History book advice

[inherownwrite]

This fall will be my first year homeschooling my son (who will be in 2nd grade). We will be using SOTW 1 for History. For those of you who have used this program, I was wondering about which encyclopedias to use with the program (Usborne World History, Usborne Internet-linked, Kingfisher Illustrated History, Kingfisher History...). Me being new to this, I feel like I should buy all of them so that I don't miss anything and screw him up! :001_smile: But in reality, do I need them all? Which ones seemed to provide adequate coverage?

 

Also, I noticed that Usborne has encyclopedias for JUST the Ancient World. Has anyone ever substituted these for the full World History versions successfully?

 

Thanks in advance for your help! I really do appreciate it.

[ErinE]

You're not going to screw him up!

What age is your child? If he's younger, there may be only so much history he can stand so you may not need an encyclopedia. For our history, we read SOTW, do the mapwork and coloring pages, and occassionally add in library books from the AG suggestions. I have the Kingfisher History but after reviewing it, I'm reserving it for middle school.

[Aurelia]

We have the Useborne internet-linked one, but only used it maybe once or twice. Generally, if you feel you need an encyclopedia, either of the Useborne books are recommended for grades 1-4. Kingfisher is recommended for the next "stage", usually in the range of 4th-9th grade.

[2_girls_mommy]

We didn't even have any history encyclopedia our first time through SOTW1. We did read lots of extra books from the library and that was plenty.

[5knights3maidens]

I never used the Encyclopedia this year. I just used lots of library books and Dvds with history pockets. My list is on the left side of my blog True Blessings below in signature.

[Dolphin]

We had the Usborne internet linked, but we really only used it to sometimes look at pictures. It is not needed, but nice to have.

 

We have just gotten the Kingfisher Encyclopedia as my ds will be in 5th grade doing ancients and he is going to outline from it.

 

2nd grade, if you just read the chapter, talk about it and do the map work, he will get a good history education. Anything else that you get done, pat yourself on the back as it is all extras :)

 

Good Luck.

[inherownwrite]

Thanks so much for your input! I really like the idea of just working with the SOTW book and then supplementing with stories from the reading list. That sounds like it would appeal much more to my 7 year old.

 

You guys on this board are so great...so helpful. I haven't posted much, but I have used this forum as a major source of information for starting this hs journey. Really, you all have been an immense help. THANK YOU!

[Dory]

That's what we used this past year with my second grade son. We didn't even use an encyclopedia, despite the fact that I bought all the ones you mentioned. He did better just going to the library and finding books on the different subjects. It seemed to make him feel like he was picking out his books and had some control over what he was wanting to read. He has retained everything fairly well, finished SOTW1 in the first half of the school year, and had fun doing it.