Elementary History

I get a lot of questions about how I do history.  Since history is my field, I piece together my own history really.  I can tell you my approach, and I am happy to send you my lessons plans if you want to see what that looks like.  There are also other great curriculum out there that are laid out for you.  This post, and the next couple will cover how we approach history here.  I will write a post soon with other suggestions for history curriculum that are done very well and would be a great choice if you are looking for something that comes more planned for you.

For the grammar stage (1st-4th grade), I use Story of the World as our core text.  I love Story of the World.  It is chronological, entertaining, and covers just enough information.  I love love love the mapwork and the discussion questions that are already for me in the activity book, as well as the games and crafts we can choose from and the literature suggestions.  There are a couple of things I don't love about Story of the World.  First of all, I don't love the order of the chapters usually.  It jumps too much for me.  I have re-ordered and grouped chapters in a way that allows more of a unit study approach.  I will give you those details in a 2nd post.  Second of all, I have children who don't process orally well.  For those kids, reading the chapter isn't going to be enough.  It is for those kids especially that I love the hands-on activities.  Story of the World can be used just the way it is and done well. Just pick a chapter a read.  Add on as much or as little as you want from the activity book.  No pre-planning required. 

Our basic approach is to read the chapter, answer the questions, and do the mapwork.  After we have completed a chapter, my grammar stage kids will narrate what they have just heard.  For a 1st grader, that means they will tell me a brief summary, I will write it for them, and then they will draw a picture.  A 2nd grader will write a few sentences on their own and draw a picture.  A 3rd grader will write a paragraph and and work toward half a page.  A 4th grader will be writing a full page by the end of the year.

After we have completed Story of the World work, we will choose from the variety of activities in the activity book.  It contains games, crafts, cooking, and larger projects.  We do as many or as few of these as we have time and interest.  I also usually have other reading and resources to go along with the topic, and we pick and choose from the suggested further reading. 

Since I have re-ordered the chapters, it is very easy for me to stop our basic Story of the World work and throw in a unit study if my kids are particularly interested, or if I find the topic very important.  For instance, when we cover the modern world, we always do the couple of chapters in Story of the World on the Civil War and then we break off and do much more.  We read books, watch movies, visit battlefields, build diaromas, go to re-enactments, and complete literature-based unit studies like those from Teacher-Created Materials.  We will take 4-6 weeks to study the Civil War, and do significantly more than Story of the World does on that topic because it is fun.

That's basically our approach--Story of the World as our base, but re-structured, and allowing time for deeper exploration with additional resources, building literature into our history study.  Next, I will give you the info on how I re-order SOTW chapters as requested.

Edited to add:  In elementary and middle school, we work on memorizing the lists given in the WTM to go along with each year cycle, and we also work through learning the countries of the world by continent.  We also have a blank timeline on the wall and a blank map on the wall and we input the informaton we study from each SOTW chapter on those 2 resources each day we do history.  We do history 2 days a week around here.