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Lisa R
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| Posted: March 24 2012 at 3:25pm | IP Logged
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I'm trying to map out a plan for my girls who will be in K and 2nd next year and I'd love your advice.
What do you use for history in 1st through 3rd grades? Do you follow a spine or just pick books?
Do you follow a time period for a specific time?
Do you pick library books based on your child's interest at the time and move on when they're ready?
Do you study history in chronological order?
I know where I'd like to go in 5th grade and beyond but can't decide on these younger years. Does it really matter what they learn now?
Thanks for the help!
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God Bless!
Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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jawgee
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| Posted: March 24 2012 at 5:59pm | IP Logged
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My oldest is in 4th, and I also have a Kindergartener.
This year we followed the Free Curriculum Guide at Simply Charlotte Mason. I chose to begin with Module 5, which is 1550 through 1850, studying World History and American History at the same time.
What I decided to do was to buy the Story of the World CDs to listen to on car rides - using that as our spine - and picking up library books to dig deeper into people or topics that interest us.
I also got the Story of the World Activity Book, which is nice because it has coloring pages and activities in it, and it has a list of books for additional reading for each chapter. (So, for example, if you read a chapter about the French and Indian War, it will list books that correspond with that time frame).
History is my oldest's favorite subject this year, and he could talk forever about George Washington, so I know that history is much more enjoyable to him than it was to me when I was in school. I plan to continue the same way next year.
Your kids are younger, though, so you certainly don't need to do all of that.
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Monica
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 26 2012 at 9:00pm | IP Logged
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Bumping this for Lisa! I know you all have some more ideas for her. 
Lisa R wrote:
| What do you use for history in 1st through 3rd grades? Do you follow a spine or just pick books? |
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** My 1st - 3rd grade history comes from general history stories, more than from a period of history. I do not use a spine. I choose books based on historical events that may be occurring (like a historic anniversary), or simply because they're good, rich, worthy living books.
Lisa R wrote:
| Do you follow a time period for a specific time? |
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** We don't usually follow a specific time period in history until the 4th grade. Before 4th grade I don't worry about time period, I mostly choose stories from history that are of interest and are engaging since I know we'll be covering that period again. Many stories are from our national history.
Lisa R wrote:
| Do you pick library books based on your child's interest at the time and move on when they're ready? |
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** I usually choose books based on a topic, or because it's particularly well-suited to this age. If I had a 1st - 3rd grader with a particular interest in something historical (I haven't yet), then I would certainly choose some books to support that interest.
Lisa R wrote:
| Do you study history in chronological order? |
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** We do study history chronologically, but again, not until 4th grade. The reason for this is because time is a very abstract concept. Around 4th grade age (very ishy here), a child begins to understand the idea of time, their place in it, and I begin to introduce the concept through a Book of Centuries. At that point, we begin at the beginning with Creation and moving into Ancient History.
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Between 1st and 3rd grade, our history is centered on wonderful living stories, not focused so much on the idea of time, or someone being from history. We read together, they narrate. That's it. We enjoy many themed picture books, as well as some wonderful, rich chapter books. I don't use anything for a spine in these years.
Besides fantastic picture books, here are a few favorite resources for early history reading:
Yesterday's Classics General History and World History- anything in the 6 - 8 yo range.
We've recently discovered the Laura Large books and they're perfect for this age.
Many of the D'Aulaire books are excellent for this age.
And Marguerite De Angeli offers so many wonderful books that are perfect for this age - the books are right between picture books and chapter books, and the content is historically rich. Here is a good bibliography that gives a brief review of each of her books.
Hope this gives you some ideas, Lisa. Hopefully others will share some of their favorite history living books to use in 1st-3rd grade.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: March 27 2012 at 7:08am | IP Logged
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Mother of Divine Grace has quite a list of American history books for 3rd grade. Jen listed some above (like the D'Aulair books), but you might want to check the list for ideas. Emmanuel has it here (Scroll down to get to the history section.)
Thanks for asking this question Lisa! I'm developing a list for my younger sons and now I have more ideas than I know what to do with!! 
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Becky
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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: March 27 2012 at 8:58am | IP Logged
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Lisa, I've decided for the informal history as well. At least until the child shows signs of wanting more. This year my third grade dd asked to have a more formal history so we did just that (this after starting our school year). So I started her off with just a living book of Egypt the first term, the second we had a living book spine and a few other living books to complement.
For the younger ones and her 2nd grade year I tend to the informal like Jen mentioned. These are few series we've enjoyed in addition to the D'aulaire and De Angeli: T
he little ones have enjoyed David Adler's Picture Book Biographies.
We also read through a few Jean Fritz Biographies.
Maybe some of the Ann McGovern If You Lived series.
There are so many other nice historical picture books too. Hope these help get your list going
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Jenny
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Lisa R
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| Posted: March 27 2012 at 12:49pm | IP Logged
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Thank you so much for all the replies. Just a few more questions and clarifications if you don't mind.
Do you just pick something to read and when you're finished just pick something else? No matter the order of history? For example, you may read a book about Ben Franklin and then one on ancient history.
Do you plan the school year and what books you'll read or just pick up a book that looks interesting, have them narrate and go with it?
I'm probably making this more complicated than it needs to be. I guess that's just the planner in me.  My older boys used Five In A Row at this stage and loved it. My soon to be 2nd grader really doesn't care for that format. She loves, loves to do notebooks pages though. Any suggestions for that type of child?
Thank you!! 
Editing to add: Jen, do you use a spine when you begin a chronological study or still just books you read?
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God Bless!
Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: March 27 2012 at 1:42pm | IP Logged
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I'm really enjoying this discussion as I'm grappling with this same thing. I am really torn between starting with something more formal (the history cycle from either Ambleside or Higher Up and Further In) or moving more casually through history through the first few years and heading into a 6-year cycle ( (or two 4-year cycles) later on. Anyone use a more formal plan like Ambleside? I will have two first graders next year. I am convinced that both ways would suit my children well, so it's more a matter of convenience/preference, and I'm just not sure what I prefer...
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Celeste
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Claire F
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| Posted: March 27 2012 at 1:43pm | IP Logged
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I'm a planner too and I love history, so we are taking a slightly more formal, or at least organized approach, to history.
I'm planning to start using Connecting With History, starting with the Ancient World, next year (2nd grade for my oldest). I think we'll go through the four year history cycle, chronologically, from 2nd through 5th grades. I'm not sure what we'll do after that. The Classical approach is designed to do three, four-year cycles of history, but I don't think I'll do it that way (plus, that assumes starting in 1st grade, which we didn't). But I think the four year history cycle will be a good place to start, and I like the booklists that Connecting with History uses, as well as how it integrates Bible history with world history. I'm excited to start delving into the ancient world! But my goal will be to spark interest and give my kids a basic understanding of history, using a lot of stories and fun activities.
We have also been reading some of This Country of Ours, which covers American history up to the early 20th century. My son really likes it, so we've been reading it sort of informally. We'll study American history in more depth down the road, but for now we're reading from that book, slowly, and will follow any rabbit trails that interest him as they come. I'll probably add some more picture book read alouds that correspond with the time period that we're covering in This Country of Ours as we go along as well.
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Claire
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: History in grades 1 - 3
