Ed Chat: Core subjects~ Social sciences

History, geography, sociology and more are all rolled up into social sciences and humanities.  We need to be getting beyond rote memorization of names, dates, and places. To become real movers, shakers and thinkers, our kids need to be able to digest the big picture because they have tasted all the small pieces.

Scope and sequence starts kids close to home and takes them in broader circles until they reach the edges of the world.  Children go from "who are the people in your neighborhood" to memorizing the signers of the Magna Carta and the date of the 100 Years' War.  Is this an effective manner of teaching kids?  NAEP reports that our kids are not proficient in their geography test. My 4th grader took the sample test online and only missed one question. So-  how do I create a kid who can think and finds a test an interesting afternoon diversion?

http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2010/10/true-size-of-africa.jpg

Read.  Don't leave maps, dates, places, and names in a textbook-- pull them out of living books.  Then get interactive-  art that depicts scenes and characters; videos - both "fun" ones like Liberty's Kids cartoons and History channel documentaries weave it all together.  Maps and atlases on display and accessible. Sandboxes and plenty of white paper to draw on give children an outlet for showing off what they know in their own creations.

It's probably OK if you use Geography Songs to help your kids memorize all the countries in the world and their capitals.  But it's only a beginning-  have they experienced the countries?  Do they know which ones are warm, mountainous, thriving, at war?  Can they share what it all means to their existence? Do they see the people as individuals much like themselves, or is it all vague? Is Africa just a safari?  Is Asia limited to The Great Wall?

Resources we like: