Have any of you done this? (Literature and History)

[parias1126]

I have always followed a complete curriculum when it comes to history and have always followed TWTM. I'm comtemplating doing something different this year after bringing my daughter back home to homeschool (she was in public school for close to two years, but is now coming back home).

 

She absolutely loves to read and loves Historical Fiction. I'm thinking about purchasing some of the books from Sonlight's list or other lists (possibly HOD) and just letting her read for History while we concentrate on getting her caught up on Math and Grammar (they don't learn Grammar in public school and she has forgotten EVERYTHING). :(

 

I would love some ideas on how to do this. I'm trying to find a way to incorporate both literature study and History study at the same time.

 

Before we stopped homeschooling, we were using HOD's Drawn into the Heart of Reading and she absolutely loved it. I don't want to go with all of HOD again though and was wondering if maybe I can utilize that program in some way and just choose my own books.

 

I'm just typing as I think here and really not sure exactly how I want this to work. I've also looked at peony press literature guides and thought of going that route. I've looked at Memoria Press Literature, but don't really want an entire program like that. I'd like to piece together the books that she would be interested in reading. I want to stay geared towards books like maybe Mara Daughter of the Nile or others that may be geared towards girls. I know HOD has a girls list with some of their lists.

 

Anyway, I would love any ideas you may have on how I could do this! I would also love to do the same thing for Science and maybe do a Science Reader one week and Historical Fiction the followng week.

[MerryAtHope]

So...are you saying you want to only read historical fiction and not have a history spine of any sort? If so, I haven't done that--but I have chosen a history spine and then chosen my own lit and read-alouds (using mainly Sonlight but also some other lists), rather than go with a straight curriculum. It's kind of "Sonlight-eclectic." I found that we almost always liked Sonlight's reader/read-aloud books for lit, but were about 50/50 on the history books, and that SL tended to pack things tightly for us--and I like a bit more breathing room between books--time to think, absorb etc...

 

So I went from using the SL guide to following their one-page listing of books in order to use (listed by week of introduction), to making my own one-page listing of books we would read (with a few optional titles in case we need extras). I really like the freedom of picking and choosing the books from lists I know we'll probably like, and the freedom of being able to drop a book from a list and simply moving on to the next one if there's too many books etc...

 

For science, I let my youngest do a "scheduled unschooling" sort of approach. I asked her to do something for 30-45 minutes, but she could choose what to do--read (in books we had chosen together and had on hand for the year), do experiments (she was responsible for making sure we had supplies or putting needed items on a grocery list), nature-journaling, drawing or putting notes in her note-book, explore, whatever. I would check in with her a couple of times a week to see what she was choosing to do, and I did ask that she put something in her notebook weekly. She flourished with this approach--so much so that I was almost worried about going to a structured science class in high school, but she transitioned easily into biology last year. 

 

Not sure if any of this is what you have in mind...but I think if you are hoping to alternate history and science by weeks or by units, that should be easy enough to do. I like using time as a way of keeping me from over-scheduling things (so I can say, "read this much, or stop when you spend this much time..." until I have a feel for what a good pace is.)

 

Merry :-)

[parias1126]

So...are you saying you want to only read historical fiction and not have a history spine of any sort? If so, I haven't done that--but I have chosen a history spine and then chosen my own lit and read-alouds (using mainly Sonlight but also some other lists), rather than go with a straight curriculum. It's kind of "Sonlight-eclectic." I found that we almost always liked Sonlight's reader/read-aloud books for lit, but were about 50/50 on the history books, and that SL tended to pack things tightly for us--and I like a bit more breathing room between books--time to think, absorb etc...

 

So I went from using the SL guide to following their one-page listing of books in order to use (listed by week of introduction), to making my own one-page listing of books we would read (with a few optional titles in case we need extras). I really like the freedom of picking and choosing the books from lists I know we'll probably like, and the freedom of being able to drop a book from a list and simply moving on to the next one if there's too many books etc...

 

For science, I let my youngest do a "scheduled unschooling" sort of approach. I asked her to do something for 30-45 minutes, but she could choose what to do--read (in books we had chosen together and had on hand for the year), do experiments (she was responsible for making sure we had supplies or putting needed items on a grocery list), nature-journaling, drawing or putting notes in her note-book, explore, whatever. I would check in with her a couple of times a week to see what she was choosing to do, and I did ask that she put something in her notebook weekly. She flourished with this approach--so much so that I was almost worried about going to a structured science class in high school, but she transitioned easily into biology last year. 

 

Not sure if any of this is what you have in mind...but I think if you are hoping to alternate history and science by weeks or by units, that should be easy enough to do. I like using time as a way of keeping me from over-scheduling things (so I can say, "read this much, or stop when you spend this much time..." until I have a feel for what a good pace is.)

 

Merry :-)

 

Thank you Merry!

 

This has helped greatly. I'm really still not sure exactly what I want to do, but have a scattered idea in my head. I just want her to be able to enjoy learning and not have to follow anything specifically for these two subjects. I really need her to focus on her Math and Grammar so we can get back to where we need to be. I can't believe how much these children don't learn in public school.

 

My ideas are very scattered and I just really need some guidance as how to put them together. Your response helped a lot. I love the idea for Science. I may give her a Science notebook, choose some books and do the same thing you have done. Where did you get your ideas for Science readers? Did you also use Sonlight?

[fourcornersacademy]

check out beautiful feet books.  That might be another option http://bfbooks.com/

[Farrar]

I've taught that way when I was classroom teaching and I thought it worked well. Just a long list of historical fiction and materials to support that. It was a good year. So I say go for it.

[Leav97]

Something like this?  http://buildyourlibrary.com/

 

 

[MerryAtHope]

 

 

Where did you get your ideas for Science readers? Did you also use Sonlight?

 

Some years, yes. One year we used a bunch of the Tiner books, I like those a lot. We used Apologia one year...Noeo science is another you could look at, they have more science biographies included with the other science books that you could consider. I've never used Real Science 4 Kids, but I have a friend who likes those too. 

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

Something like this? http://buildyourlibrary.com/

BYL is newer but we like it!

[JudoMom]

I have always followed a complete curriculum when it comes to history and have always followed TWTM. I'm comtemplating doing something different this year after bringing my daughter back home to homeschool (she was in public school for close to two years, but is now coming back home).

 

She absolutely loves to read and loves Historical Fiction. I'm thinking about purchasing some of the books from Sonlight's list or other lists (possibly HOD) and just letting her read for History while we concentrate on getting her caught up on Math and Grammar (they don't learn Grammar in public school and she has forgotten EVERYTHING). :(

 

I would love some ideas on how to do this. I'm trying to find a way to incorporate both literature study and History study at the same time.

 

Before we stopped homeschooling, we were using HOD's Drawn into the Heart of Reading and she absolutely loved it. I don't want to go with all of HOD again though and was wondering if maybe I can utilize that program in some way and just choose my own books.

 

I'm just typing as I think here and really not sure exactly how I want this to work. I've also looked at peony press literature guides and thought of going that route. I've looked at Memoria Press Literature, but don't really want an entire program like that. I'd like to piece together the books that she would be interested in reading. I want to stay geared towards books like maybe Mara Daughter of the Nile or others that may be geared towards girls. I know HOD has a girls list with some of their lists.

 

Anyway, I would love any ideas you may have on how I could do this! I would also love to do the same thing for Science and maybe do a Science Reader one week and Historical Fiction the followng week.

 

This year we took a break from the 4 year cycle and did American History.  For my 3 younger boys' literature, I picked a bunch of books from Sonlight and Veritas Press and my friends' suggestions and found books on my shelves.  I put them in chronological order on the shelf and just had them read through them.  I'd periodically ask them about what they read. 

 

They did have a history spine to read (younger 2 read The Complete Book of US History, and middle boy read Hakim's US History books).

 

[Carol in Cal.]

You might want to look at Steward Ship.

[parias1126]

Some years, yes. One year we used a bunch of the Tiner books, I like those a lot. We used Apologia one year...Noeo science is another you could look at, they have more science biographies included with the other science books that you could consider. I've never used Real Science 4 Kids, but I have a friend who likes those too. 

 

I had forgotten about Noeo! I'm going to check that out now. Thanks for the reminder. I haven't heard of Tiner so I'll check that out too. :)

 

[parias1126]

This year we took a break from the 4 year cycle and did American History.  For my 3 younger boys' literature, I picked a bunch of books from Sonlight and Veritas Press and my friends' suggestions and found books on my shelves.  I put them in chronological order on the shelf and just had them read through them.  I'd periodically ask them about what they read. 

 

They did have a history spine to read (younger 2 read The Complete Book of US History, and middle boy read Hakim's US History books).

 

 

I'm looking at both of these and I'm really liking them. I'm now thinking of going with Hakim's US History books and using them as a spine. I'm looking at RR and wondering if the set I'm looking at comes with everything I need. I'm seeing that I need an additional student book or teacher's book?

[Sahamamama]

Thank you Merry!

 

This has helped greatly. I'm really still not sure exactly what I want to do, but have a scattered idea in my head. I just want her to be able to enjoy learning and not have to follow anything specifically for these two subjects. I really need her to focus on her Math and Grammar so we can get back to where we need to be. I can't believe how much these children don't learn in public school.

 

My ideas are very scattered and I just really need some guidance as how to put them together. Your response helped a lot. I love the idea for Science. I may give her a Science notebook, choose some books and do the same thing you have done. Where did you get your ideas for Science readers? Did you also use Sonlight?

 

We're sort of doing this for our upcoming school year. Here's what I'm envisioning:

 

Literature & Language

Each student has a three-ring binder for Literature & Language.

• We will all be together for our Literature study this year, and I'm glad. No more separate books and study guides! :)
• The plan is for us to work through as many of the selections in our line-up as we comfortably can, without feeling rushed through a good book. This will not be when the girls read aloud to me (that is Guided Reading). Instead, I want them to hear a "mature" reader -- so that will be me -- reading aloud to them, as they follow along in their own copies of the book. If I can find the book on audiobook, we'll use that to save my voice.
• As we read the books, we'll learn how to read a book. We'll talk about author, illustrator, publisher, title page, dedication page, spine, jacket, table of contents, the parts of the book, etc. We'll talk about setting, characterization, plot, theme, conflict, voice/point of view, and genre. We'll record this bibliographic and literary analysis information on a page in our notebooks. We'll keep a dated log of what we read.
• As we read the books, we'll stop to discuss them. We'll talk about what certain words mean (we'll know when we get there). We might add vocabulary words to our vocabulary list for that book, with the page number, sentence or phrase, and a brief definition. We may add a map or other information to our pages for that book. For Mr. Popper's Penguins, we'll have a map of Antarctica and some information about penguins. For the Narnia books, we'll have a map of Narnia.
• If there is any fun activity that comes to mind for that book, we'll take the time to do it. For example, we will probably watch March of the Penguins when we read Mr. Popper's Penguins! We'll watch The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
• We're going to try to do Tuesday Poetry Teas at least twice a month. Bake scones, make tea, set out the jam and butter, read poetry. We'll see how it goes. Pretty tablecloth and all, LOL. Can you tell I have girls?
• The girls will have required A.I.R. Time (Assigned Independent Reading). Here, I tell them what to read, and they read it themselves and log it in their notebooks. This year, the A.I.R. Time reading will be from our Science and History resources (see below).

Science

Each student has a three-ring binder for Science.

• Each student will be required to spend 30-45 minutes (2x/week) working on anything related to Science (30 minutes for my 2nd graders, 45 minutes for my 4th grader).
• She must log (record) in her binder whatever she does for that work period (e.g., Title of book read/author/date read; or, "I watched the hummingbird feeder and recorded the number of times the hummingbirds came to feed"; or, "I listened to Lyrical Earth Science songs and learned the minerals song;" or, "We stayed up late and used binoculars to look at constellations and the full moon").
• Once per week, she must add something meaningful, thoughtful, and well-done to her binder (e.g., a summary of her reading on a particular topic, an outline of a longer book, a labelled drawing [life cycle of a frog, parts of a flower] or chart [a record of daily temperatures], or biographical report on a scientist). These should be filed according to the date completed (or we may decide we like topical better).
• The student must also add new science vocabulary and definitions to the Vocabulary section of the notebook (e.g., Magnetic field = the area around a magnet that attracts magnetic objects).

The idea here is to allow time for students, directed by their own interests within the field of science, to utilize what we already have on hand (or could easily supply):

• A ton of science books (including all the Apologia elementary science books, Read and Find Out Science books, One Small Square books, scientist biographies, science reference books, and many, many more)
• Science magazine subscriptions
• Science Pockets (more like paper-craft with a bit of science, LOL)
• Draw-Write-Now Books have some animals and plants the girls could learn to draw and label
• Nature study materials (collections, bug jars, books, trail guides, coloring books, CDs of bird songs, etc.)
• Science and nature CDs and DVDs (e.g, Backyard Safari, Blue Planet)
• Hands-on kits and science materials (e.g., weather station, binoculars, magnifying lenses, rock collections)
• The Happy Scientist subscription (website)
• Field trips & nature hikes

History & Geography

Each student has a three-ring binder for History & Geography

• Each student will be required to spend 30-45 minutes (2x/week) working on anything related to History (30 minutes for my 2nd graders, 45 minutes for my 4th grader).
• She must log (record) in her binder whatever she does for that work period (e.g., Title of book read/author/date read; or, "I watched Episode 37 of Liberty's Kids and learned about ___________;" or, "I listened to History Songs and learned the songs up to 1892;" or, "We went as a family to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty").
• Once per week, she must add something meaningful, thoughtful, and well-done to her binder (e.g., a summary of her reading on a particular topic, an outline of a longer book, a timeline [battle of Gettysburg, women's suffrage] or chart, or biographical report). These should be filed chronologically in the notebook.
• The student must also add new history or geography vocabulary and definitions to the Vocabulary section of the notebook (e.g., abolition = the act of officially stopping or ending something, specifically slavery; latitude = distance north or south of the equator measured in degrees up to 90 degrees [preferably with a drawing]).

The idea here is to allow time for students, directed by their own interests within the field of history, to utilize what we already have on hand (or could easily supply):

• A ton of history books (probably literally a ton -- we've studied American History for two years)
• American Girl books
• Childhood of Famous Americans
• History CDs and DVDs
• Draw-Write-Now Books have some historical scenes the girls could learn to draw and label
• Field Trips

They are looking forward to having more time to explore what we have on hand, discuss books together, keep notebooks for Literature, Science and History, make a few field trips (hopefully), and revisit the books we enjoyed so much these past two years. None of us wanted to move into Ancients this year, or begin a new, big Science course. Next year, for 3rd and 5th, we'll do Ancients and Science in the Beginning. :)

 

I think (and hope) that the girls will learn how to build their notebooks this year, with material that is at least familiar to them. I think that is a skill worth taking the time to learn. HTH.

[birchbark]

You may be interested in All Through the Ages, a book which lists literature by historical period, as well as reading levels.

[NatureMomma]

We have done this for the past two years.

We studied american history and I wanted something largely independent, so I purchased Queens a Living History of Our World as a spine. Every week she read a chapter on her own, and I made a book list from Sonlight, ambleside, and put it in chronological order. When she was done with one book, she moved onto the next. She liked it a lot!

We were playing catch up this year as well due to several years if chronic illness.

I had her orally narrate at times, and she read a lot of books she liked.

For science we did several of then living books on Ambleside, along with various nature readers, I required her to read a couple chapters each week, as well as spending 30-45 min. A couple times a week on something of her choosing.

Grammar- we started analytical grammar, and so far she's really liking it and its written to the child, and shorter lessons but seems very thorough. We are also doing language lessons by Queens which is written to the child.

We plan on doing teaching textbooks, and she also read poetry, and a written narration a week.

 

She's also 12 and will be doing 6th grade work mostly, and I'm trying to make it simple on her and me, and she enjoys the independent work.

[acsnmama]

We're sort of doing this for our upcoming school year. Here's what I'm envisioning:

 

Literature & Language

Each student has a three-ring binder for Literature & Language.

• We will all be together for our Literature study this year, and I'm glad. No more separate books and study guides! :)
• The plan is for us to work through as many of the selections in our line-up as we comfortably can, without feeling rushed through a good book. This will not be when the girls read aloud to me (that is Guided Reading). Instead, I want them to hear a "mature" reader -- so that will be me -- reading aloud to them, as they follow along in their own copies of the book. If I can find the book on audiobook, we'll use that to save my voice.
• As we read the books, we'll learn how to read a book. We'll talk about author, illustrator, publisher, title page, dedication page, spine, jacket, table of contents, the parts of the book, etc. We'll talk about setting, characterization, plot, theme, conflict, voice/point of view, and genre. We'll record this bibliographic and literary analysis information on a page in our notebooks. We'll keep a dated log of what we read.
• As we read the books, we'll stop to discuss them. We'll talk about what certain words mean (we'll know when we get there). We might add vocabulary words to our vocabulary list for that book, with the page number, sentence or phrase, and a brief definition. We may add a map or other information to our pages for that book. For Mr. Popper's Penguins, we'll have a map of Antarctica and some information about penguins. For the Narnia books, we'll have a map of Narnia.
• If there is any fun activity that comes to mind for that book, we'll take the time to do it. For example, we will probably watch March of the Penguins when we read Mr. Popper's Penguins! We'll watch The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
• We're going to try to do Tuesday Poetry Teas at least twice a month. Bake scones, make tea, set out the jam and butter, read poetry. We'll see how it goes. Pretty tablecloth and all, LOL. Can you tell I have girls?
• The girls will have required A.I.R. Time (Assigned Independent Reading). Here, I tell them what to read, and they read it themselves and log it in their notebooks. This year, the A.I.R. Time reading will be from our Science and History resources (see below).

Science

Each student has a three-ring binder for Science.

• Each student will be required to spend 30-45 minutes (2x/week) working on anything related to Science (30 minutes for my 2nd graders, 45 minutes for my 4th grader).
• She must log (record) in her binder whatever she does for that work period (e.g., Title of book read/author/date read; or, "I watched the hummingbird feeder and recorded the number of times the hummingbirds came to feed"; or, "I listened to Lyrical Earth Science songs and learned the minerals song;" or, "We stayed up late and used binoculars to look at constellations and the full moon").
• Once per week, she must add something meaningful, thoughtful, and well-done to her binder (e.g., a summary of her reading on a particular topic, an outline of a longer book, a labelled drawing [life cycle of a frog, parts of a flower] or chart [a record of daily temperatures], or biographical report on a scientist). These should be filed according to the date completed (or we may decide we like topical better).
• The student must also add new science vocabulary and definitions to the Vocabulary section of the notebook (e.g., Magnetic field = the area around a magnet that attracts magnetic objects).

The idea here is to allow time for students, directed by their own interests within the field of science, to utilize what we already have on hand (or could easily supply):

• A ton of science books (including all the Apologia elementary science books, Read and Find Out Science books, One Small Square books, scientist biographies, science reference books, and many, many more)
• Science magazine subscriptions
• Science Pockets (more like paper-craft with a bit of science, LOL)
• Draw-Write-Now Books have some animals and plants the girls could learn to draw and label
• Nature study materials (collections, bug jars, books, trail guides, coloring books, CDs of bird songs, etc.)
• Science and nature CDs and DVDs (e.g, Backyard Safari, Blue Planet)
• Hands-on kits and science materials (e.g., weather station, binoculars, magnifying lenses, rock collections)
• The Happy Scientist subscription (website)
• Field trips & nature hikes

History & Geography

Each student has a three-ring binder for History & Geography

• Each student will be required to spend 30-45 minutes (2x/week) working on anything related to History (30 minutes for my 2nd graders, 45 minutes for my 4th grader).
• She must log (record) in her binder whatever she does for that work period (e.g., Title of book read/author/date read; or, "I watched Episode 37 of Liberty's Kids and learned about ___________;" or, "I listened to History Songs and learned the songs up to 1892;" or, "We went as a family to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty").
• Once per week, she must add something meaningful, thoughtful, and well-done to her binder (e.g., a summary of her reading on a particular topic, an outline of a longer book, a timeline [battle of Gettysburg, women's suffrage] or chart, or biographical report). These should be filed chronologically in the notebook.
• The student must also add new history or geography vocabulary and definitions to the Vocabulary section of the notebook (e.g., abolition = the act of officially stopping or ending something, specifically slavery; latitude = distance north or south of the equator measured in degrees up to 90 degrees [preferably with a drawing]).

The idea here is to allow time for students, directed by their own interests within the field of history, to utilize what we already have on hand (or could easily supply):

• A ton of history books (probably literally a ton -- we've studied American History for two years)
• American Girl books
• Childhood of Famous Americans
• History CDs and DVDs
• Draw-Write-Now Books have some historical scenes the girls could learn to draw and label
• Field Trips

They are looking forward to having more time to explore what we have on hand, discuss books together, keep notebooks for Literature, Science and History, make a few field trips (hopefully), and revisit the books we enjoyed so much these past two years. None of us wanted to move into Ancients this year, or begin a new, big Science course. Next year, for 3rd and 5th, we'll do Ancients and Science in the Beginning. :)

 

I think (and hope) that the girls will learn how to build their notebooks this year, with material that is at least familiar to them. I think that is a skill worth taking the time to learn. HTH.

This is awesome, thank you for sharing!!

[HS Mom in NC]

All Through the Ages  http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/017073/a1198639ad2b9b1b6bb32f59   is a compilation of dozens of booklists organized by historical era, region, and includes fiction and non-fiction lists.

 

I did all living books for history when it came to 20th century world and American History for my high school aged kids.  I used mapwork from Blackline Maps of World History by Johnson, now sold as Maptrek for geography. http://www.amazon.com/Map-Trek-The-Complete-Collection/dp/1932786422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405626682&sr=8-1&keywords=maptrek  It's organized chronologically so we'ved used it every single year we've homeschooled and I started in 2000.

[Steadfast]

You may be interested in All Through the Ages, a book which lists literature by historical period, as well as reading levels.

 

Thank you for this recommendation!  I've been looking for just such a resource as this. :)

 

[sunshine clementine]

What about the red shift website, where someone has listed 800 historical fiction titles? Its organized by period and free. Hopefully someone will link it, I'm on my phone and clueless about such things.