keptwoman Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 We are scheduled for Early Modern next year. This year doing Middle Ages was a bit of a bust. We used History Odyssey Level 2 and it's fairly dry. I believe that history doesn't need to be dull and dry and textbooky. So next year I was planning a much stronger literature approach with Speilvogels Western Civilisation as core. However my DS tells me that he wants to learn about Explorers of the Sea, Sky and Space. While disappointed to let go of the precious 4 year cycle I'd like to have his buy in and if learning about these things awakens his passion for history well that has to be a good thing. So my new plan is to find lots of living books and original sources for the explorers study and make that the focus of the year. But alongside that for him to read his way through Western Civilisation with the freedom to stop and look deeper into anything that grabs his interest. Do you think that Western Civilisation could be successfully used in this way or are there other books I should be looking at? And if you have any suggestions of good books to read for the explorers study, well my list is short right now so I'm :bigear: TIA :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 I really like Western Civ, but only up to Moderns, so you'd be fine, imo. The 20th cent portion was weak. It seems to me that you would actually still be in the 3rd year of the rotation, just emphasizing the explorers, so it kinda works out! I think your plan is really good. I'd go ahead and have him read a few works of the 3rd year, but mix in some great sea tales--hey, you could do Moby and kill two birds with one stone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 Oh good idea for Moby! Thanks :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebeccaC Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 (edited) Have you seen Winter Promise's Adventures in the Sea and Sky? They have an older learners guide for high school kids and the authors used it with their high school age kids along with their grammar school kids. We used it last year. It covers the history of sailing, flight, and the space race. My boys loved it. We did do a separate science program but I felt it was fine for history and my sons loved it. The main history spine book for sailing was kind of dry an engineers history of the ship. My youngest loved it, won't write what my oldest thought of it :rolleyes: The book was, The History of the Ship by Richard Woodman ISBN 1585746215. If you want the spine for flight I'll have to go and look it up. Another book that was great.... got to go look it up post it in a minute but it has to do with explorers is Voyages that Changed the World by Peter Aughton ISBN 1847241468 this was my oldest sons favorite book. I fogot another book about explorers that we used some of called A Book of Discovery by M. B. Synge it is sold by Yesterday classics ISBN 1599151928 and can be gotten at Amazon. here is the blurb about it, A Book of Discovery by M. B. Synge A fascinating account of the world's famous explorers, including the early travelers in ancient times, the discovery of the New World, explorations in Africa and Australia, and the expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. Many of the explorers tell part of their story in their own words. Amply illustrated with reproductions of early maps and charts, as well as old woodcuts, drawings, paintings, and miniatures. Emphasis is placed on the explorers' 'record of splendid endurance, of hardships bravely borne, of silent toil, of courage and resolution unequalled in the annals of mankind, of self-sacrifice unrivalled and faithful lives laid ungrudgingly down.' Anyway WP might be something you want to look into. HTH Edited October 17, 2008 by RebeccaC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 (edited) Yes Rebecca, I've fair drooled at S&S actually. The trouble is that their shipping prices to Australia are extortionate, basically take the price of the package and double it and that's the price with shipping. AND the exchange rate is doing bad things. 6 months ago it was almost 1USD to 1AUD now it's 1AUD to 70US cents :( So to just buy the main program guide and the older learners manual would hit me in the pocket to the tune of about $285, and that's before I've even bought one of the books! I wondered whether they would allow me to buy just the older learners guide, but even that is likely to cost about $90 UG!! That's a lot of money for a book list!! Thanks so much for those book suggestions and yes, I'd love more! I do have the list of books for the main S&S program off of their shop site, but they don't specify the older learners books on the site. My DS is very into sailing so I suspect that books others would consider dry and boring he would devour. Edited October 17, 2008 by keptwoman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 We are scheduled for Early Modern next year. This year doing Middle Ages was a bit of a bust. We used History Odyssey Level 2 and it's fairly dry. I believe that history doesn't need to be dull and dry and textbooky. Hi, We are also doing Middle Ages for 8th grade history/lit. Are you using TWTM logic stage book list for this era? Have you checked out any docs from Netflix? I can't imagine doing Middle Ages w/o Netflix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 No we didn't use TWTM book list. We used HO and the books that it suggests. The literature suggestions have all been excellent but the rest of it is fairly yawn inducing, thorough yes but very very dry. I should have used TWTM list. It was DSs first year home though and I needed my hand held. I'm getting braver LOL I just googled Netflix to see what it is, sadly it's for US customers only. I must look into some of the Australian services to see what docos they have, I hadn't actually considered that. Thanks :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebeccaC Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Yes Rebecca, I've fair drooled at S&S actually. The trouble is that their shipping prices to Australia are extortionate, basically take the price of the package and double it and that's the price with shipping. AND the exchange rate is doing bad things. 6 months ago it was almost 1USD to 1AUD now it's 1AUD to 70US cents :( So to just buy the main program guide and the older learners manual would hit me in the pocket to the tune of about $285, and that's before I've even bought one of the books! I wondered whether they would allow me to buy just the older learners guide, but even that is likely to cost about $90 UG!! That's a lot of money for a book list!! Thanks so much for those book suggestions and yes, I'd love more! I do have the list of books for the main S&S program off of their shop site, but they don't specify the older learners books on the site. My DS is very into sailing so I suspect that books others would consider dry and boring he would devour. All you would really need is the old learners guide $15.00 and then buy the books listed in that at your local book store. It is no where near as many books as in their main package and there are some differnt books not listed on their website for the older learners. I bought the main guide and only used it for its video list nothing more. Everything for the older learner is in the $15.00 guide. You might want to get the Time line figures because the OLG uses them and it runs $10. Anyway I thought I would let you know this bit of info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 Thank you! Do you think they would sell me the OLG only? eta: I thought their notebooking pages looked really good. What did you think of them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebeccaC Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Thank you! Do you think they would sell me the OLG only? eta: I thought their notebooking pages looked really good. What did you think of them? I originally only bought the OLG and then I went back and bout the Captain's Log, Time line figures, and the main TM. This was about a year and a half ago. When I bought OLG I told them I wanted to review it to see if it really would work with my sons and then I would buy the rest. I told them I need to do it this way because of our budget and because my sons are twice exceptional. They had no problem at that time selling me just the OLG. So give it a try and see if they will. I also did not buy the whole set because I all ready owned more than half the books. I told them that when I ordered. Good Luck! Let me know what they tell you if you decided to try for just the OLG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 Thank you. I've emailed them to ask about the OLG, Captains Log and one of the books. Will be interesting to see what they say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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