help me with secular ancient history for 1-3 grades

[hsmom27]

I've done SoTW in the past, and it's not our thing. I think I'm okay using history pockets, Map Trek, and Ancient Egyptians & Thier Neighbor projects, but I'd like a light reading series to go along with those things. I'm using the Let's Read and Find Out series for science and that's working out great. Is there anything short, light and picture heavy like that for history? We've tried the You Wouldn't Want to series and that's a little too wordy. 2 of the 3 have issues with language, so too many words and they tune out. Any ideas for me? It's the only part of our year I'm not happy with, which I guess technically is a good thing. I'd still like a perfect year. :)

[mumto2]

We loved the Good times Travel Agency books by Linda Baily. Lots of great information built into a fun story--Egypt and Greece and more. The Usbourns Time Travel book is good too. For Eygpt there is a Ms.Frizzle book from Magic School Bus. My ds loved all of these far more then SOTW at that age.

[pitterpatter]

We're working our way through Ancients right now and I've not come across any series like you mention. I do a lot of picture book/library research for our lessons and I've been lucky to find even one good book for a couple of civilizations. We use the Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World as our spine.

 

Having said that, these might come the closest, but I don't necessarily think they are the best choices. They're pretty long to read aloud and not as interesting as many true picture books.

 

"You Wouldn't Want to Be a..." - This series is actually fairly interesting, but a pain in the rump to read aloud. Tedious. (As you noted.)

http://www.amazon.co...39;t want to be

 

"Life in Ancient Civilizations" - They're okay, but they don't cover everything by any means. Long to read aloud.

https://www.lernerbo...t-civilizations

 

Then, there is the "True Books" series. Again, long to read aloud and aren't really picture books.

 

Good DVD series, if your library carries it.

http://www.libraryvi...J6WFFJDM6XP986B

[Incognito]

Sonlight has used a Time Traveler book that is picture heavy with lots of information in it (a spine type book). My K and 1st kids like it, but it would work well with a bit older kids too (they could read the little things on the pictures themselves).

 

Here it is on Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Traveller-Usborne/dp/0746033656

 

The reviews are helpful.

[boscopup]

Check out the Ancient History list at Guest Hollow:

 

http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/ancient/books.html

 

She puts a "crown" by anything that is Christian, so you can easily pick out the secular books.

[La Texican]

I iust read "The Well Trained Mind". In it they suggest buying a History Encyclopedia and a 3-ring binder, I have the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. You're supposed to read a two-page spread and then have the child do a narration and retell you the main points of what you read. You should write that down and have the child draw an illustration and put it in your history notebook.

[Mama2two]

Take a look at History Odyssey and do it without SOTW. It will schedule the history pockets along with the enycopedia reading and give you mapwork and project ideas. It arranges things more along lines of civilization rather than straight chronological

[hsmom27]

There are a few on here I've never heard of, so I'm off to check them out. Thanks for all the links. :)

[pitterpatter]

This is what we use...HO with only Usborne Ancient World as our spine. However, I do still supplement with activities from the SOTW activity guide some. I just like some of the crafty activities better. I also look at the book suggestions in it. You can often come by a used SOTW activity guide without the student pages for cheap or free. A lot/Most of the book suggestions in both HO and SOTW are outdated and many are way above grade level, so I still have to do a lot book research on Amazon and our library's online catalog. I love HO's map work. And, it's nice to just have something to go off of instead of totally having to plan from scratch. Pandia Press runs it on sale at least twice a year.

 

http://www.pandiapress.com/?page_id=14

 

Take a look at History Odyssey and do it without SOTW. It will schedule the history pockets along with the enycopedia reading and give you mapwork and project ideas. It arranges things more along lines of civilization rather than straight chronological

[2_girls_mommy]

The True books and The DVD series listed above are fantastic. We love those videos. What about just hitting the library for each culture and seeing what you come up with? I like the idea of just using the A.G. if you don't like the SOTW text. I do that w/Apologia for science. My youngest is using the zoology 1 notebook and we do the activities and notebook pages and get the library books. We do activities and notebook from them. We don't use the text.. Works well for us.

[jillian]

We scrapped CHOW because we hated it and used those DVDs and books. The ancient civilizations DVDs are amazingly good.

[Walking-Iris]

I plan on using HO with SOTW activity guide. The HO timeline is gorgeous. I found the SOTW text too wordy as well. It takes time to research, but the book suggestions in both are all over the place in reading/age ranges, but there are still plenty that are useful for young children. The activities/coloring sheets and maps of the SOTW AG are the favorite things here. The text? Not so much.