I was using the DK Smithsonian Children's Encyclopedia of American History as our spine with [too] many additional resources. We began in July and August using History Pockets to learn about the Native Americans, followed by a field trip to the National Museum of the American Indian (twice!). That went very well. I decided to put together more of my own unit for the early explorers and YAWN! Now we are on to the Colonies, starting with the settlement at Jamestowne. We visited Jamestowne and Williamsburg, watch the American Girl Felicity movie, read the 1st book of Felicity, have watched some of Liberty's Kids, and I have printed out plenty of lapbook ideas from homeschoolshare.com. I have several books from the library to help me pull ideas for crafts and info from...as well as a great lesson plan from the Core Knowledge website. My problem? I have so much I feel like I am giving too much detail and my kiddos are not remembering as much as I would like, nor are we having as much fun with it as I would like. So I guess my question is, exactly how in-depth should I expect to go with 3rd and 1st grade? My 3rd grader can handle much more than my young 1st grader, so I wonder if I should teach them history separately...? Perhaps I should just buy a curriculum?
I tend to go overboard too sometimes It's hard to match multiple ages with things. I'd pull out a few of the activities if I were you. We are about to start a study on the colonies as well and the one major activity we are doing is a 3-D model of Jamestown. Mine are a little older than yours (3rd and 5th) but I try to keep it down a little as far as the activities we're doing. We are reading Felicity as well and I have an entire basket of colonial days books they can reference as we go. I wouldn't go out and buy a whole new curriculum if I were you though. Just scale the level of activity to each child. Maybe let your older one research Pocahontas and her influence on the colonists and let her/him teach that to the littler one? That way you'll know if your older one is really learning and they will feel so cool getting to teach the little one Good luck!!
What I do is let my younger son 'sit in' on my older son's lessons. He adores his older brother and wants to be just like him, and there is a competitiveness between them, it works well for us. I obviously expect my Prek son to understand/follow along/absorb much less than 2nd grade son, but he amazes me with the things he does pick up on sometimes! At this age though, we keep SS simple, we're just doing community and Bible history for SS as it presents itself. We watch mostly public domain TV shows (AKA old B&W shows) so I often use that as a way to talk to them about history. A recent episode of The Beverly Hillbillies let to quite the discussion about phones, electricity, ice boxes, milkmen, radio programs vs tv programs, etc. We listened to an audio of original The Legend of Sleepy Hallow (written in 1820) and talked about how the author described a life much different than ours today. When we read Bible passages that mention things of historical value, we pause to talk about how the way of life in Bible times was different. Field trip ideas: to a local festival of some sort like pioneer days, to you local courthouse or any government building, local historical sites, FD, PD, post office..All count as SS. There are so many great resources out there, it's hard not to get caught up in buying all the neat things you find and trying to implement them-Lord knows I'm certainly guilty of it! LOL
We use McGraw-Hill ss books, they come with workbooks and such. On the side, I complement with books, documentaries etc. Some material we just look at a general overview, and other things I will really get into the nitty-gritty, but I let their questions dictate what we delve into. Mine are the same grades as yours, and I find that if they are interested in sth, they will really sit through the whole thing, actually absorbing it, as opposed to sth that doesnt excite them, then its pretty much a lost cause Your curric sounds pretty thorough, but if you feel that its becoming a chore, then maybe its time to scale down a little. You dont want them to get bored, they take in much less if that's the case.
Thanks, everyone! Today I just took a step back. We are working with a world map fo the continents the kids made and painted to help them understand more, and they were very engaged. I decided to take a step back and rather than feel pressure to check off the proverbial boxes of every minutiae of history I have listed on my document, I did exactly what you all said - I went with their interests, talked about it cross-curriculum, and tried to appreciate the resources I already have without pressuring myself to find a boxed curriculum. We are in such a history-rich area near DC; it is hard to edit! Anywho, thank you again!
It is really easy, I think, to let our own excitement about something get away with us . That happens to me in science, so I really understand where you are coming from. Not everything has to be fun, though. And SO much depends on your kids. I gave my dd a math worksheet from a very colorful cute workbook (not her usual) last week and she nearly started to cry- she wanted her regular, plain Jane, black and white page with zillion problems instead. Ds hates color/cut/paste, no matter how interesting it looks. And this week he chose a boring discussion about bugs over a wonderful film on the same. Dd declared the kids' Chased by Dinosaurs a 'boring' film (she prefers the ones written for adults full of vocabulary she doesn't understand). Both face nature-journal assignments with trepidation, even though I think we have a great time. And yet, both seem to be learning at a decent clip. I know we want to make it fun- and that is fantastic. But it doesn't HAVE to be. Maybe we are just weird in my house :lol: but my kids approach scholastic learning as something serious, and they appreciate info presented in a more complex and serious manner. I see the field trips and projects as opportunities to cement what I've taught, rather than teaching concepts on their own (and I know that sounds hideous, but it really works here). I see the fun stuff as something I have them do for ME. Would I love ds to build me an insect out of legos? YEP. Will he? No, because he sees our insect learning during school time as separate from his fun-lego time (where he is building a better mousetrap and learning other things). Anyway- whatever works for your kids is what is important . (adding: our visits to the museum are a blast, but to be honest, my kids don't seem to learn anything completely new. They do, however, cement stuff we've already covered if that makes sense.)
I think one thing that is important to remember- our memories can only store so much information. I would think that young kids can only remember so much. Even though they may not "get" something now, they will encounter it again most likely and it will make it more memorable as they repeatedly are exposed. History is way too vast for most people to learn even 10% (my guess) and have it stick in their minds. My dad and my sister can remember MANY things and they easily beat me at Trivial Pursuit most any time we play. That is OK, I reassure myself that the name Trivial Pursuit has the word trivial in it (lol). I am now learning more history than I ever did in all of my school years, because I am finding it interesting. In school I did well and even in college I took 2 years of history (US and world). I can't tell you much about world history from that class though. There are probably some basic facts that are good to know, but unless people live in caves they will probably know these things just by living life.
I went really simple with my 1st grader. We did the Scholastic Maps book for grade 1 which is really basic geography and map reading. It is supposed to be done 1 day a week for the whole year, but she liked it so much she did it everyday and is now finished with it! LOL! So that was our only "curriculum". Other than that she gets to sit in with the olders who are studying WWII. I don't expect anything from her, but if she absorbs something that's great! Edie
Meghan, we are exactly the same with field trips. We use them as supplemental to our learning b/c like yours, mine are sit-down-and-learn types who would rather have separate play time and work time! Unfortunately, I am the same way...I wish we were more like my wonderful DH, who finds meshing the 2 to be his best way of learning. Cabsmom, your comment made me laugh! I, too, am pretty decent with *Trivial* Pursuit (yet basic common sense sort of eludes me most times!). You are so correct that there is just so much info out there, and I should, in the end, provide a sense of familiarity with the material so that when they are re-introduced down the line or when a reference is made, they have the familiarity. Edie, both of mine love their Scholastic Maps books! We are 3/4 of the way done - just fun and easy! I promised my 8-yr old that once we were done with it, we would ride our city's Metro and ride on different lines, so he could map us out our courses and change-overs (our normal line we ride into the city is one train - very easy and boring to him). Good idea with the absorbing. Here's hoping my 1st grader is actually absorbing anything at this point, lol!
My dd7 finished Scholastics Maps workbook already. I just got History Pockets this week. We are starting with Ancient History. I used History Pockets with my first two and they liked it so hoping my younger one does, too.
I have a hard time balancing too much and not enough info between my different age kids. Great comments everybody.
