Just wondering, when you have so much curriculum in a day, I tend to not be so good with science and history. I do do classical conversations so feel that I get it there. If I start doing a little a day, or every other day, for example, habitats, parts of a flower or reading maps. How much do kids retain? Mine are 6 and 7. If I’m not drilling or very repetitious are they even going to remember?
3 Likes
That’s a great question!
I have found that my children are very eager learners. I have always acted and been excited about books, and from the time they were little each of them has always been interested in reading. While my oldest was the age of your children, I was so busy having babies, and I sometimes wondered if I was not doing enough. But that proved to be wrong. She was reading the books that I bought for science and history on her own most of the time, also for health and other readers. She learned so much at that time, it was truly amazing!
We have had other times when I couldn’t do science or history everyday, and their retention has been incredible to me!
I would say, don’t worry about that! Keep igniting their love of learning and reading by encouraging them with good books, but never forcing it of course. And do what you are able without stressing over it. The age that they are in is one of curiosity, they typically love to learn!
Blessings
2 Likes
Great!! Thank you! May I ask, what books/ readers you used for science etc…
Sure!
She read our Abeka Science and Health/Manners and Community Helpers books and their readers were really nice too and have a lot of animal information that I can remember. I love those books and she did, too. We owned a lot of different books also, I am not sure which ones she liked most but I will write the ones I remember she enjoyed a lot: we had My First Encyclopedia, Fun with Nature take-along guide, Usborne First Guide to the Universe, Roaring Rockets, Usborne explainers series such as Finding Out About Things Outdoors, Let’s-Read-and-find-out Science series such as What Will the Weather Be?, and How a Seed Grows, I Wonder What a Rainforest is, Life in the Desert, Crinkleroots series (she loved this) such as Knowing the Birds, Hummy and the Wax Castle, Chickens aren’t the only ones, Spider’s lunch, I Can Read Made by God series, All Aboard Science Reader such as Baby Otter, DK Reader such as Born to be a butterfly, I Wonder Why books such as I Wonder Why Kangaroos have pouches, Black Bear Cub, First Grade Ladybugs, Butterfly Magic, I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean, Usborne Seas and Oceans, Animal Clues series, Busters sugartime, The Reason for a Flower, Usborne How Your Body Works, Usborne Starting Point Science, Christian Light Nature Readers, Usborbe beginners such as Tadpoles and Frogs, and so many more.
She also read Abeka History books for the grade she was in, and she learned so much then too. I tried adding hands on activities, dress ups and fun for her. She enjoyed books such as : On My Own Biographies series, Jean Fritz such as And Then What Happened Paul Revere and What’s the Big Idea Ben Franklin? series, Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky, Meet George Washington, The First Thanksgiving, Pocahontas True Princess (She l oved this one), The Pilgrims of Plimoth, A Picture Book series, If You Grew Up With Series, The Cabin Faced West (she really liked this one), Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims (she loved this one too), Readcoats and Petticoats, lots of Scholastic books, Usborne Time Travelers Books (4 in one I believe - she loved this too), Usborne book of World History, The Making of a knight, Battles and Weapons, Tales of the RAF series (loves these), and so many more.
These books were a good intro to my daughter when she was very young. She is still young, at 11, but now she has more in-depth studies and she still reads living books.
We were given a lot of our books, we bought some from our library’s book sales, and I have checked out hundreds of books from the library that I haven’t wven mentioned. I recommend looking for booklists from appropriate places, maybe one or two, such as Books Children Love and TruthQuest History, and even Sonlight and other companies as such.
Then check out Masterbooks for wonderful books that you can trust and really enjoy! Our dinosaur books are Answers in Genesis books, sold by Masterbooks, and others such as The Fight for Freedom (wonderful biographical books full of beautiful pictures and engagingly told), and others.
I hope this helps you! Blessings.
Hi Brandy,
It can be difficult to get to history and science each day with all of the other subjects! When they were younger I alternated them, so we did History Mon-Tues and Science Wed-Thurs. As they got older and we changed curriculum we would just do them first so that we didn’t skip them at the end of a long day! That said, if we had an experiment or art project etc. we would do that at the end of the day because I found my kids liked to take more time on them and I didn’t like rushing them to move on to other subjects. So I think it just depends on how old your kids are, and what you have going on. We’ve done it a variety of ways depending on what fit our needs the best.
As far as retention, even though it’s harder for us parents, the kids definitely retain things we did that were hands-on projects, recipes, activities, etc. WAY more than things we read, or worksheets we did. So even though it takes more time, I do try to be diligent about doing the “fun” things in our curriculum because those are the memories that last 
Erica
ok, good point. I was thinking of alternating days of those subjects. My daughter loves art and I just have not done it because there is other things to do.
thanks!
At 6 and 7 I’m not worried too much about retention for Science and History. I’m trying to spark interest, and for history, sort of set up a general idea that things through time change, that there are different cultures, different forms of government. I know that a lot won’t stick but a few things will and the next time through will build on that.
I don’t try to do history and science every day though. And I combine them when I can (example, when studying the Greeks and Romans, we learned about the stars and planets.)