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Social studies?


ballardlm
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For background - I have a precocious 2 year old who loves learning. If we were not planning to homeschool he would start 3 day a week preK this fall, so I am planning to start "homeschool preschool" this fall. No desk work, just read alouds and fun learning activities/games as he tolerates them. I have a good idea what I want to cover but what about "social studies"? Should I focus on holidays? Different cultures? Just skip it? I liked Before Five in a Row but by the time I buy all the books (we don't have a great library) it's just too much for me to justify to spend. What do you do for social studies in preschool?

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Depends on how ahead they are.

 

I'm an advocate for delayed learning, but in some cases (like my 4yo, since she was 2) the child is interested, then it becomes for of a child-led environment based on their interests (after all, you don't want them to hate school before you start it).

 

I have responded to a couple of similar posts in the past, but given the age of your child, and that only you know what they are ready for, I'll just put what I remember from the other posts.

 

Better yet, I found my posts, so I'l just quote them

 

Posted 30 June 2012 - 04:22 AM

Sounds good. I always try and add in "safety" as a subject as soon as I can, since my daughters diabetic, we also add in health.

 

Safety for stuff like (in case they don't know):

 

- Address, phone number

- What to do in an emergency (911)

- What is and what isn't an emergency

- Fire safety and what to do in case of fire

- First Aid (just general basic stuff)

- Local dangerous wildlife & insects (and what to do when encountered/bitten)

- And since we're rural and don't have "everyday" abilities I also add in all the local "safety" people, and what their uniforms/vehicles look like (so in case of the police/fireman/SES etc people coming they know who they are and that they are there to help)

 

Usually this stuff is taught either automatically by mums and/or schools, but when your homeschooling, since no real curriculums are available for them, some times they are skipped over.

 

Your K list is great, nice and simple :001_smile: The best thing in K is just to get them reading and start their love of maths ;)

 

:grouphug:

 

Posted 28 June 2012 - 01:10 PM

The Social Studies K book I used was one of a series, so the K book starts with:

 

- All About Me

- All about my Family

- My Street

- My Neighbourhood

- Family Tree

- Clothing/Seasons

 

That sort of thing. The only reason I use it is as a base "gap" measure to cover anything I might miss, and we only have to do 1-2 pages a week to finish it. It also works up to "all about australia" etc so, since its hard to find good curriculum with australian forefront, i decided it was a good choice.

 

For K, I would suggest the following (IMO):

 

Beginning Geography: Focus on the World, and the Seven Continents. Get it so she can recognize any of the continents even if they are a mess of "puzzle pieces".

 

Community Workers: I don't really care much for that. Children learn that in everyday life, so what I did was intermingle it with the health, safety & manners program I made up, which includes (but is not limited to, since my brain is fried right now :tongue_smilie: )

 

- SES (State Emergency Services - What the uniforms look like, what they do, then covered flood preparedness (floods are a must know in our area) this is so if it happens, they would understand the process we would have to go through, and know what to do)

- Fire Safety (A look at parts of a fire engine, the firemans uniform (again so if they see "that" uniform on big scary men, they won't be afraid), science parts about what fire "needs" to survive (so how to cut off the source), fire "plans" and checklists, emergency exits etc

- Doctors: What doctors do during examinations, what various machines are for, some stuff about diabetes (my daughter has diabetes type 1)

-Police (the car, the uniform) what they do, stranger danger etc, mini "neighbourhood" plan, so if they get lost they known there way home, also helps to teach their address etc

- Car & Road Safety (how to be a good & safe passenger, how to be safe on the street)

- First Aid (making own first aid kit, going through the basics of "emergencies and not emergencies" learning what to do during emergencies (learning to make mergency phone calls, and learning their phone number), basic first aid for various things, local dangerous wildlife/insects and what to watch out for

 

There's probably other stuff, but thats the basics off the top of my head. Most of the "community worker" stuff is really fill stuff IMO, they just go "this is a fireman, he drives the firetruck reee---awwww" "this is the mailman, he delivers *wait for it....totally amazing* the mail!!!!!!!!! :lol:

 

My daughter knew about the mailman from the moment she saw him "whats he doing?" "delivering the mail" "ok". I go and collect mail from PO box "mummy, where does the mail come from?" "blah, blah blah *explanation* most of the community worker stuff does not have to be written in to school unless the child is *extremely* sheltered. Children have natural curiosity and commonsense, so learn as they go about their everyday lives. The only reason I added any "community workers" in was part of learning about safety, and thats so they would know in case of a fire, if a big man in the "fireman" uniform comes up to them, its fine to be taken out of the house (we are more rural, so its harder for them to "See" the uniforms during their daily lives, and I don't want them to runaway during a emergency, from the men trying to help them (especially when the fireman have the masks on, they can look frightening lol).

 

I love the book (and supplement books off the series) of "children just like me", all my children love the book too. it gives them an overview of childrens lives in various countries.

 

Hope those ideas help. For most subjects on those lists, there are usually beautiful fun little picture books (with either illustrations or real life photos of fireman, children etc) so using this list and the library computer to search topics (like fireman, firehouse, firetruck etc) you could find some lovely little books to gently introduce the topics.

 

And learning their address and mobile number (if you get them to remember your home phone, not good if they get lost when your out and about) is good at any age.

 

Explaining mechanics of "don't touch" places are good too (a lot of parent just say "don't touch - its hot!" but never explain why its hot. An example of what I did (when my daughter was around 2-3 (when you plug this cord in here, it heats up this metal bit here *I then allow them to feel the metal bit* see how its cold? brrr. When its plugged in, it gets hot! Very hot, and if you touch, you'll get burnt, which will hurt lots and lots and lots, for a long time. So remember not to touch it. And if mummy yells at you or shrieks when your near it, thats why. Mummy gets scared and doesn't want you to get hurt. VERY, very simpified version first-time, of course. I use more intricate words when re-explaining when they are interested later and with my 7 yr old when explaining things (after all shes learning how to use the toaster etc, so has a fairly good understanding of electrics, she was actually trying to teach my 5yo the other day about how to fix the computer and what not to touch when rofl.

 

So basics for me are personal hygiene & safety. Making sure the child stays safe and healthy. Its easy to introduce with kids through themes, hence the community workers. Doctors - where you could slip in personal hygiene, firetrucks - fire, police - address & phone number, stranger danger etc; dentist - teeth, Hospitals - First Aid, Dangerous local Wildlife, if you have pets the Vet - keeping pets healthy; Environment - Chores, cleaning, recycling etc

 

Thats a lot of info, so hopefully you can pick out a few items :)

 

HTH xxx

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At 2 we spent a lot of time with DD just teaching her about her neighbourhood - so going for walks around the block and pointing out things like stop signs, doing traffic safety and other forms of safety. Pointing out community workers also helped a lot - so we discussed things wherever we went - to the post office, to a hospital (I was pregnant at the time so she saw a lot of the hospital), shopping, the vet, the postman (we very seldom see the postman where we live, so if we got the opportunity we pointed him out) And then we did chores at home and what people, animals and plants need to survive based mostly around caring for our pets and plants. Holidays that you celebrate are also a good place to start.

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With the pre-k crowd, I focus on our local community. What is the library for? What kind of things can we get at the grocery story? What's a fireman's job? Etc, etc. Learn name/address/phone number. Where do you live on a map? Focus on the community around you. Check out Wee Folk Art, it's free and simple to plan out and for the few weeks we did it (I tried using it with other stuff and just over-did it), there is basic community stuff in that.

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I didn't even think a about safety stuff! That's why I love this forum! And for the record my "preschool" is entirely child led learning and we just play games and learn stuff during everyday life. I'm just a type A that likes a kind of list of stuff to follow as I introduce new concepts : ) if that makes sense lol

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My son will be 4 in the fall and we're using kinder/1st grade materials for skill content areas (math, phonics, writing), but I'm up in the air about science and social studies/history. I think, for social studies/history, we will concentrate on the following:

Calendar

Community jobs (police officers, fire fighters, etc)

Pre history (dinosaurs, ancient animals, etc)

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I think it's a great time to delve into geography. Since my daughter was 2.5 I've had 2 big maps up, one of my country (US) with pin flags we made with family/friends pics on them, and a world map. I think I bought the laminated world maps at a big bookstore for maybe $10-15? We look at them multiple times a week. She knows all her continents and we talk about animals for each country/habitat. You can also find little readers in the library - even tiny libraries have many unexplored nonfiction books for preschoolers. So maybe see what they have and build something around that. Start with your own country and work out from there. I get the little Safari Toob collections so she has tangibles to play/imagine with. http://www.amazon.com/Safari-Land-Down-Under-Toob/dp/B000GYUYOW/ref=sr_1_17?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1358971779&sr=1-17&keywords=toob+animal

 

We also study a couple of foreign languages, so that really helps talking about other people/cultures and putting things in a global perspective. We also have some Tube famous landmarks that I had some matching information cards for, and my daughter LOVES matching them. Just recently I made continent tags so we sort them by continent as well (Taj Mahal, Empire State Building, etc.). http://www.amazon.com/Safari-Around-the-World-Toob/dp/B004KPU4R0/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1358971664&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=tube+landmarks

 

This CD is awesome for a world perspective and my daughter LOVES it. I don't get tired of it either: Ella Jenkins Multicultural CD. http://www.amazon.com/Multicultural-Childrens-Songs-Ella-Jenkins/dp/B000001DOE We have lots of foreign language CDs and books too.

 

I think doing little art projects by country/artist is fun too. It will just get more and more fun and more options will open up as your child gets older.

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