I am overwhelmed. There is so much to teach, and so much in the world that I want my daughter to know about, I have no idea where to start! It's possible that she will go to a public school starting 3rd grade, or any grade there after. What sort of curriculum do you use, or units do you teach to cover geography, history & science at a young age? Thank you! hkchik
For history, my kids have loved A Child's History of the World (Hillyer) for world history (though I skip the first three chapters). For American history, we have used A First Book in American History and Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans (Eggleston). I read them one chapter per day, and history is the kids' favorite subject. Some people think the CHOW book is better for older kids, but mine (K and 2nd grades) love it. I have found that these books have given my kids a great overview of world and U.S. history that I think will be a good foundation for future studies. For geography, I have been using a separate book once per week to do something systematic, but I think my kids remember most the things we look up from our history and literature reading. Whenever geography comes up in the history or stories we read, we go over to our globe or pull out a map to find the locations. We also take time to review previous things to see if they can remember them. For science, I am so surprised and impressed with Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding, K-2 (Nebel). They are learning things taught in high school level science classes, but it is presented in such a simple way that even little kids can understand the basic concepts. I know that sounds hard to believe, but it is really true. My kids enjoy it, also. Even if my kids went back to public or another school, I would continue teaching them history and science becuase I think these subjects are not taught well in general in our country. The books listed above all give a good, general introduction covering a wide range of topics. Hope that is helpful.
Well to start, we pulled ds in the third grade. And our ps apparently teaches almost nothing in these subjects at this young age. Ds knew about Mexico and.. a bit about solids/liquids/gases. Not much more. I don't worry so much about what our school teaches now, because I want them to know far more than that. Here's what I've done: Science: I invested in 3rd grade sci textbooks. These gave me a decent running track. Then I print from websites if I want activities to go with them. Mostly at this point, I find reading and discussions works for my kids (1st and 3rd) with occasional demonstrations of some subjects (the way shadows work, or the orbit of the moon). We don't do much written work since at this stage, it's about UNDERSTANDING more than KNOWING (in my humble opinion). Dd (6) can only understand a smattering of the sci stuff, so for her, when we get to more indepth topics, I ask her what she wants to learn about, and set up activities/print stuff/find websites and books for her to do. History: I taught this almost exclusively as lecture and discussion. I decided where I wanted to start (U.S. History for my children) and printed off sheets to give the kids a visual to go with it. They did a few activities, and watched 'Liberty's Kids' and a handful of documentaries. Geography: I bought a giant world map, and we are studying individual countries right now. Documentaries and very minor book research on the countries helps, and the kids trace maps of the country. Much of this is figuring out what I want to teach and taking it from there. For mine, anything I teach in these subjects will be more than they would get in our ps, so I don't sweat it really.
Thank you for the responses, and the reminder. One of the main reasons we are going the homeschool route is the amount that they don't learn in public school. I needed that reminder that whatever I teach her is more than she would get there. I have a tendancy to get excited and ahead of myself...
I pulled my child out of ps in middle of 1st grade. Since then I don't really keep up with what they are teaching in ps. Barring unforseen circumstances, we will not be going back to ps. We utilize the Time4Learning social studies and science, as well as their language arts and math. We have found that it is definetly more information presented that in public school. The social studies covers lots of topics such as history, civics/citizenship, and geography. The activities are colorful, and fun. As for the science, we do most of the experiments offered, and this is my daughter's favorite subject. She would do science to the exclusion of all else. As a way of recommendation, I would tell you that she likes the lessons presented quickly, interactively, lots of color and movement, and really hates excessive reviewing. She also has very short attention span unless it is something she really enjoys. She loves T4L science. We also suppliment with some workbook type, grade appropriate science experiement assignments. This is because my daughter always wants more. Good luck! Linda Helping my gifted student beat back boredom, one lesson at a time!
