History Curriculum Suggestions for a 7 Year Old

@DeannaForgard I wouldn’t think this would be a problem. You would be teaching Early American History to the younger grades (we are teaching this to our K and 2nd grader this year and will continue in 1st and 3rd grades next year) and Creation through present day to the older grades (depending on where you decide to begin on their timeline–whether you start at the beginning of the Grades 5-12 timeline or start somewhere in the middle). They answer this question with some great insight on their How to Choose page here (I just looked at it for the first time because I hadn’t had to consider this before, so scroll down to “The Big Question . . . How to Place Multiple Children” and you will find great options for your situation!) It looks like there are several great options including how to keep them all together on one plan! I hope this helps! Let me know if I can answer any more questions :slight_smile:

Does TruthQuest include Geography, or is it just history?

Your son is still young, no need to stress over history yet if it has been hard for him to enjoy something more detailed. But, I was going to suggest A Beka for this age as well, especially considering all you mentioned in regards to your son’s preferences. My 8 year old loves reading the A Beka history books, and I love to add lapbooks or other activities I have found as compliment because she too loves hands on learning as well as reading and learning all that she can. The pictures are great on those texts, too. Have fun!

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@DeannaForgard TruthQuest is is mainly just history–there is a Maps and Timelines component to help you map the locations of the historical events, but it does not include a study of the locations themselves. We do our own geography studies separate from our history subject matter. I find the subjects of history, geography, and social studies can be difficult to differentiate when it comes to homeschooling. Some companies integrate these together, others combine two of the components, and others see them as three separate entities entirely! (It can be very confusing!!) We have approached them as three individual subjects to make sure we cover each of the areas and where they overlap, that’s great, but this way we aren’t missing information as each subject brings its own valuable content. We use different curriculum companies for each of these areas actually.

Would you be willing to share any ideas you used for the 3rd grade A Beka text? We are starting it in the fall and I planned to have my son notebook on each person featured but I think he would like a little more variety (he will be notebooking in science as well). You can message me so we don’t hijack the thread! Thank you!

You all are such great history experts - I just had a question: I am still quite new to homeschooling on my own(been using an online K12 school), so still trying to figure everything out! Homeschooling style: Classical - does this mean for history that you cycle every four years - world history and then US history? This seems a little redundant to me - I can understand in schools learning the same exact thing for elementary, middle, and high school - but in homeschooling where you spend one on one time with your child and they know the info - it seems like it might get a little bit boring. Does everyone follow this schedule? Or do you learn other subjects as well? Is there a different way to teach history? Been enjoying learning about other history curriculum as well! Open to any suggestions from you all! Thanks everyone! :smile:

I’m not sure how to message you, so I’ll just reply here, I hope it’s okay.
We did not have an activity for every person we read about, but mostly for those my daughter had a higher interest in and some I thought she’d like to know more about.
So here are some things we did/are doing still:
For Christopher Columbus, a [map painted on brown grocery bag][1] and egg carton ships.
But [here are some other options][2] as well.
For John Smith/Pocahontas we did a dress up.
For Squanto she read a Scholastic book on him, and she loved it and drew some pictures.
For Benjamin Franklin, she was so excited about him, homeschool in the woods’ [Benjamin Franklin Lap-Pak.][3]
For Laura Ingalls Wilder, read her Little House series, and these really fun [free lapbooks.][4]
And as for the rest, I simply googled under images the person’s name followed by the word “crafts” or sometimes “activities”. I think for your son, things like making a wig out of cotton balls for George Washington, making a teepee outdoors, or even a craft one, would be fun ideas too.
Hope this helps some! Have fun :smiley:
[1]: http://www.halleethehomemaker.com/2009/10/columbus-day-map/
[2]: http://diyhomeschooler.com/columbus-day-a-unit-study/
[3]: http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/benjaminfranklin.html
[4]: http://marinecorpsnomads.com/2013/02/complete-little-house-on-the-prairie-series-lapbook-set.html

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I’m sorry I did not mention this one before, but I wanted to tell you about it as well. It’s been a success with my children. It is called History for Little Pilgrims.
I think you can take a look inside the book at the link.
The entire book walks you through history on a timeline, that the children can also copy and make one of their own. It teaches children to see history as His Story, with a biblical worldview. The children learn about the main figures and events that relate to the building of God’s Kingdom, the central theme of the book.
The book includes biblical accounts, some church history, world and american history as well. And available is a teachers’ manual with lesson plans and activities in case you wanted one.

Thank you! Great ideas and you’ve inspired me to get creative and have fun! A wig of cotton balls? My son would be all over that - and would probably walk around the house pretending to be Columbus for weeks! Thanks!!

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We don’t follow a cycle. There are a lot of ways to teach history! We are following A Beka, which starts with US history. I am not a big believer in lots of history for younger grades. Other people make it the core of their homeschool and have great success! I think history is one of the subjects you can really customize because you can use lots of library books and different resources and still follow a schedule or not. That kind of customization is something I cannot easily do with math or language arts! Go with what you think is best for your family!

@sgrrrbear - In response to your question about repeating history every few years: (in my opinion) you can think of history and science like an onion: there are always deeper layers to explore. Let’s say I was teaching about magnets. What I would teach a K/1st grader would differ greatly from what I would teach a 5th grader which would differ greatly from what I would teach a high schooler. The same can be said for history. I may touch upon slavery in when I discuss Columbus and coming to the new world in K/1st. Like my science example, this would differ from what I’d discuss with slavery and the civil war in 2/3, which would differ greatly from any higher grades I taught the subject. And don’t forget, the way you teach things at different grades differs also. While you may read books and do fun little craftivity type projects in K/1, you may up it to more in depth books, lapbooks and projects in upper elementary, but then middle school high school the expectation may be tests, reports and presentations. The concept of going back to a subject multiple times is so that you constantly BUILD upon prior knowledge - dig deeper, and have a better chance of the student learning and retaining all of the details. I hope this makes sense. It is not the only way to teach, but the concept makes sense (at least to me :slight_smile: Hope this helps answer your question!

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Thank you both @michelletown and @triton17 - for your reply. What you both say makes sense. I need to also clarify that I wasn’t going to completely abandon history - teaching world history one time and then never again… and same with US history. It just seemed like a lot of cycling. In high school they absolutely need to go over it again - and in more detail. I was just wondering if you could make room for say: Middle eastern history, or European history, or a whole year of nothing but geography.

I have been looking into Sonlight / Book Shark. And I am interesting in the whole - learn about history and then read a historical fiction book on it. I loved doing that in school… for fun! And I sure learned a lot about history. Has anyone used that curriculum with success? Also - I don’t think I would buy the whole entire curriculum - but just go over the info and then read a few books to go along with it. Because I still want to read literature that doesn’t involve history as well.

BUT - I also thought I had it all figured out - I had bought Story of the World for my elementary kids and History of US for my older son - but then I found Sonlight / Book Shark - and they go over those curriculum with older students so they can read deeper books to go along with it.

I just don’t know what to do at this point!! Any thoughts and suggestions?

Many people use the website for Sonlight as a kind of book list to add literature to their history studies. I like to browse their site as well as the Ambleside online site. Many of the books you can get through the library.

Thank you for taking the time to answer all of my questions. What curriculums to you use for Geography and Social Studies? Do you line up your geography lessons to match the places you’re studying in TruthQuest?

@DeannaForgard I just sent you a message :slight_smile:

Have you looked into Beautiful Feet? It is History taught through novels and living books. They have great study guides. www.bfbooks.com

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Thanks @michelletown - that is a great suggestion - sadly we live in an extremely small town - and our library hardly has any books! :frowning: So I usually have to buy them all lol. Great idea, though, to just use them and add the books I want. :smile:

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Thank you - I will look into this curriculum :slight_smile: @momto4 :slight_smile:

Is that a secular or Christian curriculum?

The study guide is Christian, but the books are a mix. Most of the novels are secular, just good literature.

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