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joann10
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| Posted: June 26 2014 at 8:41pm | IP Logged
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We have been homeschooling the past few years in total crisis mode...and history and science have certainly been low on the list things to get done.
History and science spines have never gone over well...too boring for my story loving kids. How do I go about planning our lessons for both subjects from picture and living read alouds?
Where do I find the subjects and time frames to cover?
How do I report what we are doing to the state? When I had a spine at least I could list that in the IHIP,
whether we really got into it or not.
I guess I'm wondering if there is a place to go and find
what a 3rd grader needs to cover for history and science, (with a definite Catholic view) and listings of interesting living books to go along with these topics.
For instance, I want to cover the required health this summer, where do I head first? In years past it would have just meant heading to the Abeka health book, but that is not how Kim and Luke learn the best..
Thanks for any help. It seems funny to be asking these questions after 20 years of homeschooling, but the past few years have made me question everything we do, and how we do it. It has all become quite challenging for me after all these years.
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guitarnan
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| Posted: June 26 2014 at 8:51pm | IP Logged
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Honestly, Joann, I'd start with what your children like! As long as you are covering some history/social studies and some science, you are fine. They will have plenty of time to do the rest in future years.
I would report both history and science as thematic units covering (time period/name of science focus). You could do one thing all year (ancient Egypt, life science) or split up topics so you do one or two per semester.
Once you've chosen topics, I know we have tons and tons of book lists here (and if we don't have what you need, I know we can fix that!).
Re: health, how do Kim and Luke learn the best? Listening to read alouds? Doing hands-on activities? Knowing that will help us provide truly useful suggestions and resources.
I rethink everything every year, too. Don't feel alone in that regard. 
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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joann10
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| Posted: June 26 2014 at 9:13pm | IP Logged
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guitarnan wrote:
Re: health, how do Kim and Luke learn the best? Listening to read alouds? Doing hands-on activities? Knowing that will help us provide truly useful suggestions and resources.
I rethink everything every year, too. Don't feel alone in that regard. |
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Luke and Kim learn best with read alouds and discussions about the reading and with a few hands-on activities thrown in... One of the troubles I run into is finding too many library resources on a subject and then getting overwhelmed with it all. 
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guitarnan
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| Posted: June 26 2014 at 9:41pm | IP Logged
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Do you have an idea of their boredom threshold? My children loved read-alouds at that age and we read several books about ancient Egypt, both fiction and nonfiction, but some children only want to experience a couple of read-alouds...they're more hands-on, or they just prefer more frequent changes of topic.
With science, a brief read-aloud worked best for my younger child - she is an auditory and hands-on learner, but loved the science activities and experiments much more than she loved hearing me read to her about science.
It's easy to get overwhelmed, but that is where I think we could help you, maybe by offering Top Three Read-Aloud choices or info about hands-on activities that have worked in our homes.
Remember that it is okay to keep the history and science lessons short, too! You don't need an experiment every day or every week. Field trips and outdoor activities take longer, but can count for several days' worth of lessons/activities if they are pertinent to your topic of study. There are lots of high-quality science DVDs out there (Magic School Bus!). (History is more problematic, both in terms of accuracy and adult content.)
Have you asked your children what they'd like to learn about, or is there a period in history you'd like to explore?
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 27 2014 at 1:57pm | IP Logged
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Maybe look at the NGSS science standards for a guide as a checklist? I really like the resources Bernard Nebels Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding and Kathryn Stout's Science Scope for this purpose, but I know money is tight for new resources, and I think you can look at the NGSS for free. Anyway, this might give you a starting place for finding topics to build your library list as well as something concrete to turn in for your record. Perhaps you could list the books you read or the experiment you did under the appropriate standard.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 27 2014 at 1:58pm | IP Logged
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Here are the Next Generation Science standards listed by topic
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: 3rd Grade history and science handholding
