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Gentle history


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Hello!

we have been doing SOTW audiobooks for the last couple years, and my kids love them, particularly my 9 year old. We are also doing Sonlight history, core A—1st-3rd grade. The books are great, but we have recently read Twenty and Ten, about hiding Jewish children during WWII, and are now reading a book about missionaries in Africa. It has touched briefly on cannibalism, etc.m

The issue is that my six year old is extremely sensitive, to the highest degree. We can watch very few movies (which are always gentle children and family films) without him getting upset and crying about something...an animal in peril, a child getting teased, etc. He is very drawn to acting aggressive and acting out war, killing people, etc., I think as a way to process what we are reading. I can tell that he is very anxious during these books, and repeatedly asks, “was this true?”

I think we need to back off some of the upsetting things for now, because he cannot handle it yet. I’m actually going to pursue counseling for him this year, because he is definitely struggling hardcore right now with emotional regulation. He gets “triggered” by everything and then doesn’t know how to handle those feelings in a healthy manner. Anyway. 
Does anyone have recommendations for a more gentle history curriculum? Both boys love history. I’d really like to continue doing history together. I was planning to stick with world history next year, and sort of an overview of creation to modern day. But I can be flexible. This is probably our favorite subject and I want to do something fun and engaging!

 

Thanks so much for any recommendations! 

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Hello,

My oldest is sensitive too. Years ago, I read somewhere that either sotw 3 or 4 got more intense and was not for the sensitive.  So, my oldest has done the first two volumes for 2 years.  🙂  Probably not the best thing to have done, but I was too tired to plan out his history.  We are starting volume 3 and I got Snapshots of Early Modern History Vol 1 from Curiosity Chronicles as a supplement.  They have a full program, but I can stick to sotw now.  Anyhow, curiosity chronicles has 2 kids telling the story.  asking each other questions.  I don't think it'll get too graphic. 

Anyhow, I guess you could do American history.  Or Geography.  I like Notgrass.  it is a Christian company.  We are currently doing Our Star-Spangled Story and Our 50 states.  I have not started the readers for Our Star-Spanged Story as we are also doing sotw 3 and they are reading books from that time period.  Notgrass has free lessons on their site.  They are very responsive as well.  What I like about notgrass is that there are pictures and with their elementary geography program there is a personal story for each state. 

When my middle child was 6, I started American Pioneers and Patriots.  This too is Christian based.  I think this one is very gentle.  Not enough meat probably for your 9 yo.  What I didn't like about it is that it used the term Indians.  I just say Native Americans instead. 

There is something relative new out by a homeschool mom.  it's called gather round.  So far, for her history units, she has units for different continents and ancient history.  it's not for everyone.  This too is Christian based.  We are doing the Antarctica unit and like it.  Personally, though, none of my children would have sat through the whole reading when they were 6.  but yours may.  It's only about 3 to 5 pages.  You could always break up the reading too.  Anyhow, I do skip the copywork and grammar as I have that covered elsewhere.  a bunch of reviews can be found on you tube. 

Those are just ideas you could do to take a break from world history.  Sorry it's not an exact answer to your question, but we didn't do anything else for world history either. 

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Thank you both! That gives me some great starting points. I think we might emphasize geography and culture more this year, too. They also love that stuff, so I think backing off a bit from history and focusing more on that would still be really fun for them. Thanks again!

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Hugs. That is so hard. 

I do like the idea above of doing a cultural/geography year!

Other ideas might be to do a series of short Social Studies units: 
- state history/culture (state bird, flag, tree, etc.; physical geography and key landmarks of the state; key people in the state's history; etc.)
- civics -- elections, voting, what is the job of the president/congress/courts, etc.
- national/patriotism culture -- flag, symbols, monuments, "Americana" folk songs
- celebrate Native American culture, crafts, housing/food, etc. (would need to delay the history part until he's ready for those harsh realities)
- holidays & traditions
- map skills
- inventions/inventors and/or explorers
 

Another possibility for later on if still working through these issues after taking a history break... What about continuing with a chronological history for the older child and use the SOTW 3 & 4 and SL books that the 9yo is loving, but for the 6yo, while staying in the same time period, switch to books that focus on the non-intense topics of history. And you can spin it as a positive -- each child gets his own "special books" and "special reading time with mom/dad." 😉 . Maybe every so often have each child give a short presentation to everyone on a topic or event or person to share with the family, so coming back together again with history every so often. And have a few gentle read-alouds that are for everyone.

Ideas of less-intense topics for history:
- exciting and interesting events 
- inventions
- discoveries
- medical break-throughs
- scientists
- explorers
- sports figures
- technology advancements
- art/music movements
- biographies of famous people

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6 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Hugs. That is so hard. 

I do like the idea above of doing a cultural/geography year!

Other ideas might be to do a series of short Social Studies units: 
- state history/culture (state bird, flag, tree, etc.; physical geography and key landmarks of the state; key people in the state's history; etc.)
- civics -- elections, voting, what is the job of the president/congress/courts, etc.
- national/patriotism culture -- flag, symbols, monuments, "Americana" folk songs
- celebrate Native American culture, crafts, housing/food, etc. (would need to delay the history part until he's ready for those harsh realities)
- holidays & traditions
- map skills
- inventions/inventors and/or explorers
 

Another possibility for later on if still working through these issues after taking a history break... What about continuing with a chronological history for the older child and use the SOTW 3 & 4 and SL books that the 9yo is loving, but for the 6yo, while staying in the same time period, switch to books that focus on the non-intense topics of history. And you can spin it as a positive -- each child gets his own "special books" and "special reading time with mom/dad." 😉 . Maybe every so often have each child give a short presentation to everyone on a topic or event or person to share with the family, so coming back together again with history every so often. And have a few gentle read-alouds that are for everyone.

Ideas of less-intense topics for history:
- exciting and interesting events 
- inventions
- discoveries
- medical break-throughs
- scientists
- explorers
- sports figures
- technology advancements
- art/music movements
- biographies of famous people

Thank you! That’s super helpful and gives me lots of good ideas! I’m the type who wants to “do it all!” There are just so many great books and units out there, and I want to experience all of it! 😆 I’m going to sit down and see how I can meld all of these suggestions into a cohesive school year. Haha. Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

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My 5 year old and I like On Mission magazine from the gentle and classical press. She usually has a deal on every new country released. Not necessarily history, but geo/SS.
 

Nat Geo Kids “are we there yet?” has a lot of little clips about landmarks and attractions around the world. We’ve enjoyed expanding on those topics.  

I grabbed the tgtb year 1 history storybook to use as just a read aloud next year. That might be a good fit for your 6 year old. The Ms.Frizzle history books are generally pretty gentle too, but HTF. 
 

 

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10 hours ago, AnneGG said:

My 5 year old and I like On Mission magazine from the gentle and classical press. She usually has a deal on every new country released. Not necessarily history, but geo/SS.
 

Nat Geo Kids “are we there yet?” has a lot of little clips about landmarks and attractions around the world. We’ve enjoyed expanding on those topics.  

I grabbed the tgtb year 1 history storybook to use as just a read aloud next year. That might be a good fit for your 6 year old. The Ms.Frizzle history books are generally pretty gentle too, but HTF. 
 

 

Thanks! I haven’t heard of On Mission! And I had no idea there were Ms. Frizzle history books...my kids LOVE Magic School Bus! I’ll have to look for those. Great suggestions...I’m keeping track of all of this! 🙂

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What about using biographies and historical fiction for a while until he can handle the scarier parts of history?  My kids have all enjoyed the American Girls books. You can get "Welcome to ____'s World" for the original AG dolls, too. Those have lots of pictures of everything from food and clothes to medical equipment and information on travel of the time period. They're like DK Eyewitness books made for AG. 🙂

Some biographies we've read: The Boy Who Drew Birds, The Ocean of Truth, Martin's Big Words, Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, On a Beam of Light, She Touched the World, Buffalo Bird Girl, Poor Richard, D'Aulaire biographies. Most of these are short picture books aimed for younger grades, but they aren't graphic and don't talk down to the child. 

Children's history and historically significant literature: Stories from the History of Rome, Viking Tales, Fifty Famous Stories Retold, D'Aulaire books of Greek and Norse myths, retellings of Pilgrim's Progress, Robin Hood, and so on. 

Edit: I thought of a few more: Diane Stanley biographies! She has Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, Michelangelo, and others. 🙂

Russell Freeman has a beautifully-illustrated biography of Marco Polo. 

Demi has good folktales. My kids love "The Empty Pot" and "The Hungry Coat". She has a lot of biographies but I haven't read them so can't tell you how gentle they are. I would assume they'd be good for your son, based on her books that I have read. 🙂

Edited by wisdomandtreasures
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1 hour ago, wisdomandtreasures said:

What about using biographies and historical fiction for a while until he can handle the scarier parts of history?  My kids have all enjoyed the American Girls books. You can get "Welcome to ____'s World" for the original AG dolls, too. Those have lots of pictures of everything from food and clothes to medical equipment and information on travel of the time period. They're like DK Eyewitness books made for AG. 🙂

Some biographies we've read: The Boy Who Drew Birds, The Ocean of Truth, Martin's Big Words, Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, On a Beam of Light, She Touched the World, Buffalo Bird Girl, Poor Richard, D'Aulaire biographies. Most of these are short picture books aimed for younger grades, but they aren't graphic and don't talk down to the child. 

Children's history and historically significant literature: Stories from the History of Rome, Viking Tales, Fifty Famous Stories Retold, D'Aulaire books of Greek and Norse myths, retellings of Pilgrim's Progress, Robin Hood, and so on. 

Edit: I thought of a few more: Diane Stanley biographies! She has Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, Michelangelo, and others. 🙂

Russell Freeman has a beautifully-illustrated biography of Marco Polo. 

Demi has good folktales. My kids love "The Empty Pot" and "The Hungry Coat". She has a lot of biographies but I haven't read them so can't tell you how gentle they are. I would assume they'd be good for your son, based on her books that I have read. 🙂

You all have such great ideas! Now the hard part is going to be narrowing it down and choosing what to use! I want to do everything! 😂 

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We ran into something similar when my oldest was in second grade.   We weren't ready to delve into the heavier parts of history, but I didn't want to just wait until he was older to start enjoying history together.   I ended up putting together a year of "Important Inventions and Discoveries", and it was super fun!  We started in ancient times, and worked our way through a chronological list I put together of important inventors, scientists, and the discoveries they made.   It turned out to serve as both our history and science that year.  Lots of biographies, and so many opportunities to bunny trail with science experiments, extra books, etc.  I look back so fondly on that year in our early days of homeschooling🙂 

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1 hour ago, maptime said:

We ran into something similar when my oldest was in second grade.   We weren't ready to delve into the heavier parts of history, but I didn't want to just wait until he was older to start enjoying history together.   I ended up putting together a year of "Important Inventions and Discoveries", and it was super fun!  We started in ancient times, and worked our way through a chronological list I put together of important inventors, scientists, and the discoveries they made.   It turned out to serve as both our history and science that year.  Lots of biographies, and so many opportunities to bunny trail with science experiments, extra books, etc.  I look back so fondly on that year in our early days of homeschooling🙂 

Aw, I love that! I have the wheels turning from all these great suggestions! I feel like I’m set for the next couple years! Haha!

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We had a similar issue with dd. We got to the middle of SOTW 3, and she could not deal with the Industrial Revolution and child labor. So we switched gears and did a loose American history. We studied the presidents, using Mike Venezia books (our library system had them all!) and US geography with Trail Guide to US Geography, also some state history, and folded in field trips with that.

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