the New K program Part II- History

One of the main reasons I choose Sonlight is that it emphasizes History. Starting from the K program, history makes up the main chunk of the program.

I think it is very important to know history because

• History is HIS(God's) story
• A person who does not know her history would not be able to understand the current situation fully nor can she foresees the future.

Sonlight K program is called "Introduction to the World: Cultures". It aims to

• "acquaint children with the fascinating realities of other places, cultures, and times."
• help "children to sense that there is a great big wonderful world out there to discover."
• help children "to acquire an appreciation for what God has done through His people". (From K- IG)

In the first week, we look at dinosaurs as well as how the lifestyle of the first people. Mainly, we use 2 books:

1. The Usborne Internet-Linked Children's Encyclopedia (Under Science): I can't say enough good things about this book. Sweden is calling it our precious book because it explains so many things. We use it in History as well as in Science. It is in full color and it makes studying fun. The best thing about it is you can go to its website, key in the page number and it links you to all kinds of interesting sites.

For example, this week, when we studied Dinosaurs, it give us sites that have animation of T-rax, Pterosaurs, etc. It was really cool. When we studied about first people and cave painting, we used the link to look at the painting at the cave at Lascaux and did an Ice Age survival test. etc etc.

I highly recommend this book to any 4-5 years old to higher primary. It is well worth your money.

2. The Usborne book of Living Long Ago (Under History): It goes hand in hand with the Children's Encyclopedia. It gives more detail in the area of clothing, homes, food & transport. For example when we read about the first people in the Encyclopedia, then we read the detail of how the first people made their clothes, where did they stay, etc in this book.


3. Sonlight Book of Time (under History): This is a very important part of the Sonlight history curriculum -The timeline. It printed a timeline from 5000 BC to 2050 AD. It has two sections, yellow color paper for BC, and white paper for Ad.

It comes with pre-printed black & white timeline figures that we can stick to the book, see the example below: We stick Adan & Eve at 5000 BC.

This is a very good way to teach kids about the concept of Time. At first, I was thinking of making the book myself, but then I need one that can last for years. So after much consideration, I decided to order from Sonlight. I was not disappointed. It was printed on heavy-duty paper stocks.

Den and I are going to put our family history in there too - 1999 our wedding, 2005 her birth year, etc.

It is getting really "early", I need to go to sleep. I will have to write about the Science next time. Remember to check out the new book review site for more info on the books.

For review & info on Pre K books- http://www.squidoo.com/ahomeschoolingmomjornel ;

For K books - http://www.squidoo.com/booksforK (updated 24 Nov 2009)