A Picturesque Tale of Progress or Synge titles?

[tjlcc]

How are you using these in your home?  I believe 4blessingmom uses Picturesque, anyone else?  If you have found anything objectionable, what was it?

 

I'm thinking about what I want my 7th grader to read independently for history.  We will listen to the Mystery of History Volume III audio cd and read The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation by Miller together, but I want something he will enjoy on his own.

 

 

 

 

[FO4UR]

Disclaimer:  We are starting A Picturesque Tale  in the fall.  As of now, I have not read every word of every book.

 

What I do know:

 

It's old.  I expect to balance pov with discussion, current events, and other books.  I was not searching for a history spine that contains perfect truth.  I want my kids (10-12 at the start of this series) to think, question, research further, and evaluate ideas...not swallow books whole.  This is their 2nd round through history, and they are well-grounded via SOTW.

 

 

It's very full of Christian history.  This might bother some people, but it's written as a history of the Hebrew peoples right along with the histories of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians.  I appreciate that some of the more obscure Bible stories are included in this series (like Jereboam/Reheboam).  It's not just Joseph & Jesus.

 

It is a Picturesque Tale.  Ancient art is full of nudity, and there is some (authentic) nude art.  It's not overbearing or the main focus, but it is in there.  Also, all of the illustrations increase the page count.  Some kids might get anxious about being assigned many pages in a history book that looks huge.  However, roughly 1/3 of the books are probably illustrations.  That's not a scientific count, just a rough guess.

 

The language in A Picturesque Tale is lovely.  The author is the same of My Book House.  She was a talented writer.  I'm having fun pulling dictation passages from these.

 

 

 

 

I think that doing all 3 series for history might lead to burn-out. I'd recommend choosing one of those 3 as a spine, and then add in biographies as independent reads.  It's easy to find biographies at the library and there are many to choose from and keep his interest.  The occasional historical fiction is fine too.

 

 

How do I use A Picturesque Tale?  I assign the readings, and then I ask for a written narration.  I ask them to write a question that stems from the reading.  Ex:  They read a bit about the first pre-historic tools.  They might ask, "Have any archaeologists uncovered new evidence about pre-historic tools since this book was written?"  They then will need to check the copyright date of the book and use their google skills. They can then add what they learned to their journal (where they are writing their narrations).  See?  I'm actively teaching them to question the validity of what they are reading. Not that they need to deride the author for being wrong, but that educated people question thoughts and ideas against facts and gracious people acknowledge that we are all fallible people (and our ideas and thoughts might be wrong) and we can all be a part of the Great Conversation...it is a conversation, and not a finite statement...archaeologists are uncovering new things everyday.  kwim.

 

 

I pull dictation passages from these books too, but I pull from a variety of their reading so...that's a different post.

 

 

 

 

[tjlcc]

Thank you.  

 

Yes, I struggle with narrowing down my choices.

 

I have the series of My Book House and my oldest devoured most of them for free reading.  They are wonderful.

 

Thinking ...

[Kareni]

I assigned some readings from Picturesque Tales of Progress when my daughter was in 7th and 8th grades. They are beautiful books and the artwork was lovely. Do be aware though that they are very much a product of their time with some racist sentiments. We found those sentiments to be good fodder for discussion.

Regards,
Kareni