History suggestions for new homeschooler?

[Iucounu]

Next year we will be homeschooling for the first time. We plan to start in September, same as a regular school year, and my son will be seven. We are getting together plans for science and have math pretty well sorted, but history is a blank book to us. :|

 

Currently we have the full set of Horrible Histories and he has read parts of those, but I wouldn't say he has a strong foundation in history at all. His current PS hardly touches on any historical subjects. He is a movie and documentary buff and has picked up odds and ends from his viewing, especially about WW II, but that's about it so far.

 

I would prefer something that features text on the third-to-fourth-grade level or more, and is not presented so simply that he'll be bored. I'm open to using traditional textbooks that are used in non-homeschool settings, I just don't know which ones might be best. I'm also open to some online materials, although we prefer books and would like a full curriculum with texts if possible.

 

Thanks for any input!

[Iucounu]

I was excited about SOTW until I read that it contains some inaccuracies (which seem to be some basic factual errors but also ones caused by the Christian viewpoint changing the timeline), and contains a lot of Bible information presented as historical fact (though Amazon reviews can certainly be wrong). I don't think the first book would be a good fit for DS6's reading level anyway. But I am certainly open to something like SOTW but at a higher level and more secular; it certainly doesn't have to be a textbook used in schools.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Iucounu

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

Which period of history? Joy Hakem has a wonderful set for American History.

I have heard Notgrass is also good.

A Child's History of The World is good as an overview and easy to read and supplement.

Sonlight has alot of historical fiction at various reading levels.

IEW implements History in Writing as well.

and Classical Conversations has a bookstore for various Challenge Levels, they have an American Documents exclusively by them. And they use IEW for History as well.

Good luck!

Edited January 24, 2012 by TGHEALTHYMOM
adding information

[SonshineLearner]

I was excited about SOTW until I read that it contains some inaccuracies (which seem to be some basic factual errors but also ones caused by the Christian fundamentalism screwing up the timeline), and contains a lot of Bible study (though Amazon reviews can certainly be wrong). I don't think the first book would be a good fit for DS6's reading level anyway. But I am certainly open to something like SOTW but at a higher level and secular; it certainly doesn't have to be a textbook used in schools.

You'll read many different opinions about this; Christians say there's not enough "Bible" and Seculars think there's too much "myths stated as fact." I think you should give it a try with the cds, book for yourself, and the Activity Book. Start at SOTW I and plan to go forward. There are other supplemental books for SOTW besides the official SOTW Activity Book, but I like the original :) My son loves listening to the cd, as well as the "Famous Men of" series that I downloaded from Librovox. We also love Jim Weiss cds :) My son is 8 and loves cds... fills his head with such great info; he can naturally narrate back tons of info.... we just need to work on being concise.

:)

PS, a good start would be reading The Well Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer. She's the one who makes this site possible, and her book is a great start :)

[Iucounu]

Thank you very much. The Joy Hakim books look good (I had noticed her "Story of Science" before, but didn't realize she also wrote history books) and I will check out the rest too.

 

Which period of history?

All of it! :bigear: I really have no idea of how to teach history. I don't want DS6 to just get interested in a topic and dive into a very detailed exploration of one tiny piece, then have just a collection of unconnected pieces. I'd be up for studying U.S. history first, in conjunction with civics, and then ancient history to modern times, or the reverse. DS6 loves his Cartoon History of the Universe book, but I don't want him to just learn everything through comics. He reads enough of those already. :)

[Iucounu]

You'll read many different opinions about this; Christians say there's not enough "Bible" and Seculars think there's too much "myths stated as fact." I think you should give it a try with the cds, book for yourself, and the Activity Book. Start at SOTW I and plan to go forward. There are other supplemental books for SOTW besides the official SOTW Activity Book, but I like the original :) My son loves listening to the cd, as well as the "Famous Men of" series that I downloaded from Librovox. We also love Jim Weiss cds :) My son is 8 and loves cds... fills his head with such great info; he can naturally narrate back tons of info.... we just need to work on being concise.

:)

PS, a good start would be reading The Well Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer. She's the one who makes this site possible, and her book is a great start :)

Thank you very much. I am going to buy The Well Trained Mind for sure, and maybe what I'll do is pick up a second-hand copy of SOTW I and judge for myself, and just resell if it isn't suitable, especially since I have some time to plan and this is an important choice (right now our funds are low and we've spent a TON of money on math-related stuff).

 

My son has listening problems due to early ear issues which make it tough for him to just learn by listening, so I don't know if the CDs would be a good fit, but thanks for the Jim Weiss rec too.

[Hunter]

I sent you a private message with a link. It's to an out of print series, that I recently discovered, and am keeping on the hush, until I complete my purchases of the entire series.

 

I tried to keep mum with you too, but can't :-) I think it's EXACTLY what you are looking for and you should be able to get them through interlibrary loan at your library for free. Or compete with me at Amazon and other used booksellers for the best bargains, and we round up the little buggers :-)

[Iucounu]

I'm on it like flies on a rib roast. Thanks again.

 

Anyone used Glencoe World History? It looks good to me, though it seems spendy to buy new or used without markings.

[SebastianCat]

For teaching history, I'd recommend that you look into Sonlight's Core B, which is the first year of a 2-year study of World History. It's PERFECT for a 7-year-old boy. I'd caution you not to go any higher than Core B if you do go with Sonlight.

 

Sonlight uses historical fiction in addition to two spine texts, which makes history come alive, IMO, more than a traditional textbook approach.

[freeindeed]

For teaching history, I'd recommend that you look into Sonlight's Core B, which is the first year of a 2-year study of World History. It's PERFECT for a 7-year-old boy. I'd caution you not to go any higher than Core B if you do go with Sonlight.

 

Sonlight uses historical fiction in addition to two spine texts, which makes history come alive, IMO, more than a traditional textbook approach.

 

:iagree:

I was going to suggest Sonlight, too. We are very happy Sonlight users.:) I agree with starting with Core B as well. You'll have two years of world history with Cores B and C and then move into American history with Cores D and E.

[Rivka]

I was excited about SOTW until I read that it contains some inaccuracies (which seem to be some basic factual errors but also ones caused by the Christian fundamentalism screwing up the timeline), and contains a lot of Bible study (though Amazon reviews can certainly be wrong). I don't think the first book would be a good fit for DS6's reading level anyway. But I am certainly open to something like SOTW but at a higher level and secular; it certainly doesn't have to be a textbook used in schools.

 

I think you could definitely make SOTW work by using it as a spine and supplementing it with additional living books - histories and novels. When we were doing Greeks with SOTW, my daughter wound up reading most of D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, for example. I find it pretty easy to add breadth and depth to SOTW, and it's nice to be able to rely on it to carry you over topics which don't have many supplemental materials out there, like, say, Ashurbanipal.

 

You would need to secularize, which I found to be pretty easy. I posted about that here, and there is some more discussion of accuracy issues in the comments.

[Chrysalis Academy]

What a funny phenomena - I was writing a message defending SOTW, and as I was writing it, the things that annoyed me (in vol. 2) kept coming to mind, and I realize that yeah, it does have some issues! :lol:

 

I really didn't have an issue with Vol. 1. I thought that the bible-type stories were presented just like all the other stories, and I have no problem with that. I'm an atheist, and a scientist, but we teach our kids about the myths and stories of all cultures, and I make no distinction among the judeo-christian stories and the greek myths. I would not avoid a history book that included judeo-christian stories any more than I would avoid one that included greek myths. I expect my kids to take neither literally. They are *stories* and what I like about SOTW is that history is presented as a set of engaging stories. I think this is the perfect intro to history for a young child.

 

 

I have had a couple of issues with Vol. 2, which may or may not reflect religious bias. It bugs me that there is a full, graphic chapter on the Black Death, but no mention of the Inquisition - supposedly that is too upsetting and confusing for kids. My DD was plenty upset about the black death, thank you very much, and I don't think it's valid to leave out one but not the other on the ground of not upsetting kids. I also was annoyed by the chapter on Henry VIII and the Reformation. She makes Henry into this reformer, who agreed with and supported Luther, which is not at all true - Henry's Church of England was totally Catholic, with himself as the head rather than the Pope. He persecuted Lutherans and Protestants. I thought the inaccuracies there were kind of like "whig history" in which everything seems to be inevitably leading to our own enlightened state . . .

 

anyway, this is the first time i've run into these particular criticisms of SOTW, and it is interesting. I don't know if there is anything else out there that is as well-written, and as engaging, and as non-texty, but without any bias whatsoever.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I think you could definitely make SOTW work by using it as a spine and supplementing it with additional living books - histories and novels. When we were doing Greeks with SOTW, my daughter wound up reading most of D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, for example. I find it pretty easy to add breadth and depth to SOTW, and it's nice to be able to rely on it to carry you over topics which don't have many supplemental materials out there, like, say, Ashurbanipal.

 

 

I agree - I use lots of supplements, and I pick and choose from the suggested materials in the AG. I skip anything that clearly written from from a religious POV (i.e. "God led Washington to victory") but I don't avoid books about religion - I just make sure we study a broad range of religions/cultures, not just one.

[Aurelia]

The Galore Park junior history texts cover ancients (volume 1), Greeks and Romans (2) and from Roman occupation of Britain to 1066 (3). I haven't used those texts, but I've heard good things about them, and use GP Junior English, which I really like.

[Dana]

I like using a timeline for helping to see where things fit together. It lets you go deeper in one time but then still see the big picture better.

 

I haven't used History Odyssey, although their book recommendations are neat. I do use their timeline though and like it.

[Momling]

Try Galore Park Jr. History 1-3. You can see a sample at: http://www.galorepark.co.uk/product/parents/125/junior-history-book-1.html

 

My history-loving daughter enjoyed them a lot at 7. You might do a search for it on this forum, I think I once wrote a review.

[ekfk]

I like SOTW despite it's many flaws. It introduces kids to a lot of ancient history that can be hard to get other places. I skip some things that I have issues with. You can also use something like http://www.kidspast.com/world-history/, which is a free online history book.

[Iucounu]

Thank you very much for the suggestions re: Sonlight, secularization of SOTW, Galore Park, History Odyssey books and timelines, and kidspast.com . I am going to evaluate all of them. Thanks again. Maybe I will post here in a few weeks or months and update the thread.

 

For the record (because I don't want to unnecessarily offend anyone and I know lots of people here are religious) I don't necessarily want to exclude all religious information, I just want it to at least be presented in an unbiased way alongside other religious information. I'm actually okay with DS6 choosing some religion eventually, as long as I don't steer him in a particular direction. I've already let him go to church with his grandmother (after the first time, at age 5, he told me he enjoyed it because it was "really long" :D ).

 

One of the great loves of my budding intellectual life as a little one was a book with a mostly dark (gray, I believe) cover and a bit of orange cloth on the cover, which dealt with architecture throughout the ages. I believe it was one of my mother's college texts. I think subconsciously I've been trying to find something that reminds of the layout and feel of that book, and I've been thinking that I would prefer big thick textbooks in general. But I need to broaden my horizons a bit, I think, and not be so scared of using a spine with supplementation. The customization's the thing.

[Chibby]

I was excited about SOTW until I read that it contains some inaccuracies (which seem to be some basic factual errors but also ones caused by the Christian fundamentalism screwing up the timeline), and contains a lot of Bible study (though Amazon reviews can certainly be wrong). I don't think the first book would be a good fit for DS6's reading level anyway. But I am certainly open to something like SOTW but at a higher level and secular; it certainly doesn't have to be a textbook used in schools.

 

Wow. This is the first I've heard of this. Can you give an example?

[Iucounu]

Wow. This is the first I've heard of this. Can you give an example?

Here are the Amazon one-star and two-star reviews. I also reviewed some threads here and elsewhere.

 

It can generally be difficult to assess how much weight to give to negative reviews on Amazon, and even more difficult in the case of religious materials-- the people that seek the material out because of religious reasons will give it glowing reviews, and some may give negative reviews even if they don't own the product. I have no way of knowing yet how many of these are accurate. I was tending to regard some of them as accurate because of the precise factual assertions-- it somehow seemed unlikely that someone would make up that the biblical story of Abraham was introduced as history, etc.

 

It honestly did bug me quite a bit that Christian stories were apparently presented as historical fact while myths from other religions were presented as such, but I am going to keep an open mind until I get a chance to look over a copy for myself.

[Iucounu]

I found a like-new copy of Glencoe World History for a song (the New York edition, which apparently has the full text plus some NY-specific preface), and a new copy of the "Student Works Plus CD-ROM" for $30, which contains the full text as well (DS likes to hold books in his hand and flip through them, but the electronic copy can't hurt), voice recording of the text, and all workbooks in printable format, also NY edition. I'm still not sure we're going to use Glencoe, but I couldn't pass up the deal on the textbook and I can probably resell it for more if we don't like it. Still following up on the other options too. It looks like my wife may be able to get a copy of SOTW through inter-library loan for us to check out before buying.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Iucounu