ideas for 1st grade history and science

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  • my3sons
    Member

    Hi everyone,

    I need some advise. I’ll be homeschooling 2 sons this fall, 6 year old in 1st grade and a 5 year old Kindergartner. I’m confused as to what to teach the 1st grader for science and history/geography. I was thinking of either using SCM’s 106 days of creation or Apologia and Genesis-Deut. & Ancient Egypt. But … next year I really, really want to educate the 2 boys together for those subjects. So, should I wait to start SCM’s curriculum until next year? And if so, what should I use for my 1st grader for this year? I was thinking of Adventures in MFW for history and maybe using 106 days for science, and then Apologia next year for both boys. Any ideas that would help? 🙂

    Thanks! 🙂

    MamaSnow
    Participant

    I blogged here about what I am doing with my first grader for history this year, since I decided to hold off on the History Modules for another year or 2. (Contrary to what I stated in my post, I think we are going to start with Mod 5 next year for 2nd grade)

    http://snowfallacademy.blogspot.fr/search/label/History

    For science we are just doing Nature Study using the Outdoor Hour Challenges (http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.fr/), and reading some Nature books like Outdoor Secrets and the Clara Dillingham Pierson books (Among the …. People).

    HTH,

    Jen

    MamaSnow
    Participant

    Oh, I forgot to say that my dd also reads several times each week from the Christian Liberty Nature Reader, in addition to the nature books I read out loud.

    =) So that’s another idea to consider too.

    MissusLeata
    Participant

    My oldest is going into K his fall and I have a preschooler and a baby. I’m doing Missionary Stories with the Miller’s for an intro to geography and the NT for history. For Science, I’m doing a study on birds and then going to finish the year with James Harriot’s Treasury for Children. And we’ll do Nature Study.

    LDIMom
    Participant

    I would definitely hold off on Apologia if you want to use it with both. We use their materials and have used it with multiple ages and grades successfully for several years. Our oldest is no longer studying them with us, but the younger 5 are: ages 12, 9, 7, 6 and 2 tagging along.

    We have used Apologia Flying Creatuers, Swimming Creatures and Land Animals in that order (1 per year for us), and then we used Botany this year. It didn’t take the whole year. We will be using Atronomy this coming year with a 6th grader, 5th grader, and two 1st graders. I am still thinking on assigning extra reading to go along with that, but some are already applicable like 5th grader’s Along Came Galileo, which is suggested in the SCM guide. So I don’t know. Maybe something for 6th grader. I also found some wonderful old books at our homeschool expo, and have those out already on our Nature Shelf (and inquiring minds have been interested).

    I would say you could keep it very simple for science, doing a lot of nature study and just going to the library and checking out living books on certain subjects of interest (whether it be animals, plants, space, geography, etc.). You can find tons of stuff on the internet to correlate with that, and of course add in some field trips to the zoo and/or science centers when you can. That is truly enough for 1st/K.

    We did read the Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers 1st and K this year, and I just love these books (and so do our children). They are very inexpensive whether you buy new or find them used. That might be a good choice if you want to feel like you have a set thing to read along (and then you can add in other books of interest).

    For history, I wouldn’t start an SCM module until 1st grade and honestly my two 1st graders are already 7 and almost 7, so holding off for a 6 and 5YO is not bad in my opinion. Again, you could take field trips to area historical sites or ones you encounter on trips, and read living books about historical figures. Audiobooks might be great too.

    We love Your Story Hour around here and you can access a limited number of them on-line for free here: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/your-story-hour/

    You might want to pre-listen as sometimes it is deep subject matter, but I feel it is handled well. They do add in music and stuff, so you just might want to make sure you feel it is appropriate for your younger children.  New ones are added each Sunday night (and some older ones are removed).

    Oh and yes, James Harriot’s Treasurey, I second that. We read that this year and the children loved it. BEAUTIFUL artwork too.

    erin.kate
    Participant

    This past year with my two oldest, 2nd and K, we did the Outdoor Secrets & Companion Guide (love love love) and the Burgess Bird Book with http://satorismiles.com/2010/03/08/burgess-bird-book-companion/ for our bird/nature notebook. It was absolutely wonderful! We also read from Among the … People and we’ll continue that this year with the Burgess Animal Book and the AIG Zoo Guide. We will also be starting God’s Design for Science World of Animals this year (with Burgess Animals and Zoo). 

    erin.kate
    Participant

    Oh, yes, we read weekly from James Herriot’s Treasury as well. Sweet stories! Lovely illustrations. Even my 3 and 4 year olds loved to listen.

    amomwho
    Member

    We will begin kindergarten in the fall so I can’t speak from experience, but another place to look is http://www.lessonpathways.com.  I have recently gotten some ideas from the site and the lessons there are all FREE!  I have been looking at the topics that are suggessted for kindergarten and I am going to pick a choose a few of them to introduce.  I think my strategy will be pick a topic, pair it with some living books, and do a hands-on activity.  For example, we just tackled our first topic, plants.  We read “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carl, dissected a marigold, drew a diagram of our tomato plants, and have been collecting data by measuring a tomato plant’s growth, which we are going to later put into a graph. We went on a nature walk and compared and different types plants we saw along the way.  

    I can’t wait to study clouds and whip out the shaving cream. Laughing

    my3sons
    Member

    Thanks everyone for the great ideas! 🙂

    SowingLittleSeeds
    Participant

    I would just go with books like Burgess Bird Book or Burgess Animal Book. Also Among the Meadow (Pond, River, etc) People. And add in some nature study as well 🙂

    MissusLeata
    Participant

    Burgess Bird Book is what we are using, along with James Harriet’s Treasury for Children. I’m really looking forward to it.

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