history is not so elementary!

[Jessiepage]

Hi! I've seen some families cover ancient history in elementary grades and then American history in upper grades, and some families cover American history in elementary and the move to ancient history.  Im trying to decide on a history plan for us.  I have a 2nd grader.  We love SOTW but I feel like she's missing out not covering American history first.  What do you do, and why?  Thanks!!

[Ellie]

Hi! I've seen some families cover ancient history in elementary grades and then American history in upper grades, and some families cover American history in elementary and the move to ancient history.  Im trying to decide on a history plan for us.  I have a 2nd grader.  We love SOTW but I feel like she's missing out not covering American history first.  What do you do, and why?  Thanks!!

 

There are some who think it's important to do history chronologically in a cycle of four years, repeating the cycle several times, each time being more comprehensive because the children are older, you know? That's what TWTM advocates. They add in American history somewhere along the way. There are some who think it's better to do American history first, because we actually live here :-) and because children can relate better to the place where they actually live, and you can do field trips and whatnot.

 

Here's an article by Rea Berg, owner of Beautiful Feet Books, explaining why she does American history first.

 

Here's an article by the Shearers, owners of Greenleaf Press, explaining why they think it's important to do history chronologically.

 

Either one is fine, IMHO. Do it the way it seems right to you. If you love SOTW, add in American history. Or drop SOTW and do American history, then go back to SOTW. There is no right way to do history, as long as you do it. :-)

[Kiara.I]

I tend toward covering history chronologically.

I should point out that I am not American, and to be honest the intense focus that American schools tend to put on their own history escapes me a bit, so no doubt that colours my viewpoint.

 

But I agree with the "begin at the beginning, tell the story, can carry on to the end" perspective on history, especially for the youngers.  When we start running into Provincial standards for older grades that include Canadian content, I may start running basically two separate streams: "History" and "Canadian History/Geography" or something.  Since I'm not locked into that in the younger grades, my current plan is to do more focus on our own history as we get to where it fits chronologically.

[simplemom]

Agree, you can't go wrong no matter which you decide to do first. If you start with ancients, younger siblings will likely fold in further down the timeline. I think history for elementary grades is mainly for exposure to people, events, and consequences for actions. High school is more for connecting it altogether with in depth understanding.

 

Vent here: I also think due to the internet forums and blog sites, we put too much stress on choosing "just the right" miracle history program to cover so young in "just the right" order. We read that so and so covered the entire pilgrimage from Europe to the New World, built replicas of the boats, hand sewed pioneer outfits with all the kids, checked out every possible book about pioneer life from the library, took a field trip to Williamsburg AND cooked a pioneer meal. Then we panic because we just read the chapter from our spine on pioneer life and moved on. Nothing wrong with doing all the extension activities and sharing about it, but just know it's the icing on the cake. I tend to stress more about choosing the right approach and order for the 3Rs.

[Calizzy]

We are doing 1st grade this year, and I plan to study history chronologically, but we treated this year as an introduction. 1st we did about 2 months on basic geography. We studied the 7 continents, just picking 1 country from each continent to give us a basic understanding of what people in that area look like, eat, how they live, what animals live there, etc. We would watch videos, check out books from the library, and I had at least 1 hands on craft for each continent. We ended with North America. This was in November, so we did some Pilgrim work using Evan Moore history pockets and studied Thanksgiving. We also used October to study basic American government and the kids came with me to vote in November. December we kind of too a break and just did Christmas stuff for S.S. Now we are looking at native american tribes also using Evan Moore history pockets and reading Kaya American Girl (we also read Felicity when studying America). When we finish the Native American unit, probably in a few weeks, we will begin SOTW. I think this gave dd a good grasp of where places are, how the world looks, and the concept of cultures. I didn't think she would understand Ancient Egypt without some foundational info first.

[Farrar]

What Ellie said. Good arguments for either way and as long as you do something, I don't think you can really go wrong, especially not in elementary school.

 

We paused after SOTW2 and sort of imagined that Columbus's journey across the ocean had reset us. We started over and did the Americas (I had skipped the scant bits of SOTW about the Americas) and worked our way up to the Civil War. Then we stopped, did a little bit about the rest of the world in the 1700's and 1800's and then dove into modern history, more or less. It just added an extra year. I was glad we did it that way. I felt like it was the best of both worlds.

[Lori D.]

Agreeing with Ellie and Farrar, and just adding another option: unit studies. Nothing wrong with picking a time period due to student interest (or parent interest!), and diving in. A lot of learning goes on when there is natural high interest in the particular topic. And once you've covered that time period, you might find it naturally leads to enthusiasm and interest for a different history trail to follow… And when you've covered a number of time periods/cultures, you start finding connections, which leads to more interesting trails to explore...

 

Not that what we did was "the one right way", but we spent 6 years in elementary grades covering History roughly chronologically, with 2 years in there to focus on U.S. history, and some time on our State History / Culture / Geography. Then we totally side-stepped and spent a year in middle school on a World Cultures / Geography and Worldviews / Comparative Religions study, focusing on Eastern Hemisphere nations that usually get ignored in traditional Western Civilizations-based high school History programs. Awesome! In high school, we skipped around and focused on what DSs were interested in: Ancients, followed by 20th Century World, followed by American History, plus some specific Church History along the way. It was all good. :)

 

History and Science are subjects that no one can learn ALL of in exhaustive detail, so whatever you cover will be great. Not at ALL trying to tell you to use one thing over another -- just throwing in the thought that there are lots and lots of ways of doing it. Have a fun History adventure in your homeschooling, whatever you chose to do! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

[kiana]

Don't stop using something that you already know you love because someone else is claiming that the grass in *their* pasture is greener and taller and more lush and less weedy. It's probably just because they're full of ... manure. 

 

There are lots of good ways to teach history and you should follow the path that you and your kid find most interesting. 

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I agree with everybody. It doesn't matter. For my family, I like covering US History over the last two years of the grammar stage, because

 

a. I don't want to get into world history of the early modern and modern eras yet,

b. this is where US History fits into the 4 yr cycle*, and

c. I do want that much focus on US History in elementary.

 

So my homeschool usually looks like this:

 

Grammar, year 1: Ancients

Grammar, year 2: Medieval/Middle Ages

Grammar, year 3: US History pre-Columbus to right before the Civil War

Grammar, year 4: US History Civil War to present, including state history and civics**

Logic, year 1: Ancient world history

Logic, year 2: Medieval world history

Logic, year 3: Early modern world history

Logic, year 4: Modern world history

 

 

*Meaning the child still gets that classic perspective of learning history from the beginning of the world and seeing where his own story comes into the narrative, instead of the modern social studies perspective of starting with the child and moving outward.

 

**We study state history in fourth grade because it fits the time period but also because our local public schools study it then, so history and state museums have a lot of activities/events/displays geared to fourth grade students.

[Ellie]

I wanted my dc to love *history.* Any history. All history. I couldn't figure out what "grade level" Independence Day was, or if we would ignore July 4 celebrations because we were doing World History. I wanted to enjoy Meeker Days in Puyallup when we were visiting the grandparents and not worry about how to fit it in to a rotation, or visit the traveling exhibit of King Tut or Medieval Armor or the Golden Hind and learn as much as we could just because it was so darn interesting. When the dc were older, they did a more chronological history, which was made all the more interesting because of all the things they had randomly done and seen over the years, and all the parts fit happily together. And my dc love history to this day. :-)

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I wanted my dc to love *history.* Any history. All history. I couldn't figure out what "grade level" Independence Day was, or if we would ignore July 4 celebrations because we were doing World History. I wanted to enjoy Meeker Days in Puyallup when we were visiting the grandparents and not worry about how to fit it in to a rotation, or visit the traveling exhibit of King Tut or Medieval Armor or the Golden Hind and learn as much as we could just because it was so darn interesting. When the dc were older, they did a more chronological history, which was made all the more interesting because of all the things they had randomly done and seen over the years, and all the parts fit happily together. And my dc love history to this day. :-)

 

I can't imagine anybody ignoring national holidays or skipping museum exhibits just because their curriculum was somewhere else in time. Our MO for all content subjects was to soak it all up as it came while still moving through the scheduled plan during school time.

[Coco_Clark]

I have a *slight preference for starting in the beginning! just because I think the Revolution/formation of our country make more sense in context. But this is slight. Really, if you think the Ancients with their mummies and their myths and the glory of Rome are super interesting...start with Ancients. If Columbus, Ben Franklin, and the constitution rock your boat...go with American.

 

We are doing:

Ancients

Middle Ages

Rennasance / American up to Revolution

American up to Civil War / Early Modern

State history / Modern

 

I had one kid start in Ancients, one in the Rennassance, and one will in Modern.

[Farrar]

Not that what we did was "the one right way", but we spent 6 years in elementary grades covering History roughly chronologically, with 2 years in there to focus on U.S. history, and some time on our State History / Culture / Geography. Then we totally side-stepped and spent a year in middle school on a World Cultures / Geography and Worldviews / Comparative Religions study, focusing on Eastern Hemisphere nations that usually get ignored in traditional Western Civilizations-based high school History programs. Awesome! In high school, we skipped around and focused on what DSs were interested in: Ancients, followed by 20th Century World, followed by American History, plus some specific Church History along the way. It was all good. :)

 

I wanted to share that I think this is very similar to what we're going to end up having done. We did about 5 and a half years on history basically chronologically with an extended time doing US history. Now we're taking a break just following unit studies type stuff. We did some local history and history of homes and architecture last go around. Very rabbit trailsy. And have just been reading biographies and watching Horrible Histories. And I think we'll likely do a more formal study of religion and geography and some other topics in the next few years. I am so glad we're doing it this way because my kids got that initial outline of history from the early grades stuff. And now they're getting the opportunity to follow rabbit trails and various topics, but they have this context to fit it into.

[blondeviolin]

My oldest started with ancients. My second oldest has sort of been along for the ride. Next year my oldest will do SOTW 4, but my next few kids will do American history. My second oldest will be second grade and not ready for the detail of SOTW 4. My third oldest will be first grade and will benefit on a very typical first grade level program. My fourth oldest will be 4, but he's very schools so I am anticipating him folding into this work as well. This will put EVERYONE beginning ancients the following year (2016), but still give us a stronger backing in American history.

[Tanikit]

I don't think a particular country's history can be seen in isolation - countries affect other countries, the history in one country affects what is happening in another country at the same time. While SOTW barely touches on my own country's history, if I know the timeline I can add it in at the places it belongs - and particularly when my children are older they can understand how their own history now is affected by what is happening in the rest of the world. I also take the approach though that the news that we see or hear is also part of history - that in many ways it is just a repeat of what happened before and at the same time it will have been affected by past events and will affect what happens tomorrow too. Current history is in many ways harder to teach since you need a good view of past history to be able to compare and contrast which is why I prefer starting at the beginning for the subject while linking current affairs with what has already been covered.

[Dory]

I do both. I want my kids to see the world from ancient forwards. I think it all makes more sense when we learn about it that way. I also want them to connect to their country and understand it. We do SOTW (and resources around that) for 12 to 3/4 of the year and then tuck in some Canadian studies.

[Hunter]

Do what works best for YOU and the kids will be fine.

 

Look for something you WANT to teach, and use that.

[EKS]

I like doing a little bit of American history in K because there are a lot of good books written for 5-9 year olds that are set in or about American history.  

[MerryAtHope]

We used to take breaks from our regular history around holidays and do a mini unit study (ie, Columbus Day, study about Columbus, Thanksgiving study pilgrims, MLK day, President's Day, Memorial and Veterans Day.... etc...)

 

There's a fun book out about all the holidays--America's Federal Holidays. Not sure how young it is for, but it might make a nice resource for doing some history around holidays. I just kind of made it up as I went so that my kids would know basic "general knowledge" for quizzing grandparents and the like, until we got to US history. We used Sonlight, so we didn't follow a strict 4-year rotation--we did world history in about 3 years, and then 2 on US, and so on. 

[HS Mom in NC]

I don't do American History first (formally) because I think it's better to teach it in context.  Most Americans weren't taught it in the context of world history and have all sorts of distorted ideas about it.  Few can tell you how Reformation thinking influenced European history and political thought (Lex Rex vs. Rex Lex) and how the idea of the rights of Englishmen, The Dutch views in personal liberties, and constitutional monarchies set the stage and strongly influenced American ideas of liberty. It's just another reason I prefer the Neo-Classical Trivium approach and 3 rotations of history in chronological order. I like depth.

 

SOTW does have a good solid amount of American History in it.  Some people using SOTW will spend longer periods of time in American History as it comes up in one or more rotations, but it's not absent American history as some people have suggested in other threads.

 

That doesn't mean we don't do American History at all until SOTW3. Don't get into all or nothing thinking. We've always done some for each national holiday as it comes up. We read aloud historical fiction year round so it gets included.  We have lots of great kids books about American history available for free reading.  We talk about current events and connect them to American history. We go out into our world (this would include museums) and enjoy all of it even if it doesn't include  what we're studying at that moment in SOTW.

[ondreeuh]

I'm doing Adventures in America with my first grader, mostly using the program as an outline. Paige @ Elemental History did a fantastic job of writing concise, interesting text for the program, and it's so easy to slide in additional books and activities for each week. I bought a bunch of the "Who Was..." And "What Was ..." books by Krull, and my son is reading those. I also have a bunch of the SL Core 3 & 4 (D & E) books that fit well, like the Jean Fritz ones. I bought Liberty's Kids DVDs for cheap and it's been a nice, rounded out yet not overwhelming subject for us.

 

We have listened to SoTW 1 & 2 in the car and he is REALLY into it, even though we aren't doing any additional reading or activities. He's begging me to start Vol. 3. This gives him some familiarity with world history, although obviously he isn't going to remember a lot of detail this way. I plan on doing world history in more depth in 2nd and 3rd grade, using SOTW or CHOW, and the Usborne Encyclopedia and Time Traveler. Then I have The Complete Book of United States History as a spine for US History in 4th and 5th, the Human Odyssey for world history again in6th and 7th, and History of US in 8th. So basically I plan to keep bouncing between world and US history, going into more depth at each level.

[Guest]

We cover American in elementary and move on to the four year rotation for grades 5-8.

It's really a matter of personal preference. There is no right or wrong way to do it. :)

[JDoe]

 

I should point out that I am not American, and to be honest the intense focus that American schools tend to put on their own history escapes me a bit, so no doubt that colours my viewpoint.

 

 

Almost every country puts an intense focus on their own history (in public schools and in requirements for private schools), it is part of the nationalistic indoctrination programme. The value of, and factual correctness of the material should not be taken for granted. Japan famously have difficulties with some of their history, so has Spain, France, and almost every western democracy. 

 

I myself was rather astounded to read some of the source material to some important national events where I grew up and find that what was thought in school was quite distorted, if not outright false, description of events.

[Dory]

Almost every country puts an intense focus on their own history (in public schools and in requirements for private schools), it is part of the nationalistic indoctrination programme. The value of, and factual correctness of the material should not be taken for granted. Japan famously have difficulties with some of their history, so has Spain, France, and almost every western democracy. 

 

I myself was rather astounded to read some of the source material to some important national events where I grew up and find that what was thought in school was quite distorted, if not outright false, description of events.

 

This reminds me of my constant frustration with American views on the war of 1812 in all the homeschool books I was finding. I have learned that for some events the kids need to hear/read the events from both sides in order to get a clear picture. I find it very unbalanced to have history from only one viewpoint. It always ends up distorted in some way.

 

[Half-Elven]

Agreeing with Ellie and Farrar, and just adding another option: unit studies. Nothing wrong with picking a time period due to student interest (or parent interest!), and diving in. A lot of learning goes on when there is natural high interest in the particular topic. And once you've covered that time period, you might find it naturally leads to enthusiasm and interest for a different history trail to follow… And when you've covered a number of time periods/cultures, you start finding connections, which leads to more interesting trails to explore...

 

Not that what we did was "the one right way", but we spent 6 years in elementary grades covering History roughly chronologically, with 2 years in there to focus on U.S. history, and some time on our State History / Culture / Geography. Then we totally side-stepped and spent a year in middle school on a World Cultures / Geography and Worldviews / Comparative Religions study, focusing on Eastern Hemisphere nations that usually get ignored in traditional Western Civilizations-based high school History programs. Awesome! In high school, we skipped around and focused on what DSs were interested in: Ancients, followed by 20th Century World, followed by American History, plus some specific Church History along the way. It was all good. :)

 

History and Science are subjects that no one can learn ALL of in exhaustive detail, so whatever you cover will be great. Not at ALL trying to tell you to use one thing over another -- just throwing in the thought that there are lots and lots of ways of doing it. Have a fun History adventure in your homeschooling, whatever you chose to do! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Hi Lori D.  What did you use for comparative Religions?  I'm interested in doing something like that when we are in high school.  Also a semester of Comparative Civilizations...but just don't know if there is a "textbook" out there or do you just have to gather the ones you want to study.

[Lori D.]

What did you use for comparative Religions?  ..but just don't know if there is a "textbook" out there or do you just have to gather the ones you want to study.

 

We had to gather a lot of resources to put together our own study, using what was available at the time (this was about 8 years ago), including children's books from our local library. I listed some of the things we used post #3 of "Religious Studies/World Religions Curriculum?"

 

Since then, more options have come out; see this thread for some of those ideas (mostly at a middle school level): "Overview of World Religions?" And in this thread, "Introduction to World Religions" are some additional ideas at more of a high school level.

 

There has been such an explosion of online classes in the past 4 years, I'd take a look at what's available through an online provider, too. :)