how to teach history "core" information each week to squirmy kids

This is such a HUGE question, and I’m not sure that I’m articulate enough to give you a good answer, but bear with me and I’ll try.  It took me many years of homeschooling to be comfortable with this.  The answer is that you don’t worry about making sure they’ve got the core facts down.  Right now, you fill their heads with wonderfully interesting stories of real people, real places, real events.  Later, in middle school, high school and beyond, as you go through these history cycles again and again, they have those interesting people, places, and events stored in their minds and they will make the connections themselves.  

So here’s how this works at our house.  About 5th grade and under, we read the books, we sometimes watch movies, we do projects together, we have discussions, we make notebook pages.  We always have a history spine book.

For instance, right now, we are working our way through Abe Lincoln’s World by Foster.  The 11 and 10 year old read a section of that every day and narrate it to me.  We have a family read-aloud going right now on George Mueller.  The kids are also reading their own assigned books along with this.  After they read a book such as “The Boy in the Alamo” I tell them to make a notebook page on the Alamo.  They can put whatever they want on there.  I do ask that they put a date, but other than that I let them put whatever caught their interest on that particular subject.   We recently did a family read aloud of “Children of the Covered Wagon” and while that was going for a month we did activities relating to the Oregon Trail and we did a simulation of the Oregon Trail that I found in a book.  Once we had completed the book, I had the kids make a notebook page about the Oregon Trail.  I had my 10 year old mark up the map on our wall (dry-erase) with the divisions of the United States as it was at that time (showing what belonged to Mexico, what was the actual United States, etc.) and  we have left that on the wall now for several weeks.   We also have a newspaper template that came with our activity pack from Homeschool in the Woods so the older kids write a newspaper article about some of the big events. 

Around 6th grade, the kids start a Book of Centuries and start making an atlas for themselves.  As we go through the cycle of history a second time, using these books, they start making connections for themselves.  It took me a long time to be comfortable with this way of learning, and I’m not sure that anyone could have made me comfortable with it.  I think I had to learn it for myself and see it in action before I could fully trust it.  

Yesterday as we were driving home from the library, my 22 year old daughter said that her dream is to be a doctor 3 days per week in a city and then spend the rest of the week on her farm petting her cute animals.  We started laughing about how she didn’t really want to do any farm work, just pretend and look pretty petting her little lambs.  The 11 year old in the back seat said, “So in other words, you want to be a modern Marie Antoinette.”  The older daughter said, “Exactly, but I don’t want a place as big as Versailles.”  And we all had a good laugh.  I share that only to make a point that great books about real people and real places truly do stick with a kid.  It’s like they really get to know the people and that creates a hunger and an interest for the history part.  

Regarding your question on taking notes, the best foundation for that would be narration, both oral and written.  It teaches the kids to really listen and/or read with their full attention.  Obviously this is a necessary part of taking notes.  If you are looking for a certain method, you could look into the key word outline method taught by IEW.  This is also taught at the end of the first semester of the level 4 Meaningful Composition book.  It is also taught in the first Writing with Skill book, I believe.  If I am understanding correctly that you are asking specifically about 4th and 3rd grade, I would be using narration right now, oral and/or written depending upon the abilities of the child.  You will see when your kids are ready to move on to something more formal as far as notetaking.  Formal is probably not the best choice of words, but I’m not sure how else to state it.  I can see with my 6th grader right now, she is ready to move on to something more.  

Just to clarify, I don’t think there is anything wrong with your plan as outlined above.  I just want to assure you that if you follow CM methods, your kids WILL learn, and probably learn it better than you or I ever did.  You don’t have to stress so much over them getting the facts and dates and all that cemented in their brains right now.  As you read together, you will find that through discussions you have with them, the facts and dates get brought into it and they do retain these things.  This stage of learning is about giving them the big ideas and the personalities and the places.  We do lots of coloring pages here while I’m reading aloud.  We always buy a Time Travelers cd from Homeschool in the Woods if they have one that goes along with whatever era of history we’re studying.  My kids also love to make the History Pockets books from Evan Moor Publishing.    I don’t have the younger kids (under 4th grade) do any writing for History other than whatever they want to put on their notebook pages.  Even the 3 year old makes a notebook page, mostly scribbles and made up words or a coloring page, but I am getting him in the habit.

I hope something there is helpful for you.

I’d like to hear more about the personal atlas. We’ve always done map studies, but Ive filed things away after the year or they’ve chunked maps with which they are no longer happy (personal drawing preferences, etc. ) 

When my younger children have been squirmy (read older ones who were once young and squirmy, too,) I kept their hands occupied. Coloring, clay, blocks/Lincoln logs on a lap blanket, finger crochet, etc. This has always worked well. And, it really seemed to help them listen. Narration has always been a part of the process. Once I realized that they were catching most, if not all of the storyline by utilizing narration, I’ve not worried about the busy hands. 

Sometimes they’ve even made elaborate scenes with forts and rivers etc (Texas history read alouds) which have stayed up for days/weeks while the story continues. These memories are precious to all of us and were actually pre note taking practices in my opinion. 🙂

I second IEW!  We just received our Medieval history theme based lessons two days ago. I am looking forward to this year’s study using parts of SCM Module 4 and lots of living books. I wouldn’t say that a seasoned CM home schoolers needs IEW as they would have certainly witnessed how writing naturally flows out of narration, dictation, and the study of good literature and reference books. But, it is am excellent place to start if you need a bridge to writing. 

I highly recommend studying a timeline or making a BOC. This is a hands on reference point that gets the kids involved with the characters in a spatial way. You might utilize Dover or Bellepheron coloring books during read aloud time. ATTA (Homeschool in the Woods?) has awesome pictures for timeline as well. I recently had an offer of a set of 1955 Encyclopedia Britanica. I asked some current and future Homeschool librarians if this would be utilized or a space waster. One suggested cutting it up to use for Timeline pics. What a great idea!  

You have some fine ideas. Don’t let the squirmies upset you. They are valuable opportunities in the learning process. ;0)

Blessings,

Becca<><