'20 - '21 Homeschool Curriculum: Social Studies

I am super excited about the social studies units I have put together for Nathaniel this year. We will be traveling the world and learning about people and cultures on all the continents. He is ready with his suitcase and passport! We will do social studies twice a week. All our books and supplies for a day’s work will be stored in Nathaniel’s suitcase. We started our school year on Monday learning about the earth and taking a big picture look at the people who inhabit it. Next week, we will depart for five weeks of learning about North America and then spend five weeks on each continent in turn as we circle the globe.

When planning the study, I selected books we had our on our shelves and some recently published titles. The backbone of the geography portion of our study will use the book Maps by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielinski. This is a beautiful coffee table style book that I’ve struggled to get back out of Nathaniel’s hands each time he looks at it. The Usborne Peoples of the World by Gill Doherty will be the main text for learning about cultures. (Note - Our version of this book is older; it seems the book has been updated. The book link takes you to a newer version.)

Additional books we will use weekly include:
Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World by Kindersley
This is How We Do It: One Day in the Life of Seven Kids Around the World by Matt Lamonthe
People by Peter Spier

We will read the Explore the Continent Series: North America, Australia and Oceania, Antartica, Asia, Europe, Africa, South America.

I picked up the North America title in the Mapping the Continents series. I want to see if it seems we need the additional resource before I invest in the others.

For a few years, Nathaniel and I have enjoyed a book of the week. This selection is one that we read every day of the week, use to work on reading comprehension, and often do corrolated art, craft, or cooking projects. Our books of week titles this year will tie directly into our social studies learning. As we travel around the world, we will read stories that take place on each continent.

Find Book of the Week Titles Here

The book of the week choices are picture books. The story lines and themes are more advance this year than last, but we have also noticed that Nathaniel enjoys listening to chapter books. I have selected a small number of chapter books to read when studying each continent. This list is not complete. I want to see how Nathaniel responds to the length and complexity of the titles I have selected so far before selecting the remaining books that we will read aloud to him. Here are the collections I have finished so far. I will update as I complete the rest.