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teaching history with literature?


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Are there any book lists out there that list books by time period as well as age/grade level? I want to use living books and historical novels for history, but it is becoming so frustrating trying to find the right books. Also, we are not Christian and prefer not to use Christian materials.

 

I have looked at All Through the Ages by Miller, but in reading over her website, she seems very religious, so I'm not sure if the books she chose to include in All Through the Ages would reflect that. Are there any other lists I could consult?

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I did this with my son from grades 3 to 6 (prehistory-present day). We aren't Christian either, so I avoided the stuff with a message, though if you study the past 2000 years you have to deal with a heavy dose of Christianity no matter what.

 

Anyway, I just put together my own lists by looking on amazon.

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I did this with my son from grades 3 to 6 (prehistory-present day). We aren't Christian either, so I avoided the stuff with a message, though if you study the past 2000 years you have to deal with a heavy dose of Christianity no matter what.

 

Anyway, I just put together my own lists by looking on amazon.

 

I agree we'll have to read about Christianity, but like you said, I want to avoid things with a message or that are preachy. I don't suppose there's any chance you'd want to share you list, is there? ;)

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I have had pretty good success with looking at the Sonlight catalog for suggestions on historical fiction. Yes, I know it is a Christian-focused curriculum, but we have been able to use a number of their suggestions (we're about as far from Christian as you can get ;)). I don't believe they have this on the website, but in the catalog, things that are heavily Christian in focus have an "X" in the description to mark them. Lots of the suggestions are Newberry honor or award books. I've found some things I would not have thought of looking into. There is also a sonlight secular yahoo group that has files listing alternative fiction suggestions to replace the cores with the heaviest emphasis on Christian theology.

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The booklists often include many titles by the prolific Henty. They are heavy-handed with his [Protestant] worldview, so you might want to skip them. (My boys also thought him a most boring writer -- which is not the common homeschooler opinion.)

 

Miller's book is very religious. Just skip all the "inset boxes" and stay with the lists. Her lists are not all-inclusive, but she really has done a fine job of covering a large chunk of territory. By no means are all of the works listed "religious" books.

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Prehistory-400 AD (3rd-ish grade level)

 

(I also have a list that I used with my 1st grader this year that accompanies SOTW 1. Let me know if you're interested in that one.)

 

From the Beginning of the Universe to Early Man

 

Born with a Bang: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story

From Lava to Life: The Universe Tells Our Earth Story

The Birth of the Earth

The Dawn of Life

Life Story

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story

Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution

The Day of the Dinosaurs

The Stick and Stone Age

Archaeologists Dig for Clues

Find Out About the Stone Age

Painters of the Caves

Exploring the Ice

Maroo of the Winter Caves

Boy of the Painted Cave

Sunset of the Sabertooth

 

Ancient Mesopotamia

 

Find Out About Mesopotamia

Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors

Science in Ancient Mesopotamia

Gilgamesh the Hero

Istar and Tammuz: A Babylonian Myth of the Seasons

Myths and Civilization of the Ancient Mesopotamians

The City of Rainbows: A Tale from Ancient Sumer

 

Ancient Egypt

 

Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors

Science in Ancient Egypt

The Shipwrecked Sailor

Egyptian Myths

A Place in the Sun

Spend the Day in Ancient Egypt

Pyramid

You Wouldn't Want to be and Egyptian Mummy

Ancient Egypt Revealed

Mummies and Pyramids

How Would You Survive as an Ancient Egyptian

Hatshepsut: His Majesty, Herself

Cat Mummies

Tut's Mummy Lost and Found

Ms Frizzle's Adventures in Ancient Egypt

 

Ancient Greece

 

Greek Myths (MaCaughrean)

The Iliad (McCarty)

The Odyssey (Lister)

Spend the Day in Ancient Greece

the Librarian Who Measured the Earth

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete

Archimedes and the Door to Science

Science in Ancient Greece

Hour of the Olympics

 

Ancient Rome

 

Spend the Day in Ancient Rome

Science in Ancient Rome

Roman Mysteries: The Thieves of Ostia

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator

City

Roman Myths (McCaughrean)

Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine

Vacation Under the Volcano

Pompeii Buried Alive

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400-1600 (used with a 4th grader)

 

(I also have a list that I will be using with my 2nd grader next year to accompany SOTW 2. Let me know if you're interested in that one.)

 

The Vikings

 

The Real Vikings

The Vikings (Nicholson)

Living History: The Vikings

Leif the Lucky

 

Medieval Life, Castles, Knights, and Monarchs

 

Atlas of the Medieval World

I Wonder Why Castles Had Moats

Days of Knights and Damsels

The Time Trekkers Visit the Middle Ages

If You Lived in the Days of Knights

How Would You Survive in the Middle Ages

Days of the Knights

Ms Frizzle's Adventures: Medieval Castle

A Medieval Feast

Across a Dark and Wild Sea

Castle

Cathedral

The Unready King

Joan of Arc (Stanley)

Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages

Son of Charlemagne (this has a Christian message and I don't recommend it anyway because it's extremely boring)

The Whipping Boy

A Company of Fools

Adam of the Road

Girl in a Cage

The Perilous Gard

King Long Shanks

 

Myths, Legends, Period Writing

 

Beowulf the Warrior

King Arthur (Kerven)

Sir Cumference and the Knights of teh round Table

Merlin and the Dragons

The Young Merlin

The Reluctant Dragon

St George and the Dragon

Robin Hood (Philip)

Canterbury Tales (Cohen)

Golem

 

Renaissance, Inquisition, Elizabethan Age

 

The Neptune Fountain

Mosque

Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer

Giants of Science: Leonardo da Vinci (this has a chapter on Leonardo's sexual orientation)

The Secretive Printer

If You Were There in 1492

Michelangelo (Stanley)

The Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei

Galileo for Kids

Good Queen Bess (Stanley)

William Shakespeare and the Globe

Bard of Avon

Secrets in the House of Delgado

 

The Age of Exploration and American History

 

Around the World in a Hundred Years

The Discovery of the Americas (Maestro)

Exploration and Conquest (Maestro)

Ship (Macaulay)

Columbus (D'Aulaire)

The Forgotten Explorer

A Long and Uncertain Journey

A History of US: The First Americans

The World of Captain John Smith

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1600-1850 (used with a 5th grader)

 

We emphasized American history but it was in the context of world history.

 

Colonial America

 

The Lost Colony of Roanoke (Fritz)

The World of Captain John Smith

Jamestown: New World Adventure

Pocahontas (d'Aulaire)

Samuel Eaton's Day

On the Mayflower

Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims

A History of US: Making Thirteen Colonies

The New Americans (Maestro)

The Courage of Sarah Noble

The Matchlock Gun

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

A Break with Charity

 

The Revolutionary Period

 

George Washington's World

A History of US: From Colonies to Country

Struggle fro a Continent (Maestro)

Liberty or Death (Maestro)

The 4th of July Story

The Winter at Valley Forge (Knight)

George vs George

A Picture Book of Paul Revere

A Picture Book of Thomas Jefferson

George Washington (d'Aulaire)

Benjamin Franklin (d'Aulaire)

Poor Richard (Daugherty)

Ben and Me

Mr Revere and I

The Cabin Faced West

What Are You Figuring Now? A Story About Benjamin Banneker

My Brother Sam Is Dead

A More Perfect Union

Shhh! We're Writing the Consitiution

 

The United States 1800-1850

 

A Picture Book of Sacagawea

A Picture Book of Lewis and Clark

Sacagawea: Guide to Lewis and Clark

Lewis and Clark and Me

A History of US: The New Nation

The War of 1812 (Carter)

From Slave Ship to Freedom Road (preread this one)

The Old African (this book is amazing but be sure to preread)

Walking the Road to Freedom

Amos Fortune Free Man

A Picture Book of Fredrick Douglass

A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman

A Picture Book of Sojourner Truth

Nightjohn

Sarny: A Life Remembered (this is a fabulous book but you might want to preread)

The Industrial Revolution (Collins)

The Cotton Gin (Masters)

Mill

Lyddie

Images of America: The Erie Canal

The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal

Only the Names Remain

Soft Rain: The Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears

 

The Rest of the World

 

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Giants of Science: Isaac Newton

Peter the Great (Stanley)

The World of Captain John Smith

George Washington's World

Dr Jenner and the Speckled Monster

Paris 1789: A Guide to Paris on the Eve of the Revolution

Gracie and the Emperor

Abraham Lincoln's World

 

We also did some Jackdaws

 

Witch Hysteria Comes to Salem Village

Slavery Comes to America

Lewis and Clark Expedition

Industrial Revolution Comes to America

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1850-Present (used with a 6th grader)

 

We emphasized American history this year as well.

 

1850-1865

 

Liberty for All

Charles Dickens (Stanley)

A Christmas Carol

War, Terrible War

The Abraham Lincoln You Never Knew

A Brilliant Streak: The Making of Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Fields of Fury

Abraham Lincoln's World

Rifles for Watie

The War Within

Captured!

Who Was Charles Darwin?

 

1865-1929

 

Reconstructing America

An Age of Extremes

Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Empire America

Kids at Work

An Overview of World War I

The Good Master

The Singing Tree

Animal Farm

Angel on the Square

Listening for Lions

Sara's Journey

The Twenty-One Balloons

 

1930-1945

 

Dust to Eat

Out of the Dust

No Promises in the Wind

Children of the Great Depression

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Freedman)

World War II (McGowan)

Echoes of World War II

No Pretty Pictures

War, Peace, and All That Jazz

Winston Churchill (Severance)

The Endless Steppe

Hitler (Marrin)

Stalin (Marrin)

Farewell to Manzanar

Journey to Topaz

The Green Glass Sea

Number the Stars

 

1945-Present

 

The Cold War

Joseph McCarthy and the Cold War

The Korean War

The Vietnam War

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

A Dream of Freedom

If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King

The Moon Landing; The Race into Space

All the People

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Books to Supplement SOTW 1 (used with a 1st grader)

 

This one is more mixed up as I haven't sorted it out for my records yet.

 

Ancient Agriculture

Casting the Gods Adrift

Cat Mummies

Curse of the Pharaohs

Genesis: The Jewish Children's Bible

I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert

If I Were a Kid in Ancient Egypt

Mummies Made in Egypt

Seeker of Knowledge

The Golden Sandal

The Shipwrecked Sailor

The Three Princes

You Wouldn't Want to Be An Egyptian Mummy

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses (Barker)

Ice Mummy

Mummies and Pyramids

Secrets of the Mummies

The Ancient Egyptians

Lugalbanda

Gilgamesh the King

Revenge of Ishtar

The Last Quest of Gilgamesh

Ishtar and Tammuz

Once a Mouse

Ms Frizzle's Adventures in Ancient Egypt

Tut's Mummy Lost and Found

Exodus: The Jewish Children's Bible

Atlantis The Lost City

The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War

Ancient Greece and the Olympics

The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor

Greek Myths (McCaughrean)

The Hero and the Minotaur

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth

If I Were a Kid in Ancient Greece

Greek Gods and Goddesses (McCaughrean

Alexander the Great (Pancella)

Macchu Picchu (Mann)

The One-Eyed Giant

The Land of the Dead

Sirens and Sea Monsters

The Grey Eyed goddess

Return to Ithaca

Roman Myths (McCaughrean)

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator

Sacred River: The Ganges of India

I Once Was a Monkey: Stories Buddha Told

The Final Battle

Pompeii (Davis)

The Great Wall of China (Fisher)

The Lost Horse

Confucius: The Golden Rule

If I Were a Kid in Ancient Rome

Sun Day Moon Day

Science in Ancient Rome

War Are You Calling Me a Barbarian?

The Thieves of Ostia

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Kai, those lists are awesome. Thank you so much for sharing! I would be interested in seeing your SOTW2 list also if you don't mind. I have a 7yo who will be studying the middle ages this year. Thanks!

 

BTW, your book review of Morpurgo's Beowulf has persuaded me to purchase it!

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It is the best! And we're secular - you can easily drop the very preachy books (they actually put an "X" by those books in the catalog) ... but religion is part of history and it is so interesting so don't drop them all! Sonlight exposes the kids to lots of different religions and you can always supplement as you see fit. But for easy of lesson planning and really great books, go with Sonlight.

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Books to Supplement SOTW 2 (to be used with a 2nd grader)

 

Ancient Romans

I Wonder Why Romans Wore Togas

Beowulf (Morpurgo)

Across a Dark and Wild Sea

What Were Castles For?

Marguerite

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Morpurgo)

King Arthur

The Acrobatic Empress

The Young Merlin Trilogy

Knights of the Round Table

Science in Ancient China

Buddha

The King's Chessboard

The Story of Religion

Muhammad

Ali, Child of the Desert

Empress of China

Lord of the Cranes

The Warlord's Puzzle

Fa Mulan

The Boy Who Drew Cats

Look Who Came From Australia

Viking Adventure

The Real Vikings

Leif the Lucky

Cathedral

Castle

The Reluctant Dragon

St George and the Dragon

The Making of a Knight

A Medieval Feast

Brendan the Navigator

Canterbury Tales (Cohen)

Castle Diary

Robin Hood

Whipping Boy

Days of the Knights

Adam of the Road

Knights and Castles

Raisa's Riddle

Golem

Marco Polo

The Silk Road

Mosque

Medieval Medicine and the Plague

A Company of Fools

Joan of Arc (Stanley)

Three Swords for Granada

Sundiata

Traveling Man

Columbus (d'Aulaire)

The Discovery of the Americas (Maestro)

Follow the Dream

A Long and Uncertain Journey

Pedro's Journal

The Forgotten Explorer

The Secretive Printer

The Neptune Fountain

Leonardo da Vinci

Michelangelo

Leonardo Beautiful Dreamer

Starry Messanger

The Genius of Leonardo

Good Queen Bess

You Wouldn't Want to Be Sick in the 16th Century

William Shakespeare and the Globe

The Bard of Avon

Tales from Shakespeare

Ship

Exploration and Conquest

Roanoke (Yolen)

Around the World in a Hundred Years

Jacques Cartier

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I recently compiled this literature list for my dd7 for next year. I used SOTW2 activity guide, our library catalog as well as Amazon to create the list.

 

 

Augustine Came to Kent Across a Dark and Wild Sea Who in the World was the Acrobatic Empress? Once a Mouse… The River Goddess: A Hindu Tale Muhammad Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights Tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor Sinbad Maples in the Mist: Poems for Children from the Tang Dynasty The Paper Dragon Yoshi's Feast A Single Shard The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars The Long Silk Strand Maui and the Sun The Holy Twins: Benedict & Scholastica Son of Charlemagne El Cid Minstrel in the Tower Leif the Lucky Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky Blood Feud The Midwife's Apprentice Castle Diary Knight's Castle The Last Knight: An Intro to Don Quixote Sword of the Samurai Canterbury Tales Here bygynneth Chaucer's Canterbury Tales Robin Hood The Apple and the Arrow Tale of Meshka the Kvetch Snow in Jerusalem The Song of Mu Lan Genghis Kahn Beautiful Warrior The Emperor and the Kite Kat and the Emperor's Gift Baboushka and the Three Kings Prince Ivan and the Firebird Tom Thumb The Door in the Wall Days of Courage Three Sacks of Truth Joan of Arc Fire, Bed and Bone More Tales from Shakespeare: Richard III Isabel: Jewel of Castilla, Spain 1466 The Girl Who Married a Lion… Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali In the Land of the Taj Mahal Where Do You Think You are Going, Mr. Columbus? Follow the Dream Columbus Me Oh Maya The Bravest Flute Spy for the Night Riders Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World Whipping Boy The William Tyndale Story The River of Grace: John Calvin bio HawkThat Dare Not Hunt By Day Starry Messenger Galileo's Treasure Box Good Queen Bess Sir Frances Drake The Queen's Progress Shakespeare for Kids More Tales from Shakespeare Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night The Lyon's Roar

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