When I began schooling my children at home, over 25 years ago, there weren’t many, if any, school materials geared toward home use. Public and private school text books were adapted, by parents/teachers to meet individual needs. We did a lot of that. It took extra time, but it was possible. We also taught from every-day-living. We still do a lot of that. A general, life-is-school and school-is-life; there’s-a-lesson-in-every-thing, approach. I would find a scope and sequence for a specific grade level and then pull-in and organize various resources to build our curriculum each year. I clearly remember using books published by Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, Macmillan and Evan-Moor. Eventually, we used Abeka Book and Bob Jones Press, but even those were originally written for private christian school use, and not homeschool. There was so much busy-seat-work, because they were intended to keep a full classroom of student’s occupied. Teacher’s editions weren’t available to the individual, either. Everything had to be studied and done ahead of time, so answer keys could be written. I am amazed and delighted at how far home education has come in the last 25 years!
Pearson Education is now the “world’s leading educational and professional publisher.” You may recognize some of their brands: Scott Foresman, Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Longman, and many others.
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Pearson is trusted and respected, drawing on a heritage that stretches back to 1725, when Thomas Longman published the first book, typeset by Benjamin Franklin. They provide products, programs and services, in every subject, for PreK-20.
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I received the Scott Foresman, Social Studies – All Together, 1st Grade text book, for review. It is high-gloss, hard-bound, with bold, brilliant, color pictures on every page! It is not written for homeschool use, but it is a great supplement to any social studies curriculum. Interestingly enough, I was not given a teacher’s edition or any of the additional teaching aids/tools that are available; so, it was just like the good-ole-days. I had to pay attention to the text, as we read it, so that I, too, could correctly answer the review questions at the end of each unit. My 6 year old thought it was so funny that I had to do the same work that she had to do!
All-Together teaches students “what it means to be citizens of this nation – that respect, caring, responsibility, fairness, courage, and honesty are the pillars that make us strong.” In each unit, there are pages dedicated to Citizen Heroes, and on the upper right corner of the page, one of the six pillars is highlighted. Because of the consistency of the layout, my daughter would go to that area of the page, first, to see which pillar we were about to read.
Citizen Heroes
The following companies, and others, are partners-in-education with Pearson:
Their contribution is evident in the content and format of the book –
Dorling Kindersley
You open the over-size book to find a full-color Social Studies Handbook. My young student was drawn-in completely and couldn’t wait to discover what was on the next page and the next page and…
We did put a home spin on the units. Most of them had a reference to school or the bus or the cafeteria, etc. “Your cafeteria is too noisy. Tell steps you would take to solve the problem.” We talked about the noise of living in a big family; what noises we liked, which ones we’d rather not hear and how to get more of one and less of the other. We also discussed what it might feel like to eat lunch with others that you might not know very well. Everything was adaptable and useful as a teaching element, even if it wasn’t used exactly as the authors expected. That is the beauty and flexibility of schooling at home, though, isn’t it.
Unit 1 – Time for School
Unit 2 – In My Community
Unit 3 – Work! Work! Work!
Unit 4 – Our Earth, Our Resources
Unit 5 – This is Our Country
Map and Globe Skills
Biographies
Songs and Poems
Chart and Graph Skills
Vocabulary
Atlas
Picture Glossary
History and more
“…God shed His grace on thee…”
“…one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
“Our country’s motto is ‘In God We Trust.”
This was actually the first thing I looked for – does Pearson Education keep God where our Founding Fathers placed Him, over our Nation? I’m pleased to say that in Social Studies – All Together they certainly do.
The student edition of this book is $43.47. There is also a teacher’s edition, workbook and answer key, planning guide, resource package, readers, map tools, video field trips and more. Please note that some items can only be purchased with PO or school credit card, which is not homeschool friendly.
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There is free access to a companion site: with a Social Studies library (dictionary, encyclopedia, and almanac), Current Events (In the News and Time for Kids), an Atlas (world & U.S. geography, facts and tools); “This Day In History” (attaches a when to a what or who), “Meet the People” (people & biographies), and Activities (by state, grade level/book and unit). This site is full of information, plus it’s fun and easy to navigate. Free downloads at Symbols of America, too!
phone: 1.800.848.9500
Pearson
K12 Customer Service
P.O. Box 2500
Lebanon, IN 46052
My mates at TOS reviewed Social Studies – All Altogether – 1st Grade, enVision Math – 1st Grade; Reading Street – 2nd Grade. Click the banner below to read all about it!
Blessings,
This product was given to me, free of charge, in exchange, for my honest review, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. I receive no other compensation for my reviews on this blog. The opinions expressed are my own.
Thank you for your comments. I appreciate YOU!
Looks like a fun and exciting book! Nice review!
Good review, I like the pictures.