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Hey, "In the Great White North".....


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In this post, you proposed doing WTM History and Lit completely from the library to save money.

 

I actually have much more here than I *need* to adequately cover history for next year, but my heart really yearns to get my children into the library and *using* all that wonderful stuff that is just sitting there waiting to be explored! I admit I didn't do that so well the last four years, because we were new to homeschooling, I had a baby, and SOTW w/KF was just too convenient!

 

But this next year (re-visiting Ancients and starting 9th grade) I have a chance to have a do-over, and make that yearning a reality. And, I have such a plan all typed up for my 6th grader. But if I use what I have here for my 9th-grader's history, they all seem so complete (and time-consuming) in themselves, it just doesn't seem possible to add extra library searches to them without history just taking over our day. Yet, if I don't have a spine, I'm just not sure how to guide or structure our year. :confused: What I would *really* love is a "WEM" for history.

 

(Well...I take that back. I guess I could add to Spielvogel's HO without it being too much.)

 

Even so, I'm not too good at being original! So, I'm really, *really* curious if you've done this, and if you could share a bit more.

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For dd (middle school), yes. We did history and science entirely from the library, dump and books sales, no text at all. I did have to seriously cut back though, to make it realistic for her to finish. There were way more books available than she could handle.

 

For ds (high school), sadly, no. I had my list all ready, had been collecting books for awhile and got the first few from the library. We started in the beginning of Ancients in 9th grade, with ds's first year of homeschooling and got to about October before he informed me that he hated all the reading and just wanted to use a textbook! :confused: I think Thucydides, on top of the Iliad, wasn't his cup of tea. (Of course, the textbook came from the dump, too. It was a college text called "Civilization in the West," so I'm not sure why he thought it was easier.)

 

Really, to do history from real books (as opposed to textbooks), the child has to really, really, really like to read. He was more of a "just the facts ma'am" type of student.

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Soooo, I'm not the person you were asking, and I'm not entirely sure what it is you are asking, but here is how I have relied on the library. To me it isn't time consuming, but something I really enjoy.

 

I keep lists of books that people recommend on homeschool forums like this. It seems more people are using prepackaged programs these days so there are fewer recommendations for specific titles and authors, but still it is worth noting anything that someone enjoys, particularly favorite translations of epic poems.

 

When I start planning for a year or even for the next month, I have a general plan of the period we should cover and what aspect of the period I want to focus on. I then search the library on-line catalog for titles from my notebook and from the WTM. I'll check out reviews on Amazon to get a feel for a title. Then we head to the library, sometimes to other branches rather than relying on inter-library loan. I go to other branches because I love browsing the stacks as there are often wonderful titles I hadn't heard of before, and to me, it is the best kind of serendipity to find these unexpected books!

 

I look for non-fiction, including biographies, as well as literature, and I look for documentaries or related movies to spice things up. We check out more than we need or ever use, but I assign a few key titles, and we have them for 6 weeks. I'm not a history spine kind of gal but instead use Kingfisher or an excellent text as a reference book.

 

I do the same thing with science to a large extent, though for high school it is a more focused subject.

 

I also do the same thing at the bookstore -- plop myself down in front of a particular section and start flipping through books to see if something is unexpectedly wonderful.

 

This method has served us well, and as I said I love it, but I always loved doing research for papers and projects back in college and grad school.

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I think Thucydides, on top of the Iliad, wasn't his cup of tea. (Of course, the textbook came from the dump, too. It was a college text called "Civilization in the West," so I'm not sure why he thought it was easier.)

 

Really, to do history from real books (as opposed to textbooks), the child has to really, really, really like to read. He was more of a "just the facts ma'am" type of student.

 

Yeah - I have one of those, too. (And, he absolutely hates it when I ask him what he would like to do.)

 

I have been hoping to somehow work some Herodotus and some Thucydides in as history- mostly because I anticipated they would be BOR-ing. But, they're not at all! I'd also love to read all the history sections in the Old Testament. (And, some of the non-fiction selections on specific topics from the library.) But, I'm not convinced I could really pull that all together into an actual "history" course, if that makes sense. (I seem to be making less and less sense lately!)

 

Thanks for sharing your experience! I know my son was really excited when I told him he might be using a college text (Spielvogel's Western Civ). So, maybe that would be a challenge that would help him rise above his "just get it done" attitude, even if I regret that means we will probably wind up studying just that one book rather than getting viewpoints from many different sources.

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Soooo, I'm not the person you were asking, and I'm not entirely sure what it is you are asking, but here is how I have relied on the library. To me it isn't time consuming, but something I really enjoy.

 

I look for non-fiction, including biographies, as well as literature, and I look for documentaries or related movies to spice things up. We check out more than we need or ever use, but I assign a few key titles, and we have them for 6 weeks. I'm not a history spine kind of gal but instead use Kingfisher or an excellent text as a reference book.

 

 

 

My first post wasn't quite so "demanding", but I'm into my ds's computer time right now, so I'll have to be brief - LOL!

 

So, you are using something (KF or text) to help you search, but you aren't requiring any reading or written work out of that book, right?

 

Do your kids help you search at the library, or is that part of your planning, with them just choosing from the smorgasboard you bring home?

 

And, what written work (or projects, or whatever) do you assign from your history reading? I'm thinking it might be hard to say, "One paper a week" because doing it this way might mean doing history for a few days, and then reading literature for two weeks, right? (esp. when we hit the Iliad and Odyssey)

 

I'm also thinking maybe even without KF, I could just take our lit list, and rather than using something like Spielvogel as in the 2nd ed WTM, just use the resources at the library to help create the context page. (And, then use WEM and some other guides for the literature.) Does that sound good to you?

 

I'm so glad you posted! Thanks for all your help!!!

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