Tuesday, January 17, 2012

History Chronologically and with Living Books

Homeschooling Hearts & Minds


This week's topic for the virtual Curriculum Fair is Exploring Our World: Social Studies and more Science. This theme can include history, geography, world cultures, worldview, biology, botany, geology, etc., etc., etc.

First, I want to say that each link above the red line on this blog post will open in a new tab if you just click it. That way you never loose you place here on my blog. Below the red line I will post the links to the other blogs participating this week. Those will take you to another blog. That blog should have the same list on it so you can continue to visit all the blogs that participate in the fair. The blog links should go up some time Tuesday as soon as I am sent the link from the hostess.

Second, I want to direct you to the link for the books we are using this year for school. This will help you see what kinds of things I use and specifically what we are using right now. Resources for the 2011-2012 School Year.

I guess you can tell from my title that I like to do History in Chronological order and I like to use Living Books. I could never explain how I plan our History in this little post. It would take up pages of space. You should get an idea of what I do and use by looking at the resources page above. I used to use Mystery of History as my base for our studies. I am now past the time period that MOH has currently published and had to switch. I am making due but don't like Truth Quest quite as much as MOH. I add to both with many, many Living Books. Books written by a single writer about a subject they were interested in.. which make us interested in them too. Truth Quest has a good list of books to read, but believe it or not, there are many books that we have in our collection or that we like and borrow from the library that are not recommended in Truth Quest. What can I say? I tweak every History guide I have ever used. I just can't leave it alone.

Next, I have for you a list of links that I use to plan and buy my history stuff. For some of them I have linked to my favorite homeschool supplier, for others to Amazon. I suggest looking for used copies of books before paying full price. Try: Amazon, Half.com, Ebay, Barnes and Noble or maybe you have another used book site you like to use.

There is only one difference to make note of. If buying books, used from Amazon, make sure you add in the shipping cost before deciding whether to buy used or not. If you bought all the books at one place, new, the shipping would be one price, and if you spend certain amounts might even be free. But, if the book costs less, including shipping, at Amazon than it is probably worth it. I have gotten books in good condition for only $0.50 at Amazon with just a few dollars shipping cost.

So, Where do I find books to use for History:
  • The Public Library (I borrow lots and buy some when they have their book sales, they sell lots of old books they think no one wants, but sometimes they are the best books in the Library)
  • Thrift Shops
  • Homeschool Conventions
  • Homeschool Companies
  • Scholastic Warehouse Sales (click on link to see if there is one coming soon near you)
  • Recommendations by local and online friends
  • Homeschool support group used book sale
  • Local Book Stores
  • A local, but state, surplus store that sells stuff the state wants to get rid of. I have gotten a lot of books from them. They cost 5 cents a piece for paperback and a whopping 10 cents each for hardback.
  • Local Teacher Stores (I don't buy a lot in teacher stores, but I have bought a few things so I thought I would mention it.
Now for Some of my Favorite Websites and just a few book recommendations.
    Favorite sites that sell History resources
    Favorite Sites that sell everything - including History
    Favorite books that have lists of Fiction and Historical Fiction books to use in your History studies
    A Book with a chronological list of people and events through all of History - Timetables of History

    Websites with book lists for History
    • Paula's Archives - Literature to Supplement History (note: though the books are listed in sections which are in chronological order each section is in alphabetical order and so not in the order in which they should be read. Some of my favorites on this page are the books from Bethlehem books... see link above)
    • A Book In Time - History Books, Projects, Crafts, Maps and Timelines (easiest access is by the links in the left sidebar)
    • Ambleside Online - scan down for an explanation of thier site and for links to their booklists or put your cursor on Curriculum to see their book suggestions by year. I mostly use their Artist Study and Musician Study lists each year put your cursor on Resources to see those lists and others for Nature Study... etc. The whole curriculum is free and online.
    Books to read/download from the Internet
    • Henty at Archive.org - download pdf's of most if not all the books ( lots of other books at Archive.org also.)
    • Henty at Gutenberg - download as text files (lots of other books here too)
    • Another Henty site - chronological or alphabetical list - download zip file or read online
    • LibriVox - free online audio books, in the Listen box click LibriVox Catalog and type in the title and or author to see what they have.
    • Do a Google search for free online audio books... lots of sites available
    While I am at it some other cool History sites (not necessarily with a Christian Worldview... most are not at all Christian... but interesting non the less)
    Don't forget...
    ... Make sure to check used books at Amazon and Half.com/Ebay, or your other favorite used book site before you buy.

    These lists are for all time periods. If you are studying a specific time period and would like some help finding resources just leave me a comment and I will try to do a post on the resources I use for that topic.
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    Here are the links to the other participating blogs:


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    3 comments:

    Susan said...

    What a great list of resources! Bookmarking for future reference.

    January 17, 2012 at 3:40 PM
    Joelle said...

    What a wealth of resources. Thanks for sharing. I am pinning this!

    January 17, 2012 at 10:39 PM
    Michele said...

    great post Deb! I always love to here what you do for History! You're ideas helped me have fun teaching this subject over the years <3

    January 19, 2012 at 11:38 AM

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