Do I start with US History

A

aggie01

New Member
Where do you start in 1st/2nd grade? I am going to use Mystery of History. But was thinking I might need to start with Us history first, or Geography even? How did you do it? What works best. I am in Texas so we don't have requirements on it. What do you recommend for those subjects? The kids are learning the names of the states and filling in a map right now, which made me think about this.
Thanks
 
I did Ancient History for 1st grade. I will not be doing US history in detail till 3rd grade. We touch on US when we talk about holidays and such.
 
I don't know much about any History Curriculum for small children. Right now, we're only just starting out and I want to solidify their Phonics into Reading and their Counting into Arithmetic. In the Fall I'm going to get more serious about their writing.

We'll be doing 3R's + Science and Spanish mostly.

This first year we're going to focus on a Creationist timeline and history in that sense, from Adam to Modern times. We'll take time to look at all the Prophets and their stories. Thats the history we are probably going to do the first 2 or 3 years of their formal schooling. So we can develop their Other3R's (Responsibility, Respect, Relationships) and of course moral understanding and intellectual maturity.

Then we'll learn US History chronologically, and in US History we are going to cover Historical Geography of the States, the shaping constitution, wars, economics, laws, technology, WWI, WWII, etc. However when we get into it, we're doing US History for real.

So probably not until the 2nd half of "3rd grade" because when we learn history, I dont plan on dumbing it down for them. I prefer a whole-grain sort of Education and I'm not going to whitewash the US History for them.

They deserve true knowledge concerning their own Nations History, children deserve to know more than that "laws weren't fair" to Black people or that "the Native Americans had to move when the settlers moved west."

Children are never so young that they are excluded from the atrocities when they are committed, so they shouldn't ever be too young for truth and knowledge. However, my students aren't mature enough in a number of ways, to understand the material and cope with the truth.
 
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I have a 5 yr old and a 14 yr old. I bought The Story of the World, volume 1 the Ancients. I bought it on CD so we can listen to it first on our 13 hr car ride when we move. I am hoping it will pique my 5 yr olds interest by listening to it from the voice of a story teller first. I have the text book and the workbook that we will work on during the school year.

I also agree with Gizzy, no sugar coating things here either. We will explore different violent/hurtful periods of time when she is mature enough to understand it.
 
PREACH gizzy! :)

I have been thinking of this as well. I think I will begin the same as gizzy by the way gizzy what history are you planning to use Mystery of History? I am researching now for next year.
 
Here are my thoughts for what they are worth...

I would say "History" for 1/2nd grade should more be "Social Studies". General familiarization with other cultures, People in Your Neighborhood, community helpers, that sort of thing.

Also, I'm in the camp that before you teach History, you kinda need to really teach Geography, so that History makes sense. Of course, I just came to this, THIS year. LOL!!!!

You could do (for that age) a whitewashed US History....no untruthful....but do you really want your 6/7 year old contemplating the absolute cruelty of slavery? You can broadbrush it while still being truthful. Sonlight has good age appropriate readers for this - even if you don't use the full curricula. I would say start with Columbus, then Pilgrims, then Industrial Revolution, then WW1 (gently) and WWII (gently) and then Modern stuff (inventors and the like). :)

Now...that being said, I would definitely go back to US History when older and REALLY teach it. :)

Hope that helps. And again JUST MY OPINION.
 
I don't know how deep into US histroy you want to get but you might want to check out www.statehistory.net they have US History and US Geog. for the grades you are looking for also http://knowledgequestmaps.com. Thier "The Star-Spangeled State Book" is really bright and fun. I have books from both of these companies if you have any questions, just let me know, I know it is hard sometimes to spend money on things just looking at them on the Internet. HTH
 
I did the "social studies" stuff (community helpers, cultures of kids around the world, etc.) last year, and we did geography over the summer (he already knew the continents, oceans, states and capitals, but I wanted to teach things like directions, getting from place to place, and things like that). I used Spectrum 3rd grade Geography as a guide, but he's not writing much yet, so I didn't do the entire book the way it's meant to be done. I pulled out the important points for him.

We'll be doing MOH 1 this year. Rumor has it there is plenty of geography in MOH, so geography alone really isn't necessary, BUT it's just my OCD-planning personality that made me want to touch on geography this summer anyway.

I also did a little bit of TX history last year using coloring books sold at the Bob Bullock museum in Austin. We went to the museum a couple of times as well. He knows about some of the major characters in the state's history, and he knows things like the state's icons (bird, flower, fish, etc.), but we didn't dig deep into the details, because IMO, it wouldn't make sense without first doing U.S. history.

In that regard, I also think it makes much more sense to start broad and then dig into the details. I want to see the previews for a movie before watching it, so I also want my kids to do a run-through of MOH before doing anything more detailed like a year of U.S. history or U.S. government. Does that make sense? I always HATED getting bits and pieces of the story when I was in PS. To this day, my knowledge of history stinks! I can't wait to go through MOH a few times with the kids. I like how you're able to do it on the level of the child. It's a very adaptable curriculum.
 
When we do US History, it will probably take us a couple of years to get through it all. I'm going to try and go chronologically and cover each periods profile. Technology, prominent people, social studies of that era, basic economics etc.

We'll be covering Geography, presidents, civics etc, through our study.

Like I said, first we're going to go with ancient history as seen from a Religious stand point, from Adam and Eve probably all the way down To the Fall of the Moores, because thats a real turning point in the world. After the Moores were driven from Spain, Columbus was hired and sent to explore the New World and the rest, as they say, is history. Lol.

During the time we spend on Ancient History, I'll try and guide their developmental understanding of morals, cultures etc. I dont want them to get the "White people are evil" though in their head, but I want them to understand that humans are fallible and capable of evil, and that for "culture" people will do a lot. even if they know it is wrong.
 
jakk said:
I have a 5 yr old and a 14 yr old. I bought The Story of the World, volume 1 the Ancients. I bought it on CD so we can listen to it first on our 13 hr car ride when we move. I am hoping it will pique my 5 yr olds interest by listening to it from the voice of a story teller first. I have the text book and the workbook that we will work on during the school year.

I also agree with Gizzy, no sugar coating things here either. We will explore different violent/hurtful periods of time when she is mature enough to understand it.
Click to expand...

Jakk, I have checked out the STOW cd's from the library. My kids love them, and have picked up quite a bit just from listening to them in the car and while I clean. I got them for me to listen too..:D
 
I feel like we have covered most of the social studies type things. Like helpers etc. My dad is an EMT so that is an easy conversation starter. LOL
We have also gone over the continents and oceans. We did a unit on Genesis 1. My ds doesn't know the countries on each one and that is kind of what made me think about doing a geography type study first. He has also done the navigating for our vacation so he has used a map before.
I have also heard that MOH does have lots of geography in it, and to not worry about it, but since I don't have it I don't know!!!

I thought about doing a US history first because that would fit in with the train of though about teaching him about "his" world first. Just a glossy over view then going over it again later when it came up in the World history time frame in more depth.

After reading your posts it is kind of funny how much of this stuff we talk about just in our day. My dh has a WWII Jeep so we talk about that all the time, we are around lots of military so we talk about why we need them etc. I wouldn't say we are history buffs, but I guess it comes up often enough to get ds to ask questions. We are always talking about current events and past things that cause them etc.

But I still don't know where to start. LOL I am kind of leaning towards finishing this summer with a short session on geography ( maps, directions, major countries) Maybe doing a short unit study of Texas at some point along the way ( Bullock museum after school starts? ) Then starting MOH in the fallish time frame. Any suggestions or thoughts on that?
 
Sounds like a plan to me! Are you close to Austin? If so, you could get a membership to the museum. I've been several times over the years, and each time I see something I missed the last time (not native to TX and don't really know much history... been in TX about 10 years). If you get a membership there or another history museum in the reciprocal program, you could get in free, too.
 
Oh I didn't know that. Do you know which museums are in a program like that. We are a little ways outside of Austin, but go there much to often for my country girl likes..LOL Mostly on business, I would have to make time for a fun trip. Maybe on Fun Friday!!
 
Well, I am also doing MOH. My dd will be in 5th grade and I wish I would have started out with it sooner. You can start with Vol I and by the time you get through Vol III the next 2 volumes should be out. It will go all the way through present day.

Last year we did some History on colonial life and Pioneers & Patriots. My dd LOVED the book. We just used it as a reader but she learned a lot. It was her favorite thing.
 
We have read the little house books, and are currently reading a book about what it would be like if you lived during the Revolution. We are also working on memorizing the Declaration of Independence ( which is more because I want to learn it) Thanks for the Link I will check that out for sure. Ds likes to read and learns well from that
 
We have a huge world map that we pin on the wall, and whenever we talk abt dift cultures, we find the stuff on the map. So my kids have a general idea of where things are.

We did ancient civilizations first: Egypt, Greece, Rome, Medievel times, Crusades, Vikings. From there we moved towards America, which is about where we are atm. We kind of took some down time.

I love how 'world history' isn't one of the PA required subjects, so we have to put it under 'geography' or something else. But PA history is required; we usually hit it on our various fieldtrips.
 
I have kind of an odd approach to it all. I am using Mystery of History Vol 1 with my boys 5 and 7. I will periodically stop what we are doing and cover a topic area that I feel we need to cover (sometimes it's just because there's a good documentary on TV). Because they are so young I do not expect that they will remember it all this time, We will cover the same periods of history at least twice, probably three times before we are done. When I teach something I teach it to their level, and each time we cover it I'll get more detailed.
 
I almost forgot... I signed my daughter up for Little Passports.
http://www.littlepassports.com/

Each month she gets a package in the mail with a souvenir and information about a different part of the world. She really likes it. It comes with a suitcase, a passport and a wall map. Each package comes with a sticker that we pin on the wall map to locate the country. We go to the library and do research on the country, we make a flag, or cook something that is a traditional meal. It is a lot of fun and she has learned a lot.
 
Birbitt, you sound like me !!! I do that too, it is like the public service announcements " We interrupt this scheduled program to bring you an important subject detour"
 
I've done it so much since we started. I'll start them doing something and then realize that I really need to teach them something else before they do that something.

I did it the other day with our sentences, I asked them to correct sentences (add capital letter and period) but then realized that I never taught my 5 you that a sentence starts with a capital.
 
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