Brainstorm with me- ideas for history/geography/science- content

[Soror]

So, this shouldn't be so complicated but I"m having a brain block. I've already planned out next year for my (will be) 4th grader- a cultural/geography study, books to read- even down to the page. But I'm thinking that perhaps this isn't the best fit for her. She is crazy independent- even at 2nd grade she was doing whatever she could without me. She likes books ok but I don't know that a full blown lit based study is the best for her. She doesn't like change- she doesn't like going through a bunch of different books. She likes to do the same thing every day, changing books even spazzes her out. I know it is a skill to work on but I'm thinking that a heavy lit based approach where we are always switching to a different book is maybe too much. Her reading is right about grade level and she gets intimidated with anything too hard. She loves artsy things but doesn't like extras so much as it seems she'd rather get school done and do her own things. I'm also pretty much at capacity- I'm not up for super complicated. 

 

- to break it down I need

- 1 book or series of books to last for the year

-assignments that are similar every day or follow a pattern, creative is good only to a point and just wants to get it done

-reading at or a bit below grade level

-something very easy for me- my health is a roller coaster and I'm going to just start assuming it will stay that way- I need to have it basically planned when I start the year

 

My thoughts so far is-

Maybe SoTW with the activity sheets. I've never done this with her so she could start at 1, which is easier to read. My only hesitation is that I don't know that she will be very interested in ancient history. I'd love it if there were a similar option for US history complete with activity/maps/coloring sheets but if there is I'm not aware of it.

 

Maybe instead of 1 book all year I could find a series of books- if they are all the same and I have them here for her to see what is coming up next I think that would work ok but as to the what ack. I need to talk to her again and try to figure out what she might want to study. I thought about a AG study but I don't know if the lapbooking would be annoying to her.

 

I'm really uncertain about Science- we do nature study- we will be continuing that as a family study but I'd like to add on a bit more this year. She really does enjoy nature study but seems interested in most science topics.

 

Anyway, that is crazy rambly and I'm out of time- I'll cross my fingers that perhaps that is enough info that it spurs some wonderful ideas- that I'm sure should be obvious, if I wasn't over complicating things.

[Soror]

So, I talked to dd again yesterday evening of all the science topics I mentioned she was somewhat interested in plants and really interested in animals. She perked up at the idea of American Girl history. Now, I'm looking through various AG resources and trying to figure out what I would actually use and how to simplify it so it isn't overwhelming to me or her but also has some depth and interest. 

 

I'm not sure on animals. My first thought is maybe some of the Scientist in the Field books, there are some that are around the 64pg and a bit easier. I do not believe she is ready for the longer ones. However, cats and dogs came up as possible animals to study and there aren't any on that. I guess I need to chat with her some more to verify what animals she wants to study first.

[*Jessica*]

If you want to continue with the geography idea perhaps the Trail Guide to World Geography would work for you? Adding in Around the World in 80 Tales http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0753413477/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=would keep the number of books to read down, instead of reading from multiple books.

 

My older kids are both boys, so I can't help with AG ideas.

 

Animals? Perhaps Animalium http://www.amazon.com/Animalium-Welcome-Museum-Jenny-Broom/dp/0763675083/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460641453&sr=1-1&keywords=Animalityand the activity book? http://www.amazon.com/Animalium-Activity-Book-Welcome-Museum/dp/1783703431/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=51FI48uihgL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR117%2C160_&refRID=1D7304P285MQQC4KWW1M

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited October 30, 2022 by SilverMoon

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited September 5, 2023 by SilverMoon

[ScoutTN]

MP has a mammals unit for 3rd grade. That would be an good, basic course to which you could add extras as she is interested. 

[Soror]

I'm doing AG history with DD/5th and DD/2nd this year. There are about a bajillion Pinterest boards for extra activities. My girls adore extra activities. It's been fun. I didn't draft up a bunch of plans for this one, but tried to collect a good mixture of materials beforehand, aimed for three weeks for each historical girl, and made it up as we went. The girls learned to keep a sharp ear for food or handiwork/craft ideas they might like to try as we read. I read the AG books aloud to both of them, and we read the Welcome to _____'s World books together. DD/5th read a sturdy collection of extra books that took the history further, and DD/2nd read a few. 

 

Not every girl needed three weeks, because there just weren't as many trails we were interested in chasing. Some took more than three weeks, like Felicity/Revolutionary War. This estimate included all 12 historical girls, though there's 13 now that they added MaryEllen (1950's). We have Portraits, which is useful for activities for the classic 6 girls and Kit (no Kaya). (I wouldn't pay full price for it though.)

 

For a kid that greatly dislikes books changing, perhaps a history spine that goes alongside for the whole year? Maybe the concise Hakim? Mine is a voracious reader that's whipped through the Landmark text, Golden Book of the Revolutionary War/Civil War, and gobs more. She is the exact opposite about change though.

My son is like your daughter, the more books the better but I'm finally realizing she is the opposite in every way. 

 

How much are you reading a day to get through them in 3 wks? There are 4 bks per girl right? Plus the Intro books. I'm looking at her doing most of the reading as she doesn't like waiting on me and would prefer to do it solo. Dd is not a very fast reader, really she is still a bit reluctant, although getting out of that stage. I was actually looking at the Girls of American History curriculum, they have units for all 13 but I was thinking that realistically for her it would take 2 yrs as I think she would prefer to go longer. GoAH does 6 wks per girl and I was considering taking that long too. Can you give me an example of your time-line and schedule?

If you want to continue with the geography idea perhaps the Trail Guide to World Geography would work for you? Adding in Around the World in 80 Tales http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0753413477/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=would keep the number of books to read down, instead of reading from multiple books.

 

My older kids are both boys, so I can't help with AG ideas.

 

Animals? Perhaps Animalium http://www.amazon.com/Animalium-Welcome-Museum-Jenny-Broom/dp/0763675083/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460641453&sr=1-1&keywords=Animalityand the activity book? http://www.amazon.com/Animalium-Activity-Book-Welcome-Museum/dp/1783703431/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=51FI48uihgL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR117%2C160_&refRID=1D7304P285MQQC4KWW1M

I looked at Trail Guide but after reading reviews and looking at previews I don't think it would be a good fit.

 

I LOVE the look of Animalium- I'm a little concerned however that the text accompanying the gorgeous illustrations is a bit over her head. I didn't know they had an activity book- I wish they would have some more samples of it. 

[SilverMoon]

On 4/14/2016 at 1:15 PM, soror said:

 

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by SilverMoon

[Soror]

ScoutTN- Thanks for suggestion, I don't think it will quite work for us. 

 

Thinking and looking more I'm conidering Burgess Animal Book + a good animal encylopedia+ animal coloring books. She has a fondness for animal stories.

To keep the average pace of one girl every three weeks you'd need to read two books a week or 2-3 chapters a day. Each girl has six chapter books (combining Cecile and MarieGrace as one since they have three intertwining stories each). The original six have "pastime" collections you may find used or at thrift shops, play scripts, recipe book, craft book, and paper dolls. The original six, Kit, and Kaya have the Welcome to ____'s World book that covers the history and daily living of the time.  We have all the history books, mostly all the chapter books (those all six books in one volume collections are nice, and inexpensive used), and I picked up whatever parts and pieces of the pastimes I could find at used bookstores, curriculum sales, and such.

 

We didn't keep a tight schedule with this. It was rather fluid.  I usually read aloud 2-3 times a week, and my girls can easily listen to a whole book in one sitting. If there was a history chapter at the end of the chapter book we read it aloud together whenever we got to it. The other days were for unit study activities, other books, or even just playing with the paper doll collections. DD/5th had a second entry in her schedule to read from one of the history books I'd collected daily. Neither girl truly needed me to read them aloud, but it did simplify keeping them together, which they adore. (They are lightyears apart academically, so this is about the only thing they can do together.)

Thanks for your thoughts. I think it might be more realistic for her to just do the 7 original girls, at this point she wouldn't be up to either listening or reading a half a book a day. I have some of the original box sets but have them loaned out, I just requested to get them back. She also has the books for one of the newer dolls and it is just 3 books, each being 180 pgs, that is too much for her right now(I was thinking that the older ones were much shorter- I thought I read somewhere that they were 60 pgs each but it seems Amazon doesn't like to tell pg length for these). I was thinking of doing it either: 

 

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited September 5, 2023 by SilverMoon

[Soror]

Seems like the older books are a bit shorter than the newer ones. I have the MarieGrace and Cecile books near me, the 6 volume set. Book one has 6 chapters and 84 pages of story, and one more chapter's worth of history at the end.  The Kirsten one only has 58 pages of story, and the chapter of history at the end.

 

There are a LOT of options for doing history with these. Two years for that age would probably work out great! Or pick and choose.

 

Kaya, 1764, Nez Perce tribe

Felicity, 1774, Revolutionary War

Caroline, War of 1812

Josefina, 1824, New Mexico before it was New Mexico

Cecile and Marie Grace, 1853, New Orleans

Kirsten, 1854, pioneers

Addy, 1864, Civil War

Samantha, 1904

Rebecca, 1914, Jewish girl from Russia, WWI

Kit, 1934

Molly, 1944, WWII

MaryEllen, 1954

Julie, 1974

Thanks again for your thoughts - I think I will pick and choose according to what interests us and take whatever time we need.

[8filltheheart]

You might want to look at the Dear America books. They are on a slightly lower reading lever or shorter than the AG books. My girls gave preferred them. https://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R87F1LOP1KXMF

[Soror]

I just ordered Welcome to Kaya's World, Kaya Box Set(the box set was actually cheaper than the 1 book collection and reviews said it didn't have the history bit), and More than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life. As of now I'm not planning on buying the pre-made plans. We will start w/ me reading the Welcome to book the first week and then her reading a chapter a day of the Kaya books w/ Friday for the Looking Back(history section) and activities. The final week we will save for any related movie/docu, activities to finish and non-fic books. That puts us at 8 wks per section- which is pretty slow- but knowing her I think this along w/ increased expectations in other areas will be all she can handle and if/when her reading picks up speed and she is able to handle more we can speed it up.

 

To go along with the Burgess Animal Book I also ordered a HUGE animal encyclopedia(I'd gotten rid of the ones I had as they were not informative enough) as well as some coloring books and color in field guides. She'll be using those along with the animal classification sheets from Mind in the Light- as soon as I can get it to print up- otherwise I'll make my own.

[Soror]

You might want to look at the Dear America books. They are on a slightly lower reading lever or shorter than the AG books. My girls gave preferred them. https://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R87F1LOP1KXMF

Ha, I saw this after I had already purchased the other books. Thank you for the suggestion. I'm going to keep this in mind if the AG books end up being too much or we decide that we need to do something else. As of now I've just scheduled out the first section, I guess we'll see how it goes. She is very, very excited about it BUT whether or not that enthusiasm holds we'll see.

[Eagle]

Which animal encyclopedia did you get?

[8filltheheart]

I would check your library. Ours has quite a few.

[Jayne J]

We did an American Girl History study this year too. We covered Kaya, Felicity, Josefina, Kirsten, and Addy. We spent 6-8 weeks on each girl, reading all of each girls's books, the Welcome to ________'s World books, and the craft and cooking books (which were available at our library). We used the AG books as starting points to pick library books and activities--for Kaya we read more about the Nez Perce and Appaloosa horses, for Josefina the girls used onion skins to dye yarn and learn to weave, etc. I used the History Pockets books--Native Americans, Colonial America, and Moving West--to add some cut and paste/coloring activities, which my youngest loves.

This year we did history in one chunk on Fridays. During the week, we would start our day with a chapter or two from the AG book, and then on Friday we would read a few spreads from the Welcome to so-and-so's World book as well. Usually I had a History Pocket activity or cooking/crafting activity planned, and we might read an extra book or two about special topics, or watch a video (Liberties Kids was a major player during the Felicity study). I also had the girls add each new AG to a map of the US with her name and date, to help keep it all together. I printed miniature versions of the characters and they glued them to a map of the US. We added major cities and other features, like the El Camino Real, the original and current Nez Perce territory, and Kirsten's journey to Minnesota, etc.

[Soror]

Which animal encyclopedia did you get?

I ended up going with the DK Definitive Visual Guide to Animals based on the reviews and searching for a few different things and being impressed with what it had. I'll just have to see how it is when I get it and whether she takes to it. If it is too much for her then I'll buy the NG Animal Encyclopedia too. As it is ds will be studying animals too and I was hoping to find a book for both- Another possibility is DK Animals: A Visual Encyclopedia. Hard to find something that actually has a good amount of inot and not just pictures that isn't too much.

[Soror]

We did an American Girl History study this year too. We covered Kaya, Felicity, Josefina, Kirsten, and Addy. We spent 6-8 weeks on each girl, reading all of each girls's books, the Welcome to ________'s World books, and the craft and cooking books (which were available at our library). We used the AG books as starting points to pick library books and activities--for Kaya we read more about the Nez Perce and Appaloosa horses, for Josefina the girls used onion skins to dye yarn and learn to weave, etc. I used the History Pockets books--Native Americans, Colonial America, and Moving West--to add some cut and paste/coloring activities, which my youngest loves.

This year we did history in one chunk on Fridays. During the week, we would start our day with a chapter or two from the AG book, and then on Friday we would read a few spreads from the Welcome to so-and-so's World book as well. Usually I had a History Pocket activity or cooking/crafting activity planned, and we might read an extra book or two about special topics, or watch a video (Liberties Kids was a major player during the Felicity study). I also had the girls add each new AG to a map of the US with her name and date, to help keep it all together. I printed miniature versions of the characters and they glued them to a map of the US. We added major cities and other features, like the El Camino Real, the original and current Nez Perce territory, and Kirsten's journey to Minnesota, etc.

Thanks for sharing. I was considering the History Pockets but I think they'd end up bored with them(and then I'd be doing the work!). We might try it and see, maybe she would like it. I love the mapping idea, I need to do that for sure. Do you have a quick link to the mini print-outs? I was planning on doing a bigger history day on Friday too. 

[Jayne J]

Thanks for sharing. I was considering the History Pockets but I think they'd end up bored with them(and then I'd be doing the work!). We might try it and see, maybe she would like it. I love the mapping idea, I need to do that for sure. Do you have a quick link to the mini print-outs? I was planning on doing a bigger history day on Friday too.

Sorry Soror--I don't have a direct link. I used Pinterest to find a picture I liked and printed it out at the right size.

If your kiddo doesn't like color/cut/paste, then the History Pockets may not work, but I thought I'd mention them, since they saved my bacon a couple of times when I did't have the time or energy to prepare something else on a Friday. LOL! Plus my youngest enjoys that kind of thing.

[Another Lynn]

Sounds like you have a good direction, but if you end up wanting an American history spine that's not too difficult maybe The Complete Book of US History would work. It may be out of print, but probably available used. Most chapters had some small activity at the end.

[Soror]

Sorry Soror--I don't have a direct link. I used Pinterest to find a picture I liked and printed it out at the right size.

If your kiddo doesn't like color/cut/paste, then the History Pockets may not work, but I thought I'd mention them, since they saved my bacon a couple of times when I did't have the time or energy to prepare something else on a Friday. LOL! Plus my youngest enjoys that kind of thing.

 

I thought about the pockets for that reason, if I can find them cheap I'll try a set out to see if they get used and she likes them. 

 

Sounds like you have a good direction, but if you end up wanting an American history spine that's not too difficult maybe The Complete Book of US History would work. It may be out of print, but probably available used. Most chapters had some small activity at the end.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep it in mind.

[Soror]

Yesterday the Kaya book set and an animal coloring book came in, dd was soooo very excited. She told me, "I can't promise that I won't read these books before we start school" and "I can't believe I get to freakin' color for school, how cool is that!" She even told dh how excited she was and has went on and on about the cool thing with homeschool is that you get to study the things you want. Here's hoping the excitement holds.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

The Creek Edge task cards are an option that can be tacked on to almost any curriculum.  They are basically independent.  

 

For lit, you might just need to have a visual schedule:

- Read book, keeping a list of characters, settings.  Copy favorite sentence (of first sentence, to reduce decision anxiety) from each chapter (1x a day/week, whatever you want)

- Fill out plot arc diagram

- Identify any themes

- Write a paragraph about (choose one)- character description, main conflict, main theme, literary devices used, historical context...  whatever seems right for the book.

 

Maybe if that list were a visual thing that she does for each book, it would help her?

[Soror]

The Creek Edge task cards are an option that can be tacked on to almost any curriculum.  They are basically independent.  

 

For lit, you might just need to have a visual schedule:

- Read book, keeping a list of characters, settings.  Copy favorite sentence (of first sentence, to reduce decision anxiety) from each chapter (1x a day/week, whatever you want)

- Fill out plot arc diagram

- Identify any themes

- Write a paragraph about (choose one)- character description, main conflict, main theme, literary devices used, historical context...  whatever seems right for the book.

 

Maybe if that list were a visual thing that she does for each book, it would help her?

I did consider these for her, I think I've got it figured out for now but I'll definitely keep them in mind.

 

I got in our Animals: A Definitive Guide today as well as the Peterson Mammal Color In Field Guide, I love both of them and the kids liked them as well. I actually got 2 of the coloring guides, 1 for each girl, I think these will be well used. They especially love the little stickers in them showing the coloring for the animals. 

 

I have picked out all the books I have around her level for her shelf for independent reading next year but I was considering having her read through one of the volumes of Journey through Bookland, this might be a less intimidating for her yet make sure she is progressing through harder works slowly.