History WITHOUT using historical fiction or textbooks?

[Chloe]

After listening in on our history read-aloud this evening, dh stated that he hated historical fiction because you can never tell how much of the story is real and how much is made up. I asked if he thought we should use textbooks, knowing he isn't a fan of them either. He says there's no reason to use historical fiction OR textbooks when there's so many good biographies and nonfiction books that can be used. I was dumbfounded. He'd never expressed his opinion about this before. Any ideas on a curriculum that uses mostly/all nonfiction for history?

Edited October 27, 2009 by Chloe

[Pretty in Pink]

How familiar are you with TOG? It is a 'living book' program. The core and in-depth history, fine arts/activities, and church history/worldview books are always non-fiction. The literature and read-aloud selections are sometimes fiction, sometimes non-fiction.

 

You may also be interested in SOTW and the corresponding AGs, which have suggestions for non-fiction supplementary reading as well as fiction/non-fiction literature books.

[The other Kimberly]

Try:

Guerber Books which have been edited by Christine Miller at Nothing New Press

Marshall books found at Yesterday's Classics

Picturesque Tale of Progress by Olive Beaupre Miller (buy used as they are out of print and FANTASTIC!)

Old books by John Lord called Beacon Lights of History - excellent!

Biographies by Jacob Abbott - also at Yesterday's Classics

I love any book by Eva March Tappan. Some available at Yesterday's classics and many available used on ebay.

 

In general, I have to agree with your hubby. :iagree: Historical fiction should be judiciously chosen and sparingly used. There are so many great books available that aren't textbooks, you could school for 12 years w/o historical fiction or texts!

[chaik76]

WinterPromise uses mostly non-fiction (my son is the same as yours). We don't use their programs but do research the books they list (and usually find others in the process).

[lisabees]

How about Little History of the World? The audiobook is just fabulous!

 

Bringing up Learners' Mosaic Curriculum uses it, as well as other non-fiction sources.

[SonshineLearner]

This is one reason why I didn't purchase the Henty series. How could I tell my children what part to remember as fact??

 

Carrie:-)

[patchfire]

We use SOTW for a spine and then lots of nonfiction histories and biographies. Some historical fiction, but read as part of literature/language arts, not history. When we go through logic stage, we'll do the same, just with a different spine. There are LOTS of fantastic nonfiction books out there - I wish I had had them instead of a textbook when I was in school!

[Chloe]

Elizabeth, I have looked at TOG before. I like what I see, but it also seems overwhelming. At this point, though, I can't bring myself to spend the money. It's sooo expensive. I am keeping it in mind for when my dc are a little older though.

 

Thanks for your reply!

[8filltheheart]

I teach history the way your dh is describing. I have collected lots of OOP books over the yrs.......Landmark series, Signature series, American Heritage Jr Library as well as the American Heritage Library collection, etc. I love these books!! I also own numerous biographies, etc that have been sold off at library sales.

 

I do use some historical fiction, but not to the extent that programs like Sonlight do. My kids do not have a problem discerning the historical setting aspect from the fictional characters, etc.

 

For the older grades, I pick very specific books on topics for the yr. For some topics in history, we do use a textbook as a spine and add in biographies and other non-fiction books.

 

FWIW......I do have to create my booklists on my own!!

[Chloe]

Try:

Guerber Books which have been edited by Christine Miller at Nothing New Press

Marshall books found at Yesterday's Classics

Picturesque Tale of Progress by Olive Beaupre Miller (buy used as they are out of print and FANTASTIC!)

Old books by John Lord called Beacon Lights of History - excellent!

Biographies by Jacob Abbott - also at Yesterday's Classics

I love any book by Eva March Tappan. Some available at Yesterday's classics and many available used on ebay.

 

In general, I have to agree with your hubby. :iagree: Historical fiction should be judiciously chosen and sparingly used. There are so many great books available that aren't textbooks, you could school for 12 years w/o historical fiction or texts!

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't intend to leave out historical fiction completely, but you are right, I need to chose more carefully and use it sparingly. It's just so hard to know which historical books are worth using!

[Chloe]

How about Little History of the World? The audiobook is just fabulous

 

I have this!!! Thanks for reminding me. I bought it a few years ago and never used it.

[Chloe]

I do use some historical fiction, but not to the extent that programs like Sonlight do.

 

Thank you. I started out with Beautiful Feet, which uses mostly biographies, but started adding to it from Sonlight, Truthquest and SCM. Now I realize I'm using more historical fiction than anything else.

 

I have a few old Landmark books and such I've picked up at a local antique store with a used books section. I suppose I'll have to put together something on my own like you did. I love collecting old books, so that part is not a problem!

[Ellie]

The only time I ever "used" historical fiction was if it was a good book to read aloud (I read one chapter a day from one book, each day after lunch, whenever we were home). If I thought about it at all, it would have been that my dc were learning about how people might have lived in general in the past, as in the Little House books, or even Understood Betsy.

 

We didn't do textbooks until high school level, other than the 5th grade ABeka geography.

 

Of course, I wasn't even attempting to do anything like WTM, which didn't exist back in the early 80s when I started hsing. I just wanted my dc to love history when they were young, so that when they came to be high-school age and needed to have a more organized, structured sequence, they'd say, "Oh, I *love* history!", and they'd be eager to put all the parts together. Which is what happened. :-)

[Donna A.]

My Father's World uses mostly non-fiction living books. Some of their family read-alouds are fiction but could easily be swapped for one of the biographies in their book list.

 

I was just about to mention this. The books in their Basic packages are primarily (if not all) non-fiction, then you have a *few* well-chosen historical fiction books in the Deluxe packages that help round out the cultural setting and that sort of thing.

 

Then the Book Basket list contains a myriad of non-fiction book and video titles, as well, with author's comments next to each one. Every single title on the Book Basket list has been pre-read and previewed by the author, so she makes you aware of possible questionable content in each of them.

[stripe]

Try:

Guerber Books which have been edited by Christine Miller at Nothing New Press

What exactly does the editing consist of?

 

I had downloaded Guerber's original book on the thirteen colonies from google books, and I notice that some things have changed just in the table of contents (e.g. Chapter 2 was "The Barbarous Indians" and is now "The Eastern Indians," Chapter 11 was "Columbus and the Savages" and is now "Columbus and the Indians") but that's about all I can glean as there isn't much from those areas that is downloadable on the Nothing New Press website -- what is available is the chapter on Benjamin Franklin.

 

Anyhow, if anyone has seen both, I'd appreciate your feedback.