It is the SS for my 2nd grader this yr thru My Father's World. Between him and I we were so excited, now the memorization is weighing on my son hard. Any pointers? We are behind and are discussing all the early discovers' and some of the interesting facts about them. TIA!
ok for second grade just do the basics, study the ships that came, the people and what they ate, how they lived, what did they live in... for crafts you can build a cabin ( use twigs for more fun and mud! There are a lot of books on Pilgrims, so this time of year is easy smeasy but then do the little house first christmas type of books, and see what it was like, how did they live, what did they do for fun, there are some coool games , hoops and a stick , using an embrodery hoop. and two dowls you can get at walmart in a package, you actually need four to play with a friend. You cross the sticks with the hoop on it then pull at the sides and the hoop goes flying into the sky the other player catches it on the sticks. and does it over again..
Maybe find books that you can read outside of school time that reinforce what he's learning? My kids love when they're reading a book outside of "school" and it correlates with what they're reading IN school.
I have some unit studies on my familyd.50megs.com website that has some fun history (more hands on stuff) that you can do. Also, look up stuff to make costumes and food, and make an evening from that history period! You can make paper craft replicas, make toys and play games from that time period, watch a movie about that time period (we just watched El Dorado and Pocahontas!) See if there are any field trip opportunities in your area related to your area of study. Finally, all this extra stuff does not have to be directly tied to what you are studying now - we are studying the colonists, but there is going to be a civil war reenactment this weekend that I am going to try and get my kids to! Their brains will make the connections once we study that time period - and it will serve as a great time and great learning experience! Good luck!
I agree also with the books from library keeing in mind this is a 2nd grader you dont want to overwhelm them with too much as they will repeat US HISTORY at least twice in thier school career. Another fun thing is to watch as many videos of the time period y ou are in, cartoon videos included! Then discuss the diference between kids then and now. Focus on th ekids, your dc is a young one still how much was candy, what kind of candy did they eat? ETC
We read a lot of little house this year, and now my girls want to make "molasses candy" - Now i just need the recipe - I told them we would make it for our halloween party. YIKES!
I consider memorization to be a waste of time. We role play and have tons of fun with it. You know how children seem to recall every single detail of their video games or whatever it is that interests them? Well, have tons of fun with history and skip any sort of memorization. Nothing like memorization to kill a topic. We did lots of fun hands on projects and read lots of historical fiction books as well as nonfiction. We listened to books on tape too. We made a garden and dressed up like pilgrims when studying colonial days. For the Revolution, we took sides. Then we debated why were were right. That was fun and the children really remember and get this topic. You get the idea.
This recipe is from The World of Little House. We used it along with the Little House series of books, craft book, cookbook, and Pioneer Sampler, when we did our lesson on pioneers. Molasses on Snow Candy -1 cup of molasses -1 cup of brown sugar -fresh clean snow or finely crushed ice -measuring cups -large pot -spoon -candy thermometer or a cup of cold water -shallow pan, about 9"x13" -clean tea towel or waxed paper 1. Mix the molasses and sugar together in the large pan and boil until the mixture reaches the "hard crack" stage on the thermometer or until a drop of the mixture dropped into the cold water forms a ball and cracks. 2. Remove the syrup from the heat. It will be very hot. BE CAREFUL! 3. Scoop fresh clean snow into the shallow pan. You can also use finely crushed ice instead of snow. 4. Dribble a spoonful of syrup onto the snow or ice in cirles or other shapes. 5. When the syrup turns hard and becomes candy, lift it off off the snow and place it on the towel or waxed paper to dry.
If you go to the Home School in the Woods website, she has a free sample lesson for the New World Explorers unit that you can download. You'll find a lot of fun lesson ideas there.
Totally agree with Homeschool in the Woods, too. We did the New World Explorers last year - very thorough, lots of fun hands on activities, recipes, etc. WARNING, though, when we did it, we didn't do it ALL...and I was disappointed I didn't realize how all-encompassing it was. It really teaches more than history - theres vocabulary, spelling, penmenship, science activies, etc. They have other series too.
Thank you all!!! He is a lot like me. He can memorize easily and that is what made me stop to re-evaluate. He loves scissors and tape and is constantly creating things on his own. He wants to skip the Revolutionary war altogether and go to to the civil war. I have no idea why though. I told him on Friday that we were going to re-enact the Rev war, that added a sparkle to his eye. Thank you all for your help! I will lookthru the sites and get some ideas.
Two good books on the Revolution for that age group: Guns for General Washington by Seymour Reit is about bringing the canons from Fort Ticonderoga. It's an easy read. The Reb and the Redcoats by Constance Savery is another one we enjoyed. It's about an American POW in England, staying in the home of a British family. The children become friends with him. (I had to request this through Inter Library Loan!) When you get to the Civil War, check out my web site. I've got LOTS of both fiction and non-fiction listed there on the Civil War!
TV!!!!! there are some interesting shows to learn about history...... If walls could talk (this show tells what pepople find in the walls or attics when re-modeling their house, interesting things then they explain when the stuff was used or other fun facts)...... HGTV UNWRAPPED: ok this is food related but it often talks about when things were invented and a lot of times its older foods and the history of it. BOOKS: magic tree house and American girl doll books!!
what about going to different museums, we have a neat air and space musium, natural history museum and other ones here.
You can rent a snow come machine. Or, if you have a vitamix blender (or could borrow one) you can blend the ice yourself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I love all of these ideas so much! Another tie in is the Liberty's Kids cartoon. It doesn't come on here anymore, but you might could find it at your library. Search for it on youtube! The book Ben and Me is a short, thin novel about a mouse that helped Benjamin Franklin invent things and negotiate in Europe during and before the revolutionary war. Know this, it is a vocabulary lesson reading this book! Even for me! Learning to sing the national anthem and the other America songs was really fun when my son was that age. Or learning to play them on an instrument can tie music and arts into your history. Going camping in a log cabin would be fun, too!
Good book, Crunchy!!! And the author of that one also wrote one about Paul Revere's horse, "Mr. Revere and I". (Oh, don't forget Disney made "Ben and Me" into a movie!!!)
