Favorite History Spine?

[shukriyya]

In the ongoing search for that elusive perfect history material...please share with me your preference for a spine. I'm specifically thinking of things like aesthetic (think no DK ADD-inducing bullets), scope, readability and ease with which outlining can be done.

[sagira]

Interesting poll. I'm wondering how Dorothy Mills' history books would compare too. I own K12 HO and plan on using it in conjunction with Story of the Ancient World, Greeks, and Romans.

[redsquirrel]

I voted for the K12 book, but I used a combo of K12 and OUP books. It worked out very well.

[Arcadia]

nm

[TarynB]

I own the white Kingfisher, all three volumes (ancients to current) of K12's Human Odyssey, and two volumes of OUP's ancients series, as well as a Famous Men book and a couple others. I have a problem with collecting history books, LOL . . . find just the right fit is especially hard for us in history.

I voted for K12 HO as my favorite for middle schoolers.

 

I like Kingfisher as a spine for organizing an overview with more study added as needed/desired. The white Kingfisher is more narrative and better aesthetically, IMO, than the newer red one. (I haven't seen the very newest Kingfisher though.) The white is less choppy, although still very much at a summary level, with a few paragraphs on each topic, not just lists of bullet points.  The writing style worked fine for WTM-style list of facts notetaking & beginning outlining when DS was just learning how to outline but he can easily handle more now. So it was great in 5th grade and good for 6th grade, but I doubt we'll use it past 6th.

I wanted to like OUP a lot, but was disappointed in the lack of organization and flow in the one we used, just seemed to jump back and forth a lot within chapters. Lots of people here do like them so the series overall must be good. But my DS just doesn't want to spend as much time on history and OUP was way more detail than he cared for. I think OUP works well for those who enjoy history and really want to dive in deeply.

K12 HO is in the sweet spot for us. It is a complete series from ancients to current times.  Readable flowing narrative, not overwhelmingly long or detailed like OUP (for us), outlinable, visually uncluttered, focused on themes and connections (vs. just facts & dates), non-Eurocentric, secular, appropriate scope and relatively balanced, appropriate/relevant primary written sources and artwork. The reading level increases in each volume, so I think we'll probably stick with the series through middle school.  K12 HO combined with Kingfisher is all we use most of the time now, rather than trying to find supplemental books at our small library. The text itself doesn't contain chapter summaries, "goals for reading", review questions or anything like that, which was a plus for us as it ends up being just a book to read with no clutter. I bought the related K12 teacher guides used very inexpensively (for offline parts only, which is still more than I need) and find those useful for mapwork, essay questions, discussion prompts, etc.

 

As a side-note, we're doing world history on a 3 year rotation (5th, 6th, 7th grades), followed by American history with K12 American Odyssey in 8th grade, so the K12 books fit that plan perfectly.  (Schools in my state have shifted to American history in 11th grade due to testing, so we're probably going to do that too and won't have Am history back to back here either.)  One K12 volume is just the right amount for us to get through in a year. 

[Kfamily]

I voted for other, because we love the books by Dorothy Mills. I'll come back to this in a bit and explain why. :)

 

 

ETA:

 

We love the books by Dorothy Mills because of the following reasons:

 

• the writing is narrative-style, interesting and flows very well
• the author draws on primary sources and includes excerpts of these throughout each book (making it easy to add and further draw on primary sources)
• the writing is balanced (as far as I can tell) in that she does not uphold one faith or people over another
• the coverage is in-depth enough that at 400+ pages (for many of her books) I feel comfortable using it with a high school student (but with the addition of primary source readings) but engaging enough to use with middle school students
• the focus includes more than history in that Mills includes a feel for the people, their literature, their art, etc. (making this easy to use with a humanities focus)

 

The only drawbacks to these books would be that they do not include a study of the Eastern countries and stop after Renaissance and Reformation Times. To add some correction to this, I had my older daughter read through History Odyssey Volume 2 independently as she finished up Renaissance and Reformation Times. I have other plans and books for her to work through for high school (such as A History of the Modern World).

 

I try to add non-fiction books which focus on the East or on modern times to the books by Dorothy Mills. We use A Child's History of the World and Our Island Story in the early elementary years which covers both of these areas. In the mid-elementary years, we use the Foster books (George Washington's World, etc.) which includes a full world study as well. All of this helps us keep balance throughout the years but still allows us to use the books that we love and find are such a good fit for our goals.

 

Here is one of the books by Dorothy Mills...it is the only one that I know of that is available online for free.

 

Book of the Ancient Romans by Dorothy Mills Archive

 

 

I like the books so much that I've created guides for Renaissance and Reformation Times. You can find it at my blog (A Mind in the Light) under Book Notes, if you're interested in printing it. I've nearly completed the guide for Book of the Ancient Greeks (I just uploaded Week 20 out of 22 weeks) and am getting closer to being finished with the guide for Book of the Ancient World. I will take down the latter two books when they are complete by individual week and combine them into one large guide such as I did for Renaissance and Reformation Times. I do plan to write guides for Book of the Ancient Romans next and then finish with The Middle Ages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shukriyya]

Thanks to those who responded. It seems like history curric. is still as murky as ever :D

[foxbridgeacademy]

  

K12 HO has an unsecured pdf copy on their server if you want to read on your tablets/ereader instead of reading your soft copy

Do you have a link?

[foxbridgeacademy]

I voted for K12HO but it is closely followed IMO by OUP.  I own all the K12 HO and American Odyssey books, I also own at least 10 of the OUP (ancient/early modern mix), the K12 is much more affordable.  It is also as PP's mentioned better organized. I still like OUP better, I love how much detail there is.  For the sake of "moving along" though I'd have to go with K12HO.

[Clear Creek]

I voted other.  For 4th-6th I like the Famous Men series for the reasons that you listed...readability, aesthetics, and *very* easy to outline from.  For 7th and 8th my plan is to use the Dorothy Mills books (we are not there yet).

[Karen in CO]

I like Spielvogel's Western Civ book as a spine.  The OUP and Suzanne Strauss Art books are about equal and are good for a short focus on one period and people.  They have about the same reading level and are about equally engaging.  Any of the books available will benefit from the addition of some primary source material to help them be more engaging for logic stage. 

[MEmama]

 

We are loving History Odyssey 2 for 5th. DS is really responding to working more independently, and it's just the right amount--and type-- of writing for my reluctant writer. Those checkmark boxes are a huge incentive! :)

[shukriyya]

Thanks, ladies, for your input. Thinking we'll go with HO. I love the OUP series but they are too detailed for a survey approach. Maybe we'll use them supplementarily. Now to find a good deal on HO :D

[Arcadia]

nm

[sagira]

Arcadia, I haven't had any luck with Google; would you be so kind as to pm me too?

[shukriyya]

In the mid-elementary years, we use the Foster books (George Washington's World, etc.) which includes a full world study as well.

 

Kfamily, would you consider Foster's book, 'Augustus Caesar's World', to be comprehensive enough for a spine for Ancients?

 

[Kfamily]

Augustus Caesar's World covers civilizations across the world during the time of Augustus Caesar. If you would like to use it to cover all of the ancient time period, then you would still need something else for the Egyptians, Greeks, Assyrians, etc. I'll be using The Book of the Ancient World and The Story of the Greeks, The Story of the Romans and Augustus Caesar's World  as our main spines with my younger dd.  

 

 

[shukriyya]

Thank you, Kfamily.

 

[pgr]

I have been wondering this, as I've been researching for upcoming years - thank you for posting this poll.

 

I wonder if someone with the K12 link would please be willing to PM me as well? No luck with Google :(.

[nrself]

Me either.  Tried the advanced search on the k12 page with everything I could think of.  I'd like a link as well, please?  Thanks!

[JadeOrchidSong]

K12 HO PDF link, please!

[pgr]

I still haven't found the link - not sure if it's still active?

[shukriyya]

Well I went ahead and bought HO. It arrived this week and we've begun using it. It is very accessible and dc enjoys it as much as a child can 'enjoy' a history text ;) It's fairly detailed though and that will be trickier for outlining. Other than that I'm pleased with it.

[Mom in High Heels]

We use a combination of Human Odyssey and the OUP books.  The student and teacher guides for OUP are really good IMO.  HO is a great book, but they don't go nearly as deep into the subject as OUP.  We read the HO book on Mon, and then do the deeper OUP reading the rest of the week.  I've also found that HO sometimes includes more areas than the OUP books.  History is Indy's favorite subject.