cam112198 Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I love SOTW and was wondering if there was anything like it for American History? Can someone recommend something for history that would cover American history and wouldn't be too teacher intensive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowan25 Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momof1gr8girl Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 We love Joy Hakim's History of US Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 There have been a lot of threads about this in the past that I've seen. From what I've read, no. No, there's not. But there are a lot of other good resources. In fact, there's enough that can be put together to make a curriculum of living books, including the biographies by the D'Aulaires, the Betsey Maestro books, the Jean Fritz books, and the book The American Story are all good books for the first half of American history. There are others too, but those are the ones that first come to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almondbutterandjelly Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Christian Liberty Press has A Child's Story of America, which is very nice, if a bit... hmmm... romanticized (and then the end about very modern times is very political but you could skip that part). But for the age of your oldest, would be very nice read aloud together. It starts with Columbus and the Vikings and goes to present-day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 We really liked the books put together by Beautiful Feet Books (http://www.bfbooks.com). The guides contain providential history type activities but they are so cheap you can just use the guide to help with pacing of the books. We LOVED that year of American History. Most of the books are easily found at the library and the ones that are not are fairly cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3lilreds in NC Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I don't have them yet, but I really like the looks of Angela O'Dell's Living History of Our World books. It sounds like your kiddos are the perfect age for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cam112198 Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 We love Joy Hakim's History of US There have been a lot of threads about this in the past that I've seen. From what I've read, no. No, there's not. But there are a lot of other good resources. In fact, there's enough that can be put together to make a curriculum of living books, including the biographies by the D'Aulaires, the Betsey Maestro books, the Jean Fritz books, and the book The American Story are all good books for the first half of American history. There are others too, but those are the ones that first come to mind. Christian Liberty Press has A Child's Story of America, which is very nice, if a bit... hmmm... romanticized (and then the end about very modern times is very political but you could skip that part). But for the age of your oldest, would be very nice read aloud together. It starts with Columbus and the Vikings and goes to present-day. We really liked the books put together by Beautiful Feet Books (www.bfbooks.com). The guides contain providential history type activities but they are so cheap you can just use the guide to help with pacing of the books. We LOVED that year of American History. Most of the books are easily found at the library and the ones that are not are fairly cheap. I don't have them yet, but I really like the looks of Angela O'Dell's Living History of Our World books. It sounds like your kiddos are the perfect age for them. Thanks for all your suggestions! I will have to check these out! I am looking for something to go along with CC Cycle 3. I am not going to worry about matching things up, but want to study the same time period. I am also looking for something that all my children can do together. I would love to hear a little bit more about Beautiful Feet. Is this something dc 8 (almost 9), 6, and 5 could do together? Would I be reading to them? Is it similar to Sonlight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 If you happen to live near (or plan a trip to) Disney World, they have an awesome American Adventure attraction at Epcot that would totally top off a study on American History. I can't wait until my dc are old enough to really enjoy it thoroughly. That and the Hall of Presidents in Magic Kingdom are a must see if you can swing it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeOrchidSong Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 I wondered about the same thing. Thanks for the great ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Have you looked into All American History? We use it in the same manner we do SOTW. We do read alouds, a timeline, and mapwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Researcher Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 If you happen to live near (or plan a trip to) Disney World, they have an awesome American Adventure attraction at Epcot that would totally top off a study on American History. I can't wait until my dc are old enough to really enjoy it thoroughly. That and the Hall of Presidents in Magic Kingdomare a must see if you can swing it. :) :iagree: and the kids are just having fun but learning some history too. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~blessedmom~ Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 There are Mara Pratts's American History Stories in 4 volumes: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pratt&book=ahs1&story=_contents Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cam112198 Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 If you happen to live near (or plan a trip to) Disney World, they have an awesome American Adventure attraction at Epcot that would totally top off a study on American History. I can't wait until my dc are old enough to really enjoy it thoroughly. That and the Hall of Presidents in Magic Kingdomare a must see if you can swing it. :) We actually go to Disney World about once every 2 years. We don't have a trip scheduled for the upcoming school year, but next time we go we'll have to take the kids there. Have you looked into All American History? We use it in the same manner we do SOTW. We do read alouds, a timeline, and mapwork. This looks very interesting! I had never heard of it. It says it is for grades 5-8, but adaptable for younger children. Have you found that to be true? There are Mara Pratts's American History Stories in 4 volumes: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pratt&book=ahs1&story=_contents Thanks for this suggestion! I will have to check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommatomany Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 I don't have them yet, but I really like the looks of Angela O'Dell's Living History of Our World books. It sounds like your kiddos are the perfect age for them. I've never heard of these before. Thanks for the link! I'm considering BF but this looks interesting too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 This looks very interesting! I had never heard of it. It says it is for grades 5-8, but adaptable for younger children. Have you found that to be true? Absolutely. Last year my then 6th grader did it and my then 2nd grader did just fine. She really enjoyed it as a matter of fact! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 Have you ever heard of Edward Eggleston's books: A First Book in American History, and Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans? We used both of them for our American history this year, and they were fantastic. They are reprints of the originals from 1895, so they contain a lot of interesting history that it usually cut out of the modern, revisionist texts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 YOu liked them? I have Stories for Great Americans for Little Americans but I wanted to pre read it first to make sure it was not too racist or ....anything :lol: before handing it to my ds. I totally forgot until I saw your response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 YOu liked them? I have Stories for Great Americans for Little Americans but I wanted to pre read it first to make sure it was not too racist or ....anything :lol: before handing it to my ds. I totally forgot until I saw your response. I loved them. We used Stories of Great Americans as a reading book for my son in second grade. On days when my husband was the one to help my son with his reading time, I always went back to reread what I missed because I liked all of the stories so much. My son read a lot of them twice. I think this book is especially good for boys since it contains a lot adventure stories: explorers' encounters with Indians, American generals fighting redcoats, and childhood exploits of famous early Americans. I thought the other book (A First Book in American History) was good, too. It is a lot like Hillyer's books (CHOW and A Child's Geography of the World). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandi in Ohio Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 Thank for all the wonderful ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Thank you! He loves CHOW so I will def pull it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cam112198 Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 Have you ever heard of Edward Eggleston's books: A First Book in American History, and Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans? We used both of them for our American history this year, and they were fantastic. They are reprints of the originals from 1895, so they contain a lot of interesting history that it usually cut out of the modern, revisionist texts. OMG!! I actually have Edward Eggleston's book: A First Book in American History! That is so funny! I bought it about a year or 2 ago after reading great reviews! I forgot I had it! Isn't that funny!! Thanks for the suggestion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 There are Mara Pratts's American History Stories in 4 volumes: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pratt&book=ahs1&story=_contents Yay! The first 2 volumes are on librivox.org. We learn history best when listening to audiobooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~blessedmom~ Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Yay! The first 2 volumes are on librivox.org. We learn history best when listening to audiobooks. Library and Educational Services has all 4 on mp3 cd for only $14.74 right now ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 We've used a number of older books doing ancient and medieval history and I've found ways to appreciate the good part of them and work around the biases of the time they were written. But both the older texts mentioned here (Eggleston and Mara's texts) have serious flaws that I personally wouldn't be able to get past. Columbus was nice to the Indians? Hardly. The Indians all killed each other and kidnapped children and burned their mothers before the white people arrived??? Not the books for me or my kids, that's for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 We've used a number of older books doing ancient and medieval history and I've found ways to appreciate the good part of them and work around the biases of the time they were written. But both the older texts mentioned here (Eggleston and Mara's texts) have serious flaws that I personally wouldn't be able to get past. Columbus was nice to the Indians? Hardly. The Indians all killed each other and kidnapped children and burned their mothers before the white people arrived??? Not the books for me or my kids, that's for sure. Yikes, where is that part about the Induans burning their mothers, in Mara's text or Eggleston? I have Mara Pratt's texts, but I'm going to combine these with Jennifer Armstrong's The American Story starting this Fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindsrae Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Originally Posted by Mrs Twain Have you ever heard of Edward Eggleston's books: A First Book in American History, and Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans? We used both of them for our American history this year, and they were fantastic. They are reprints of the originals from 1895, so they contain a lot of interesting history that it usually cut out of the modern, revisionist texts. Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans is FREE on the Kindle! A First Book in American History is only 3.99. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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