pehp Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 I would like to know if anyone has any good suggestions here. I am essentially following the HUFI curriculum on the Charlotte Mason Help site, with my own tweaks and variations. This was our first week, and it has become crystal clear that the suggested American History text is not a good match for us. My 6 year old gets frustrated and annoyed with the text (the language is actually dry, in my opinion, and uninspiring). I get annoyed that I'm doing so much on-the-fly editing (swapping out 'savages' for 'natives' repeatedly, for instance, and omitting the bit in the first chapter that describes the natives as 'ugly'). I'm doing so much editing to make the story more palatable for him and less derogatory, and he and I are both disliking it. (For World History we are doing mostly CHOW, but I'm using a bit of SOTW too, since I have them both.) US History isn't vitally important at this age, I don't think, but my son enjoys history, and I enjoy *good* living books. Are there any US History books--a series would be fine, individual suggestions on independent readers would be fine....that would be a better fit here? I'm debating as to whether I should ditch US History altogether, but he enjoys the IDEA of it so much (he loves the GIST of the vikings story--but the telling in TCOO is just not a good fit!) that I would hate to get rid of it completely. Ambleside suggests Viking Tales as one of their Year One reading selections, but from what I can tell their others are British history. I just want my 6 year old to have a rich relationship with American History. And I don't want to be wincing through the readings. Ick. TIA for ANY help you can provide! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 I'm doing HUFI, too. And I'm substituting The American Story for TCOO. My kids are older (8 and almost 10), and I'm not sure whether or not it would be a little over the head of your 6yo, but I would check to see if it's at your library. It contains 100 stories of American history. The stories are in chronological order, but they are completely self-contained. I figured it would at least give my children an overview of interesting stories in American history. Doing one story a week, we will get through the book in 3 years, which lines up with HUFI's schedule for TCOO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 (edited) . Edited June 2 by SilverMoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 Also there is quite a bit of American history in the books that are scheduled for History Tales, so it won't be a total loss if you just skip TCOO and read the historical fiction together. Here's the list I put together from their suggested history readers: Y1 American History (Explorers - Pilgrims 1629 ) Leif the Lucky by D’Aulaire A Lion to Guard Us by Bulla Pocohontas by D’Aulaire Squanto, Friend of Pilgrims by Bulla If you Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by McGovern (opt.) Y2 American History (Colonial Times1629-Revolutionary War1776) If you lived at the time of the American Revolution by Moore Benjamin Franklin by D’Aulaire George Washington by D’Aulaire Mary Geddy's Day by Waters The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds Y3 American History (Revolution1776 - WWI 1917) Caddie Woodlawn by Brink Lewis and Clark Expedition –Landmark by Richard L Neuberger and Winold Reiss or Of Courage Undaunted by Daugherty Carry On, Mr Bowditch Children’s Book of America by Bennett and Hague If you Grew Up with Abraham Lincoln by Ann Mcgovern and George Ulrich Harriet Tubman, Wanted Dead or Alive! Daily Life on a Southern Plantation by Paul Erickson Buffalo Bill by Ingri D'Aulaire The Story of Thomas Alva Edison Out of Darkness: Louis Braille Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pehp Posted September 6, 2013 Author Share Posted September 6, 2013 Thank you--I am reserving The American Story from the library now, and will check it out! I am planning to use the other recommended history books--thanks for the list in one place!!--so I hope that will provide some more engaging reading. I kind of like the idea of having a spine also. Moon, thank you for the suggestions--my resources don't have to be secular. I will check those books out too. Has anyone tried the Hakim history series? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 (edited) . Edited October 30, 2022 by SilverMoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherry in OH Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 I have a list of (mostly) picture books covering American History from the French Revolution to the present. The list twines around CHOW chapters 75-91. PM me if interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoxcell Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 I second the Christian Liberty Press books i.e. American Pioneers and Patriots especially but we also liked Stories of the Pilgrims and Boys and Girls of Colonial Days. My kids also enjoy all of the If You Books(example, If you traveled west in a covered wagon etc.), the Jean Fritz books, The D'Aulaire bios about American figures, and Little House on the Prairie series. There are also tons of Step Into Reading and I Can Read books on US history topics that my kids read when they are around 1st-2nd grade. Here is my list of early readers. Many of these would go with a US history study. http://bobandabbies.blogspot.com/p/busters-second-grade-reading-list.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyraTooters Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 Subbing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 I also like the Betty Maestro books for that age. And Stories of the Pilgrims was one we read in November--we also read from this series of pilgrim/NA books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 My favorite book for that age is Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans (Eggleston). With my kids I also add another Eggleston book called A First Book in American History, but it is not as entertaining and it is written at a higher reading level. Both are old books, but they have been revised so they don't have the same issues as other old books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 A Child's Story of America is. . . okay. Some of the info was good, but I found that it was extremely biased in its political/religious leaning, way more than I even expected from CLP. I wouldn't hand it to a kid to read on his/her own, but I have read selected parts with some editing. (We also read This Country of Ours with a first grader, but again, I did edit it while reading out loud, and we had to stop to explain sentence structure/vocab to the first grader.) For a first grader, I would get a bunch of the "If You Lived" books and read those, plus whatever supplemental picture books your library has for various topics. We have a gazillion books on the Pilgrims, Colonial America, etc., and few of them are essential; just read whatever's available. My kids really enjoyed the Sleeping Bear Press books about the states as well; we read each state's book when we came to its founding (for the original 13 colonies) or its joining of the Union (for the rest of them), and we colored them on maps too, so the kids could see the country growing. My kids loved American Pioneers and Patriots from CLP as well, and it's Christian-oriented but not as heavily-handed as A Child's Story of America. For first grade, I'd also read the American Girl series, because those are a lot of fun for showing kids what daily life was like. Oh, and this book series is kind of fun if you enjoy cooking, although it's a little light, so I would only use it if you can borrow, rather than buy, it: http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Pilgrims-Cooking-Throughout-American/dp/0823951170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378650378&sr=8-1&keywords=food+and+recipes+of+the+pilgrims This is a pretty good series too: http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Days-Discover-Projects-Activities/dp/0471161691/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378650427&sr=8-1&keywords=pioneer+days Lots of good stuff for US history, although I have never been satisfied with the spine otions (I don't care for Hakim's tone, personally), so I cobbled it together myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pehp Posted September 10, 2013 Author Share Posted September 10, 2013 Thank you all! I think I have decided to hold off on American History for now. I'll add that in when we get to it in Hillyer (Year Two sometime), and for now, I'll just enjoy using CHOW and the many different books we have or have access to via the library for extra historical reading. I will explore US History spines between now and then to decide whether I'll stick with TCOO (probably unlikely?) or try to cobble together something on my own using different resources! This approach is probably simpler from the standpoint of being easy-to-understand, chronologically-speaking, too! Reading about Stone Age people one day and Leif the Lucky the next day can lead to confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 We also use CHOW only at this age and then add some supplemental books to it. Your plan sounds great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macmacmoo Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 We are planning on using the I Love America Curriculum (rainbow resources) once we finish moving. It's a nice spine with projects and activities built in. Looks like it will be a lot of fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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