watertribe Posted October 1, 2010 Share Posted October 1, 2010 Background: I have the Usborne Internet-Linked History Encyclopedia that I have used up until now. I want a more difficult level book for my ds10- who also loves history. He and his brother, ds6, are doing ancients this year. I have been trying to use the DK book (bought it, but can still return it) with my ds10 and I am having trouble really liking this book. It is visually beautiful and has lots of good information but I find some basic pieces of history missing. For example: there is no information on Hamurabi or the Code of Hamurabi, no mention of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and today, no mention of Narmer, first Pharaoh of Egypt and unifier of the 2 kingdoms. I have found bits of info on the timelines but no text. I am also borrowing the National Geographic Almanac of World History, I like it a little better but it definitely does not have as much information and less pictures, but it does have reference to all the above mentioned historical information. I have also found that the information in the DK book is a bit scattered(lots of little sidebars), it does not read like a story and my son has trouble picking important facts out of it (I know that may come with time and practice). I also know it is adult level and maybe I am trying to fit a square peg in a round hole here. My son does say he likes the DK book best, but that may be because of the beautiful pictures! I guess I really want to like the DK book because it seems that it has a lot of good information in it, although I'm surprised at the pieces that seem to be missing And we're only a couple of weeks into using it. And given the cost of it, I don't want to buy a supplemental history book. If you are still with me on reading this, I guess I'm looking for opinions on this or other books as a history spine. Under consideration (since I am still early in the history year): Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World (the OLD one can still be had for little $$ - but is '93), the NG Almanac (which I am liking right now), keep the DK (my son likes it best) or just use Usborne this year. Why is this so hard?!Too many choices I guess! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted October 1, 2010 Share Posted October 1, 2010 I have never found a single book that I could use alone for history. This yr my 11th grader is taking American history and was using 2 books. She BEGGED me to let her go the multiple book route b/c she could NOT stand reading books that covered the Revolution in 2 pages. So, she is now reading a huge list of books instead. She is much happier even though she has really increased her workload! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted October 1, 2010 Share Posted October 1, 2010 I could have written almost the exact same thing. I find it very frustrating. We've relegated it to a supplement. We wound up going with Mystery of History. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patchfire Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 We're using it in conjunction with the World in Ancient Times set. The two work together extremely well. We use the DK book as the 'spine' and go in order through it, and then dd is learning how to use the index and other tools to find out more through the WAT set. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 And we're doing something different----the World in Ancient Times set (Oxford Press) with K12's Human Odyssey text (not the course). The DK and Usborne books seemed like pictoral supplements to me, not spines------but I'm beginning homeschooling with a 10yo, not continuing on from younger grades, so my frame of reference is quite different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 I had similar problems with a different book and got the Kingfisher one. i like it much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watertribe Posted October 2, 2010 Author Share Posted October 2, 2010 ktgrok -I'm curious which Kingfisher you have. There are so many! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaichiki Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 We're using both the DK Definitive Guide and the NG Almanac. We had a hard time narrowing it down to only those two. I was able to get a discount on both books: leather bound NG used on Amazon for less than $20 and a teacher's discount on the DK brought it down to similar price. I've heard some have found the DK on the bargain table at Borders for $15. I looked, but no luck. In the end I just decided to spend the $$ on the two books. With youngers coming up the books have a good chance at being used again. Ds started outlining from the red Kingfisher that we had borrowed from the library. He said that it was already very simplified and he found it hard to condense it too much further. He found it easier to outline from Story of the World, so we've just stuck with that for outlining. When it comes to reading for information, he'll choose the DK and the NG. For right now he spends one day reading from each of those, one day outlining from SOTW, one day doing primary source research (the Fordham site is good, but we still cast a wide net), and one day with his timeline. In addition to that he reads historical fiction from Sonlight that matches up and outlines current events from WSJ or the Economist once a week. We used to do more with history. This year our focus has changed to science for ds. He still loves history, but it's become a box to check as he begins to stretch his scientific legs. After all, we only have so much time in a day. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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