Do you do science AND history in the same day?

[Meadowlark]

Spinning off of the recent thread about the mom who felt she was doing too many subjects, it got me thinking about the problem I have.

 

I feel like I can really focus on history...OR...can really focus on science. But not both. After the 3 R's are done, we are into the afternoon and I have time for just "one more thing" before our all-family quiet time. This is usually 30-60 minutes. The history program is quite involved and to do it thoroughly, I would be doing history multiple times a day. Maybe read aloud in the morning, project/craft in the afternoon, mapwork/notebooking sometime else. That leaves no time for science.

 

The issue is, I really love science and so do my kids. We could easily focus on that in place of history, but then it will take us 1.5-2 years to get through this history program. I had planned on starting something new next year, and I'm not sure how I feel about stretching it out that long. 

 

But I just can't do both at the same time it seems. So my question is, do you?

 

Also-my kids go to coop one day a week, so we have 4 days to get everything done. Doing history for 2 days and science for 2 days isn't going to work because I don't feel that that lends itself to immersion and continuity. Should I do 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off or something? Just trying to think this through.

[freesia]

Not below fifth grade. If I am leading and reading and planning the activities I can manage one or the other. My fifth and above read daily and meet with me in each subject at least once a week, but not on the same day either.

[wendyroo]

We do history at double speed for a semester and then science at double speed for a semester.

 

For example, we are using SOTW 2 this year and we also do school 4 days a week, so I read a chapter or two on Monday while the boys color the coloring page and do the map work.  Then on Tuesday we quickly review with the comprehension questions and then do one of the projects.  On Wednesday and Thursday we repeat the cycle.  Each day we spend 20-40 minutes on history...less on Monday and Wednesday and sometimes a bit more on Tuesday and Thursday if the kids really get involved in the project.

 

The schedule will look very similar next semester for science.

 

Wendy

 

 

[Hobbes]

I'm on my phone so I can't see your kids' ages. I have a 2nd grader and 3rd grader. We do school four days a week and a homeschool group the other day.

 

I never do history and science in the same day. I find we get immersed in a content subject and want to discuss it off and on the rest of the day, so I have one day set aside for each. We do our core work first and then on Monday, dive into history and on Tuesday, science.

 

Our general rhythm is to hit the "official" content stuff on that main day, by way of introduction, then fill in with related extras on that theme through the rest of the week.

 

For history, that means we do a SOTW chapter (audiobook) on Monday, along with the colouring page, map/globe work, timeline, and possibly an activity. I load up on library books for each chapter and through the next week they will either be read-alouds or independent reading. I also might do an activity (generally a simple one, like making cardboard shields for the knights chapter) during a free afternoon.

 

For science right now, we are working through the My Body paper model book. So on a Tuesday, we read the My Body blurb and cut/colour/glue the body model pieces. We also read the related DK Human Body Encyclopedia pages and might listen to the related chapter in the Apologia Anatomy audiobook. The rest of the week, we read related library books, watch a documentary or Magic School Bus, and do whatever I might come up with... this week we covered the skeleton and this afternoon they did a skeleton puzzle and assembled a life-sized full-bodied x-ray kit my sister lent me.

 

Some topics capture their attention more than others, so one or the other subject tends to get more attention in any given week (this week they are far more interested in skeletons than in Marco Polo).

[cintinative]

We don't. We block schedule history and science. So Mon/Fri is history and Tues/Thurs is science.  Wed we have co-op.

[HomeAgain]

I don't think it's a fair comparison to others' homes. :)

I have one homeschooler currently, and two tagalongs.  Plus, it's 1st grade, so there is a LOT that is hands on!  We do get science and history done on the same days, but during the afternoon I have a two hour stretch where it is just the homeschooler; the other two are napping. Anything that we don't do in the morning (which is all learning through play so the 3yo can join in) is done during that stretch at a more intensive level.  It's a big difference to essentially tutor one child than to have 4 or 5 needing attention and possibly differentiating work.

[KrissiK]

Yes, we do! We all do Apologia Science together. Then they do their own history.

[MerryAtHope]

For early elementary, I used to alternate days with history and science.

[Garga]

Before this year we did sci for 4 days a week and hx for 4 days a week. They would overlap for 3 days.

 

This year, they both get done daily, but this year is just weird since my oldest is now in high school. High school is just different.

 

But I've always been ok with a long school day. Not everyone is.

[LEK]

We don't. We do 2 days a week of each alternating.

But, what works for one family may not be the best option for another, do whatever works best in your situation

[3 ladybugs]

My husband does both of those subjects. So yes they often do get done on the same day. Most of the time on the weekend. Never with other subjects (maybe German, but only if he happens to do that on the day that he has german class so we are not teaching it that day). My husband does it once a week. 

[lanalouwho]

We do science and history each once a week. We might read related library books throughout the rest of the week, but our lesson/project/experiment is only one day.

 

Sent from my HTCD200LVW using Tapatalk

[OnMyOwn]

I'd do whatever works for your family since your kids are so young and these are just content subjects. When my children were that age, we spent a lot of time on history and very little on science because history is what we enjoyed. I can't see that it will hurt to stretch the history program out if you'd rather focus on science or even replace your formal program with something like the SOTW audiobooks.

 

Both of mine are in high school now. Interestingly, my ds, who has a true love for history and facts remembers a lot of what we studied early on. My dd never was into history the way ds was and doesn't remember a lot of what we studied, but she warmly remembers all the fun we had doing it and all the time we spent reading together. They both remember that and that's what is really important to me now.

Edited October 22, 2016 by OnMyOwn

[fralala]

 

Should I do 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off or something? Just trying to think this through.

 

This is kind of what we do. When it comes to our formal lessons, we focus on history or science for the period of time it takes to get through a unit (which for us might be a chapter in BFSU or a specific historical time period, civilization, or event; but there is still the idea of continuity and logical progression through both over the coarse of our year).

 

But those are just our formal lessons. My kids keep talking about, reading about, wondering about, and experimenting with topics we've learned about even once we've formally moved on, and I try to provide enough books, videos, materials, podcasts or audiobooks, and free time for them so that I think they're pretty much "doing" history and science most of the time, even if I'm not leading it.

[coffeegal]

I just switched to doing science and history in the same day for my littles, K and 1st grade. They're wiggly and short lessons work best (10 minutes). I also discovered to my delight that by the end of the week their retention and comprehension is much higher that when we were alternating longer lessons. It's a win-win for me. More engaged kiddos with better retention. :001_smile:

 

 

[Syllieann]

I do history 4 days per week with my older two, who are elementary students. Our main science is 3 days per week per child, but some of those slots are just reading. The end result is that I teach science to one child each day. On a day when one has independent science reading, I am teaching the other. I plan to combine them for science next year, doing 3 days each week. Ods has MP astronomy once per week, but it is open and go so I don't really feel like I'm teaching it.

[HS Mom in NC]

We school 4 days a week.  We have our history and science step up for twice a week each. (I do the 36 week hanging file folder system with a week's worth of work in it and I have it all planned out in my planner.) That means our time focused on each subject is longer so we can get 5 days worth done. You really only have to add an hour to an hour and half to each day to your 4 days week to equal the hours spent on school in a 5 day week. I'm not required to do a certain number of hours, but it works out for me to plan that way so we get a year's worth of work done in a school year. (We take the summer off.)

I also do subject integration, so if our Language Arts requires a writing assignment with a focus on particular writing skills, I change the topic of writing assignment to something related to history or science and count the one assignment for both Language Arts and either history of science. Our fiction and non-fiction read alouds are usually directly related to history so our school day is more streamlined.

If you follow the recommendations in The Well Trained Mind science and history are related to each other when you use The Story of the World series by Bauer in the elementary years.    I believe it recommends 2 days of one and 3 days of the other for people schooling 5 days a week so integration is easier.  If you use The Story of Science by Hakim and the curriculum designed for it by John's Hopkins University and the National Science Teacher's Association for middle school kids, it dovetails nicely with any chronological history for that age group because the science text moves chronologically through history.  The teacher's guide has assignment ideas in each chapter for how to integrate with art, language arts, math, geography, and history.
 

[bolt.]

For me, once kids know how to read and write, Science and 'Social Studies' (frequently history) become a very significant part of schooling. I can't imagine not doing them every day.

 

I'm much more likely to call Science, Social Studies and Math my core subjects -- rather than continuing to prioritize 'the 3 R's' beyond the early years.

 

(Yes, it's important to learn to read and write, of course! I'm thinking about students beyond age 9 or 10: students who can pick up most things and read them, and who can write with general age-appropriate competence. Grammar, spelling, continued structured writing instruction, reading comprehension, literature reading, etc: Yes! They are important, but they don't continue to define 'the most important things we study' in my approach. I would be moving those to 'not every day' if I needed to.)

[lindsey]

Not usually. I'm pretty meh on science in general--at least for the kids, I have a hard time planning and making it fun. If we're covering science in a given week, we usually do every-other-day, science or history. And then it's like...read a two-page spread about bones/skeleton, in two or three books, maybe Google x-ray pictures and things...but that's it. Science is our worst subject, lol...it doesn't feel like we're doing enough, but I also can't get more into it. History is usually pretty packed with books and small activities or crafts or videos. 

[mschickie]

We have always done both History and Science every day (unless there were special circumstances like a field trip.  I think the only subjects we have not done each day are art, music, pe, health and grammar (some years that was every day but mostly 2-3 days a week).  Our schedule is planned out for a 4 day school week because we have an all day co-op on Friday.

[freelylearned]

We try to hit all of the subjects every day, even if it is briefly. However, I try to balance longer lessons and shorter lessons in the more hands-on subjects.

 

If I have a longer history lesson planned, we will do a shorter science lesson. Usually, I just read a few pages from a science text or living book and we discuss it.

 

If I have a science lab planned, we do a shorter history lesson, which is usually just read a section and narrate.

 

When we do a long art project, we do shorter science and history lessons.

[RootAnn]

Before about fifth grade, we alternate them, with either one day off or one day with whichever one we are behind on.

 

My biggest problem in the young years besides not having enough time in the day is that I can't find a science I like. Story of the World works great for us for history. Never found its equivalent for science and I've tried most of it.

 

In roughly fifth grade, we do both three to four days per week, but there is more independence for at least some of it, so that buys me some more time in my day.

 

I tried a week on, week off once. Didn't stick to it. I'd do the semester thing, but my boys would protest going so long without science. Dunno, just wish I could find a good elementary science program that was doable.

[crazyincolorado]

I have one child, so I imagine we have very different days. For us we are only reading, doing some map work, small projects here and there, and movies for history. Fo science we are pretty much sticking with experiments and games. I don't feel like they need to know too many definitions and specifics in these subjects.

 

My goals for history are for DD9 to learn what era things happened in and why humans behave the way they do (i.e., why history tends to repeat itself and what trends humans like to recreate). So I read a few chapters from historical fiction, or she reads a few. Then once every week we will do a small project like a recipe or hairdo, then once or twice each week we'll watch a movie, documentary or show about what we are studying. We watch the shows in the evening with DH.

 

For science, my goal is to instill a sense of wonder and a love of science. She doesn't NEED to drill facts IMO. So we do 1-2 experiments each week depending on how long they take. She also gets to do an experiment or project in her co-op each week. HTH!

[Meadowlark]

Just an update-I've been doing just one or the other this week and WHEW I'm a lot less stressed! Maybe it's the way my brain works or something, but I really like to focus on one topic heavily at a time. For us now, it's science. I really love putting history on the back burner for a few weeks. And we all know that when mom is less stressed-everything else goes smoother too! I don't know if we'll always keep it this way, but I'm loving just switching back and forth for now. Thanks for chiming in everyone!