Homeschool World Forum

[WWMama]

My husband and I have a question about teaching history for future reference. At the risk of sounding really green, and like I didn't do my research, how in the world do you know what to teach the kids about history, as far as the norm referenced tests go? (We are in Minnesota). We've looked at the scope and sequence that we got in a few handbooks. for instance it says 10th grade should be WW2 and the Vietnam War. We both have things we'd like to teach them about it---we REALLY like that book "Lies My Teacher Told Me"...I guess our concern isn't so much what we CAN teach them, because we know the freedom we have in that. Our concern is what kinds of things they NEED to know for testing. I mean, will the test cause us to teach in such a way that we say "This is what mainstream America is teaching in their history books....however, THESE untaught facts are what your father and I would like you to know..." My husband is just concerned about what things we NEED to teach them. Does that make sense?
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[sunnie_skys]

makes total sense. My son is in 4th grade and we have not started yet. So we are kinda wondering the same thing.
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Sunny

[elliemaejune]

as long as you teach a basic world history and U.S. history, in any order, it should be fine. Check out the titles that the major publishers have in each grade level; that should give you an idea of the sequence, but it almost doesn't matter, especially not at the elementary level.

The high school sequence tends to be world geography (9th), world history, U.S. history, U.S. government and economics. Usually there's a year of state history in elementary, sometimes again in 7th.

[WWMama]

Thanks for the answer.

I think what my husband is more worried about is something along these lines. I'll use a completely different subject in my example. For instance, if the state requires that kids are educated about immunizations but the parents who are teaching are against immunzations...apparently the parents would teach about mainstream beliefs on immunzations, the reasons they were developed, etc...and then add in why their family chooses to not have them. Now if "knowledge of immunizations" was on a test, would this be an issue?

Perhaps we are overthinking the issue or worrying too much about it. As a family who has never been through any of the testing (and won't have to for two more years) i just wonder about teaching them "enough" so the test isn't an issue, but still being able to teach them the sometimes conflicting or "lost details" we want them to know about.
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Peace:
It does not meant to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work.
It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

[Theodore]

I don't think this will be much of an issue. Just look up whichever standardized tests your children will be taking, find out what's required for history knowledge, and start preparing a year or so ahead of time. You should still have plenty of time for extras, and you hopefully won't have to worry about revisionist history questions. History is a way less thorny issue than science.
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[WWMama]

Thanks for the reply, Theodore. And you're probably right about Science. I didn't even consider that subject and the challenges it could present. I guess I'll just be glad that I am starting out in this pretty early and have time to research everything.
_________________
Peace:
It does not meant to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work.
It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.