Our two child things (5 and 2) are currently in Hawaii, but we are a military family, and we live where the Army tells us. This blog is designed to keep us in touch with our family and the friends we have made along the way, to offer insight into our turbulent military lifestyle, and to share our experiences as we try out "homing school." So glad you stopped by!

Friday, January 21, 2011

What We're Learning: Our Fave "History" Books

Our history curriculum is...well, non-existant, really. But, despite that, the child thing has learned a lot about history so far this year. Kids don't need structure to learn...at least that's my excuse for being disorganized.

To cover history, we pick out a couple of biographies or historical fiction books geared toward pre-k or elementary aged children every time we go to the library. And it is amazing the discussions we have after reading these books...the child thing is full of questions, so reading the books are just a jumping off point. She will learn the story of an interesting person, and while doing that, she'll also learn that long ago, women never wore pants was, for example. So even if our history lessons aren't structured, she is definitely building her knowledge of the past. And in pre-school, I think that's all you really need.

Here are some of the best "history" books we have come across this year:

I Could Do That: Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote - A very interesting and inspiring story about an American woman I had never heard of (I'm learning here, too!).

The Legend of William Tell - I love, love, love this book! The story of a Swiss hero, written in verse (beautiful verse, at that) and gorgeously illustrated. Read it!

Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln - This stands out from other biographies about the 16th president because it is infused with his quotations. And I never realized how many good ones he has! This book may be better for older elementary kids, though, because the child thing didn't love it quite as much as I did.

Johnny Appleseed - The child thing was fascinated with this book, as was I. A classic story with wonderful illustrations...how could you go wrong?

2 comments:

Amber said...

Thanks for the tips! I'm always looking for good books to work into our schooling. The Johnny Appleseed link is the Abe link again... would love to see what Johnny Appleseed book you read though. We have a few but haven't found a real winner yet.

Amanda said...

Thanks, Amber. I think I've fixed the link. The Johnny Appleseed book we read was by Steven Kellog. He seems to have several really good books out there.