History for Kindergarten age children

[Valeriemoineau]

Dear homeschooling families, 

We have just started our second year of homeschooling with our four children (5, 7, 7 and 9 years old). We started "the story of the world" volume 1 last school year and are now in the middle Volume 2. We all love it and i am very grateful that this resource is available. My children love their history classes and know more history facts than most adults! 

My question is about my 5 year old little girl (only just turned 5). I am wondering if you can recommend any history resource for children of her age? I started Story of the world volume one when my children were in first grade and i feel my little one still needs a few months of maturity to jump in the first volume. Do you have any recommendations on how i can teach a kindergartener history? 

Thanks a lot

Valerie 

[Kiara.I]

I would just let her listen in as much as she feels like, but not demand any of the work from her.

[Servant4Christ]

I don't do formal history for that age. I have them learn about local stuff such as community workers and safety and if they are interested, a little geography (continents and oceans) and basic cardinal directions. Otherwise, their focus is on fine motor skills, prereading/ prewriting activities, and early math concepts. I believe there is a coloring book that goes with SOTW, though, if she wants to join the older children. 

[HomeAgain]

No history here at that age, either.  We did a prep for Year 1 by focusing on:
-narration skills.  We used repetitive stories where an element only changes slightly in its reiterations and a child can act it out/tell it easily.  Think stories like the 3 Billy Goats Gruff, The Little Red Hen, and so forth.

-learning about other cultures/customs.  We did a study of a different modern country each month and learned about food, music, language, geography, etc.  I wanted to prepare for learning about past cultures.

-prehistory (prehuman),

-understanding basic geographical elements, and understanding community constructs: family unit, function of a neighborhood/town, specific roles

-nature study
 

I would honestly just let her play with castle blocks and hear stories this year, maybe add in some art.  Next year, when the older kids do 3, give her tales about American history.  Same with 4.  Then start her in 1 with the older kids when she's in 3rd and do all the fun projects together with all the kids.

[Slache]

6 hours ago, Kiara.I said:

I would just let her listen in as much as she feels like, but not demand any of the work from her.

Coloring pages! I print coloring pages and maps. He colors the maps in to his liking instead of following directions.

[Clarita]

I'm in a homeschool charter school (so I have to meet state standards). His social studies/history is mostly how we should function as a society with random history/civics/government facts sprinkled throughout. Example last week we had 5 sentences about what are responsibilities are at home and at school. Then randomly thrown in George Washington is our first president (loosely tied in because he's honest?? - I didn't tie it in I just talked about George Washington being our first president and left it.)

Mostly I focus on the how to be a good citizen part of it. Give them random snippets of history/civics/government facts. Maybe your local PS has a general scope and sequence on what they'll cover with their Kindergarteners. Then you can just make sure to cover those topics/factoids somehow.

[Valeriemoineau]

15 hours ago, Kiara.I said:

I would just let her listen in as much as she feels like, but not demand any of the work from her.

Thanks. Yes  that seems the best way forward. She does lots of colouring while we read SOTW. 

[seemesew]

I just read books at that age! There are children friendly biographies with pictures and there are plenty of other books to fill that need.

[goldenecho]

If you do hands on projects and experiences with your older kids, let her participate in as much as she can.   Don't worry about what she cant.  Let her looks at the pictures in the books and ask about them.  A Child Through Time would be a good resource for her.   When your older children are reading about an era/place in SOTW, if there is a "Child Through Time" section for it, than read that to her.  Keep it a light playful version of what they are doing.

[Not_a_Number]

I just have DD5 listen when I read things to DD9. 

[EKS]

On 9/2/2021 at 12:31 AM, Valeriemoineau said:

My question is about my 5 year old little girl (only just turned 5). I am wondering if you can recommend any history resource for children of her age?

We used K12's History K when my younger son was kindergarten age because I wanted to wait for 1st to begin the history cycle.  It is a semester of American and a semester of world geography.  It's perfect because there are a lot of great books set in American history for kids ages 5-8, but if you just start in with SOTW, they don't really have the context for them.  The world geography is a great overview prior to starting world history in 1st.

Anyway, I supplemented with a bunch of picture books, and we both had fun!

[Insertcreativenamehere]

I'd just read picture books, honestly. Read Aloud Revival has some great lists that might be helpful for you. 

[Clemsondana]

We used Core Knowledge (What your K'er needs to know) when mine were in elementary, but I don't know that I would add it in your situation.  Listening is enough, but if you wanted something specific you might consider adding geography of some sort.  It would be directed at the K kid, but everybody could participate.  You could just play with globes and maps and color them, etc, but if you want specific things to do Evan-Moore has a map workbook that my kids liked.  There's an illustrated book 'Geography from A-Z' that we used for several years at the start of each school year.  If your kid is into hands-on things, you could pick a few terms and then have them draw them or build them from play-doh.  They are a bit pricey, but Pin-it Maps might also be something that the family could use.  We also did a 'continent book' where they cut out pictures from magazines (or they could draw, or use stickers, or print images, or make a digital scrapbook - whatever your family would like) for each continent.  We'd print a map, maybe name a few countries, then see whether it had deserts or rainforests or whatever, then look at native animals, or watch videos or documentaries, and then maybe do a craft or 2 or try to buy or cook some foods from the region.  

I have a bit of a hang-up about geography because it wasn't really taught anywhere when I was in school, and history makes so much more sense when you know where things are so I tried to incorporate that a lot when my kids were little.  

[PeterPan]

Sonlight used to have a preschool/K5 core (maybe they still do?) with really basic Usborne books like People and Places, etc. At that age they don't have a sense of the world or that people live differently, so talking about how people live in different places and how they lived and different times is age appropriate. 

[Kela]

Like Peter Pan mentioned, Sonlight has history for K5. We are doing their kindergarten science and amazing.

[Carol in Cal.]

We visited a lot of living history sites and natural history sites at that age.  We found some favorites that we visited over and over as the years went by, adding layers of age appropriate information each time.  It worked out great.

[Rosie_0801]

We did prehistory with some fun books and documentaries, and spent a bit of time memorising pictures of famous landmarks with a few card games I got from somewhere.