sweetpea3829 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Can we have a dialogue on teaching history to early elementary students? Because I am really having a hard time wrapping my mind around teaching this subject. My two schoolers are both 1st grade. We've been attempting to follow the Classical approach and so we began studying The Ancients this school year. We are using TOG. I'm just spinning my wheels with history in general! I don't feel like my children are old enough to grasp most of the historical information being presented to them, even at the LG level in TOG. It feels like I am wasting our time and I would be better off to wait until they are older. My approach in other subjects is more hands-on. In science, we have a lapbook we are working on, and many hands-on elements that directly relate to the topic we are studying and help cement the knowledge for my kiddos. In history, the hands on activities seem fewer and further in between, and less relevant to the topic we are studying. For example, in TOG, one of the suggested hands-on activities during the Ancient Egyptians unit was to create a paddle doll. Well I'm just not seeing how that's really relatable to remembering important facts and information on Ancient Egyptians. It feels like "busy work" to me. So I thought about doing a lapbook for history...but I feel like a history lapbook is probably more appropriate for UG at least. Particularly due to the quantity of writing that it would involve. Our science lapbook has SOME cut and paste factual information (such as the names of the types of cells, etc) but there are also a lot of diagrams, and human body models (like the muscle contraction model). So anyways, now that I'm totally rambling, I'm sitting down to do some lesson planning for History and I'm just totally stuck. I feel like we're not really ready to be learning about Ancients right now. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, I feel like I'm wasting our time teaching ancients right now because my still very young LGers are mostly sitting there with blank looks on their faces. Probably because they're too young. And probably because I'm not finding hands-on activities that are relevant. So what else can we do? Bible stories? Skip history altogether for now and study cultures? Focus on geography? We did a short two week long unit on basic geography, just to give the kids some framework on where things are in the world. That went swimmingly...we made a 3-D salt-dough map (there's that relevant hands-on activity). Or should I really stick with this, buckle my seatbelt and spend some time googling history approaches and projects and whatnot? What approaches are you using, or have you used, or have you seen others using with LG kids, especially young LG kids? And if you were preparing to teach Week 5 in TOG (From Babel to Ur) what would your approach look like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 And one more thing... I TOTALLY wish we could afford to travel. Because history would feel so much more real to "me" as a teacher, if it were something we could see in person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Well, my grade 1 and K kids are really enjoying SOTW, the AG and various hands on activities that go with it. I think they are getting a lot out of it and understanding things about history. Of course they are understanding it at their level. I have found various other books and we have also been doing a SOTW lapbook thing with other pages added in. Not a lot of writing, and lots of fun. Satori Smiles has a lot of activities that go with SOTW too, and you could match the activities to what you are doing in TOG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roanna Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 This may not be anything close to the answer you are looking for but I just recently realized that teaching history is not a big value to me in the early years. We did SL this year and I have enjoyed reading and learning myself, but I just don't think it's so necessary for a 6 yr old to have his curriculum built around time periods. I recently searched for a curriculum that didnt do this but still used living books and one I came up with that was still engaging and classical was Memoria Press. I'm still making sure it's the best choice for next year but I have definitely steered from history based curriculums, I prefer to enjoy literature and the basics in the early years. He watches the history channel religiously so I am not worried at all that he will be ignorant of historical events until we make history a greater part of his curriculum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Most likely we'll be reading history only as a story, because we have to read and talk about something and it might as well be that. We'll borrow books, look at pictures, watch dvds, maybe do projects and colouring in. I'm not expecting anything from my child for the next few years (language delayed) other than pleasant passing of time and some new vocabulary. I think with the really little kids, the whole point is for them to like the stories well enough that they don't threaten to run away from home when you later expect them to study it. But my kiddos will happily listen to just about anything. If you can think of better things to do than history, do them. They have their whole lives to learn it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily_Grace Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I teach history that age with a lot of hands on activities that are presented BEFORE the story lesson each time. I tried it the other way at the beginning, but it didn't keep my kids engaged and made the story disconnected from the activity. And I'll be honest, most curricula don't measure up to what I need so I glean from elsewhere - www.mrdonn.org is a great site, and the Horrible Histories on Youtube make it more fun. Your example was Ancient Egypt. Here's what we did: -lesson started with Egypt School. Each kid was given a clay tablet, stylus, and taught basic rules and heiroglyphs. Then tried to take notes. :laugh: (basic civilization study) -we continued with burying our dead. We used the book "You Wouldn't Want To Be An Egyptian Mummy!" for step by step instructions using first me, then a chicken. Cannubis jars already premade, since that didn't add much to the lesson. -we built our pyramid (and monuments) by doing a science experiment: pulling a rock across the ground and then pulling the same rock over a bed of skewers. -we took over our kingdom with strategic planning (mapwork) and made our crowns. And inbetween we watched videos and listend to Jim Weiss tell Egyptian myths. I am all for getting movement and projects into work but they have to directly relate. It's okay for the project to feel like it's not making sense at the beginning of the lesson as long as the kids have an aha! moment sometime during that hour. Last month I sent a bunch of kids through Ellis Island at co-op, making them come in one at a time, changing the spelling of their names, giving them cards depending on whether they were through, quarrantined or dead. It wasn't until 20 minutes in that they understood what was going on. But they remember. That feeling will stay with them as they read through stories of immigrants and the growth of the U.S. and add to the impact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violamama Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Our history is probably the kids' favorite subject, because it's mostly memorizing a timeline (CC song), reading timeline cards, and supplementing that with reading the Usborne illustrated history encyclopedia. They retain a surprising amount. We've listened a bit to SOTW, but haven't really done much with it yet since we're using the timeline as our anchor anyway. We're also focusing more on learning to read and math at this point, but as soon as we can I'd love to expand our history time. We've done a few side projects (mummy, etc.) and we do actually have a lapbook (related to CC) which they like. We tie in our geography (which CC has laid out for the most part) and even some of our science/math when we can. I do think (hope?) that when they get older some of the things they learn now just by listening to exciting stories will stick. I see them making connections all over the place with our reading & how they view the world, and for that alone I love history with littles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I feel the same way, OP. I just can't get interested or excited teaching my little guys formal history or ancient history in particular. To be honest, there's nothing that I want my littlest students to remember about ancient history at that age. So...I don't "do" history. We watch documentaries and I read them historical picture books, but both are focused on American historical figures. Those stories seem more real to them. My oldest loved the Pioneer time period, probably because we live on the prairie and we can easily imagine Laura Ingalls running around outside our house. We are slowly touring all her old homestead sights, and that really brings history alive. My 3rd grader this year is reading through the Childhood of Famous American series, and he is connecting with the people he meets in the series. I consider this a successful history year for him. My thoughts are colored by the fact that I just don't do projects. I spend my teaching time teaching the 3Rs one-on-one, reading aloud, and spending a little time with my toddler. I have to prioritize my time, and history and science projects just don't make the cut here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 My biggest struggle with teaching history at the k-3 level is that most of the suggested resources use complex sentences that the student is often not ready to comprehend when read aloud, never mind read by themselves. Usually, these are students without any understanding of what history even IS, never mind having any background information of specific events. And so many resources use vocabulary that the student has never heard, and do not TEACH that vocabulary. I often prepare copy work for the student using very short sentences that explicitly teach vocabulary. I scour the library for picture books and sometimes just show the student a few of the pictures to go along with the copywork I prepared. Dover coloring books are a good resource I have used in the past, but I cannot afford them right now. In the past, I didn't expend much teaching time or money on content subjects. My boys and I learned content by osmosis and were able to sift through and organize that content without a lot of explicit instruction. My tutoring students are not able to do this, and for the first time I have had to learn to provide systematic instruction in science and history. It's been an eye-opening experience for me. I'm burnt out and broke right now. I've latched onto the original (early 1990's) version of the What Your _ Grader Needs to Know series, and for better or worse am using that as my spine for all content subjects. Each year there are 3 social studies strands taught: world history, American history, and geography. Grade 1 focuses on Egypt, Early American History and the continents. The overlap of the Egyptian and South American architecture is further developed in the art section, which is a nice touch. I don't know if any of this helps. I'm still less than a year in the trenches of trying to systematically teach history at this level. I mostly just wanted to let you know that I feel your pain, and to validate that this IS harder than most well known books make it out to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Classical Book Worm Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I found these these articles VERY helpful. The 4-year neo-classical model is only one approach, and you don't have to conform to it if it doesn't work for your family. Memoria Press does not teach chronological history. http://www.memoriapr...onological.html Beautiful Feet Books advocates American history first: http://bfbooks.com/Why-Teach-American-History-First another from Beautiful Feet: http://bfbooks.com/When-Should-I-Teach-Ancient-History Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I think it will really depend on the child. I have no problem with waiting on history until a child is older and ready, and I have no problem doing history full on in first grade for a child who is ready. I've done it both ways for two different children. My oldest was more than ready for SOTW in 1st grade, and he really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it - without even doing projects! He's my reader. He reads anything and everything. I just picked out interesting library books as recommended in the AG, and he read those on his own (I read SOTW out loud, though he was capable of reading it himself). Now when we had started, we were using Biblioplan, and it was just too much. When I switched to just SOTW as our daily reading, and having extra library books there for if he wanted to read them (they were not assigned), we both enjoyed it a whole lot more. Less is more! My middle son is not ready for a full on study of history like his older brother was. We'll probably start Ancients when he's in 2nd grade. I'm still undecided about 1st, but honestly, it doesn't matter to me if he gets history in 1st or not. I do not consider it important, and he'd probably do better with another year full of classic stories and such. All that said, I also don't have my kids memorize a bunch of dates and people, nor do I expect them to retain things from week to week at these ages. My goal is to expose them to history. If they enjoy what we're reading, I feel successful. My oldest does remember a lot of things about history because he reads about it a lot, but I would be fine with it if he didn't retain those things. This is just our first pass through history. It's an introduction. Our next pass will get more in depth, and the final pass will be where I expect more retention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corduroy Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I teach history that age with a lot of hands on activities that are presented BEFORE the story lesson each time. I tried it the other way at the beginning, but it didn't keep my kids engaged and made the story disconnected from the activity. I think that is brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I have definitely had similar thoughts. I really struggled through Ancients last year. I think my dd enjoyed some of the projects and read alouds, but I think more than anything it was the "experience" she enjoyed on the rare occasions she enjoyed it. I kept that in mind for this year's planning. We are doing year 2: Middle Ages, and we are even doing history "chronologically" but I am focusing more on it being a fun experience and training ground for skill subjects. They listen to SOTW on CD while doing a coloring page (I have zero expectation for retention of this). We are really enjoying Biblioplan because I can pick out one or two topics from the Companion we can focus on. We are doing a lot of historical fiction and picture books with some of the Nest DVD's thrown in, and projects when we can. My kids are really enjoying history this year. Whereas last year dd hated it and I thought she got nothing out of it...I really felt like it was a wasted year. This year, my focus has been on the experience, not the information, so if we get to the end and they retain nothing, they have still enjoyed the process, had fun learning, great cuddle time for read alouds...and truthfully they are retaining way more than last year. SOTW as is or regular 4 year cycle curriculum for lower grammar stage tends to be more breadth than depth and I have learned that the opposite for my kids is best. We are digging deep into castles and knights, bow and arrows, etc but we will miss a lot and I am ok with that. I think for the next 2 years we will focus on mostly US history with a few main world topics thrown in, but we will mostly approach it as we did this year, covering major biographies or topics. I am focusing on enjoying the experience and making learning fun. The idea of pegs, but I am ok having less pegs that they enjoyed placing. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 The Usborne Book of World History has been mine and my kids' favorite book resource for learning about ancient history. It is colorful, has many pictures and contains bite-sized chunks of information which is easily digested by little ones. I am using it this year with my 7 year old. My goal in the early covering of ancient history is just exposure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshin Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I think it's important to decide what the goals are when you want to teach history to young children before you even think about buying, designing or using a curriculum. The goal is probably different in a lot of families. With my children, I had a simple goal: by the end of fourth grade I wanted them to be able to make an educated guess about cultural items from different time periods and have a rudimentary grasp of the vast passage of time. I figured this would give them a strong feeling of familiarity when we launched into the second rotation, making it easier to get into the meat of the studies at the older age instead of wasting time on just setting up the scene, if you will. Thus far with my eldest son, I have found this to be true and so I am repeating the process with my younger. For example, if they saw a statue at a museum a year later, I wanted them to be able to say, "Hey mom, that looks Greek or Roman or something," or if they see someone wearing a cartouche necklace and recognize it as "Egyptian words." At this age, I didn't care if they remembered names, dates or were even super accurate pointing something out on a map. Our timeline book and following the rotation provided for the grasp of time part of the goal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roanna Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I hope I can bring a slice of humor...my friend and I were discussing this topic earlier this week before I saw this post start and we discussed what history we learned as children. I told her the only thing I can recall with learning history was ... What is Cinco de Mayo and the significance of Martin Luther King. I believe the only reasons we talked about them was because we either had a day off or had a party for it. Anyhow, I feel quite well rounded now even though my education severely lacked in content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I did not feel my 1st grader was ready for Ancients -- and certainly not ready for SOTW or MOH or any of the others I looked at. We didn't do any history/geography/etc this first semester. After Christmas we'll be adding in a state study lapbook (state motto, bird, seal, brief history, etc). I think that's a good segue into American history next year for 2nd (going to do Elem, History w/ a K & 2nd), then a world geography year. Then we'll be all set to dive into ancients with a 4th and 2nd grader. *For me* that sounded much more reasonable and do-able... I have no suggestions how to make TOG work for you now, but good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 I feel the same way, OP. I just can't get interested or excited teaching my little guys formal history or ancient history in particular. To be honest, there's nothing that I want my littlest students to remember about ancient history at that age. So...I don't "do" history. We watch documentaries and I read them historical picture books, but both are focused on American historical figures. Those stories seem more real to them. My oldest loved the Pioneer time period, probably because we live on the prairie and we can easily imagine Laura Ingalls running around outside our house. We are slowly touring all her old homestead sights, and that really brings history alive. My 3rd grader this year is reading through the Childhood of Famous American series, and he is connecting with the people he meets in the series. I consider this a successful history year for him. My thoughts are colored by the fact that I just don't do projects. I spend my teaching time teaching the 3Rs one-on-one, reading aloud, and spending a little time with my toddler. I have to prioritize my time, and history and science projects just don't make the cut here. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one that feels this way. Another poster mentioned that they didn't remember a whole lot from history from when they were in school, and I feel the same. Except for American History, which was more "real" to me because it was closer. It's funny you mention the Pioneer time period. We do not live anywhere near the prairies, but the town we DO live in has a very large old order mennonite community. In fact, all of our direct neighbors are mennonites and their lifestyle is very similar to that of the Ingalls family (with some modern conveniences thrown in, of course). So we've been listening to the Little House books on audiotape and the kids have been enjoying that. I think we may shelve TOG and ancient history for now. Finish up our science study for the year and then I'll reassess. It would be nice if we could just make it about the process, and not worry about what's actually being learned. But the truth is, we are a bit swamped and overwhelmed right now and our direct teaching time is too valuable to spend it on topics that they are really too young to "get". I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to add my youngest two learners into the rotation, and I'm feeling guilty that they haven't started even the basics yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyndiLJ Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I think it's important to decide what the goals are when you want to teach history to young children before you even think about buying, designing or using a curriculum. The goal is probably different in a lot of families. With my children, I had a simple goal: by the end of fourth grade I wanted them to be able to make an educated guess about cultural items from different time periods and have a rudimentary grasp of the vast passage of time. I figured this would give them a strong feeling of familiarity when we launched into the second rotation, making it easier to get into the meat of the studies at the older age instead of wasting time on just setting up the scene, if you will. Thus far with my eldest son, I have found this to be true and so I am repeating the process with my younger. For example, if they saw a statue at a museum a year later, I wanted them to be able to say, "Hey mom, that looks Greek or Roman or something," or if they see someone wearing a cartouche necklace and recognize it as "Egyptian words." At this age, I didn't care if they remembered names, dates or were even super accurate pointing something out on a map. Our timeline book and following the rotation provided for the grasp of time part of the goal. I totally agree with this. When we first started homeschooling 3 years ago, I had 2 new daughters from Kazakhstan who were 10 and 11 years old whose exposure to history of any sort, not just American history, was literally non-existent. My youngest at the time was 7 and had little, just as neither of our other sons had coming out of public elementary. So created a rough game plan in my head, with a starting point being geography and what people and housing looks like around the world, and recognizing famous landmarks. We learned the map, read "Material World", and generally got our geographical bearings as we studied continents briefly. Then I wanted to develop familiarity and big events, as well as the most famous people in history...sort of doing the story book stage about lots of different eras and Presidents/rulers, etc...just to expose to names and what we called events or eras. After that done casually and in whatever fun ways I could muster up, I want to a real curriculum because by then we had enough English to read early level and we took a lot of time to explain. We LOVED using Connect the Thoughts' elementary level which was the Big Ideas of history, including the development of governments, financial systems, explanation of religions, etc. This says it is for 7 and 8 year olds, but trust me, it is solid enough for upper elementary and if supplemented with other reading materials or documentaries it is even good for lower middle school. It takes complicated ideas and breaks it down into easy to understand language, as well as creates a wonderful framework for later, more in depth history study. There are also Great Writers, Great Composers, Great Artists which span history well and work for a brief introduction of these folks along with blending a reference for historical placement. Really well done. All in all, we just sort of made it up as we went along, but it worked very well and our kids know more history than I did before we started! Cindy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I plan my own history. Civics is great to do at the young ages. Teach patriotic songs, the Pledge of Allegiance, and famous symbols (the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, the flag, etc.). The A Beka history books for K and 1st (My America and My World, etc.) are great for this. I haven't looked at their history books above 1st grade, but they may be useful as well. I also teach my kids facts about the most famous people in American history (Christopher Columbus, George Washington, etc.). Besides that, I mostly read stories about famous people. Find these kind of books, and your kids will not only be entertained but also learn a good amount of history. These are the story history books I am using or have used around K-1st grades: *Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans (Eggleston)--(family favorite) The Children's Book of America (Bennett) Viking Tales (Hall) Stories of the Pilgrims (Pumphrey) Boys and Girls of Colonial Days (Bailey) Warning: These history story books may make history the favorite subject at your house! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I have to agree with a couple of the previous posters. I think history at this age is about stories. History for my girls at this age was about getting introduced to some very interesting people and the time and place in which they lived. I really try to focus on the humanity of people in general for these ages. Why are these kings always fighting with each other? What was it like to live in Ancient Greece? What did the people eat, wear, and do to have fun? What was it like for a child growing up in Ancient Sparta? For us, history is about understanding people and how/why we do what we do. Mostly, for us, it is about creating an interest in history in general. We use books like A Child's History of the World and Our Island Story for this reason. I like them because they don't try to introduce too much at once. Little bits woven into an interesting story is what works for us. After we read from our main history book, we talk about it. Sometimes, I have my younger dd write a narration (where she chooses what she wants to share with me about it) or other times I have her draw me a picture that illustrates a scene from the book. Many times I weave in choices along the way. For example, I may ask her to draw a picture but I let her give me some thought into what she would like to draw. I really think that while the flexibility may look haphazard to some, in reality it is the flexibility that lets her own her ideas and thoughts about it. This is more important to her than creating or writing something that has been completely determined for her. Does that make sense? :) Sometimes, if I feel that there is too much of a gap in the history story we read, I will add picture books to supplement it. (My dd is older now, but I'm speaking of this in terms of how we used to handle it. At her age we still read picture books, but we also use books meant for upper elementary and above to supplement too.) We keep a Book of Centuries which, again, has built in flexibility. She can choose which historical event she would like to illustrate in her BOC. This is not to say that I don't give her requirements or specific guidelines. I do. But, I also try to give her thoughts and ideas some room in our work. This credit to her builds in her the incentive to continue to bring her own mind into the next story/lesson. I admit freely that crafts and cooking are a weak point of mine in relation to history. My girls love to cook and make crafts, but I let them do that in relation to many different subjects (and holidays and just for the sake of the craft itself, etc.). I did do more crafts with my older dd, but I learned very quickly, as the original poster pointed out, the connection between the craft and the history were often lost. Now, I try to limit crafts to ones that are truly meaningful...or not at all.... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I think it's important to decide what the goals are when you want to teach history to young children before you even think about buying, designing or using a curriculum. The goal is probably different in a lot of families. With my children, I had a simple goal: by the end of fourth grade I wanted them to be able to make an educated guess about cultural items from different time periods and have a rudimentary grasp of the vast passage of time. I figured this would give them a strong feeling of familiarity when we launched into the second rotation, making it easier to get into the meat of the studies at the older age instead of wasting time on just setting up the scene, if you will. Thus far with my eldest son, I have found this to be true and so I am repeating the process with my younger. For example, if they saw a statue at a museum a year later, I wanted them to be able to say, "Hey mom, that looks Greek or Roman or something," or if they see someone wearing a cartouche necklace and recognize it as "Egyptian words." At this age, I didn't care if they remembered names, dates or were even super accurate pointing something out on a map. Our timeline book and following the rotation provided for the grasp of time part of the goal. :iagree: Exactly. It's not wasted time. It's giving them background information. I know some people expect their kids to remember the names of pharoahs and the details of Greek myths and so forth for the second go around, but I think that most of us are much more realistic. My kids are in third grade. We had taken a year off to do US history and before we started Early Modern, we reviewed world history to this point. My kids couldn't have narrated anything about Julius Caesar or explained the significance of the Magna Carta, but they did know immediately which came first. I am having trouble understanding how anyone would be pressed to find great projects for the Ancients. We did all our most awesome projects that year! We built mini-pyramids, we wrote our names in hieroglyphs, we mummified oranges (I'm saving the chicken - I've done it three times with middle schoolers and I needed to wait!), we wrote our own "Hammurabi's Codes", we made our own name chops and wrote Chinese calligraphy, we made little Greek temples from paper towel tubes and cardboard, we made a Roman road from real materials in a disposable cake pan and let the Playmobil Roman chariot roll down it, we made a mini-aquaduct with paper towel tubes swathed in saran wrap (and again gave the Playmobil guys something to do), we recreated the Roman baths with steam and oils and snacks... and that's just the stuff off the top of my head. We did great projects for medieval and American history too. This year, for early modern, I've been trying to figure out what in the world we'll do. I mean, we're on the French Revolution. Would it be fun and educational or just gruesome to build a small faux guillotine to behead Lego minifigs? But I digress... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily_Grace Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Would it be fun and educational or just gruesome to build a small faux guillotine to behead Lego minifigs? But I digress... :laugh: I would! But then, I also stood 6 beautifully dressed Barbies in front of my kids and as we went through the story of Henry VIII, we put them in caskets, pulled off their heads, and retired them to the castle. Baby dolls were passed around and lauded as King/Queen during this lesson, with the crown being snatched off heads. Go with the guillotine. You can call it science, too! :thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 We're huge SOTW fans in our house. We own the audio, so we never read the books, but rather listen to the stories in the car. At home, I point out places on the globe or map and talk about their relevance to the history stories we're hearing. As they progress through grammar stage, we begin to do more additional reading, timeline work, and projects, but in the early years, the emphasis is on the story. The information really stays with them when presented this way. My eldest daughter, now a PS 9th grader, can recall a shocking amount of information from her SOTW days and I believe it has really helped her build context for her rhetoric stage history learning. At her school, 9th graders are required to study U.S. History and geography. She remembers everything about the Magna Charta (from Vol. 2) and its importance to the founders of the U.S. Just one example of how a grammar-stage introduction to history has lasting, meaningful impact on later learning. Hope that helps. BTW, I've found that things really 'click' more around age 7 or 8, as the child becomes more capable of imagining far away times and places. Some develop this capacity earlier than others, of course. YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I think it's important to decide what the goals are when you want to teach history to young children before you even think about buying, designing or using a curriculum. The goal is probably different in a lot of families. This is very true. You have to decide not only your history goals, but your overall educational goals for that age. I prioritize free play and time outside over history knowledge for my little people. My primary goals are to focus on the 3rs and reading aloud with secondary goals of large chunks of time for free play and time outside. Formal history and science get squeezed out for what I consider more important. With five young children, running my household and saving my sanity take up chunks of time too. There is only so much time in a day, so I try to major on the majors and not let the "good" squeeze out the "best." What are the majors and the best will be different for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 We did a short two week long unit on basic geography, just to give the kids some framework on where things are in the world. That went swimmingly...we made a 3-D salt-dough map (there's that relevant hands-on activity). Or should I really stick with this, buckle my seatbelt and spend some time googling history approaches and projects and whatnot? FWIW, I find that my kids generate their own activities and incorporate their learning in their free play. I truly don't organize or plan activities for the kids. There have been other threads where other people admitted to the same. My kids excel at free play, and if I give them engaging content through literature and documentaries, they incorporate the content into their play. I read the Borrowers, and they pretended they were the Borrowers for weeks. We watched a documentary on the Iditarod, and they have been playing Iditarod out in the snow. My 4yo has a stuffed dog pulling a sled with a stuffed snowman right now. My oldest dd loves all things Pioneer, and she makes rag dolls and corn husk dolls in the summer. She also picks produce from the garden to make her own dyes. I don't know if your kids are like this, but if you can somehow train them to initiate this type of activity, you won't have to be the one leading projects and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in CA Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 History in the early years was my boys favorite subject. Do you NEED to history in first grade? Probably not. However, when approached in a similar way to Science the kids have always loved. We used SOTW and the Activity Guide as our spine. We almost always started the morning with an activity. When it was history day I would gather all the materials we'd need and put them out. I also made copies of the coloring page and map. When the kids got up they just went to see what was on the activity table and we started right in. I read the chapter to myself the night before. While we worked on the project I would talk to the boys about the project and the meaning of it. When we learned about the Minetaur we made a clay labyrinth. We talked about it. Of course, I chose which projects we did carefully based on their interests. We did all projects involving clay and cooking and barely any with paper. :-) After the initial project I read the chapter (usually just a section at a time) out loud. The boys either elaborated on their creation or colored the coloring page. We also read tons of picture books about the chapter matter. For the study of the Ancients you can find so many books that kids will find fun. My boys never perceived history as school at that time. Most of our activities and picture books I just found in the SOTW Activity Guide. It was actually the simplest way to do any subject. I wish there was a Science program like this. Never found one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corduroy Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 This is a great thread. Can I ask a side question? If your goal is to the first pass of history in a secular, non-Eurocentric way, which resources should you particularly seek out, or avoid? I picked up the first volume of SOTW, and it looks pretty good, but I'm wondering what else is out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 This is a great thread. Can I ask a side question? If your goal is to the first pass of history in a secular, non-Eurocentric way, which resources should you particularly seek out, or avoid? I picked up the first volume of SOTW, and it looks pretty good, but I'm wondering what else is out there. Avoid nearly everything else. ;) Okay, not quite, but most of the other comprehensive resources that people discuss or the curricula are not secular or are very Eurocentric. The Usborne and Kingfisher encyclopedias are good resources. Or the Time Traveller. Or the DK book Take Me Back (it's much more irreverent than other encyclopedias - more for upper elementary, but some younger students might like it). And then, of course, there are many, many excellent individual titles - picture books, biographies, nonfiction books, etc. You can beef up the SOTW focus on non-Western civilizations by just spending more time on those chapters and a bit less on the Western Civ stuff. There are a lot of chapters about medieval Europe or ancient Rome as compared to, say, ancient Africa or medieval China, so plan your schedule accordingly if semi-equal time is important to you. We found that some of the Eurocentric resources were worth it. Builders of the Old World is a great book for ancients and medieval - Eurocentric, but more focused on social history than SOTW, which is a book that doesn't cover social history one bit. I also think A Little History of the World is useful... though this is very much up for debate around here. There are some... interesting phrasings in it that some people don't like. If it interests you, then you can have a look and judge for yourself. It's definitely Eurocentric though. History Odyssey is an option if you want something planned out that is a bit less Eurocentric and secular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshin Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I had trouble finding secular sources that I liked. The last couple of years we've used the Creek's Edge task cards in conjunction with the DK History of the World as a spine. The cards pretty much keep us on task so I feel we are approaching history in a logical, ordered fashion (primarily for my older son), and they supply several activities, writing assignments and research leads for each thing we cover. Older DS does a lot more from the cards than my younger, plus he has a lot of extra reading on each history topic. For DS7, we pull one of the fun activities from the cards, we do a verbal narration of whatever part of our study stands out as interesting to him, we read about it in the DK book, and I use the timeline recommendations from the card. If he really gets into what we are studying that week we may check out some age appropriate books or watch a documentary online, too. Sometimes he does extra stuff just for fun after "school hours." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I'm assuming, based on your post, you want specific details on what exactly we're doing, how we're doing it and why. Here as as many of the nitty gritty details as I could come up with as an example for you. Educational Philosophy (ultimate goals) Right now my focus is on the who, what, when and where of history (Grammar Stage) for my 7 year old. That lays the foundation for the why (Logic or Cause and Effect Stage) in the middle years when we're here again at a higher level. In high school we'll cover this from an even higher "What eternal truths about life should I take away from this and apply to my life?" approach to history (the Rhetoric or Application/Persuasion Stage.) If I try to do more than one of those stages at a time for the same child at any age there just won't be enough time to cover it adequately and not all of it will be age appropriate. Hands on Application (details) I keep a list of everything we do for each unit and put the list in our lapbook. I group the chapters from Story of the World (an engaging historical narrative) by Susan Wise Bauer by region. For each unit (Mesopotamia/Middle East, Egypt/Africa, Ancient Greece, China, India, the Americas, Northern Europe, and Rome) I move chronologically within the region during the Ancient period of time. I don't bounce back and forth between regions the way SOTW is written. I think it's too confusing for young children to do it strictly by chronology at that young age. It's also easier to find supplemental library books because the Dewey decimal system organizes history chronologically by region. Usborne Book of World History is written strictly chronologically, so we read the relevant chapters in a different order than they are in the book. We do the relevant maps from Blackline Maps of World History at the beginning and add to them as we move through the unit study if needed. We read about 2 chapters a week from: Story of the World (SOTW)-my child does a narration for almost every chapter Usborne Book of World History (UBWH)-sometimes these chapters are part of narrations Blackline Maps of World History (BMWH) by Terry Johnson which is now sold with a different title. library books -usually about 30 minutes total read aloud from at least 2-3 short storybooks a day I supplement with library books that cover history, mythology, folklore, plants and animals, fun activities, and biographies relevant to the place and time we study. I'm moving slower through the Ancients. It will take us about a year and a half. This is what we did with Ancient China this fall. I added a few notes to the list. Activities that can't go into the lapbook are photographed and the photos are printed. My child narrates back what I read aloud to her, I write it out, and she copies it for handwriting. I keep each completed activity/assignment in a folder until we're done with the unit. We spend a day or two assembling the lapbook at the end of the unit. Ancient China UBWH-Great Civilization in the East 74-75 UBWH-Writing and Inventions 76-77 Ancient Chinese Inventions coloring pages downloaded from the internet and shrunk down and glued into lapbook SOTW-Huang Di & the Yellow River Valley 66-67 (write narration) BMWH-Copy map of Yellow River Valley BMWH-copy map of The Shang Dynasty Starts 70-71 SOTW-Farming 73-75 (narration) SOTW-Pictograms 71-72 (narration) The Pet Dragon by Nieman Copy Chinese characters from Pet Dragon SOTW-Calligraphy 239-242 Liang and the Magic Paintbrush by Demi The Greatest Treasure by Demi Dragon’s Tale by Demi Made in China by Williams-Printing 29 Make potato block prints The Magic Boat by Demi Make paper in Art Class SOTW-Warring States 243-244 (narration) SOTW-The First Emperor & The Great Wall 244-248 (part of a narration) The Great Wall of China by Fisher(part of a narration) BMWH-Copy map of Mongolia, The Great Wall, and China SOTW-The First Emperor’s Grave 248-250 (part of a narration) The Emperor’s Silent Army by O’Connor(part of a narration) The Story of Kites by Compestine Make a kite Kites by Demi Crouching Tiger by Compestine The Chi-Lin Purse by Fang Selection from Confucius’ Analects-write out a few for handwriting Make a simple chart of Confucian social order 7 Chinese Brothers by Mahy The Cricket’s Cage by Czernecki The Dragon New Year by Bouchard A Time of Golden Dragons by Zhang Make Dragon’s head from Fiesta! China 21(photos) Color Chinese Zodiac Symbols-download from internet. Color, cut out, glued into lapbook. Bringing in the New Year by Lin The Stonecutter by Demi Lon Po Po by Young The Jade Horse by Tompert Make felt fish sachet from Fiesta! China 21 Article about this year’s Dragon Boat Festival Coloring page of Dragon Boat download from internet Copy selections of poetry of Qu Yuan found on internet China’s Bravest Girl by Chin Ling-Li and the Phoenix Fairy by Greene The Hunter by Casanova Fortune Cookies by Lin Lo Ming Moves a Mountain by Lobel Grandfather Tang’s Story by Tompert-trace from the last page and cut out several sets Make tangrams artwork-glue tangram cut outs onto 6 " squared Asian papers into animal characters from above book (or use tangram blocks on a solid contatrasting colored surface and take photos to print out and label in a lapbook.) Set up silkworm habitat (The live silkworms we ordered died 2 days after arrival. ) The Empress and the Silkworm by Hong Lifecycle of the Silkworm by Fridell Red Butterfly: How a Princess Smuggled the Secret of Silk Out of China by Noyes Make Silkworm Lifecycle Chart from downloaded print out from the internet Silkworm poem-download from the internet and copy for handwriting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily_Grace Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 This is a great thread. Can I ask a side question? If your goal is to the first pass of history in a secular, non-Eurocentric way, which resources should you particularly seek out, or avoid? I picked up the first volume of SOTW, and it looks pretty good, but I'm wondering what else is out there. Seek out... The "You Wouldn't Want To Be..." series. Horrible Histories Royal Diaries (for 3-4th grade) MrDonn.org a history encyclopedia Jackdaws A __ Through Time books (street, port..) Avoid... Textbooks. All of them. For the second pass add -Oxford University Press books -a chronological study bible (yes, for secular studies.) -Mysteries in History books -The Story of Science/Milestones in Science kit -History Animated I wanted to clarify - I added the Jackdaws to the primary list, not because they get a whole lot out of them, but at that age they love being able to touch and see history. I can explain WWI, or I can hand them a coded telegram and have them try to break the code. I can tell them about slavery or I can give them adverts and runaway postings to touch and examine. They will not be able to fully dive into a Jackdaw and use the evidence to create their own thoughts until jr. high or high school, but the first pass with them is great. I also pull from untraditional websites like retronaut.co or failbook's There, I Fixed It because the Historical Thursdays they used to have were great little tidbits to add. They no longer have the descriptions up but those can be had elsewhere (at a site more kid-friendly so you're not shielding them from the rest of the site!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay3fer Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 For us, history is mostly cuddle-up-and-read. We read CHOW, but our main book is SOTW. We read it, we go to the museum, I tie it in where I can, but honestly, we do very few of the projects. There's a free lapbook here that might be helpful, though it's keyed to SOTW, so you'll have to figure out how it fits. I also found some of the History Pockets useful (we have a TeacherFileBox membership I bought through HSBC, and those are all included). The Figures in Motion Ancients have been helpful as well - my 5yo adores them and runs around teaming up unlikely warriors like Sargon and Hannibal when we pull them out. But mainly, my rule is the same as for our chapter books - keep reading, even if one bit or another seems over their heads. In terms of Babel to Ur, you'll want to find lots to do with the Tower, and then Abraham. The stories of how he found God as a child, surrounded by idol-worshippers. Show them pictures of the modern-day Tigris and Euphrates; my kids are always awed if we read a Biblical story and we can "still see what it looks like today." True, the landscape has probably changed enormously, but we definitely still know where many of these events took place, and if your kids see how that inspires you, it will move them as well. Return to the stories again and again throughout the year, and you may be surprised what sticks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMOm Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Can we have a dialogue on teaching history to early elementary students? Because I am really having a hard time wrapping my mind around teaching this subject. My two schoolers are both 1st grade. We've been attempting to follow the Classical approach and so we began studying The Ancients this school year. We are using TOG. I'm just spinning my wheels with history in general! I don't feel like my children are old enough to grasp most of the historical information being presented to them, even at the LG level in TOG. It feels like I am wasting our time and I would be better off to wait until they are older. My approach in other subjects is more hands-on. In science, we have a lapbook we are working on, and many hands-on elements that directly relate to the topic we are studying and help cement the knowledge for my kiddos. In history, the hands on activities seem fewer and further in between, and less relevant to the topic we are studying. For example, in TOG, one of the suggested hands-on activities during the Ancient Egyptians unit was to create a paddle doll. Well I'm just not seeing how that's really relatable to remembering important facts and information on Ancient Egyptians. It feels like "busy work" to me. So I thought about doing a lapbook for history...but I feel like a history lapbook is probably more appropriate for UG at least. Particularly due to the quantity of writing that it would involve. Our science lapbook has SOME cut and paste factual information (such as the names of the types of cells, etc) but there are also a lot of diagrams, and human body models (like the muscle contraction model). So anyways, now that I'm totally rambling, I'm sitting down to do some lesson planning for History and I'm just totally stuck. I feel like we're not really ready to be learning about Ancients right now. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, I feel like I'm wasting our time teaching ancients right now because my still very young LGers are mostly sitting there with blank looks on their faces. Probably because they're too young. And probably because I'm not finding hands-on activities that are relevant. So what else can we do? Bible stories? Skip history altogether for now and study cultures? Focus on geography? We did a short two week long unit on basic geography, just to give the kids some framework on where things are in the world. That went swimmingly...we made a 3-D salt-dough map (there's that relevant hands-on activity). Or should I really stick with this, buckle my seatbelt and spend some time googling history approaches and projects and whatnot? What approaches are you using, or have you used, or have you seen others using with LG kids, especially young LG kids? And if you were preparing to teach Week 5 in TOG (From Babel to Ur) what would your approach look like? We are finishing up our 4th year with Tapestry. I started Year 1 when my oldest 2 kids were 5yo and 4yo. They are now 8yo and 7yo and we are about 1/2 way through Year 4- so almost finished with our first complete four year rotation. I really want to encourage you that you are NOT "wasting your time teaching ancients right now". During that first year of Tapestry, and even part of the second year, we didn't do much other than read all of the LG books out loud. I would guess that we read for about 30 minutes or so a day, 3-4 days a week. We did a few hands on projects- that year I specifically remember mummifying a potato, making a salt dough map of Egypt, making mosaics out of graham crackers, vanilla frosting & mini m&m's and constructing Roman aquaducts out of paper towels tubes & cereal boxes. We certainly did not do a hands on project every single week and we didn't do much of the map work. Mostly, we just read all of history & literature assignments. Let me tell you what my then-6yo son said last year. He was 4yo when we started the Ancients and I assumed that everything was going right over his head. We were on our way home and I overheard him talking to his then-7yo sister in the backseat. "Mary, did you know that first God created the world? And then there was Noah and the flood. And then Abraham and Sarah and then Moses and the Egyptians. Then there was Rome and after that were the Kings & Queens (medeival times) and then the explorers. After that the Pilgrims came to America. And then we had the French & Indian War and after that we had the Revolutionary War!" Now, THAT is a pretty good understanding of the basic flow of history from a 6yo kid who has been listening in since he was 4yo! I would have assumed that all of ancients & a good part of medieval times would have gone right over his head but clearly he heard & remembered more than I expected. As far as I'm concerned, History for the younger crowd is like a big, interesting story. I never worry about them remember specific dates & all the important details about each civilization, etc. I just want them to get the big picture. But it also ties in with what this poster below wrote: This is very true. You have to decide not only your history goals, but your overall educational goals for that age. I prioritize free play and time outside over history knowledge for my little people. My primary goals are to focus on the 3rs and reading aloud with secondary goals of large chunks of time for free play and time outside. Formal history and science get squeezed out for what I consider more important. With five young children, running my household and saving my sanity take up chunks of time too. There is only so much time in a day, so I try to major on the majors and not let the "good" squeeze out the "best." What are the majors and the best will be different for everyone. I also have a houseful of young children- 4, so far- ages 8,7,5, and 2 and am heavily influenced by Charlotte Mason. I *highly* value unstructured free time to play outside and my goal is for the older three to have at least 3-5 hours a day outside. We spend about 60-90 minutes covering the 3 R's in the morning, followed by about 30 minutes of reading out loud. I use our history books for our read aloud time- the majority of the history & literature books that we read are beautiful picture/story books. If I'm going to spend 30 minutes reading out loud, it might as well be those. Charlotte Mason wrote that children need "something to do, something to love and something to think about" each day- and this is where using the History & Literature books as our read aloud time comes into play. After we finish, the kids are released for their first session of free time (about an hour, until lunch time, and then several more hours after lunch). They will spends hours & hours, sometimes days, acting out what we've been reading about in history. They've spent days in the back woods pretending to be Union soldiers defending the hill in the Battle for Little Round Top. They probably spent a good month or more digging out a World War I trench in the backyard, fortifying it, building the parapets & periscopes, using thorny bushes for the "barbed wire" of no-man's land, etc. They spent 2 entire days recreating the D-Day battle on Omaha Beach on our dining room table. They set up the whole scene using army men, lincoln logs (to build the obstacles in the water & on the beach & to build the pillboxes) and an iphone (to record the show). I think it's important to provide them with something to ruminate on & I love to see that coming out in their play- doing so creates a sense of ownership of the material in their mind and they are more likely to remember it later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewe Mama Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I'm loving this thread. We are going to plunge into Ancients in January with all five of the kiddos. I have had some concerns about Theodore, Alvin, and Faith keeping interested. Thank you for all the great ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy M Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 This is a timely post for me, as I am also on the same week as you with an early first grader (born 4/07) with three younger siblings; and since starting SOTW three weeks ago, I've been thinking the same things. Even though my son is a pleaser, obedient, and has a good attention span for stories, it just seems to be over his head or too much. He'll do whatever I ask of him, and he does ask to do more maps, ?, but I can only read half a chapter in SOTW a day, and that's all he can take, which means if there are two chapters scheduled that week, we're doing history 4 days a week, plus maps, narration, and coloring sheets (from SOTW AG), so I feel hard pressed to even add in an activity on Friday. We have done one activity a week, but I feel like it's a lot, on top of just trying to get all of our other subjects done. I will say that SOTW AG's activities sound more fun than what you listed from TOG. The TOG users I know use SOTW AGs instead of the activity books from TOG, but you probably don't want to buy anything else right now. :) The one time we read a lit book from TOG--Mummies in Egypt, it took about 30 minutes just to read that, and I'm not sure how much it drew him in... Anyway, I've already planned to go with MFW Adventures for 2nd, and their Exploring Countries/Cultures for 3rd, and then we're into the 5-year cycle on a slightly older schedule, so I just wanted something for my oldest first-grader this year (without purchasing MFW's $100 TM just for history and science :p), and after this year, all the little ones will just tag along with the olders. I think if I were you I wouldn't give up completely yet. Maybe just do what some of the other posters said about just choosing some of the books or focusing on some of the ideas. I am considering doing an activity and summarizing the chapters myself verbally for my son; then later have him listen to the audio book (which he's not interested in thus far) while he colors his coloring sheet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I agree with quite a bit of FlyingMOm's post. We use SOTW for our spine for the youngers. History at this age is a series of stories. We do activities & read other books as extensions of those stories, but I don't need them to remember dates and the youngers don't have to worry about the map if they don't want to. I also agree that History (and Science) as subjects are gravy in the younger years. Our school doesn't revolve around either of those topics in the younger years. (That's one of the reasons why I don't use Sonlight! For me, TOG would be "too much" for the younger years if I only had youngers. I can see the value of it if I had multiple age groups.) History & science this year are ways for my craft-hungry kids to get crafts in. We are doing the SOTW lapbook that was linked earlier as a review of what we've read. We do as many of the AG activities as I can handle (about one per chapter, sometimes less). My five year old will tell you lots of stories about Anansi the Spider because he liked them and we checked out lots more from the library. My kids always look forward to reading about Mesopotamian kings because they get to watch/listen to They Might Be Giants singing the Mesopotamian song whenever we cover them. This is my family's second time around with Ancients. We last covered it when oldest was in 2nd grade & dd#2 was in K. I am constantly amazed by how much dd#2 remembers from her first time around. This time, I have a 5 yr old (preschool), a 1st grader (promote in Jan to 2nd), and a 4th grader. The 5 yr old just listens in when he wants (mostly to the stories). The other two love the activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I also have a houseful of young children- 4, so far- ages 8,7,5, and 2 and am heavily influenced by Charlotte Mason. I *highly* value unstructured free time to play outside and my goal is for the older three to have at least 3-5 hours a day outside. We spend about 60-90 minutes covering the 3 R's in the morning, followed by about 30 minutes of reading out loud. I use our history books for our read aloud time- the majority of the history & literature books that we read are beautiful picture/story books. If I'm going to spend 30 minutes reading out loud, it might as well be those. Charlotte Mason wrote that children need "something to do, something to love and something to think about" each day- and this is where using the History & Literature books as our read aloud time comes into play. After we finish, the kids are released for their first session of free time (about an hour, until lunch time, and then several more hours after lunch). They will spends hours & hours, sometimes days, acting out what we've been reading about in history. They've spent days in the back woods pretending to be Union soldiers defending the hill in the Battle for Little Round Top. They probably spent a good month or more digging out a World War I trench in the backyard, fortifying it, building the parapets & periscopes, using thorny bushes for the "barbed wire" of no-man's land, etc. They spent 2 entire days recreating the D-Day battle on Omaha Beach on our dining room table. They set up the whole scene using army men, lincoln logs (to build the obstacles in the water & on the beach & to build the pillboxes) and an iphone (to record the show). I think it's important to provide them with something to ruminate on & I love to see that coming out in their play- doing so creates a sense of ownership of the material in their mind and they are more likely to remember it later. I agree completely with everything you wrote, and this is much like we did when my oldest was in 3rd grade and I only had two schooling. Two years ago I could get our schooling done in the morning, and we all had more time to ruminate. Read alouds were longer and easier to get to. Those were good years. We are still having good years, but we are in a different stage with older kids, more kids, more schooling, and more out of the house activities. Like I posted before, we all have to decide what is the "best" and what is "good" for our individual situations. Formal history and science for my elementary students just aren't where we are focusing our energy in those years, and that's OK. No matter which season we have been in, my kids are nourished and inspired by our content reading. My 10yo is reading Saint biographies this year, and their stories have touched her. My 8yo is reading American history biographies, and he is inspired by those stories. Whatever literature we are reading always inspires days of creative play for all of them. Seeing how my kids internalize all these stories - wherever they come from - is such a joy and a blessing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 This is a timely post for me, as I am also on the same week as you with an early first grader (born 4/07) with three younger siblings; and since starting SOTW three weeks ago, I've been thinking the same things. Even though my son is a pleaser, obedient, and has a good attention span for stories, it just seems to be over his head or too much. He'll do whatever I ask of him, and he does ask to do more maps, ?, but I can only read half a chapter in SOTW a day, and that's all he can take, which means if there are two chapters scheduled that week, we're doing history 4 days a week, plus maps, narration, and coloring sheets (from SOTW AG), so I feel hard pressed to even add in an activity on Friday. We have done one activity a week, but I feel like it's a lot, on top of just trying to get all of our other subjects done. You know, it's perfectly ok to slow down SOTW to whatever pace you need. You do not have to finish it in a school year. ;) When I used SOTW (1st and 2nd grade), we did history 3 days per week. We read one section of a chapter each day - that will get you through the entire book in 36 weeks. After each section, we used the narration questions and asked for an oral narration, but my son LIKED doing narrations - if your kid isn't ready for them, skip them. At first, we did an activity once a week, but I eventually dropped the activities, because they weren't really enhancing my son's history knowledge, and he was fine without them. He's a reader. I had library books available with recommendations from the AG, and he read them on his own when he got around to it, or sometimes I'd read one out loud. If a book didn't get read before it needed to be returned, no biggie! History took us no more than 30 minutes, 3 days per week, and in reality it was probably more like 20 minutes most of the time, so that's just one hour of our entire week. Oh, and my son loved the SOTW maps as well! I really liked them because the child didn't have to WRITE. I also didn't do the coloring pages, since my son hated coloring. Make it work for you, and don't overdo it! When we used Biblioplan to start out, it was just too much. Both of us were starting to dislike history time. Then I dropped Biblioplan and went to the above simplified SOTW plan. It was easy peasy, and my son retained so much more! It felt doable, and history was no longer a chore. History also wasn't taking over my homeschool. I'm using Sonlight now, and it takes more time than SOTW, but we're at a point now where it's a bit easier for us to take that time (I don't have an 18 month old! :D ). He has a full course load of the typical 3rd grade things plus Latin, and history gets done pretty easily without sacrificing anything else. He has hours of outside play time when we're done. I agree with a previous poster about seasons though... Sometimes your current kid-makeup makes it more difficult to do the things you want to do, and you have to sacrifice the "best" and just have "good". I didn't read aloud nearly as much when my youngest was 18 months old and my middle was 4. There was too much chaos going on! This year, with 8, 6, and 3 (the latter being fairly independent and wanting to be big like his brothers), it's sooooooooo much easier. I'm running 2 Sonlight cores no problem. 2 years ago, I couldn't have run one. :tongue_smilie: It would have been a great fit for my oldest son, but I wasn't ready to do all that reading aloud, and the younger two weren't yet trained to sit through long read alouds. They're better now, or I time things such that they have something else they can do quietly. ;) But none of that has anything to do with what my kids are capable of doing with regards to history, and as I said in a previous post, my kids have all been different, and I just tailor their history studies to what they're ready for. Some kids aren't ready for SOTW in 1st grade. Not a problem. Do something else and wait a year or two. History in my house is gravy at this age. The 3Rs are most important. But at the same time, we enjoy our history studies, and it the kid is ready for it and it won't cause us to neglect the 3Rs, I'll go ahead and do it. Oh, and if you're just getting random history books from the library and reading stories, I still count that as "doing history". ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomandlorih Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 For 1st we used SOTW 1 plus History Pockets grade 1-3 http://www.amazon.com/History-Pockets-Ancient-Civilizations-Grades/dp/1557999007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355947387&sr=8-1&keywords=history+pockets+ancient+civilizations plus extra little projects here and there.. The HP worked out beautifully.. We would start the pocket when we first came to a civilization and then work on it when each of them came back around. Fun! We have also learned a LOT of history through books (think Magic Tree House and many of those listed above) and videos.. such as Schlessinger media and Liberty's Kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 I agree with a previous poster about seasons though... Sometimes your current kid-makeup makes it more difficult to do the things you want to do, and you have to sacrifice the "best" and just have "good". I didn't read aloud nearly as much when my youngest was 18 months old and my middle was 4. There was too much chaos going on! This year, with 8, 6, and 3 (the latter being fairly independent and wanting to be big like his brothers), it's sooooooooo much easier. I'm running 2 Sonlight cores no problem. 2 years ago, I couldn't have run one. :tongue_smilie: I am trying hard to not wish away my little guy into being 3yo, but I am almost giddy at the thought of our school year next year when everyone will be over 3yo. First.time.ever for us. Even with four school aged kids, it's going to feel so much different than anything we've known before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 I am trying hard to not wish away my little guy into being 3yo, but I am almost giddy at the thought of our school year next year when everyone will be over 3yo. First.time.ever for us. Even with four school aged kids, it's going to feel so much different than anything we've known before. 3 has been the cutest age ever for my little one! I'm kind of sad that he'll be 4 in just 5 months. Every.single.thing.he.does is cute. Seriously. :lol: And yes, school has been a gazillion times easier! I added a child to "required school", and my other one has more work, but we've had much more streamlined days. This little guy will sometimes sit and do workbooks for long periods of time... and he's absolutely adorable while doing it! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briansmama Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 I find the early American history books for children to hold their interest much more in the younger years. So, we focus on cultural fairy tales in first grade, sages and tricksters for second, and early American history through all of the wonderful read-alouds available for third grade and into fourth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBearsMama Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 I think at this age an introduction is best. If they are obviously ready it's one thing but if it's just too much then just focus on 3 Rs and read great books about history - people, places, whatever. Throw in some cool videos maybe. If something catches a kiddo's interest you can pursue it then but just an overview and introduction is what I'll be focusing on when DS is a bit older. Right now I introduce him to things through books and he enjoys hearing those stories and talks about them with his great-grandma when we go see her and then she shows him something like canning or fixing a hole in his shirt with a needle and thread and he'll remember what we read and mention it. It's really nifty to see those connections popping up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 Can we have a dialogue on teaching history to early elementary students? Because I am really having a hard time wrapping my mind around teaching this subject. My two schoolers are both 1st grade. We've been attempting to follow the Classical approach and so we began studying The Ancients this school year. We are using TOG. I'm just spinning my wheels with history in general! I don't feel like my children are old enough to grasp most of the historical information being presented to them, even at the LG level in TOG. It feels like I am wasting our time and I would be better off to wait until they are older. This is what I've been saying for a while. At least it would be true of my children, LOL. What we did instead (for 1st & Pre-K, last year) was to do an Around-the-World homemade study. We read library books on various countries, colored flags, looked up places on the globe/atlas/wall map, sang songs, made exotic foods, created national costumes, and did some crafts related to other cultures. It was a blast! This year (2nd & K), we are working our way through American History. We'll probably get up to about 1804 (Lewis & Clark Expedition) at the rate we're going, but we are learning a ton and having fun. Next year (3rd & 1st), the plan is to continue to read and explore through American History to the present. We'll see how it goes. In history, the hands on activities seem fewer and further in between, and less relevant to the topic we are studying. For example, in TOG, one of the suggested hands-on activities during the Ancient Egyptians unit was to create a paddle doll. Well I'm just not seeing how that's really relatable to remembering important facts and information on Ancient Egyptians. It feels like "busy work" to me. So anyways, now that I'm totally rambling, I'm sitting down to do some lesson planning for History and I'm just totally stuck. I feel like we're not really ready to be learning about Ancients right now. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, I feel like I'm wasting our time teaching ancients right now because my still very young LGers are mostly sitting there with blank looks on their faces. Probably because they're too young. And probably because I'm not finding hands-on activities that are relevant. So what else can we do? Bible stories? Skip history altogether for now and study cultures? Focus on geography? We did a short two week long unit on basic geography, just to give the kids some framework on where things are in the world. That went swimmingly...we made a 3-D salt-dough map (there's that relevant hands-on activity). For Kindergarten with my oldest, the only History we did was to (1) read Bible stories, and (2) listen to Your Story Hour CDs, and (3) read through some D'Aulaire biographies (love these). That was certainly enough for K, at least for us it was. And World Geography was fun for 1st grade. To me, it just didn't feel right (how's that for scientific?) to tackle ancients with young students. We took a different path and enjoyed it. We are enjoying American History this year, too. We'll have plenty of time when they're older to get into the "cycle." Kindergarten & Preschool -- Bible stories, biographies 1st & Pre-K -- Around the World Geography 2nd & Kindergarten -- American History, Part 1 + US Geography 3rd & 1st -- American History, Part 2 + US Geography 4th & 2nd -- Ancients: Old Testament, Egypt, Ancient Near East 5th & 3rd -- Ancients: New Testament, Greeks, Romans 6th & 4th -- Middle Ages 7th & 5th -- Early Modern Times 8th & 6th -- Modern Times Just another way of looking at it. If you put TOG on the shelf for later and read books, your children will not be "behind." How can a six year old be "behind" in History? HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna A. Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 As you can see from the responses you've already received, there are many different ways you can do it. I like the way My Father's World does it, and here's a post I typed once explaining why: http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4004#p66798 And this one that I just typed this morning regarding the level of biblical vs. secular history in early elementary, and how we balance that out in our home: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/446378-christian-moms-science-and-history-questions/#entry4567361 A couple others that do something similar are Heart of Dakota and Linda Faye's free curriculum guide here... although the latter teaches both world and American history simultaneously every year: http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/chronological-history-plan.html I also like Five in a Row for this age group, but you'd have to add Bible/biblical history on your own. This would be harder to do unless you're supplementing one of the above with FIAR books and lessons (which can be easily done). But when I get overwhelmed and don't have time or energy to do any supplementing or combining, I default to MFW as-is because I don't have to reinvent the wheel, spend tons of time planning ahead, waste time on busy work, or make guesses as to how much is "enough". And I like the way MFW starts out gentle, gradually ramping it up each year, yet leaving a lot of room for flexibility and personal preferences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladydusk Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 We use SOTW with our young students (ages in siggy) and they love it. History is their favorite subject followed by math. I love that SWB wrote it with a lot of stories. When we cut pieces of paper to expand around a large area of land to show what Dido did to "purchase" Carthage, or when they read about Beowulf and immediately started acting it out in their play, or when we've mummified a cornish game hen, or when they can tell Daddy all about what we've read that day ... it's wonderful. We're reading about castles right now in medieval and it is so interesting. I was a History Ed major in college, and never learned about half this stuff. No ancients at all, and I don't know that I took a pre-Colonial class. I'm loving it too. My husband has listened to the Jim Weiss recordings and enjoyed them, so he knows what we've been learning. It's been a family endeavor and we love it. Just to put another spin on the discussion. AFAIC, this is one of those areas where you, as a teacher and parent, must decide what is right for your family and how best to implement it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Bumping this thread, as it was an interesting read, a bit more than a year since I originally posted. We ended up shelving TOG last year and pretty much all formal history and focused on science for the rest of the school year and into the summer. This past fall, we picked up SOTW Ancients and have been working through it, while science sits on the back burner waiting for the spring (and warm weather). So far, we're doing much better with SOTW, but I'm still kind of feeling "meh" about the whole history thing, lol. Its a difficult topic for me to teach because I don't know much about ancients history myself. So we read the chapters, discuss the content and complete the mapping activities. From time to time, I might to a project, but those are few and far between, mostly because there's just not a lot of time right now. I am checking out recommended books for each chapter, and putting them on our library shelf. The kids read them on their own. We're also watching stuff from the Science channel (of all channels, lol...but they have interesting shows about the building of the pyramids) and the History channel. My 7 yr old son has declared he wants to be an Egyptologist when he grows up. He also wants to be a paleontologist, too. <3 My 8 yr old daughter is remembering a surprising amount of information from the SOTW stories. This is particularly remarkable because she has some significant learning disabilities and her memory isn't that terrific. I like SOTW enough...I guess my biggest complaint would be that sometimes it can be difficult to tell what is being related as historical fact and what is being related as historical myth. Like the story of Did...did that really happen? Anyways, I wouldn't say we've found our "niche" yet in history, but we're getting there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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