arborite
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Posts posted by arborite
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Agree with the previous poster. My 7th-grader loved the OUP Roman World, which I picked up after we had already read Famous Men of Rome and SOTW. He, at least, enjoyed first hearing the individual stories contained in FMoR and SOTW and THEN having a larger context to put them into (Oxford). He kept a timeline. We used a ton of living books. Because we are oppositional types, we started with Rome, then moved to Greece and finally did Egypt. We spent most of the time on Rome - he was completely hooked.
Our book list is below. Read before you assign - I am pretty liberal in what I am let him read (e.g., lots of swearing in the Eagle series).
Main Texts :
1. The Ancient Roman World, Oxford University Press
2. The Ancient Greek World, Oxford University Press
3. The Ancient Egyptian World, Oxford University Press
4. Famous Men of Rome, John Haaren
5. Famous Men of Greece, John Haaren
6. The Story of the World: Ancient Times, Susan Wise Bauer
Additional Readings in Ancient History:
1. A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome, Alberto Angela
2. Ancient Roman War and Weapons, Brian Williams
3. City, David Macaulay
4. Historical Tales, Charles Morris (excerpts)
5. Horrible Histories, Terry Deary (11 books)
Savage Stone Age, Awesome Egyptians, Groovy Greeks, Rotten Romans, Cut-Throat Celts, Smashing Saxons, Vicious Vikings, Stormin' Normans, Angry Aztecs, Incredible Incas, Measly Middle Ages.
6. Julius Caesar: Dictator for Life, Denise Rinaldo
7. Legionary: The Roman Soldier's Unofficial Manual, Philip Matyszak
8. Life of a Roman Soldier, Don Nardo
9. Plutarch's Lives, Retold by W. H. Weston (excerpts)
10. Pompeii , Peter Connolly
11. Roman Britain, Guy de la Bedoyere (excerpts)
12. Roman Life in the Days of Cicero, Alfred Church (excerpts)
13. Roman London, Jenny Hall & Ralph Merrifield (excerpts)
14. Roman Map Workbook, Elizabeth Heimbach (excerpts)
15. Roman Provence, Edward Mullins (excerpts)
16. Story of Rome, Mary Macgregor (excerpts)
17. Story of the Roman People, Eva March Tappan (excerpts)
18. The Roman Soldier's Handbook, Lesley Sims
19. Usborne Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Lesley Miles
20. You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Soldier, David Stewart
21. You Wouldn't Want to Live in Pompeii, John Malay
Historical Fiction & Mythology: Greece
1. Black Sails before Troy, Rosemary Sutcliff
2. D’Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, Ingrid and Edgar d'Aulaire
3. The Golden Fleece, Pardraic Colum
4. The Wanderings of Odysseus, Rosemary Sutcliff
Historical Fiction: Rome
1. The Eagle Series, Simon Scarrow (11 books)
Under the Eagle, The Eagle's Conquest, When the Eagle Hunts, The Eagle and the Wolves, The Eagle’s Prey, The Eagle's Prophecy, Eagle in the Sand, Centurion, Gladiator, The Legion, Praetorian.
2. The Lock, by Bernita Kane Jaro
3. Roman Mysteries, Caroline Lawrence (17 books)
The Thieves of Ostia, The Secrets of Vesuvius, The Pirates of Pompeii, The Assassins of Rome, The Dolphins of Laurentum, The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina, The Enemies of Jupiter, The Gladiators from Capua, The Colossus of Rhodes, The Fugitive from Corinth, The Sirens of Surrentum, The Charioteer of Delphi, The Slave-girl from Jerusalem, The Beggar of Volubilis, The Scribes from Alexandria, The Prophet from Ephesus, The Man from Pomegranate Street
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Sure wish I had this last year. It looks great. Is Medieval World on the horizon? Any expected release date?
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And there are tons of great WWII documentaries on YouTube. My 9-year-old daughter is into this period. This unit study had a lot of useful links. It was worth the $3 to me:
http://www.homeschoollearning.com/index.php/ecwid-estore#!/~/product/category=2476140&id=12180910
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Lots of good Horrible Histories books about WWII. BBC has a good site about the period, too.
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Glad you read it first! It is a book about soldiers and war, and the rough dialogue definitely reflects that. I should have added that caution.
So I checked out Under the Eagle at the library. I was excited because the reading level would provide an appropriate challenge for my 10 year old. It is an adult book. However, by the end of the first chapter I couldn't even read it. The F-word was rampant in addition to other inappropriate language and references to prostitution. Glad I started pre-reading it first! Brownie
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Excited to read these positive reviews! I just signed up my 13 -year-old for the year-long Chemistry and Physics class.
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Agree with everything Chrysalis says above.
We started with Fractions/Decimals as review, started and ditched Physics, completed both Pre-Algebras but told DS13 to ignore most of the Econ content of the second (except for comparative advantage, which was taught well).
The math content of the second prealgebra book is incredibly valuable (six easy boxes) so don't skip it.
On to Algebra with Fred, side-by-side with the boring text used in the public schools here so that he can learn to slog through dry textbooks.
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Last year was DS13's first year of homeschool. He loved diving into ancient history and ended up reading stacks and stacks and STACKS of history and historical fiction.
This year, before he heads into a TPS for high school, I would like him to have a forum for discussion with other students and feedback from a teacher. Can anyone recommend a reading-heavy Medieval History and/or Medieval Literature course?
Thank you!
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"Home" schooling may be a misnomer for us. He tagged along with me on work trips to Italy, Spain, France, England, Wales, Morocco, Sweden and Singapore. We built in trips to ancient sites wherever we could. Not a bad life! I would have chosen it over my own twelve years at a desk in plaid kilts and knee socks.
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Roman Mysteries lie right between MTH and Percy Jackson on Lexile score.
The more advanced MTH have a Lexile of 580, the less advanced Roman Mysteries 660,
and Percy Jackson is 740.
That's the numbers. In part I also judge by how quickly the books get swallowed. In our house the Roman Mysteries are gone in a flash and while the historical details stick (which I love!) the narratives are not complicated enough to require much thinking or create a memory. Does that make sense?
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Friday was DD's last day of school. She is in 4th grade in PS, and I decided we would make that a symbolic end of DS's homeschool year, as well.
On Friday we crossed the Final Bridge of Fred's Pre-Algebra with Economics (fourth LOF of the year), did the last exercise in Lively Latin Big Book 1 (shifted over from Cambridge Latin midstream), read the final chapter of Hakim's Story of Science, and finished up our Ancient History textbooks (Oxford Press's middle school books).
We're happy! We enjoyed ourselves! He wants to do it again next year! I have leaned on these forums so much. Thank you all.
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The Roman Mysteries were a hit with DS 12 & DD 9. Son swallowed them whole, several a week; I recommend getting them from the library if you don't want to tithe to Amazon. They are kids' books, at the level of (say) Magic Treehouse.
We, too, love the Horrible Histories. The videos are a treat, doled out after school to well-behaved, pleading children.
I could not get him hooked on the Sutcliff books. Something did not click.
As we approached the study of the invasion of Britain, as well as a real-life visit to Britain, we turned to the Eagle Series by Simon Scarrow. These follow Rome's Second Legion from Germany to Britain to Syria and beyond. These are not kids' books, but an advanced reader will do fine. My son is hooked, and is now on volume 8. We had to pick up one of the volumes (Eagle in the Sand) in England, since it is out of print here. We visited ruins of the Second Legion's garrison when we were in Wales, which was an amazing collision of literature, hiking and history.
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I am master of the obvious!
This is so obvious, and I just had not considered it. I think it is an excellent idea.
Ruth in NZ
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Please report back! Would love to hear how it goes.
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I keep looking at the World in Ancient Times. These like look what I'd prefer for middle-grade history study. But the price! I can't justify the expense.
We bought ours used on Amazon, one volume at a time. Prices ranged from $1 to $8, plus $4 shipping. Probably spent $40 for five of the volumes (Rome, Greece, Egypt, Asia, Early). We skipped or borrowed from the library the volumes we were not interested in owning. The five, supplemented generously with living books, were plenty for a year of Ancient History.
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You want him to practice each concept to mastery, so demonstration of mastery seems a good stopping rule. Are you using a book with accompanying quizzes or problems? If so, set a rule that he moves on to the next chapter when he has correctly answered 80-90%. If not, you can construct the "test" yourself by pulling problems from the book. If he passes he is done. If not he reviews his errors and goes back to practicing. When my son gets stuck on a math topic, I will sometimes send him off to Khan to do problems until the site says he has achieved mastery.
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I agree matrix algebra is not a hoot. But it is a more general academic skill than is calculus-based statistics.
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In my doctoral economics sequence at MIT, we used multivariable calculus (integrals and derivatives) in our stats and probability class. In our follow-on regression class we used matrix algebra.
Best high school training for any eventuality (major, field) is the general math sequence, through multivariable calculus. Number and counting theory (e.g. Art of Problem Solving's books) will be useful for college stats and probability classes. If you finish those consider matrix algebra.
I would not send a high school student into a calculus-based stats class. Too specialized for this stage. And, um, boring!
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Fred has been our math spine this year. We have covered Fractions and Decimals and both PreAlgebra books. We supplement with Kahn, Math Mammoth and Real World Algebra.
DS13 is comfortable with math and so am I. We enjoy it, and I have picked up useful problem-solving techniques that I never came across in my own math-y education. I can see that it may not work well if the teacher is not super comfortable with the concepts LOF teaches rather casually.
Next year, I am thinking of pairing LOF Algebra with AoPS, including the videos.
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DS just turned 13. We do a chapter a week, broken into four lessons. So, we are getting through in much less than a year. I don't think he would get through nearly as quickly if I were not sitting by him and (re)learning it at the same time. We will start BB2 this summer. My understanding is that the intensity picks up quite a bit, and we should not expect to finish BB2 as quickly.
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Real World Algebra (Zaccaro) or Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. Fun, digestible.
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I third. The OUP books are wonderful. You can find them used on Amazon pretty cheap, a volume at a time. We got hooked via the Rome book and are now reading Greece.
I second this recommendation.
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My son also was fixated on that single hour of screen time, and frustrated when he would have to log off when he had just dipped his toe into the complex worlds he was entering in Minecraft (and, recently Rome: Total War, where he is excited to recognize historical figures such as Scipio Africanus). So we drafted up an agreement in which his hour a day was crammed into three longer sessions on Friday, Sunday and Monday. Massive reduction in slamming of keyboard ensued.
He still has his iPod, on which he watches LOLcats or something like that. But the iPod is definitely less engrossing/addicting than the PC games. He can actually engage in a conversation when he is using his iPod!
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We started Latin in 7th grade, too. We use Lively Latin and it is a perfect pace for both parent and child. I like GSWL, but as a supplement.
Discounted Books at Peace Hill Press!
in General Education Discussion Board
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Link broken. Can you please update?