My dd is only 6, and I realize she doesn't need an in-depth grasp on this right now. But I WOULD like her to have a vague idea, so when it comes around again she will be somewhat familiar with it. She already knows about the earliest colonists, the Native Americans, the story of the Roanoke colony, and some about Plymouth plantation. I'm trying to figure out how to introduce the thirteen colonies. I guess I'm not overly interested in her memorizing which state came first, etc etc... do you think it's enough just to say the colonists expanded into the thirteen colonies, and go from there? Or should I teach something more specific? I had considered covering each state, but since, again, American History isn't what I care about most right now (reading, writing, and math are the most important), I was thinking that might be too in-depth? Thanks!
I'd probably choose some read-alouds that cover the colonial period and mention the Revolutionary War, George Washington, Betsy Ross, Paul Revere, etc. What she retains, she retains, and it'll be somewhat familiar when it comes around again.
I agree with Lindina, just do some read alouds at this point. You do not have to be very specific. For elementary just knowing what the 13 colonies are, the fact that there was a Revolutionary war, Civil War.... the main points in US history is fine. As she gets older you will go into more detail. Middle school is where you really start going deeper in history, that is when kids can really start with the critical thinking needed to put alot of history together.
I agree with the other two. My first thought while reading your post was that you could just read some good books to her. There are a lot of good picture books on American history. TruthQuest is a good guide to use if you want to read in chronological order, since it lists oodles of books at all age levels and covers events that you wouldn't even think of, but the notes are written to teach a Christian worldview. It would also be quite expensive buying all three American History for Young Students levels. Your local library may have a resource guide for finding books on various events or time periods in American history for younger elementary, so you could ask there. Your librarian would probably be glad to help you find books for your child If your child really likes being read to and enjoy books written for older kids and if you want to read books covering a broad span of American history, you could read things like This Country of Ours, A First Book in American History, and American History Stories. Those are all very old books, so they won't cover much if any of the 20th century.
Have you checked out the Dear America series? It's historic fiction, but my daughter devoured these books on her own and learned a lot about American history at the same time. They have several from the colonial period.
You can have her or help her make a large, colorful, puzzle of the 13 colonies out of postor board. Have her color pictures of important places. She can draw houses where important people lived and so on. This way too much information is not put upon her and she can start to learn some basic facts.
Yep. I'd recommend Read alouds too - Sonlight has a great list of American History Read alouds - Core 3 and Core 4 list some great ones. We did many of them last year and my kids loved them!
We are using This Country of Ours as our spine for grades 2 - 4 and add in other historical fiction as we go. We are about to finish grade 2 work and this year we covered about 22 chapters I think. I read aloud a chapter, usually breaking it down into two days, and on the second day she draws an illistration from that chapter and then I choose a selection from the chapter that goes with her drawing for handwriting. This is done on paper that has a blank section at top for drawing. Then we put it in her My America binder we are creating. We have a section in this binder for Explorers, The Colonies and Revolutionary War and all we put into this binder is her illistrated handwriting selections and various maps we use. The historical fiction we used this year is If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, Native American Indians, A Lion to Guard Us and Squanto, Friend of the Indians.
When my dd was younger we read American Pioneers and Patriots by CLP for History. She LOVED it and learned a lot too. There are questions at the end of each chapter and you can but a test pack to go with it. All in all it is not a "curriculum" really, but for that age it could be! Here is the link to it on Amazon. It has reviews below and a complete product desc. http://www.amazon.com/American-Pioneers-Patriots-Caroline-Emerson/dp/1932971513 Oh, and we also used Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers Colonial life that year! It was so awesome - if you like lapbooking.
Great Resource For American History I have been fascinated lately with American history, and learning things I did not know. President Woodrow Wilson, successfully changed American History , and that change exists today in school textbooks. WallBuilders has been studying the original documents, and is a good resource for true American History.
I notice some others have pointed to this site. here is there collection of US history stuff. http://www.mainlesson.com/displaybooksforamerica.php get an e-reader and start reading.
I subscribe to the RSS feed on this site. This came up today. http://manybooks.net/titles/blaisdella3460034600-8.html
I have always loved the "Childhood of Famous Americans" series as read-alouds for history. We also used to do period "days". For example, we'd have a "Colonial" day where we would dress, act and eat like the colonials did for the school day. We would read books about them and you could even pretend to be one of them, like John Smith or Pocahontas! My kids always seemed to retain a lot from these experiences. One thing my kids learned is that they do NOT like pumpkin soup!!! They are now 32, 24 and 21 and they ALL will tell you they do NOT like pumpkin soup!!! ROFL!!! But they also remember not speaking unless spoken to, no second helpings, muzzle loaders, the clothing of the period, etc, etc..... You should have seen them with the Civil War! Hope this gives you a few ideas!
