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Hi everyone. Our state SOLs for second grade state that students will have an introduction"to the heritage and contributions of the people of ancient China and Egypt...". I remember there was a mention of Egypt being covered in one of the later guides and I didn't want to cover too much before we get there and I can't remember which guide or how long it would be before we got there. We will be using Bigger Hearts this fall and ds can read very well. I was considering just getting some books from the library but I am a little concerned about the content or point of view some may take. I remember Veritas Press has some readers on the subject and I haven't looked at Beautiful Feet yet. Does anyone have any suggestions?

If you check out the book list for CTC you may get some ideas and some of those books can probably be read at the Bigger level. I have noticed that some of the other curriculums use books from those time periods and many are also used by HoD meaning they are good content-wise. Otherwise I'd stick with non-fiction interest books for the topics and stay away from fiction for now as they may be at too high a level. Sounds like you just need a bit of a unit study, or do a lapbook or something to satisfy the requirement?

Do you have to follow your state SOL's? I looked up Virginia's homeschool laws at HSLDA and didn't see anything that said you had to follow their SOL's. If it is optional, I wouldn't worry about it. If you have to follow them or you just want to, then may I suggest that you think about the following ideas...

Incorporate the Chinese invention of fireworks into your studies of 4th of July.
Incorporate the Chinese invention of paper when you learn about Benjamin Franklin
Incorporate Chinese labor into your study of Western Expansion and the railroad.
Do a one day mini study on Chinese New Year.
Eat at a Chinese restaurant.
Visit an Asian museum or exhibit at your local art museum.

Ancient Egyptians supposedly invented black ink (again, goes well with Ben Franklin)
The 365 day calendar (math??) with a leap year system.
I wouldn't really introduce the Ancient Egyptians beyond maybe reading Genesis & Exodus stories in a children's Bible. We read through ours every year anyway. Voila. Find Egypt on a map. Done.

Basically, what I'm saying is that I wouldn't make it hard or indepth. It wouldn't be at that age level in public school anyway.

I think both of those are covered some in Preparing and then Egypt in depth in CTC. At least it looks like it from just looking over my Preparing manual, but we haven't done Preparing yet.

Thank you so much. We don't have to follow the state sols but I use them as a guide to make sure we are covering the material for the current grade. Daisy, I feel you are right about the material not being grade level in the public school. Ds is an avid reader and I thought this may be the easiest route to just cover something a little extra like this but I really like the ideas of when to incorporate with Bigger and the visits you mentioned. Thank you all for talking me back "down" sometimes it takes me a while to settle down from all the avenues and "enrichment" that I could possibly include. Wonderful ideas, I'll check the reading lists.

the ladies have given you terrific ideas. China and Egypt are both covered in our one-year whirlwind tour of history in Preparing Hearts. Egypt is again covered in CTC.

Blessings,
Carrie