Homeschoolers #2--What History Do You Do With a First Grader?

[chicksgalore]

I've noticed that history doesn't seem to be a major part of curriculum until 3rd grade but I would like to do something along a unit line for this. Just wondering what some of the rest of you do for history with the younger kids?

 

[Paganbird]

My son just finished 1st grade. We are starting 2nd grade June 1st.
For 1st grade geography, we did a lot of work on the states. My son was interested in the origin of the names of the states, so we ended up adding a whole history class. We started with Native Americans: different tribes and Native American cultures.
We then discussed how "white people" came from other lands and explored.
Our final discussion was on the pilgrims. We watched Disney's Pocahontas and did activities with the movie like: "What do you think really happened when she met John Smith?" We used an encyclopedia to compare the Disney story to the REAL story. Then we read a children's book story and compared all three.

 

[chicksgalore]

Did you use any specific materials when you started out on the states or just books you found at the library or lying around? Last year (K5), we mostly just talked about things, I taught them a song about our flag and talked some more. We got a few books at the library.

I'd like to get more involved this year but without a specific guideline, it seems like it would be hard to stay motivated. Maybe I just need to sit down before the "year" starts and do up sort of my own guideline/plans. I'm more into that anyway!

Time is usually the issue.

 

[Paganbird]

We started K with an online school & curriculum, but it didn't really "fit" my son. We had already started reading with him & the school was starting with phonics that my son already knew. We kinda let the online thing fall by the wayside and came up with our own plans. We try to let Gavyn in on the planning as much as possible.
Specifically to the history/geography, we bought him a US map to put in his room. (Still over his bed right now... one of the "interesting" ones - with pics of space shuttle in Florida, peaches in Ga, GG bridge in Ca, etc.) We also got him a large floor puzzle where you put the states together. We already had a globe and a set of encyclopedias. He copied the names of the states a couple of times - we used them as "spelling words" over the course of a few weeks.
I bought a bunch of used schoolbooks awhile back - some for grade 4 and up. I had the chance to get them cheap, so I got them all. We use those. You could try eBay. I get a lot of stuff there. Just type in the subject like "history" and look under "childrens books."

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Time4learning is a great little website that has LA, Math, Science & History for young ones. It's $20/month but I think it's worth doing it for a few months of the year.

 

[DuckyBoys]

We've been homeschooling for 7 years and have never even gotten to American history - we've done ancient history the whole time. Finally next year we can start The New World, it's been a long time coming.

History pockets (Evan-Moor) has some really cool stuff for the younger ones. We did those the first time we did ancient history and he loved it.

We also used those little kits - like Lift the Lid on Mummies etc. They have similiar ones for China, Vikings, Knights...we did them all.