWIW, I don't think that every parent here on TWTM puts history front and center for their children, but many do and I've come to believe (maybe erroneously) that it's contributing to their success.

 

Hmmm... I'm not sure how those kids are more successful than the ones that are putting science or math or another subject first? :confused:

 

The success probably comes from the fact that the children are reading a LOT, possibly writing often, and their parent is invested in the children's education. None of that necessitates a history focus. Some here do a Latin centered focus and have equally successful children, for example. :)

 

I feel like my oldest son is very successful. He reads a lot. I don't put a focus on history. He just reads all.the.time. That is what is making him successful.

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Hmm, this might be a good approach for my 8 year old (3rd grade). Putting off formal history studies and simply reading and talking might work best for her.

 

We had started and stopped history several times prior to that. Looking back on it, I realize that my kids were just too little. My son has been a really late bloomer. :o FWIW, when we finally did start (my oldest daughter was 10 and my son was 9), they really understood the history readings and retained a LOT. They just finished the Ancients over the summer and started the logic stage Middle Ages schedule using CHOLL.

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It's awfully hard to mess up history in the elementary years. Even random history books from the library would be more than a lot of schools teach early on. :tongue_smilie:

 

:iagree:

 

This is true for both science and history. My kids were in ps through 4th/5th grade. Their school's test scores ranked the school as one of the top in the state and high nationally.

 

In ps history isn't history, it is social studies. They learn topically. Around MLK day, they study MLK and civil rights, around Thanksgiving they learn about pilgrims and indians. Fourth grade was state history year and they only learned about our state. Fifth grade they hit geography which I was happy for, but still no history.

 

Science too wasn't taught at all until third grade. Then in grades 3-5 it was exploratory. There were projects and hands on, but totally unit based. Nothing linked together and if you missed it all it would not make you more or less prepared for when they started more serious science which was 6th grade.

 

Enjoy history the way your kids learn it. Enjoy science however you can get it in. As they reach Jr. High (and yours are approaching that), then start to look at what they need to be prepared for the high school subjects so it isn't culture shock when they have to study hard, understand information and draw conclusions from it.

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The first time through the cycle, DD proclaimed SOTW 1 "boring" but liked KHE (go figure!) so I used that plus library resources as her "spine". I think the issue with SOTW was that it doesn't have any pictures. The original edition of TWTM was published prior to SOTW, so the encyclopedia was the "spine".

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Try something else - there are tons of great read-alouds for both hx and science- CC's history sentences are catchy. VP cards can be read, memorized, etc. and timelines can be a hands-on thing.

Personally, I'd start with reading. Also, there are some good web-sites and magazines. I wouldn't limit to "kids" stuff- Nat'l Geo and Ranger Rick, etc.

NOAA and NASA sites are interesting, too.

Decide what your goals are for your kids. You are only failing if you don't reach the objective that your family is going for.

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SOTW isn't the be all end all of history books. We tried it, neither one of us liked it, and we ditched it after a few weeks. Ds wasn't learning history, he was bored and not engaged at all. We switched around until we found something we liked and now he actually learns history because he enjoys it and his brain is "on" when we're doing it. We follow the BCP (Baltimore Curriculum Project - which follows the Core Knowledge Sequence) and we supplement with whatever library books we can find on the topics we cover.

 

As for history-centered homeschool kids being more successful I don't really buy it personally. I think most homeschool kids, no matter the teaching style, do better than other kids because of very involved parents. I know HSers in general out-perform their public school peers however I believe if you only compared HSers to public school kids with very involved parents the scoring/grades/achievement would be almost identical.

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The main focus of elementary years should be a solid base of reading, writing, spelling, and math.

IMO some people who have made history their primary focus have come to regret it. I do an awful lot of history and a good amount of science, but those subjects drfinitely take second place to the three R's. If my kids were struggling with reading, writing, or math, I would consider postponing or limiting the history, science, and other subjects until our most important subjects were going well.

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People on this forum seem to love their history, but not all homeschoolers put as much focus on it as this forum would indicate. I know lots of families who only do history once a week as a required subject. When I was being homeschooled I never did more than 2 hours a week of history. Plenty of homeschools are literature based, or science based, or focus on other areas. My homeschool philosophies are very focused on the ability to think and analyze and discover, and frankly, memorizing history facts just doesn't fit that goal (but researching a culture and figuring out why they were the way they were does)

 

Your homeschool is what you make it. As long as you manage to cover the general knowledge everyone should have (a basic timeline of important history and some reasonable understanding of modern history by high school) it doesn't have to be a main focus. For lots of homeschoolers, math is that subject that is done because it has to be, and is disliked. Maybe for you, math is great fun, but history is that necessary evil.

 

Don't base your homeschool on someone elses, and remember this forum is just one subset of homeschoolers, if you went on a natural learning forum or an interest-led secular forum you'd find completely different attitudes to subjects than what you find here.

 

:iagree: It has taken me a long time to learn this lesson, and I still don't always have it down. We're NOT history focused. We don't do history chronologically. Nor do we stick to one science discipline a year. We're more interest-led in both those fields. It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that this is how my particular children learn best--yours may learn very differently. We do actually do a fair bit of both, but approach it from a slightly different angle. For example, we're reading a Landmark book about the Wright brothers right now, because it interests the kids. Dd has asked for a book on Sacajawea after that. Then who knows? In science, we pick a book to work from, which at the moment is The World in a Drop of Water.

 

The main focus of elementary years should be a solid base of reading, writing, spelling, and math.

IMO some people who have made history their primary focus have come to regret it. I do an awful lot of history and a good amount of science, but those subjects drfinitely take second place to the three R's. If my kids were struggling with reading, writing, or math, I would consider postponing or limiting the history, science, and other subjects until our most important subjects were going well.

 

:iagree: By my law and proclamation, we work on establishing a solid foundation in the "3R's" every day. History and science are gravy.

 

Why not make a series of historical fiction chapter book read alouds and do some projects to do with them?

 

Or just pick a different spine.

 

A couple of links for you based on this idea (which I wholeheartedly second)... A Book in Time, which has game, craft and activity links too, and Valerie's Living Books (not so much fiction, but excellent vintage books on all kinds of topics!)

Edited by momto2Cs
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My kids LOVE the SOTW cds. We listen to them in the car during the week as we drive around to different activities. We use the Usborne internet linked encyclopedia for the 6th grader. We love the activity book. Our literature assignments are generally based on where we are in history. We certainly aren't history focused. We do it twice a week per the recommendation in twtm. We do science on the other days. It does not have to be all or nothing. A good balance of subjects is nice. I was reading a yahoo article about some Roman tiles unearthed in Turkey. Many of the comments about the article were debates over who owned them now. Many people decided that the Romans owned them now. FACEPALM!!!

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Two.options :

 

Listen to SOTW on CD while driving.

 

Pick out some great biographies for you to read aloud or have the kids read them and narrate to you.

 

Many people have history as the backbone of their homeschool. I have literature as our backbone. We learn history, but it doesn't mean we use the time period we are in to determine literature choices. Don't tell anyone, but we aren't even in a time period. We are doing basic chronological American history through biography. I am going to simultaneously go through world history starting next year. We do history twice a week for 15 minutes. :tongue_smilie:

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Sorry I neglected to come back and respond, but the last few days have been hectic. I appreciate the responses.

 

Right now, I have to focus on what our goals are, because they are a bit loose at the moment. Having clearer goals will probably go really far with getting more history and science in. It's funny because in the beginning of September, I did have clearer ideas of what I wanted to do for the next few weeks and months, but I had some stressful events occur and it threw me off. Whenever I get off track, we still do the basics of math and what falls under the umbrella of language arts, but the extras fall to the side. Gotta work on that.

 

Thanks again for all of the advice. :)

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