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iowacookiemom
October 2nd 03, 08:23 PM
I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th
grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with
social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She
says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a
chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social
studies or not doing well at social studies?

My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a
subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a
natural "knack" for.

Thanks in advance,

Dawn
Mom to Henry, 11

Jayne Kulikauskas
October 2nd 03, 09:11 PM
"iowacookiemom" > wrote in message
om...

[]
> My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a
> subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a
> natural "knack" for.

Social studies is mainly history and geography, isn't it? For those
subjects I try to find interesting fiction that has real information as its
background. For example, an 11 y.o doing US history could read the
_American Girl_ series or _Little House on the Praire_ books. If she
doesn't like reading, there are videos with historical and foreign settings.

If you give more details about her social studies curriculum I might be able
to come up with specific recommendations. Also, if you want more input,
another good place for asking this question would be one of the
homeschooling newsgroups.

Jayne

Rosalie B.
October 3rd 03, 01:36 AM
(iowacookiemom) wrote:

>I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th
>grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with
>social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She
>says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a
>chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social
>studies or not doing well at social studies?

IMHO, this sounds like not very well taught ss as I don't think of ss
as reading and memorizing facts.

There are two ways to approach this.
a) Teaching her how to read and memorize facts as a skill.
b) Teaching her how to make the subject interesting to her by tying
her interests into whatever subject she is studying.
>
>My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a
>subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a
>natural "knack" for.

So for instance, if she is studying say the Civil War (I can't
remember what SS was in 6th grade), your friend could research with
her what her ancestors were doing in that time period - if any of them
were soldiers, or she could visit battlefields, or find out what foods
were commonly eaten at that time, or what clothing children of her age
would have worn or what sports they would have played. And there are
- as someone suggested - books about girls who lived in various
periods.

grandma Rosalie

Tamex
October 3rd 03, 07:13 PM
On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 15:23:36 EDT, (iowacookiemom)
wrote:

>I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th
>grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with
>social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She
>says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a
>chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social
>studies or not doing well at social studies?
>
>My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a
>subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a
>natural "knack" for.

Maybe she'd like social studies better if she was able to see it as
interesting stories about people and places, rather than as dry names
and dates to memorize. Another poster to this thread suggested the
"American Girl" books and other historical fiction. There are also
some interesting documentaries out there, such as the ones shown on
the History Channel or PBS.

Does she like maps? Maybe she'd like geography better if she could
imagine travelling to the places she's studying. Maybe she could even
go as far as collecting brochures, looking up sites on the internet,
etc. to plan an imaginary trip.

Museums are another way to get interested in history without being
forced to read and memorize. If you can, find one with lots of cool
art and/or artifacts from the time period or place she's studying.

If she's studying the American Revolution, she might want to check out
the cartoon series "Liberty's Kids" on PBS. Heck, I've even learned a
thing or two by watching that show!

She might also enjoy first learning more about the history of her
local area, as opposed to some far-off place that doesn't matter to
her much. Try local museums and historical sites (forts, ghost towns,
battlefields, etc.) Also, try seeking out those sites when you
travel. Sometimes, you can go to those places, and what you learned in
school finally starts to "sink in" and come alive in your mind.

Good luck! As a kid, even though I liked history and geography and
travelled to many historical places, museums, etc. with my family, I
even found the subject kind of dull when studied at school.
--
Tamex

No matter how much Jell-o you put in the pool, you still can't walk on water.

**remove Tricky Dick to reply by e-mail**

Kevin Karplus
October 3rd 03, 11:59 PM
In article >,
iowacookiemom wrote:
> I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th
> grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with
> social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She
> says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a
> chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social
> studies or not doing well at social studies?
>
> My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a
> subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a
> natural "knack" for.

I've never been a good memorizer either, and I hated social studies
all through school. The books were badly written and boring, and the
teachers as bad. Geography was ok, because maps are cool, but
memorizing factoids about states and countries is extremely tedious.

The advice other people have given about reading historical fiction
and true stories that are better written than the school books will
probably help the child learn something, but it probably won't help
much with the memorize-and-regurgitate tests that dominate in the
field. Sorry, I can't think of anything that worked for me. Oh--in
high school I took the required American History in summer school, so
that I could get it over with as quickly as possible and never have to
suffer through it again.

I realize that other people have different tastes---my younger brother
loved history in school. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a
good way to transmit that love of a subject to another person (he
still hates math and I still hate history).


--
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Professor of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
Affiliations for identification only.

Elizabeth Gardner
October 4th 03, 03:11 AM
In article >,
(Tamex) wrote:

> On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 15:23:36 EDT, (iowacookiemom)
> wrote:
>
> >I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th
> >grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with
> >social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She
> >says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a
> >chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social
> >studies or not doing well at social studies?
> >
> >My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a
> >subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a
> >natural "knack" for.
>
> She might also enjoy first learning more about the history of her
> local area, as opposed to some far-off place that doesn't matter to
> her much. Try local museums and historical sites (forts, ghost towns,
> battlefields, etc.) Also, try seeking out those sites when you
> travel. Sometimes, you can go to those places, and what you learned in
> school finally starts to "sink in" and come alive in your mind.
>


I remember when I was a kid, our school district tried out a new way of
teaching social studies where you started out by studying your own town
and then your state in third grade, the U.S. and Canada in fourth grade,
Central and South America in fifth, and Europe in sixth. Sort of
studying the world in expanding rings. The only trouble was, we never
did get to Asia or Africa, because in jr. high we went back to studying
U.S. history. But it worked--I still know a lot about my home town.

Robyn Kozierok
October 5th 03, 03:36 PM
In article >,
Rosalie B. > wrote:
>
>IMHO, this sounds like not very well taught ss as I don't think of ss
>as reading and memorizing facts.

I would agree, but this is how I remember social studies, and later history
and geography classes from my own youth as well. :( I hated them too, even
though I'm a good memorized and usually got very good grades.

>
>So for instance, if she is studying say the Civil War (I can't
>remember what SS was in 6th grade), your friend could research with
>her what her ancestors were doing in that time period - if any of them
>were soldiers, or she could visit battlefields, or find out what foods
>were commonly eaten at that time, or what clothing children of her age
>would have worn or what sports they would have played. And there are
>- as someone suggested - books about girls who lived in various
>periods.
>

These are good ideas in terms of actually *learning* about the subject,
but IME it may not be helpful in doing well on the tests based on the
particular version of the material doled out in class.

--Robyn (who doesn't really mean to sound as cynical as this is coming off)

Rosalie B.
October 5th 03, 04:48 PM
x-no-archive:yes
(Robyn Kozierok) wrote:

>In article >,
>Rosalie B. > wrote:
>>
>>IMHO, this sounds like not very well taught ss as I don't think of ss
>>as reading and memorizing facts.
>
>I would agree, but this is how I remember social studies, and later history
>and geography classes from my own youth as well. :( I hated them too, even
>though I'm a good memorized and usually got very good grades.

Well the teachers that I taught with did much better than that. So it
can be done. One in particular - when they would study a country,
they would have a buffet where they would have food of the country
(sometimes coordinated with the home ec teacher) and sometimes she'd
have someone like my mom who had been there come in and show slides.

>
>>
>>So for instance, if she is studying say the Civil War (I can't
>>remember what SS was in 6th grade), your friend could research with
>>her what her ancestors were doing in that time period - if any of them
>>were soldiers, or she could visit battlefields, or find out what foods
>>were commonly eaten at that time, or what clothing children of her age
>>would have worn or what sports they would have played. And there are
>>- as someone suggested - books about girls who lived in various
>>periods.
>>
>
>These are good ideas in terms of actually *learning* about the subject,
>but IME it may not be helpful in doing well on the tests based on the
>particular version of the material doled out in class.
>

I agree and it might not be possible to do all the time. But if one
combined it with 'active studying' - not just reading the book and
trying to remember it and going to sleep while doing so - it can help.
For instance if you read a section about a particular battle, see if
you can find out more about the terrain or the weather or something
that would make it more real.

And one other way to study so you remember, is to try to rewrite the
with some goal in mind - explaining it to your little brother, or
using vocabulary words or something like that.

grandma Rosalie

jjmoreta
October 7th 03, 06:56 PM
iowacookiemom wrote:
> I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th
> grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with
> social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She
> says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a
> chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social
> studies or not doing well at social studies?
>
> My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a
> subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a
> natural "knack" for.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Dawn
> Mom to Henry, 11

I always hated social studies in school, but I loved learning about history.
It took me until high school to realize that I liked learning more about the
cultures and the context in which they lived as opposed to "this battle
happened in this year" memorization.

I agree with the previous responses in the thread by adding a little extra
to what she's learning in school to help put all the "stupid" dates and
events in some sort of meaningful context. There's usually a lot of PBS
videos and children's history books at the library that might help (I loved
watching PBS documentaries). Is there some sort of hobby the daughter
enjoys? You can link that up with how people did that through time (like
music through time, or sewing).

As for the memorization, your friend would be doing her daughter a favor by
teaching her ways to deal with memorizing information. For example, make
flash cards and use them to make time lines to put things in order to see
how they influenced each other. Review the flash cards or lists of
information she needs to know every evening. Use mneumonic techniques (i.e.
"in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue). Unfortunately memorization is
going to be part of her school life for many years, so the earlier she
learns how to deal with it, the better off she'll be. Few of us have the
"knack" for every subject.

If she stops caring about learning early, she'll be hurting herself for the
rest of her education.

- Joanne

Elizabeth Gardner
October 9th 03, 03:10 AM
In article >,
"jjmoreta" > wrote:

> iowacookiemom wrote:
> > I'm posting this for a friend. She has an 11 year old daughter in 6th
> > grade. Her daughter does very well in school but struggles with
> > social studies. She has difficulty reading and memorizing facts. She
> > says she just doesn't like social studies, but that's sort of a
> > chicken-and-egg situation: which came first, not liking social
> > studies or not doing well at social studies?
> >
> > My friend is looking for creative ways to help her daughter study in a
> > subject she a.) doesn't particularly like and b.) doesn't have a
> > natural "knack" for.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> >
> > Dawn
> > Mom to Henry, 11
>
>
> As for the memorization, your friend would be doing her daughter a favor by
> teaching her ways to deal with memorizing information. For example, make
> flash cards and use them to make time lines to put things in order to see
> how they influenced each other. Review the flash cards or lists of
> information she needs to know every evening. Use mneumonic techniques (i.e.
> "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue). Unfortunately memorization is
> going to be part of her school life for many years, so the earlier she
> learns how to deal with it, the better off she'll be. Few of us have the
> "knack" for every subject.

There used to be a book called (I think) "The Timetables of History"
that showed when things happened in relation to each other--like when x
was going on the U.S., y and z were going on in various parts of Europe
and a, b and c were going on in Asia. It was fascinating to leaf
through. Maybe something like that would help. Or the Times Atlas of
World History, which has maps of the world during all kinds of
historical periods and events.
>
>