History - Fall 2009

We are at the start of a new school year, so I thought I would share some of the resources we plan on using, starting with History.

We do history 2 days a week (Mon & Wed), for about 15-30 minutes at a time. After I read from the book the kids illustrate the story in their history journals and I will write or help them write anything they want to say about it. We also place a picture with a little bit of information in our timeline notebook, and find the places discussed on our maps.

For World History we are studying the Renaissance & Reformation era. The books we will be using are:

Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation will be our main spine. This just barely shipped from amazon today, so we will be about a month late getting started. Last year we used HA Guerber's The Story of the Middle Ages, which told history in a story format (the link has sample chapters), and my kids had a hard time listening and following along. Too many extra details I think. I'm hoping with Famous Men we can focus on the stories of the important people of the era and fill in details (dates, places, politics, etc.) with later school years.

For history biographies we are going to read Bard of Avon, Leonardo da Vinci, and Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley. We might also read her Michelangelo book if we have time.

We will also check out library books, such as those recommended by Simply Charlotte Mason, to give the kids an idea of how people lived, what the houses and buildings looked like,

For American History we are mainly reading biographies (some fiction), and aren't really focusing on a specific time period. Some of these books I specifically want to read with them, and some I just already have and may include.

Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims
Path to the Pacific: The Story of Sacagawea
A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple (Mayflower, 1620)
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32

We will read also read The American Revolution

Nyah's Liberty Girls club is reading the Kaya books, which is the Native American - American Girl.

Austin's Knights of Freedom club is doing the American frontier era through the Childhood of Famous Americans series and will be reading Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, and Crazy Horse.

I also have the I Love America teacher resource kit which highlights an american history story each month September through May, which I sometimes remember to use.

There are also other subjects where we touch on history information, such as our Foreign Country Study, Composer Study, Artist Study, and Poetry, but history isn't the focus of these subjects so they aren't included in the history journals, but we do add important people and events to our timeline.