Help narrowing down my first grade ancients list!

[ByGrace3]

So, I have attempted to combine SL, TOG, and VP with SOTW 1. :tongue_smilie: This is the result, :001_huh: but I know there is way too much. So, can you all help me narrow it down to a more realistic list? Those using SOTW do you use supplemental reading every chapter? I left a few chapters empty if I didn't see anything I thought we would love, and also to leave some wiggle room especially at the end. We will also be reading the corresponding chapters from Egermeier's. Also, feel free to add favorites I don't have listed! (oh, and the bolded are ones I own, so I would rather not eliminate those!) :) Thanks!!!

 

SOTW-1 CH / Supplemental Reading

Intro Archeologists Dig for Clues, , Duke

1 One Small Blue Bead, Baylor

The First Dog, Jan Brett

2 Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Barker

The Nile River, Fowler

3 Seeker of Knowledge, Rumford

4 You wouldn't want to be a Pyramid Builder

5 The Golden Sandal, Hickox

6 Old Testament Days, Sanders

7

8 Gilgamesh the King, Zeman

The Revenge of Ishtar,

The Last Quest of Gilgamesh, Zeman

You wouldn't want to be an Assyrian Soldier

9 One Grain of Rice, Demi

10 The Story about Ping

D is for Doufu: An Alphabet of Chinese Culture

11 Anansi and the Magic Stick, Eric Kimmel

12 Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Barker

Ancient Egypt (Ms. Frizzle's Adventures), J. Cole

Usborne Time Traveler

13 Tutankhamen's Gift, Sabuda

Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found, Donnelly

14 Tirzah

15 Roman Myths and Legends, retold by A Masters

16 The God King, Williamson

17 Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Hoffman

The Legend of the Persian Carpet, DePaola

18 Ancient Greece, Pearson

Atlantis: The Lost City (DK Eyewitness Readers)

19 The Trojan Horse, Little

Ancient Greece, Pearson

Greek Myths for Young Children, Usborne

The Tales from the Oddyssea, Mary Pope Osborne

(vol 1-3)

Daulaire's Book of Greek Myths

 

20 Ancient Greece, Pearson

Greek Myths for Young Children, Usborne

21 Esther's Story, Wolkstein

King Midas and the Golden Touch, Craft

Ancient Greece, Pearson

22 Ancient Greece, Pearson

23 The Gods and Godesses of Olympus, Aliki

24 The Aesop for Children, Milo

You Wouldn't Want to be in Alexander the Great's Army

25 The Greatest Ruler of the Ancient World,Langley

The Greek News

26 You Wouldn't want to be a an Aztec Sacrifice! /Rain Player/Who Were the First North Americans?/ Stories from the Amazon/Jabuti the Tortoise

27 Life in Ancient Rome

Romulus and Remus, Rockwell

28 You Wouldn't Want to be a Roman Gladiator

29 Hannibal and His 37 Elephants (Library copy)

30 Buddha, Demi

The Story of Little Babaji

31 Ancient India, Daud Ali

You are in Ancient China

32 The Great Wall of China, Fisher

Yeh-Shen

Little Pear

33 The Empty Pot, Demi

34 Julius Cesar, Great Dictator of Rome, Platt

35 Cleopatra, Stanley

36 The Ancient Romans, Lassieur

Sun-day, Moon-day: How the Week was Made, Gilchrist

37 The Jesus Story, Mary Batchelor

38 Celebrate! Stories of Jewish Holidays, Berger

Israel, Kristin Theonnes

39 Pompeii: Lost & Found, Osborne

Detectives in Togas, Winterfield

40 Celtic Fairy Tales

41

42

Edited April 18, 2011 by ByGrace3

[Aludlam]

ok, I only have a minute ... but ... add Mummies made in Egypt by Aliki (a must! teaches you everything about how mummies were made and why) and the other 2 books of the Gilgamesh story. I think I only saw one on your list. You'll want to tell the whole story which is would be the whole three books (IMHO).

 

hth

[ByGrace3]

ok, I only have a minute ... but ... add Mummies made in Egypt by Aliki (a must! teaches you everything about how mummies were made and why) and the other 2 books of the Gilgamesh story. I think I only saw one on your list. You'll want to tell the whole story which is would be the whole three books (IMHO).

 

hth

 

perfect, thanks! :)

[boscopup]

Since you only have one book per chapter, and they're mostly picture books, I can't see it being too much? We usually have 2 picture books (from the AG) for each chapter, or however many my library has (I haven't bought any). It's not been a problem at all. Read-alouds would be the time consuming thing, so you might want to just look and make sure they're spread out far enough. We haven't done very many, but last summer I read Detectives in Togas to my kids and I liked it. From your list, my son also really liked One Grain of Rice. We're waiting on some Anansi books to come in, as we really liked the stories in SOTW (the make believe food story was hilarious).

 

We do the SOTW chapter, one section per day (they're short sections, and we do the narration for each section), we read the UILE pages that go with it (though I will say that when I read this out loud, my son didn't care about it... so I dropped it until I realized he could read it himself, and now he loves it). Our history is easily done in 2-3 days per week.

[Chris in VA]

Nice list! I do see a lot of overlap in the Greek myths--maybe add in D'Aulaire's and chop out a few that it might cover, in order to pare down the need for the extra books?

I'd add in Mary Pope Osborne's Odyssey series.

 

Oh, and a website--Go to the BBC site and do the Horrible Histories game for Egyptians! It's a stitch, and really fun.

[Aludlam]

I wanted to add this book too ... It's about Nomads. We all really liked it. One Small Blue Bead

 

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Blue-Bead-Byrd-Baylor/dp/0684193345/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302968782&sr=1-1

 

Also, everyone is different, but I did not like the Greek News. I put ours back for logic stage.

 

One more thing, If you are truly trying to reduce your list to make time for other things, what I did was eliminate my bible story books. We already do bible everyday and all my littles were familiar with all the stories, so I would just tell them that "this" is where "that" happened, instead of rereading the story to them ... does that make any sense. I'm not talking about removing the Egermeier's, just story books, but I don't see where you have too many of them scheduled .... just an idea I'm throwing out there!

[ByGrace3]

Since you only have one book per chapter, and they're mostly picture books, I can't see it being too much? We usually have 2 picture books (from the AG) for each chapter, or however many my library has (I haven't bought any). It's not been a problem at all. Read-alouds would be the time consuming thing, so you might want to just look and make sure they're spread out far enough. We haven't done very many, but last summer I read Detectives in Togas to my kids and I liked it. From your list, my son also really liked One Grain of Rice. We're waiting on some Anansi books to come in, as we really liked the stories in SOTW (the make believe food story was hilarious).

 

We do the SOTW chapter, one section per day (they're short sections, and we do the narration for each section), we read the UILE pages that go with it (though I will say that when I read this out loud, my son didn't care about it... so I dropped it until I realized he could read it himself, and now he loves it). Our history is easily done in 2-3 days per week.

 

Good to know. I was thinking most weeks were fine with 1-2. I was more concerned about the weeks I had more (3-4) but I think you are right, most are picture books, and as long as the read alouds aren't all around the same time we should be fine. I will double check that. (We also plan to add in some other Sonlight read alouds unrelated to history in the places where it is more history book lite)

 

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this list. :)

you're welcome! :001_smile:

 

Nice list! I do see a lot of overlap in the Greek myths--maybe add in D'Aulaire's and chop out a few that it might cover, in order to pare down the need for the extra books?

I'd add in Mary Pope Osborne's Odyssey series.

 

Oh, and a website--Go to the BBC site and do the Horrible Histories game for Egyptians! It's a stitch, and really fun.

 

good idea. Which books were you thinking that had the most overlap/ and which could be taken out if I were to do D'Aulaire's. I had also considered Mary Pope Osborne's Odyssey series. I will look at it again.

Thanks!

 

I wanted to add this book too ... It's about Nomads. We all really liked it. One Small Blue Bead

 

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Blue-Bead-Byrd-Baylor/dp/0684193345/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302968782&sr=1-1

 

Also, everyone is different, but I did not like the Greek News. I put ours back for logic stage.

 

One more thing, If you are truly trying to reduce your list to make time for other things, what I did was eliminate my bible story books. We already do bible everyday and all my littles were familiar with all the stories, so I would just tell them that "this" is where "that" happened, instead of rereading the story to them ... does that make any sense. I'm not talking about removing the Egermeier's, just story books, but I don't see where you have too many of them scheduled .... just an idea I'm throwing out there!

 

Thanks! Yes, I didn't schedule too many "Bible story books" bc we are doing Egermeier's AND have a separate Bible curriculum. We also have a ton on the shelf already that I know I could grab when it fits and if we have time :)

 

Thanks everyone! Keep the ideas coming!!! :grouphug:

[ByGrace3]

anyone else? :)

[Lulabelle]

Interesting. I just finished firming up what we are going to be doing in combining some of the same. I will post my list a little later tonight. Need to get the kids in bed.

[ByGrace3]

Interesting. I just finished firming up what we are going to be doing in combining some of the same. I will post my list a little later tonight. Need to get the kids in bed.

 

would love to see! Thanks!

[mandykittie]

Yes, definitely add in Mary Pope Osborne's Odyssey series, preferably on CD:

 

 

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061254576/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=kiddio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061254576">Tales From the Odyssey CD Collection</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=0061254576" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

 

 

I check almost everything out from the library, but this was worth EVERY PENNY! My K son just about wore those discs out!

[Kirch]

Good to know. I was thinking most weeks were fine with 1-2. I was more concerned about the weeks I had more (3-4) but I think you are right, most are picture books, and as long as the read alouds aren't all around the same time we should be fine. I will double check that. (We also plan to add in some other Sonlight read alouds unrelated to history in the places where it is more history book lite)

 

 

Keep in mind too that not all the books you read have to be done officially during "school" time. I tend to get several "extra" picture books (if available) at the library that are often read just for fun (i.e., bedtime reading, free reading). Kind of a way to "sneak" a little extra in there, especially since there are so many great books to read! ;) If we don't get to all of them, I don't feel bad since it wasn't part of the official "plan," but we can immerse ourselves in the topic if we want to.

[Lulabelle]

Okay, this isn't as organized as I had planned, but I'll give it a shot. (I may have to edit....it's late here.) :)

 

I am doing basically the same thing as you, only I started from Sonlight and pulled in VP, SOTW and a smidge of TOG. Next year (year 2), I will follow SOTW and supplement from the others, but we had already started SL, so that's just where we are at.

 

Used throughout:

SOTW 1

Usborne Book of World History

Kingfisher Encyclopedia

Usborne Time Traveler

CHOW (may drop this)

Famous Figures of Ancient Times

 

Other stuff:

1 -- Archeologists Dig for Clues

2 -- Good Times Travel Adventures in Ancient Egypt

3 -- Magic Tree House Mummies after Midnight

4 -- You wouldn't want to Be an Egyptian Mummy

Lift the Lid on Mummies

5 -- The Great Pyramid

You Wouldn't want to be a Pyramid Builder

6 -- Cat of Bubastes

7, 8 -- Gilgamesh the King (all three)

9 -- One Grain of Rice

10 -- Ping

MTH Day of the Dragon King

11 -- Anansi the Spider

13 -- Tutankhamen's Gift

14 --

15 -- In Search of a Homeland

16 --

17 --

18 -- Monster in the Maze

19 -- D'aulaire's Myths, Greek Myths for Young Children

20 -- The Librarian Who Measured the Earth

21 -- King Midas and the Golden Touch

22 -- Black Ships Before Troy

23 -- The Trojan Horse

Good Times Travel Agency Adventures in Ancient Greece

24 -- Wanderings of Odysseus

25 -- Greek News

You wouldn't want to be in Alexander the Great's Army

26 --

27 --

28 -- You Wouldn't want to be a Roman Gladiator

29 --

30 --

31 --

32 -- The Great Wall of China

Little Pear

33 --

34 --

35 -- Detectives in Togas

36 --

37 --

38 -- Pompeii, Lost and Found

39 -- You wouldn't want to live in Pompeii

40 -- Eagle of the Ninth

41, 42 -- Cattus Petasatus

Virent Ova Virent Perna

 

We are doing almost all the Sonlight read-alouds as well, but we tend to read them a little faster than scheduled, so I think we'll have time for the longer supplementary books. When we have weeks where the ancient history supplements are just picture books or pretty short, we will throw in the next Sonlight literature selection. If we get through those and have more time, I plan to hit a few lit selections that don't really have anything to do with the time period (Alice in Wonderland, Chronicles of Narnia).

[IsabelC]

I love your list, and I don't think it's too long if you're going to use most of them as fun read alouds. It would be far too much if you're going to do narrations for every one though.

 

Also, there is always the option of reading the books but not during the same week as you're studying the corresponding topics. I know it sounds nice to read a supplementary work during/after each topic in your sequence, but in practice I have found that mixing it up more actually seems to help my children remember and make connections. Instead of thinking, "Oh boy, more about such-and-such, we did that yesterday", they're thinking "Oh, I remember that, that was when..." Not sure whether that's just my kids, but could be worth considering if you wanted to pare your list down a bit but keep the rest of it in reserve for if you have a quiet week later on in the year.

Edited April 17, 2011 by Hotdrink

[3peasinapod]

It doesn't look like too much to me. I have a huge list, and I will pick and choose as we go through it, as I'll be more familiar with that we can handle for the week, etc. Also, some books I will just get for them to look through by themselves, so I won't read them all.

 

We are doing SL Core 1 and added in SOTW with AG, then many books they've recommended and some TOG books too. I feel like it's too much now, but I like to tweak so much and have finally given myself permission to not do something if we have no time. We'll be doing this with a 2nd and 3rd grader. I'm going to be making a list soon for my blog of ancient history for this age group (minus SOTW AG books of course) and a schedule to mesh SL Core 1/B with SOTW and lots of websites and online games.

 

I'm just crazy I suppose.:001_huh:

[Farrar]

Another person who doesn't think it looks like too much at all, assuming you're just doing the majority of them as read alouds.

[Ali in OR]

We also read a lot for history using Biblioplan. The only thing that jumped out at me from your list was The God King. We also read it when my older dd was in first grade. I enjoyed it a lot and could follow what was going on, but in retrospect, it would have been better for my kids to wait for our second cycle for that one. I'm not sure how much they got out of it at that age. Dd also read Tirzah as a 5th grader. I have not read that one, so I don't know if that is easier to follow than The God King, but if you're pressed for time, it wouldn't hurt to wait on that one too.

[ByGrace3]

Thanks everyone! I am glad to know most think this list is doable. At first I had planned to buy all our books (I hate the library! :glare:) but as my list expanded I realized that was NOT possible. :tongue_smilie: Also, I am really trying to be realistic as I will also have a 4 yo doing history with us, and a 1 yr old running around. I think* this is doable, and I do plan to add in more Sonlight readers and at least 1 book for those chapters that don't have anything yet. I think that in combination with all our other subjects will make for a great first grade/k4 year! Thanks everyone, and keep the suggestions coming! :)

[boscopup]

In case you haven't used it yet... Check out your library's hold system. I don't mind going to the library with all the kids now because I just go online and put on hold whatever I really want to make sure I check out. To pick them up, I just go to the hold shelf and pick the bundle of books with my name on them. Easy peasy. :)

[ByGrace3]

In case you haven't used it yet... Check out your library's hold system. I don't mind going to the library with all the kids now because I just go online and put on hold whatever I really want to make sure I check out. To pick them up, I just go to the hold shelf and pick the bundle of books with my name on them. Easy peasy. :)

 

yes, I will definitely be utilizing that feature. However, it is the returning of the books that is my problem. My rule is normally if a book is less than $10 I buy it, since that is what my late fee will be! :lol: I suppose I shall have to get better at that! :tongue_smilie:

[ByGrace3]

ok, list updated! :D

[Critterfixer]

It looked like a long list to me.:001_smile:

A good list, but a long one.

 

Because I do use the library (a two hour one way trip for me) I have needed to focus on what I truly need usually two weeks in advance. Sometimes the library has them, sometimes they have so many holds on them that I would get them well after they were meant to be used! I've become very good at finding alternatives.

 

What I did to help myself a bit was to narrow my focus in history to important people, important events and major turning points. I try to pick books for extra reading with the person, even or turning point in mind. To that end I tried to choose read-aloud books that matched that idea. There are so many good things to choose from on your lists!

 

I know it sounds nice to read a supplementary work during/after each topic in your sequence, but in practice I have found that mixing it up more actually seems to help my children remember and make connections. Instead of thinking, "Oh boy, more about such-and-such, we did that yesterday", they're thinking "Oh, I remember that, that was when..." Not sure whether that's just my kids, but could be worth considering if you wanted to pare your list down a bit but keep the rest of it in reserve for if you have a quiet week later on in the year.

 

This is true for my children also.

[boscopup]

yes, I will definitely be utilizing that feature. However, it is the returning of the books that is my problem. My rule is normally if a book is less than $10 I buy it, since that is what my late fee will be! :lol: I suppose I shall have to get better at that! :tongue_smilie:

 

I've gotten better about that since I started going regularly. EVERY week, I check the account online and renew any books that need renewing, and we usually go to the library once a week, but sometimes it will be 2 weeks. We have a "library book shelf" where ONLY library books go, and they must stay on there when not being read. It makes it much easier to keep up with them!

 

I think I've only had less than $4 in fines this semester... not bad. And I think that was early on. Now that we're in more of a rhythm about going often, it's easier to keep up. Before we started schooling, we went to the library about every 4-6 weeks. :tongue_smilie:

[Carol in Cal.]

Something to ask yourself as you begin...

 

Do you read a lot to your children already?

 

If not, to focus most or even all of your reading on your history correlations might not be what you really want to do or even what you should do.

 

When we started SOTW, DD was already very accustomed to being read to for hours. We read in the morning, afternoon, and before bed. Often we read stacks of picture books. Sometimes we would read a long children's novel in one sitting. We read many fairy tales and myths, and books about other lands. I read her the Bible, a lot, much more so than Bible story books. I read her books I had loved when I was a kid because they were so funny, beautiful, exciting, or engaging--by the time she was 7 (which is when we started SOTW1) I know for sure that I had already read her "Ben and Me", "Half Magic", "The Hobbit", and "The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe" because I remember laughing over them when she was younger than the SOTW years.

 

So once we started SOTW, we continued to read the Bible a lot (actually interspersing Bible history with SOTW--it's written in such a way so that that is extremely easy to do--kudos to SWB for doing it like that) and also picture books that we already loved, and good old-fashioned children's fiction books that I remembered, having been an avid reader myself, and thought she would enjoy. We read Christian story books like "What Did Jesus Do" and "The Very First Easter" and "The Very First Christmas". We added books that were beautiful in various qualities--poetry, art, character, prose, heroics.

 

I love history and think that organizing a good deal of education around it is a wonderful and enriching thing, but I also think that it is a mistake to let that crowd out all the other good books out there, especially for your youngest children who may not recall all the reading that you have been doing up until now. Just something to think about.