History or social studies??

[csolomon]

So, I love to read homeschool books, blogs, etc. The more I learn the more secure I feel in my homeschooling I guess. My ds is 5 and we just read books and do little experiments for science and social studies right now, but I was looking at what to transition to for next year. There seem to be two main schools of thought, and I am interested to see what everyone here thinks.

 

 - Do you start by teaching your child about his/her community, then region, state, country, etc and then venture out to world/ancient history over the years?

 

- Or do you teach history chronologically starting with the ancient world through modern times and cycle every 4 years as in the WTM??

[momma2three]

I sort of see the community/region part of Social Studies to be a separate subject than history, and I think that as kids get older they actually require the background history to make sense.  By middle or high school civics, I think that knowing a little bit about Athenian democracy, the Enlightenment, the causes of the American Revolution, and the anti-Communism hysteria of the 1950s will help immeasurably in understanding so many of the traditions, foundation myths, and attitudes that Americans have.

 

I think that an awful lot of the community stuff can and should be taught through daily life, so long as you as you make sure to seek out teachable moments and actually explain them.  For example, if you have to drop something off at Town Hall, bring your child and explain who runs your town, how they're selected, and what they do. If it's okay, poke around and see the different offices, and talk about what they do (The Clerk keeps track of all the important paperwork, Animal Control helps if someone has a problem with wild animals, the School Department makes decisions about the public schools.)

 

My first grader actually gets most of her "Social Studies" from Girl Scouts... we've gone on field trips to the fire station, a working farm (we live in a suburban town in an urban area), and the animal shelter, and we've also done service projects for the Senior Center in town, for a local food pantry, and for the animal shelter, and talked a lot about community through all of this.

 

I should also mention that history is just so much FUN at the younger ages.  We're loosely using History Odyssey, sometimes spending longer on some sections (which means we may not finish out the year, but whatever).  We studied pre-history, and made a "cave painting" by hanging fabric up on the fence and painting it with fingers, straws, and whatever we could find in the yard. We spent ages on Ancient Egypt, learning about mummies and pyramids and the Egyptian Gods.  We even took a field trip by bus to New York (we're in Boston) and spent the day at the Egyptian exhibit at the Met... it was a long day, but SO worth it.  Now we're reading Greek myths.

[Tanikit]

We started at Ancients for History (we are using SOTW), but Social Studies we do separately - part of social skills is just dealing with other people, getting about around town, visiting places (the fire station, a hospital, the post office, talking in a grocery store about everything that goes on there, an animal shelter, the police station, a farm) and then we also included some things that could fall into geography - maps of our area, street signs, rules in the community.

 

Now that she is 6 we are reading A Life Like Mine that also addresses basic social issues but from a world perspective and how other people live - where I live it is easy to see and meet people who do actually live like this without much effort. Holidays to neighbouring countries has also helped here where she can see how people live there too.

 

I have left the study of our country to Geography - some of it we get from trips and holidays we take, other parts from literature and some specially designed things like the map work and discussion of provinces. I know social studies often includes geography, but I keep that as a separate subject too.

 

As she gets older yet, much of social studies will probably land up being part of English - in comprehensions, in discussions and debates and so on as then they seem to look more in depth at how to change things and to evaluate things and think for themselves - of course my child is not there yet, so haven't thought that far yet.

[Korrale]

We are doing Americana for our K year. This covers American History, American states and regions, music, civics, landmarks, people etc. We also do some map skills on the side. Map skills kind of bend in with science.

 

Grade 1 will divulge a lot more. Ancients, world geography, and community.

[La Condessa]

We are studying ancient history with SOTW. My girls are already familiar with most of that community stuff through normal life and conversation, so I really don't see any purpose in spending our schooltime on it.

[Ellie]

"History" is a subset of "social studies,"  in the same way that grammar, penmanship, reading/literature, spelling, and composition are subsets of "language arts." In other words, there's no real point in trying to separate "history" from "social studies." :-)

[csolomon]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I should have worded things differently. I understand the separate part of social studies as far as the community aspects. We do our special field trips and studies about our local community and the different roles of community leaders, etc. I am more so trying to understand if people teach history chronologically as in the WTM or do you teach it starting with the child's own community and then branch out to their own state, then country, etc. eventually adding in world history when they are older (vs starting with ancient history).

 

I had planned on starting with SOTW, but then read some critics that say starting with a time/era that is so far removed from the child can be confusing and they won't retain that information because they can't understand things so different from their lives now. These resources recommend starting with community type social studies and then branching out into the history of the state, US, etc. However, I like the idea of learning chronologically and then cycling back through the information they have already learned every 4 years as in the WTM. I am so new at all of this and was just wondering what experience others who have already started history/social studies have had with their children.

[momma2three]

It's okay, I think most people understood what you meant :)

 

 

Honestly, I think that anyone who thinks that little kids can't retain information they aren't personally connected with has never met a child.  Little kids adore stories about people and places in different situations than their own.  It's the perfect time to lay what is basically a geographical and cultural framework for later history study.  Which is basically what the WTM history teaching method is about.  The grades 1-4 go-round is about stories, and crafts, and learning to read a map, and "this is how kids lived in this time and place, how would you like that?"  If it's fun, they'll retain it... at least, enough of it that it's not all totally new to them when they discover it later.

 

It also provides context for later things.  I don't really understand how learning state history before US history makes sense (and I realize that most states require it be done that way).  How is it possible for a kid to understand what's going on in their state without understanding the larger context of what's going on in the world?  For instance, if you have a site in your state that's important to the Civil War, and your child has never encountered the Civil War before, then the site is meaningless.  If you're studying some big WPA project that happened in your state, wouldn't it make sense to already know about the Depression?  And no matter which state you live in, its original settlement is part of a much larger story.

 

I also think that community and history are totally separate subjects, which should be studied concurrently in age-appropriate ways.  6 year olds can be taken to the polls with you when you vote, a child in upper elementary can understand the structure of your town's government, a middle or high school student can be taken to sit in the audience of a committee meeting that is making decisions about something in your town.  Maybe it's because I live in an old New England town with a very complicated government system (town meeting, selectmen, committees elected and/or appointed... sometimes both), but it's something most adults around here have trouble with... nothing I expect my 6 year old to grasp!  And so if we're not actually studying the nuts and bolts of the community, what's left?  The police and fire department are here if you need help?  Important lessons, usually learned through preschool TV these days.

 

I think that everything that would be covered in a first grade Social Studies curriculum is pretty much covered in an active, intellectually curious household.  Here is MA's 1st grade social studies framework summary: "In first grade, children listen to and read folk tales and true stories from America and from around the world. They learn about major historical events, figures, and symbols related to the United States of America and its national holidays and why they are important to Americans. The grade 1 curriculum continues to strengthen children’s identity as American citizens. "  (found here: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/hss/final.pdf)  Even if you're not really the overly patriotic type, it's very easy to cover all of that just living your life through the course of the year, and being sure to throw in a bunch of folk tales.  The William Bennett type of "visiting the fire station" stuff we, personally, have done through Scouts, but I also don't think it's the end of the world if a student just learns about community workers through conversation.

 

For us, though, history is definitely my daughter's favorite subject.  We spent the fall doing pre-history and Egypt, and now we're moving into Greece and Rome.  She's probably not learning anything that will be on the World History AP exam in 11 years, but she is learning a lot about the cultures we're studying, in a fun and age-appropriate way.