History lessons in US primary schools

[Star555]

Any expat parents currently living (or who have lived) in the US who send their children to a local, non-international school? I'm rather disappointed to see that history lessons in primary school involve a too-heavy focus on US history only with many repetitions across the years of the same boring things (life in the 13 colonies, Civil War, etc.). How I wish the kids could learn about Roman Britain, the Tudors and Stuarts, etc...all the exciting things that are covered in KS2 and KS3 ! Has anyone come up with a supplementary "home curriculum" for British history, or other ways to teach their children about British/European history? I just can't imagine my kids missing out on so much, and moving back to the UK and being disadvantaged when encountering British history topics for the first time in school at an older age. (I guess it's not just the US, expats in other countries will also face similar issues.)

Yep loads, Year 3 here (so 7/8) they will learn a lot about Ancient Rome, "What the Roman's did for us," etc. Here they visit a local villa and have a day in school where they dress up too. Their home learning on the topic can be on any aspect so some children did mosaics. some children looked at Roman dress and armour, others looked at central heating or made villa models etc...

Horrible Histories - Rotten Romans the movie is rather fun and aimed at primary kids.

You could try podcasts. Our little ones listen to History Storytime. It's got episodes on Henry VIII, Florence Nightingale, the Battle of Britain etc. They only last ten minutes and there are loads of songs too. Its got kids in it so our little ones like it.

There are some others that we listen to but as they don't have kids in them they can be a bit adulty.

Thank you @zombiedmummy! Could you please let me know which adulty history podcasts you listen to? I listen to the English Heritage podcasts sometimes.

Another resource OP is twinkl which is free at the moment due to lockdown - LOADS of resources to print for all key stages www.twinkl.co.uk/home-learning-hub - save them while you can!

When I was in elementary school we didn't have 'History', we had 'Social Studies'. The educational system wasn't so much interested in teaching us facts as building a common narrative, starting with the cleaned up versions of Columbus, the Pilgrims and the American Revolution.

We didn't start learning any proper history until junior high. I don't think we even covered much about the Civil War until then.

Merci beaucoup @JeSuisPoulet! I was able to get some good stuff from twinkl.

@expat96 Exactly, the school here officially starts a rigorous "US history" in 5th grade with a big textbook with a giant bald eagle on the cover. In 4th grade they spend the entire year on only the history of our state--what a waste, in my opinion. Before then, it's all "social studies" units including different periods in US history, focusing on 13 colonies, Revolutionary War, Civil War, Oregon Trail, Lewis and Clark expedition etc. Also a ton of American geography, including memorizing all 50 states and their capitals, major US rivers, etc and lots of biographies of famous Americans. Absolutely nothing about Europe or the rest of the world whatsoever, except "the pilgrims came from England". Most elementary school kids can't even locate England (I guarantee you they have know idea what the "United Kingdom" is) or other European countries on a map, but for exams they must know exactly where Cheyenne, Wyoming or Pierre, South Dakota is on an unlabelled US map! If that isn't preposterous, I don't know what is!

*have no idea

where Cheyenne, Wyoming or Pierre, South Dakota is on an unlabelled US map! If that isn't preposterous, I don't know what is!

Former resident of one of those preposterous states, here ( N. Dakota--above S. Dakota). Aren't UK students expected to be able to place their own counties and cities on a map? Agree that US schools are far too US-centric, but slamming them for teaching their own (vast) geography is a bit odd.

Ah yes, teaching European history is perfectly well rounded and sufficient. I agree that history curriculums, particularly in younger years, should be very broad but obviously you don’t get a gross curriculum teaching just European history. I would suggest buying age appropriate history books in a variety of subjects, don’t make your children into weird eurocentrics.

@DulciUke you're right that students should know about their local area, but my point is that learning about the rest of the world must not be sacrificed to teach them only about their local area and details about states that do not affect them directly. (Don't worry, we're in the Midwest in a relatively preposterous state as well .) I'm not saying that US geography shouldn't be learned (it certainly should!). I'm saying that it should be taught in a reasonable and relevant way such that there is time to learn about global geography/history as well. For example, I think it is preposterous that a student in Edison, New Jersey must memorize where Pierre, SD is when they have no idea where Berlin or Paris or London is. To me, that shows that American schools are terrible at instilling global awareness. But a New Jersey student should of course know where Trenton, NJ and other nearby cities are so that that they can be aware of what impacts them on an immediate, local level. So my point is that kids should be taught what is relevant to them, which certainly includes their local geography and overall US geography, but not in such excruciating detail that world geography is completely ignored in elementary school (I know for a fact that it is, at least in the Midwestern schools I've seen.)

@DulciUke no, we were not taught at school to place the UK's counties and cities on a map. It's really not that important and is something most people pick up by osmosis.

www.thenational.academy (oak national academy) have some good age appropriate history lessons as well as the rest of the English curriculum.
Horrible histories are really good as well.

My children didn't learn any European history until secondary school anyway. History in my part of the UK is so broad at primary school that it barely exists as a subject. It all falls under 'the world around us' but it's very vague. Certainly no Romans and the like. It drives me mad as my children both love history and could get very absorbed in it.

When they’re old enough (11 or 12, I’d say), get the Simon Schama “A History of Britain” boxset. The content seems to have stuck with mine into adulthood, they often mention facts they learnt from it and it filled a lot of gaps in their (UK) history education (which I have no quibble with BTW as the history curriculum here covers discrete topics/issues/eras from a range of countries in depth and puts emphasis on methodology.)

It’s very watchable. I love Mr Schama.

Horrible Histories as a fun introduction----it's fun/light history but it gets them familiar with names, places, what things looked like.

Read through the Galore Park Junior History series together. We also do the British version of the Civitas Core Knowledge series. We read a little section together a couple of times a week, and talk about it, find places on the map. Sometimes DD write a short report on one of the topics.

Watch DVDs and YouTube videos about various topics to supplement. Andrew Marr's History of the World is a good one. Look for videos and documentaries that have lots of dressed-up characters acting out scenes, to spark kids' interest and help them get a sense of what the past really felt like.

This is roughly what we have done.

Oh, the Simon Shwarma series mentioned above, we loved that too!