Already dropping history and science...

[luvbug in Ohio]

because even though it's only been a week, it's clear that my ds in 1st can't stand it. We're using HOD because it's what I have left over from my older son, and he loved it, but my wiggly, highly energetic little one is bored to tears with their book choices. I'm usually a power through it type, but it got worse every day last week, with Friday culminating in tears, meltdowns, and begging me not to make him do those 2 subjects. Everything else is going well, and I don't want to make him hate history and science, so I'm cutting our losses now. I think he needs something

 

*hopefully not too expensive (ok that's more for me, lol)

*less bookish I think? maybe more crafts, videos, projects etc.

*already planning to supplement whatever we do with trips to our local parks, zoo, museum

*I think we need to focus on living books more. He does love to snuggle and read on the couch, if the book is engaging.

 

Hopefully this isn't too vague. I appreciate any advice. Hopefully I can figure something out before I'm joining in the tears, meltdowns, and relentless begging, lol.

 

[Jean in Newcastle]

All a first grader needs are some read alouds for history. They don't have to be hard or long. I remember some sweet ones like https://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Mortons-Day-Scholastic-Bookshelf/dp/0439812208

 

For science get some of the Usborne science experiment books and have fun.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mamaraby]

What about a unit study meets read aloud ala Five in a Row, but without necessarily doing FIAR. That way you can still sit down and read books - choose one for the theme and the find books that go along with it. So for example, in September you might read something like Marjorie Priceman's "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" and then check out some other books on things like apples ("Apples" by Gail Gibbons), Johnny Appleseed (Steven Kellogg has a nice one), apple cider, autumn/fall/seasons, the continents, the locations mentioned (Vermont, France, England, Italy), etc.

 

Then plan a field trip to the apple orchard, do an apple variety taste test, label a diagram of an apple, make apple crisp or apple pie, watch the Reading Rainbow episode that covers the book, make a map showing the journey taken in the book, etc.

 

Homeschool Share has lots of free lapbook and unit study ideas which might help you come up with more of your own ideas while also giving you craft-y ideas if you need some help.

 

You can also start with what interests your kid already. You could do a keyword search of the card catalog at your library. If you can limit it to children's books then you'll get a mix of fiction and non-fiction. A lot of times I'd start there and then follow the links to the subject and cross reference from there into related fiction and non-fiction books. Search the book title online plus "crafts" or "lesson plans" and you can see what other people have posted. I did that with my youngest for Kindergarten and first grade. She got a good general overview and we read a lot of books. Plus, she had a blast.

Edited August 28, 2017 by mamaraby

[Porridge]

For Science: get any and every book from the Let's Read and Find Out series from your local library. 

For history: we loved SOTW Ancients at that age. There are many ideas for good supplemental literature and hands on activities in the Activity Book.

[kiwik]

Magic School bus and Sid the science kid DVDs cover quite a lot of science painlessly especially if you discuss and get matching books.

[Elizabeth86]

Magic School bus and Sid the science kid DVDs cover quite a lot of science painlessly especially if you discuss and get matching books.

Agree. My kids watch these for fun. Wild Kratts are good if you are learning about animals. They also adore Ready Jet Go for astronomy topics.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Elizabeth86

[nixpix5]

Science and history are gravy at that age. When they love it then it is worth it, otherwise follow his lead. I like your idea of snuggly book time. Science can be child led. Just get some books that interest him and hit up Pintrest for fun activities to do some hands on stuff.

 

What he might enjoy is Private Eye loupe on a lanyard. If you google that you will pull up fun magnifying loupes. When you nest one in the other it magnifies by 10x. Hang them on a lanyard and go outside. Look closely at the world with them. Sketch them, make up poems about what you see, talk about what they remind you of and how that might relate to how they work (form=function). Get him thinking about the interesting questions in a fascinating and fun way. We love our loupes! We take those and a nature journal and just go out for a walk. It is cheap and perfect for that age.

 

https://www.theprivateeyestore.com/products/the-private-eye-loupe

[OneStepAtATime]

Its a first grader?  Why not back off completely for a couple of weeks then just pick random topics this year maybe once or twice a week and do fun hands on exploration.  Keep lessons short.  Keep it more interest driven.  No long read alouds.  Try to reinvigorate an interest in these topics.  Less may be way more with this child, especially at this age.

 

FWIW, DD hated both subjects at that age.  Now?  She has strong interests in both.  I backed off for quite a while.  Then, I found back door ways in (like art, which she loves, so for example we did a bit of Art History, heavy emphasis on art in the early days, which led to more art history and more and more and each manifestation included more emphasis on history).

[momofabcd]

How about Mystery of History with audio Cd's? I agree with a previous poster about Let's read and find out Science books.

[RootAnn]

It wasn't our cup of tea, but lots of people like Mystery Science. You can sign up for a free one year subscription to all the current lessons available at the time you join. (New lessons, which they add all the time, aren't available unless you pay for a subscription.) It doesn't hurt to try it - since you can get started for free. You watch a video and then do an experiment/demonstration. It is kinda cheesy, but if your kid doesn't know much science, it can teach quite a bit. There are various subjects, so you can pick what interests your kid. There are usually additional suggestions at the end of the lessons to take it further and you can always check out more books at that point.

[Insertcreativenamehere]

Ditto Mystery Science. We've loved it!

[sweetpea3829]

Listen...

 

Let me tell you a secret that totally transformed our school. (I swear I'm not a sales person, lol).

 

Just do one, not both concurrently.

 

We school year round, but you don't have to, to make this work. For half of your school year, cover history.

 

For the other half, cover science.

 

We study History from October through March and Science from April through September.

 

So much less stress.

 

We also school 4 days a week, have 30 weeks of full-time school and 10ish weeks of a shorter schedule summer school.

 

As my kids approach middle and high school, I realize I'm going to have to modify this. But for elementary? Just do one at a time.

[greenfields]

I threw history overboard.

 

We have too many textbooks (of math, science, and language arts), so history textbooks had to go (donation).  It is a wonderful feeling to reduce clutter.

 

 

 

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited June 13 by SilverMoon

[zarabellesmom]

What about a unit study meets read aloud ala Five in a Row, but without necessarily doing FIAR. That way you can still sit down and read books - choose one for the theme and the find books that go along with it. So for example, in September you might read something like Marjorie Priceman's "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" and then check out some other books on things like apples ("Apples" by Gail Gibbons), Johnny Appleseed (Steven Kellogg has a nice one), apple cider, autumn/fall/seasons, the continents, the locations mentioned (Vermont, France, England, Italy), etc.

 

Then plan a field trip to the apple orchard, do an apple variety taste test, label a diagram of an apple, make apple crisp or apple pie, watch the Reading Rainbow episode that covers the book, make a map showing the journey taken in the book, etc.

 

Homeschool Share has lots of free lapbook and unit study ideas which might help you come up with more of your own ideas while also giving you craft-y ideas if you need some help.

 

You can also start with what interests your kid already. You could do a keyword search of the card catalog at your library. If you can limit it to children's books then you'll get a mix of fiction and non-fiction. A lot of times I'd start there and then follow the links to the subject and cross reference from there into related fiction and non-fiction books. Search the book title online plus "crafts" or "lesson plans" and you can see what other people have posted. I did that with my youngest for Kindergarten and first grade. She got a good general overview and we read a lot of books. Plus, she had a blast.

Can you come to my house and homeschool my kids? 😜

[Bluegoat]

Science and history are gravy at that age. When they love it then it is worth it, otherwise follow his lead. I like your idea of snuggly book time. Science can be child led. Just get some books that interest him and hit up Pintrest for fun activities to do some hands on stuff.

 

What he might enjoy is Private Eye loupe on a lanyard. If you google that you will pull up fun magnifying loupes. When you nest one in the other it magnifies by 10x. Hang them on a lanyard and go outside. Look closely at the world with them. Sketch them, make up poems about what you see, talk about what they remind you of and how that might relate to how they work (form=function). Get him thinking about the interesting questions in a fascinating and fun way. We love our loupes! We take those and a nature journal and just go out for a walk. It is cheap and perfect for that age.

 

https://www.theprivateeyestore.com/products/the-private-eye-loupe

 

Yup, for science my suggestion was outside, nature study.  If you keep going back to one spot though the year, you ca notice changes as time goes on.  On stormy days find a few good documentaries.  Try some animal stories too, like maybe James Herriot or Old Mother Westwind.

 

You could skip history, but you can also just try short stories from history.  Or again, some documentaries, ocassionall chose stories set in the past.  Visits to historic sights might be popular too.

 

Grade 1 is still young.  Lots of little boys aren't ready o sit much.  I have a grade 1 boy this year - the only subjects I am scheduling are reading and math.  And we may drop math for a while too.  He can sit in with his sister for other things if he wants.

[ExcitedMama]

Science in the Beginning is great for science. It's great because it's well written and doesn't require any outside books to get the topic and the experiments are super easy. SOTW is great and fun. Memoria Press Enrichment is also great if you want help with extras and a topic to focus on every week.

[Tenaj]

Science in the Beginning is great for science. It's great because it's well written and doesn't require any outside books to get the topic and the experiments are super easy. SOTW is great and fun. Memoria Press Enrichment is also great if you want help with extras and a topic to focus on every week.

 

I was going to suggest Memoria Press Enrichment also.  Lots of the books are available at the library, too, so it doesn't have to be expensive or you can just sub in books on the subject that your library does have in stock.

[Saddlemomma]

At that age I would definitely ditch any curriculum and go with interest-led topics.  Find some age-appropriate, short books in the library about any topics he's interested in.  Snuggle on the couch and read to him or watch a short video, then do a hands-on if possible.

 

Examples: (If you do each subject once a week that would be fine. He may even ask you to do more!)

 

• If he likes secret codes & stories about spies, tell him about Washington's spies during the Revolutionary war.  There are many children's books relating to this topic, some are the which/way books where the kids can choose a scenario to follow. For a hand's on project, you can ask your dc to come up with his own code and write out a secret message as either George Washington or one of his spies.  See if you can figure out the message.
• Short science (can't beat Crash Course Kids!) and history videos (5 mins. or less) for kids about something they're interested in (Dinosaurs, cars - Henry Ford, astronauts, Mohammad Ali, Liberty Kids-fantastic option, etc) and then a coloring sheet would be sufficient. YouTube is your friend!
• Does your child like mysteries?  Why not read about the unsolved mysteries of history and science?  My DD LOVES any historical or science mysteries.  There are a plethora of books available for either.  You could then ask your kid to come up with possible resolutions to these mysteries.
• Get messy with science! Purchase or research some simple, but fun, science experiments you can do at home. Make an exploding volcano or silly putty & slime, etc.  YouTube has tons of videos for kid-friendly science experiments. Here's another series of experiments for K-3rd. Grade.

Trust me, if I had to do it all over again, this is how we would have done history and science.  

 

 

[Runningmom80]

I'm doing interest led science and history for elementary. I strew a lot. While my kids are picking out their books at the library, I pick out different books on diffferent topics and throw them in the library bag. One week we took home the whole "who is?" Series from the library because my oldest loved the Bill Gates book. That led him to The Who Is Einstein and other scientists books and now he loves science. And I was getting the books to sneak in history! lol it's not linear here.

 

If you want more scaffolding, get the books SWB recommends and follow the cycles, just without curriculum. I'm sort of doing that this year, with the caveat that if something is boring, we skip it, and if something more exciting comes up, we do that instead.

[Tumbatoo]

It's already been mentioned, but I'd go with interest led. If he's into pirates, learn about that: dress up, books from library, maps, hunt for treasure, learn about boat navigation, etc Same for lights/castles, ancient Egypt, ect. You can make it a unit study and add in science, or explore interest led science: how do you make bubbles? Slime? Baking soda volcanos, watch Wildkratts, visit the zoo, etc.

[ktgrok]

Agree. My kids watch these for fun. Wild Kratts are good if you are learning about animals. They also adore Ready Jet Go for astronomy topics.

 

Yup. Fetch with Ruff Ruffman is amazing for science as well. And Amazon video has Animated History with Pipo which is fantastic. 

 

Another idea, we used Pioneers and Patriots for an overview of American History for first. Nothing major, just fictional short stories about kids in various time periods of American History. Might want to check it out. 

[ktgrok]

I forgot to say that for science for first grade we just developed a habit of "documentary before bed". These didn't have to be super heavy...we watched things like Sea Rescues, Wildlife Docs, etc and are now on Myth Busters, How It's Made, and others. Human Planet, etc are also great. 

[Mrs. Y]

Mine have learned a ton just by watching Liberty's Kids and Magic School Bus.

[nixpix5]

I forgot to say that for science for first grade we just developed a habit of "documentary before bed". These didn't have to be super heavy...we watched things like Sea Rescues, Wildlife Docs, etc and are now on Myth Busters, How It's Made, and others. Human Planet, etc are also great.

Reading this reminds me of a girl I met in college. She was one of the most brilliant science minds I have ever known. She and her sister were homeschooled, she had never stepped foot in a classroom until college. Being naive about homeschooling, everybody at her physics lab table were amazed by this. She said her interest in science came from her family sitting together every evening before bed and watching documentaries :)

[Angie in VA]

:iagree:  with :

• history for 1/2 the year and science for the other 1/2 (I had to do this w/ an older child for a season)
• Magic School Bus and Liberty Kids if for no other purpose but to pique their interest and/or assuage your guilt!
• SOTW w/ Activity Books
• great read-aloud and/or audio books or history audios (a la Sonlight, for ex) 

 

Also, if you have space for a sturdy bird feeder and buy the highest quality bird seed you can afford and at least one good field guide, get them. We were surprised how many kinds of birds came to our yard. We kept a list on the fridge. I'll never forget ds's saying, "Look! There's a mommy male cardinal!"  :001_wub:  The whole family learned a lot and that sparked a great appreciation for nature and much science learning. 

 

Oh, and when I read Charlotte's Web to the kids, they had so many questions that we checked out several books on spiders from the library. We didn't read every word of every book, but we learned a lot. 

 

 

*Warm, fuzzy memories of kids in this age group!*

 

Edited September 2, 2017 by Angie in VA

[boscopup]

I've used SOTW for history at that age, but even that isn't necessary.

 

For science... LIBRARY BOOKS. Just random books from the science section in your library. You'd be amazed what your kids will know just from reading good books.

 

You can do the same with history... hit up the nonfiction section of the library and enjoy some good books.

[Shifra]

I just wanted to mention that I started first grade in 1975 in a parochial school with a very traditional phonics based curriculum (unusual at that time). However, we really did not do either history or science. Social studies was pretty much covered by learning about people working, with field trips to milk bottling plants and visits from parents who talked about their lines of work. Around such holidays such as Thanksgiving and Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays, we learned about the history of those days. Science was only added to elementary school curriculums after Sputnik in the 1950s. Before that, only nature study was really covered.

[kiwik]

I didn't do any science until high school and history was an option you couldn't take until mid high school. Then it started with WWII which was rather annoying. I read a lot of kids historical fiction and learnt a surprising amount.