plain jane Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Ack. There are so many books about the same topics that I'm running around in circles. Oxford Ancient times series, Guerber, Christine Miller, etc. So, anybody here use the Suzanne Strauss Art books and can tell me why you chose these over all the rest? :tongue_smilie: Or, perhaps, the other way around- why did you choose something else over these books & what did you go with instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Swimmermom's DS enjoys the Art books. I have two of them, Alexander the Great and one on the Renaissance. My son hasn't used them yet but I've enjoyed reading them. I find the writing engaging. I also think they are outlinable. Each chapter has discussion questions and ideas for projects as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 We used one on Ancient China this year. I liked it because the reading was accessible for ds. The writing was engaging. My experience with Ancient Chinese history was very minimal. I feel like we got a good overview of the vastness of Chinese history. I like that there are questions and activities for each chapter as well. I also like that she has books for many different time periods and cultures including Islam and Native Americans. If I had discovered them earlier I would have used them for previous years. They're not colorful or distracting. At least the Chinese book has a larger font, which is great for some kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plain jane Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 Drat. Both of your reviews were the impression I got from looking at samples online. :glare: I didn't want to like them. :lol: I'm trying to decide between these and probably the Oxford Ancient times series. Both sound really great and I'm having a tough time making up my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BridgeTea Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 (edited) We used her Ancient Egypt, China, Greece, and Rome books as my 7th grader's first real exposure to studying ancients. (We are new to WTM/classical ed and had some catching up to do in the ancients dept.) I have Islam also, which we'll get to soon. My girl has requested more of the series. We'll fit in all we can "officially", and the rest she'll be on her own - but only because of time restraints on my part. I need to identify any more history gaps before deciding what route to take. Without having used any of the other books you mentioned, I can't do a fair comparison. However, my girl and I enjoyed these books, reading aloud and discussing the whole time. The end-of-chapter questions were thoughtful enough, and I was happy to see they remained of consistent quality without being redundant or too formulaic and predictable. We nearly always covered the questions orally, with an occasional request from me to write out her answers instead. It was great to be able to gauge her comprehension of events and hear her thoughts on the people of history through these discussions. We didn't do many of the projects - we just talked about them. ;) These books could be used for a WTM style history notebook - my girl pulled vocab, facts, timeline info, and ideas for further reading from hearing me read. (Outlining could have been done, but amazingly didn't happen. LOL) Used absolutely alone, a 5th-8th grader (roughly) should get a good basic feel for the people and events portrayed. The books are "complete" and entertaining to boot. But it's history, so why stop there? :D We added every primary source we could get our hands on, additional maps, art, epic poetry, fairy tales, n/f reading, documentaries, the usual. These books are uncluttered and pleasant to read. You will probably want to add art, though: the artifact sketches could be comically simplistic. It's so easy to find what you need online though, and we had great fun finding paintings and photos to go with the books. Sorry so long and choppy. We've had crazy storms blow through and we've had to hit the basement twice now. It's finally calmer!! Edited June 9, 2011 by BridgeTea Yup. Choppy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 I used the ones on China - the only resources I could find. They were good - lots of misprints though, which she says she is fixing. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmoe Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 We have used many of her books. I like that they can easily be outlined. I like the discussion questions. I like that they condense history(I have a hard time doing that). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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