Kendra (or anyone else) -- Living Books

[Paige P]

Kendra, a possible "help" for you AND a question ..... :)
First, do you have a list of the living history books you're using and what you're studying with them? I'd love to have a running commentary.... (Guess I should see if you have a blog up and running ;) )

Second, I was just ordering a couple of things from www.queenhomeschool.com and thought about you. They have SO MANY great-looking living books. They even have an Australian distributor -- Credo Trust http://www.credotrust.com (I went to the website, and they have a direct link to the Queen supplies). I don't know if everything Queen has is on the site or not; you may want to do the comparisons.

Hope that may help you or someone else :)

[Suz MamaFrog]

Paiage,

I have the list we used when studying British history the other year. It was from Ancient to Middle Ages and it was really to satisfy ds's "knights and castles" fetish, but you can have it if you want it.

Let me know, alright?
Suz

PS Kendra DOES have a blog. :thumb:

[Paige P]

Paiage,

I have the list we used when studying British history the other year. It was from Ancient to Middle Ages and it was really to satisfy ds's "knights and castles" fetish, but you can have it if you want it.

Let me know, alright?
Suz

PS Kendra DOES have a blog. :thumb:

Ohhhhh, that sounds great, Suz! Do you need my email? I have a little boy who loves knights, etc., too. Of course, I think he'll need to wait a while on those books, but it'll be good to have for future reference.

[Kendra AU]

Paige Can I kiss you?! :lol: An Aussie distributor often gets two thumbs up from me.. :D

I don't have a running list of books, but I'm "stealing" some of the book ideas from List 1 (http://www.pennygardner.com/history.html) & List 2 (http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/LITmenu.htm). Then there are books I remember reading as a kid and I use them. I wish I had more to choose from in regards to American history, but clearly that would be silly for my library to invest in. Thus my own personal library must be beefed up in these areas..

Because we're not studying history in chronological order we've used (or are using) these books thus far:

1. The Cabin Faced West (George Washington, Pioneer Life, & Westerward Expansion) -- it's an awesome book, but then again I'm biased as I read it at least 12 times as a kid.

2. By The Great Horn Spoon (Westerward Expansion, CA Gold Rush) -- this book is so fun. We listened to the Audio version some time ago and my kids fell in love with it to the point where they acted it out over and over. I'm devising a unit study to help us explore the US gold rushes with it a bit more

3. Little House On The Prairie (Prairie Life, Westward Expansion, Pioneer life, etc.) -- all of them really, but we'll be using the one I named to tie in with Three Names for Pioneer life.

4. Seaman -- (Lewis & Clark) this one is a slightly slower read, but really good and written more from the point of view of the dog. It's loaded with tons of awesome information though. Loving it.

5. I sailed With Columbus -- (Explorers, C.C., etc.) this is another terrific book. The detail is AMAZING, it's written from the pov of a young boy on the ship who was raised by monks. The amount of detail about ships is just amazing. We used this when we learned about Christopher C. when we rowed Ferdinand.

I'm currently rounding up books for the Pony Express, and it looks like we settled on a couple, but we'll get lots of awesome information about Indians.

We've also got many on the shelf we haven't read yet and they are waiting a tad impatiently to be opened.. I'm finding it slightly slower to round up books because I have to really scrutinize before ordering them, then find the best price, etc.. Plus, we're working on Australian History at the same time.

Which means I have a long list of those books, probably longer then my American list right now, because they are easier to come by. :lol: Not so sure they'd be of much help to you though.. all though I must say the book entitled The Australia Book or/and Are We There Yet would be awesome go alongs for The Pumpkin Runner. ;)

My blog is here (http://www.aussiepumpkinpatch.blogspot.com). I'm planning to start two running book lists.. Living Books for history.. and a read aloud log (which is often the same, but not always..)

Can't wait to linger over the book lists. Dh will be so thrilled. ;) :lol:

Kendra

[Paige P]

Kendra, thanks so much for the book ideas :thumb: Can I ask how old your boys are? My dc LOVE history so much, so I'm certain they'll be thrilled with some of these read-alouds. Maybe dh will even want to get onboard with some more evening reading. He spent about a year (little less) reading the Little House series to the kids in the evenings -- he enjoyed reading them and LOVED participating in some manner :)

[Suz MamaFrog]

Paige,

PM me your email, hun. I have it in either .doc or .pdf, can't remember which, so I can't send it through FIAR mail cause it won't do attachments......

Blessings,
Suz

[Paige P]

Kendra, who's the author of the Seaman book you're recommending? I've seen a couple on Amazon and want to make sure I get a "worthy" one.

Thus far, my library has NONE of the books you've recommended, so I may just buy a few ;)

[Kendra AU]

Paige, I've purchased all the books (minus Australian ones thus far) that I've mentioned because my library doesn't have them either. The Columbus one I mentioned I actually picked up used around here somewhere.. In fact I think it's an ex library copy. :lol:

Seaman: The Dog Who Explored The West (http://www.amazon.com/Seaman-Explored-Peachtree-Junior-Publication/dp/1561452769/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1248402667&sr=8-2) -- My only "con" to this is that the chapters are a bit lengthy and my six year old isn't always into sitting through them. I'm learning to read it at a bit slower that way. I had wanted to wrap it up in a weeks time, but why rush it.. they have a lifetime ahead right? :)

I Sailed With Columbus (http://www.amazon.com/I-Sailed-Columbus-Miriam-Schlein/dp/0064404234) -- This book is AWESOME, but I will also say it has lots of the Catholic prayers in them too. If it's not for you, they can be skipped and simply inserted, "We prayed."

I think, but I'm not sure, HomeSchool Library builder has The Cabin Faced West, unless I bought their only copy. ;) For some reason I think I saw it over there when I was looking for Pony Express books. :D

Can't wait to get my hands on the other book you recommended..

Kendra