Luanne Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I want to do American History using real books. This would be for upper elementary/middle school level. Is there anywhere where there is a list of books we could use in chronological order? If not, what would you suggest. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SebastianCat Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I would consider Sonlight's Core D and Core E books. They will be mostly historical fiction. Another free resource is Guest Hollow's American History page. Most of these are nonfiction or biographies, with some hands-on and some historical fiction thrown in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paceofnature Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I would consider Sonlight's Core D and Core E books. They will be mostly historical fiction. Another free resource is Guest Hollow's American History page. Most of these are nonfiction or biographies, with some hands-on and some historical fiction thrown in. This is exactly what we are doing for American History next year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 When you say "real books" what do you mean? Historical fiction can be a fun approach, but it is, well, fiction, and in that sense not "real" and frankly often distorted to make a good story--sometimes even becomes the basis for distorting what is later taken to be fact, such as flat earth beliefs which seem to have come out of Washington Irving's fictional version of Columbus, not anything from the 15th century reality. How about looking at primary sources such as Columbus's diary, works by Bartolome de las Casas, and so on. Or at something that is a work of historical research such as Charles Mann's 1491, which is available in both adult and child versions. And similar for other periods of history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 All Through The Ages is an awesome resource, and pretty reasonably priced for the big ebook you get: http://www.nothingnewpress.com/All_Through_The_Ages.html It has books of all kinds for every historical time period, divivded by type of book and suggested age. Also, abookintime.com has chronological book lists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I would suggest using something like The Complete Book of US History along with real books. I think it makes a very good spine for American history and will help keep some of the fiction separated from the facts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Oh, and Scholastic has some awesome 3D Historical Maps for American history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Our best yr of middle school American history was the yr my ds read through a combo of Landmark and American Heritage Jr Library series (mostly AMJL with a few topics that I didn't own in that series that I did own in Landmark) (since you already asked about Landmark, here is a link about AHJL http://www.librarything.com/series/American%20Heritage%20Junior%20Library ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Have you seen the Collier brothers' series The Drama of American History? I've read that the ones on the Rev. War and Civil War are especially good. I think most/all of them are also available now for Kindle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thundersweet Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I would suggest using something like The Complete Book of US History along with real books. I think it makes a very good spine for American history and will help keep some of the fiction separated from the facts. My dd11 was doing an online US History class for history this year. She absolutely hated it! She complained every single day. I finally just gave up and handed her the "Compete Book of US History" and told her to read it. I also take a peek and give her other books to read on the topic the book is covering, as well as use lots of history dvd's. The other day she thanked me and told me how much more interesting history was now! She was literally not retaining anything from the boring class she was attending. She hated history. There really is no need in that with all of the great books out there. ETA....I am also waiting on some of the Drama of American History books I bought used on Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Landmark books might make a good addition as well... here's a link to a blog with a pdf of them in chronological order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 You also might want to check out Artner's Guide to American History; here is a thread I posted in telling about how we use it, and another one as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hearts4homeschooling Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 www.oldfashionededucation.com has a list of books for many subjects, one of which is American History. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staceyshoe Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 We are doing American history using real books. I started out compiling lists of books from various sources, comparing to a timeline of events, etc. Soooo time-consuming! But most of the history programs I found were far too structured for us. I finally bought the Truthquest history guides, and they have been wonderful for us. The books lists are in chronological order and categorized by topic with recommended grade levels. We also enjoy the commentary, but I know many homeschoolers love TQ just for the book lists. We've added in some notebooking and lapbooking elements as well, which is just a DIY thing. I may spring for one of the Truthquest binder-builder to see what that's like. I suspect it will save even more time and energy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chava_Raizel Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 You may want to check out the 5th grade level of Build Your Library - it's history and literature combined and it covers American history through just before the Civil War. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luanne Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Thank you everyone for your input. I'll check these ideas out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DianeW88 Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 www.guesthollow.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2cups Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 My dd11 was doing an online US History class for history this year. She absolutely hated it! She complained every single day. I finally just gave up and handed her the "Compete Book of US History" and told her to read it. I also take a peek and give her other books to read on the topic the book is covering, as well as use lots of history dvd's. The other day she thanked me and told me how much more interesting history was now! She was literally not retaining anything from the boring class she was attending. She hated history. There really is no need in that with all of the great books out there. ETA....I am also waiting on some of the Drama of American History books I bought used on Amazon. Hope people are still chiming in here. From this description, it sounds like your daughter just read the book and watched some DVDs - did she do any writing or projects of any sort too? I'd love to do something like this with my 8th grader, but I'm not sure how structured it needs to be (if our state has no h/s curriculum requirements). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2cups Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 oops, accidentally posted twice. Sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 I have a fifth grader and we do World History every year from now on, but if I were going to do American History with him I would use: - Landmark books (cheap on Rainbow Resource Center) - Cornerstones of Freedom (I snagged 10 titles from library free pile) - Collier brothers' history. We own Civil War and I really like it. Flesh out with historical fiction, require written narrations, a timeline, at least three field trips a year, and voilà . History is served. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My3girls Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 Have you looked at the Genevive Foster books? http://www.amazon.com/World-Columbus-Sons-Genevieve-Foster/dp/0964380382 I am considering these with some biogrpahies and auto-biographies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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