Easy Science and History/Social Studies for First Grader

[mommy25qtpies]

I am looking for a simple to administer science and history/social studies/geography for a first grader who is still struggling with reading.  We are focusing so much on that I'm realizing we forgot the rest for her. She sees everyone else doing it, we use Monarch for everyone else but she's not old enough yet.   Prefer online or PDF format but a simple workbook is ok as well. 

 

Thank you in advance.

[almondbutterandjelly]

Do you want just labs?  My dd really liked Stratton House stuff at that age.  http://www.homeschoolscience.com/#

 

Do you want more of a workbook?  I like the Galore Park Junior Science workbooks.  Oh, I see they are discontinued.  Hmm.  

 

You could read through the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Science and just delve more deeply into topics of interest as you see fit.

 

For history, you could read Story of the World: Ancient Times.  Or you could get Usborne First Encyclopedia of History and read through that.  

 

I just remembered:  Berenstain Bears Big Book of Science and Nature is WONDERFUL.  http://www.amazon.com/Berenstain-Bears-Science-Nature-Childrens/dp/0486498344/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449510179&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=berenstain+bears+science+and+nature+treasury

Edited December 7, 2015 by perkybunch

[MerryAtHope]

At her age, I'd just do some read-alouds for both science and history, or look into audios--I wouldn't do a workbook unless she just loves workbooks. 

[Guest]

Evan Moor for science

 

Connect The Thoughts for both.

[tomandlorih]

Love, love, love!  the Berenstain Bear Big Book of Science and Nature!

If you allow videos.. Magic School Bus and Liberty's Kids

We also love Evan Moor Science.  The Read and Understand Science is good.. but she may not want anything else that says it's "reading" :)  So the Daily Science might be a better choice.  Quick and easy.  We use their Daily Geography too.

The Let's Read and Find Out science books are awesome.  

I also recommend the Story of the World for history, if you want to start with Ancient History. (but that probably doesn't fit with Monarch very well)  If you want more of a "social studies" type approach, I'd go with something like an Abeka or BJU Heritage Studies textbook.  You can find those used (in an older edition) very cheaply and I think they are pretty colorful and interesting.

Have you thought about a site like lessonpathways ?  

Ooh, I had forgotten about these..  pdf's     http://www.mhschool.com/instructional_materials/ca/fwo.html

I don't have my ipad in front of me but if you allow that sort of thing.. there are some pretty good science apps for that age.  

 

[redsquirrel]

SOTW ancients for history with the AG.  Read it to her, do the narrations in the AG with her (they are oral) and the colouring pages and the weekly map work pages. Maybe get a suggested extra reading book from the library.

 

Science: do a first grade year as laid out in TWTM. It's life science. You study three topics over the year: Animals, human body and things that grow. For the first part of the year you get a...it's a science encyclopedia of animals. I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. You read two page spread to her, you sit on the couch and look at it.  Then you ask her 'what is the one thing you can tell me about XX' just whatever you looked at, like reptiles or amphibians etc.  You write it on a piece of paper and have her draw a picture to illustrate her narration. For the second unit you just read a book from the library every week on the human body. One week you read a book about skeletons, the next week about the digestive system, the five senses etc etc.  Then, when the weather warms up you have fun planting seeds and doing some nature study. 

 

I did this with my kids and it is really easy and doesn't require any reading. You read to her and it's a lot of fun. She gets a little narrations, which builds writing and composition skills. It's also not expensive if you have a halfway decent library.

 

If you have TWTM the science is better explained that I have done here, lol, It's been a few years since I had a first grader.  I think the most recent edition of TWTM, the third I believe, has the simplest instructions. But, it was mostly just read to her, have her tell you one thing, you write it down and she draws a picture. Then, when it gets warm out you plant seeds and watch them grow, maybe read a couple books about plants and their parts and how they grow.

 

Really easy peasy.

[Guest]

K12...online, engaging, and easy to do. It is the only way in more than 10 years homeschooling we have gotten those gravy subjects done consistantly. The cost is worth it to us. 

 

Then they watch every Wild Kratts, Cat in the Hat, and Magic School Bus show they can--repeatedly.

Edited December 9, 2015 by Paradox

[debi21]

With all the focus on reading, my suggestion was going to be TV too, like Paradox mentioned above. You can also be tricky and require the closed captioning to be on - reinforcing the reading. For science, Wild Kratts and Cat in the Hat are good, but I do especially love Magic School Bus and also Bill Nye (now both on Netflix) and there are some people who have done some curricula around them.

 

A little harder on the history front, but there's lots of stuff on YouTube, there's Liberty's Kids dvds. With my six year old, I watched the 6 episodes of Egypt plus the Nat Geo documentary about King Tut's final secrets, then read parts of the Usborne and Kingfisher world history encyclopedias with him. I am planning on playing the audiobook of SOTW ancients to go with it too.