Elementary History

[YsgolYGair]

In all my educational years, all the history I learned seems to have made no impact on me for the long term. Or possibly even the short term. My kids are still young, but I'd really like a history program that will help them, and even me, understand the deeper causes and effects of things. I'd like them to really "get" history - and I wouldn't mind getting it myself. 

 

Which of the elementary level texts best helps to see the real flow of history and how one thing affected another??

[Milknhoney]

I think SOTW does a good job of this. I was never a history person so going through SOTW, I learned a lot myself - either refreshing my memory from so long ago, or learning new details I never learned.

 

I also love the whole idea of paring history with literature. What little of history I have retained, I did because I like to read historical fiction. Once I've read it in a story, it makes so much more sense to me. 

 

All that said, now that I'm in history cycle #2 with my son, I have to say that he remembers ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from the elementary cycle. So don't expect too much out of your efforts in the early years :)

[Bluegoat]

In the end I think the answer is, read history books.

 

I think for the K to 2 years, children are best served by hearing history as a story or narrative.  we started out with things lke 50 Famous Stories Retold.  They don't necessarily, IMO, need to be chronological at that point - their sense of time isn't great, anyway.

 

After that, in grade 3 or 4, I like to do an overview of a chronological history.  I like A Child's History of the World, because you can do it in one or two years, and it is a world history but with a European focus.  I've tried SOTW, but I think it casts its net a little too wide and loses narrative force.  We mix that with geography/looking at maps, books we like from the library, and some documentaries.  We also do some other regional history narratives, generally Canadian history and British, but any regional history could work.

 

 

[rainbowmama]

I like Story of the World for the early years, but I don't think even the best history curriculum will have a six year old understanding the deeper causes and effects. I really just go for enough exposure that hopefully we can work on that in the middle school years.

[Miss Tick]

Think big! Do SOTW with your kids, and you read SWB's History of the Ancient World yourself. That was my plan for this cycle, but I ran out of time...

[Targhee]

SOTW

[YsgolYGair]

Thanks for the great suggestions.

 

I'm not really looking for something that will help my littles understand all of history - rather something where they could learn at their level, while I might be able to see some of the correlations between events. I had thought of maybe reading History of the Ancient World myself along side Story of the World. Although, at my level of history remembrance, SOTW is likely to be pretty educational, lol! I'll have a new baby this next year, so my big plan, whatever we do, is to keep things really simple. 

[SilverMoon]

I learned more on my first pass through SOTW when my teens were little than I remember from my own education.

[SkateLeft]

I could have sworn my older kids remembered very little from our 1st-4th grade history cycle with SOTW and K12, but twice this year, my oldest has called to thank me, because she ended up needing that knowledge in one of her classes! Okay, so one of those times was to tell me that she managed to BS her way through an assignment because she knew the history, but still... that counts right? :D

 

"I swear that I learned more in first grade with you than I am in this class this year. This teacher doesn't know much about ancient history, and she's very western-centric!"

 

So you never really know what sinks down there! Some of those stories REALLY stuck with my kids, even though they didn't really seem to be able to recall a ton at the time. My older kids used K12 and SOTW in 1st-4th, then US History in 5th and 6th. Then topical history and geography based on interests and travel in 7th/8th. We didn't cycle back through formal world history until high school.

 

I did picture narrations too. So after each reading, I'd have the kids draw a picture of something from the lesson. Then they'd tell me about it, and I'd write their descriptions down on the page and put it in a binder. I have history notebooks for each kid from 1st-4th grade. Otherwise, they didn't do a lot of written work in history. I think that probably helped a lot with long term recall. 

[freelylearned]

For the elementary ages, in addition to SOTW, I really like Genevieve Foster's Books. Her books tie in the the biography of an important person, like George Washington, with the important historical events of the time.

 

For myself, I have been reading Dorothy Mill's history series (from Memoria Press). She writes a nice, in depth history of a time period and explains how each event or group impacted history.

[Momto6inIN]

I think SOTW does a good job of this. I was never a history person so going through SOTW, I learned a lot myself - either refreshing my memory from so long ago, or learning new details I never learned.

 

I also love the whole idea of paring history with literature. What little of history I have retained, I did because I like to read historical fiction. Once I've read it in a story, it makes so much more sense to me.

 

All that said, now that I'm in history cycle #2 with my son, I have to say that he remembers ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from the elementary cycle. So don't expect too much out of your efforts in the early years :)

I agree!

 

And I love listening g to SOTW CDs on my own even without the kids! 😉

 

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