SarahPotter Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 6 year old DS is bored out of his mind with Heart of Dakota's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. I'm looking for something fun for him to do without knowing he is 'doing school' and easy for me to prep for. What would you suggest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Science kits are good. You can also watch a lot of documentaries, both for history and science. Ariel loves Horrible Histories, and Sid the Science Kid used to be one of her favorites. There's also Bill Nye the Science Guy and The Happy Scientist, or Liberty's Kids. Maybe some of the Home School in the Woods things like the Great Empires set would make history more fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 I'd recommend Nancy Larson Science (many do it one level ahead of their grade level) and Story of the World 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mert Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 I had planned on doing an official (structured and well-planned) curriculum for science and have been collecting books and hands on activities to go along with a year of life science. But I haven't used the curriculum yet. We just opened one of those here's how your body works books, and ds started talking about the skeleton. So we started there... reading picture books, playing an online game and doing projects that I found on Pinterest. When we finished up, we opened that same book, and ds picked muscles after perusing the table of contents. It's been pretty easy and laid back so far. History kinda worked out the same way. I had all these grand plans for doing SotW with a fancy chart of all the books we would read and a list to request from the library a week ahead of time and with all the materials for the activities from the guide purchased and divided into ziplock bags according to chapter. HAH!! I already had a set of the Veritas Press history cards so we've been using that as our spine and just reading books (well the Bible so far) to support each card. When we finally get to things in SotW, we'll use that to read, do the map work and some of the AG things. Both subjects are coming together quite easily, and ds just thinks we're playing around with it. Sorry if this was more than you were asking for. Typing it out makes it seem alot "more" than it really is. ~hth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Have you read TWTM? I found their first grade suggestions for science and history to be just right, and not terribly school-ish. Read books, talk about it (stealth narrating), maybe draw parts of it, do a project. I strayed from just SOTW as my kids grew and we kept adding grammar stage kids to an existing cycle, but I'd still start out with SOTW again if I had the choice. After a few detours I'm still doing WTM-style science with my little ones, no matter what the bigger kids are doing. We often use different spines, but the method stays the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahPotter Posted November 1, 2012 Author Share Posted November 1, 2012 (edited) So you are telling me we can just read books and do whatever related 'project' or 'activity' strikes our fancy?! Listening to books on CD has been the best teaching tool I've discovered for my DS. Our library storytime hour has been the next best thing. Edited November 1, 2012 by SarahPotter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 So you are telling me we can just read books and do whatever related 'project' or 'activity' strikes our fancy?! For first grade, I think this is a pretty simple (yet perfectly adequate) way to go. But if you want something more scheduled, look at Elemental's Sassafras Science; it's a storybook, but you can get a "guide book" to go along with it, to document the adventures, notes about animals/habitats. I am not using a formal history program for my DD6/1st. We're reading through the Little House books and talking about the time period, doing some projects, occasionally making a note on our map of the Ingall's travels. For science, we're using the ACSI student text, and I'm pretty pleased with it. We take 2 weeks to go through a Unit, supplementing with library books and dvds. It's a nice, broad overview of basic science topics, especially enjoyable for my animal-loving kiddo. And the price is right. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lluv Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 (edited) So you are telling me we can just read books and do whatever related 'project' or 'activity' strikes our fancy?! Listening to books on CD has been the best teaching tool I've discovered for my DS. Our library storytime hour has been the next best thing. I know right?! It took me a TOO LONG to realize that I could do this with my DS!:tongue_smilie: Last year was sooo stressful because I was really trying to make things harder than they needed to be. I recently read the huge thread on here about "relaxed homeschooling" and I FINALLY realized that ONLY reading books and watching DVDs would be ok for science and history. Now we're having a much better- much more enjoyable year!:D My DS loves listening to audiobooks as well! SOTW and other history texts are on CD too! Edited November 1, 2012 by lluv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbbieJack Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 My DD is in first grade this year and we are using SOTW 1 for history and she LOVES it. Science we are using Singapore Early-bird science along with interest based unit studies . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy to monkeys Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 Elemental Science. Fun--easy to get done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miracleone Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 6 year old DS is bored out of his mind with Heart of Dakota's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. I'm looking for something fun for him to do without knowing he is 'doing school' and easy for me to prep for. What would you suggest? Same as my dd here. I need something easy with less prep work. I am considering Simply Charlotte Mason's 106 Days of Creation. Has anyone done this? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 I 2nd using WTM methods. Yes, it is reading books and doing projects. But there is some skills work worked into it that I like too that doesn't take a lot of prep work: the written narration, for which drawing a picture of the story and telling what is happening counts sometimes. But we did it systematically. My dds had a notebook at the end of the year. For science there was a drawing of every experiment we did, with my handwriting at the bottom telling in her words what we did and what she learned about the project. As the year went on, she could do the labeling of things in the pictures and the title. Eventually she could begin to write sentences about the picture and then I could help out and finish. And for history, where the narrations were longer, I took them from her orally, wrote them down neatly, and then she had to copy them into her own handwriting neatly to put in her notebook. All we need to do these notebooks is paper, pencils, markers and a 3 ring binder to put them in. If you buy the SOTW A.G. you put in the maps and the coloring sheets w/the narration page. Story of the World and the Usborne Science Encyclopedias as spines as suggested in WTM work perfectly for this. I would re read the chapters in grammar stage. We have continued w/WTM style history and science all the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyraTooters Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 I just looked at the Sassafrass Science Adventures and they lookmprettyndarn cool! Anyone used those before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommaOfalotta Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 We are using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey book 1 (Life). Every lesson is a lab of some sort, very hands on but convenient too. Also very affordable. I also purchased a grow-a-frog kit, a butterfly kit, an owl pellet dissection kit, some field guides and some references. That's our 1st grade science! We are using SOTW1 for history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacus2 Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 I really like NOEO science. We read real books and did interesting, easy experiment kits. We also love Sonlight for history/read-alouds. History and science are "storytime" at our house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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