Social Studies/History

History is my favorite subject, so I am so excited to share this with both of my kids.  Early American history is my favorite part, but I also really enjoy studying medieval Europe, how Christianity spread through the world, and learning about languages develop.  This is such a love of mine that I majored in it in college.  I knew there wasn't much to do with it (I really always wanted to work in a museum, but no chance of that near us), but I still love sharing this joy of mine.

However, it is so disappointing to me what the history books are like!  Some completely leave out important pieces of information that later turn out to be huge and pivotal, or worse even change the sequence or consequence of events!  So I will be pulling in info from all over the place as I find it, and I will try to fit it into what we are doing in social studies/history.

With both children, I will be using the 180 Days of Social Studies for their age level (6th grade for the 12yo, but he should have gotten it last year!).  My first glance was "this was exactly what I was looking for!  Little tidbits and questions I can expand on!"  But as I really started to look through it...

It's awful. The pages themselves individually are fine.  The matter is good, and I can't wait to spring off it and go!  But the way they laid it out is just terrible.  There are 4 different "categories", which alternate weeks, so week 1 is history, week 2 is civics, week 3 is geography, week 4 is economics, and week 5 goes back to history.  Sounds fine.

Except every page is separate.  Other than those categories, there is almost nothing else that ties the week together!  I love that it covers geography and mapping and all that, but when it is sandwiched between civics and economics, it looses all its... I don't know, specialness? importance? usefulness? 

So now my job is going through and piecing out each and every category, to try to make it a cohesive book that flows well.  The 7yo's book for 2nd grade is easy enough, because going by week won't make much difference to her.  She only needs a broad overview of most of this stuff.

The 12yo's book, though, is a disaster of epic proportions.  I have gone through, separating by category, just to find that category isn't enough!  There isn't flow of timeline, of importance, of ANYTHING!  It is simply one category per week, with no connection between almost any of it.

Then, in a moment of sheer brilliance on my part, I lost the paper that was going to be my guide through his book.  So off we go to plan it all out again.  Hopefully for the last time before we use it.