Those who homeschool loosely/relaxed....

[mommagruber]

Originally Posted by Kiliki She is only 6. Does she need history? I thought that would come later. I am not even sure where to start for history. What kinds of things?? I was thinking, I guess, that since she is so young, we can keep moving forward with simple stuff, and when she outgrows it, we will find more material, whether that be buying formal curriculum, or getting new books, etc.... *** ETA: We just completed an entire book with an in depth study of the Bible book of Acts. It had a lot of historical info in it - how they sailed from one place to another, about the Roman Empire and various rulers/magistrates. We are now studying a book that reviews the Bible book of Jeremiah - a lot about what life was like during Jeremiah's day, who some of the Kings of Israel were before and during Jeremiah's lifetime, etc. These are studies we are doing for our congregation Bible Study, but we usually include the kids in reading and preparing the information. It's typically just about 5-8 or so paragraphs a week, so we try to go in depth on it and help the kids grasp as much as they can. Is that type of stuff okay for history at this young age? I just am not sure what type of history stuff we should be doing. That might be a subject I end up purchasing a curriculum for, I suppose.

Yes, this would be fine for history at her age.

I'm sorry, I didn't see how old she was when I posted my first post.

[Kiliki]

Originally Posted by jen_batten I think what you have listed is fine. She doesn't have to have history at this point. If you want some, that's fine too. Can I ask what your congregation is using for Bible Study? Is it a kids program, adult, or mixed ages? And yes, I think that kind of history is just fine. About the only history we did for a whlie was read the Laura Ingalls books. My DS loved it. Right now the only history we are doing is a bit of Bible stuff, and DS has taken an interest to Magic Tree House books, so there's a little there, and a George Washington book that he likes (a dull one, IMO). There will be plenty of time for more formal history down the road.

The book we recently completed is called Bearing Thorough Witness and the one we just started is God's Word for us Through Jeremiah.

The books have illustrations, diagrams, time lines and other visual aides. There are also boxes that contain biographical info about certain people or events or places being discussed. The study is geared towards adults mainly, but it is question and answer format. So a paragraph is read, a question is asked about the info in the paragraph and then you can volunteer to answer by raising your hand. Children aren't separated from their families in a Sunday school or the like, the whole family is encouraged to worship together, so often little kids want to participate, which is fine. My own kids (with a little help and some practice ) often prepare answers to the paragraphs so they can participate. ... which is good b.c that is public speaking, right? kids are welcome to participate if they want to.

So the material is adult, but the kids are taught with the adults and can engage in the study.... so I guess that's multi-age?

[Kiliki]

Originally Posted by mommagruber Yes, this would be fine for history at her age. I'm sorry, I didn't see how old she was when I posted my first post.

Don't apologize! I appreciate the ideas! I don't want to screw this up! What age do you think more in depth history becomes vital?

[Jedimomma]

I wasnt thinking about her being 6 when I mentioned history either. I think what you're doing is totally fine for that age! I wouldn't do any more history than that, honestly, unless she gets specially interested in some aspect of history on her own (from the Bible, like you mentioned, or from Little House books or something like that). Then you could help her find out more about it or find other books to read to her that deal with the same time period or whatev. Let her lead as far as that goes. And if she's not interested in any of that, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[happyhats]

My dd is going to turn 4 in a couple weeks. So far we have just been living life really. I try to encourage things she enjoys ( dinosaurs, animals and the moon currently) and keep educational stuff aro6nd. She learned her numbers, basic math, abcs ane phonics through many shows like leapfrog, she loves the magic school bus, and we read aloud from whatever book she is interested in.

Withnour tax return we are going to invest in a box of the month, and I am going to try to build on the projects in there monthly. I also want to buy the little passports package and either start on Muzzys or Little Pims for Spanish. As far as phonics/reading, I am still deciding between a few things. We will do science projects, math projects etc for fun throughout the year when we see things we want to try. She loves puzzles, blocks, tanagram, and all things umizoomi, lol. Im not planning any real schedule either so we are still probably closer to unschooling oe eclectic schooling for pre k.

[UmmKira]

We use The Well Trained Mind as a general guide, and by state laws we have to do standardized testing. Last year's test had DD1 in the 92nd %tile, so I'm not worried. If you keep moving forward and learning new things, I'm sure you'll do fine. I would suggest having a math book to work with. Even the most hard core unschoolers or unit study approaches still typically use a math text to keep things sequential.

The Well Trained Mind does have history incorporated, but it is story format with crafts and other activities... nothing crazy, but just introducing the concept of history, and starting your student hearing names that they'll come across later when they dig deeper.

I like to have specific books as the core of subjects, and work through them as we see fit. We usually finish "early", so that leaves us a little wiggle room if family situations come up.