4Real Forums: Best living history for 7th-8th grader

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Topic: Best living history for 7th-8th grader

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nightgalaxy
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Posted: Aug 25 2015 at 3:01pm \| IP Logged

After homeschooling younger son, age 13 for about a year, I can see that he does much better with living stories (told in the first person) versus textbook style learning.

He is wiggly, sociable, imaginative, and loves to dream and tell stories. Often that means distracted, loss of focus and missing detail.

I have been looking at all middle school history options for him and have yet to decide what might be a good fit.

I don't think that a textbook that is a mile wide and an inch deep with lots of random facts is going to work. He needs a story he can sink his teeth into.

He is an average student, so need something right on middle school level, not above.

I don't think America the Beautiful or From Sea to Shining Sea is going to work as a text or a spine.

What have others used successfully for a child like mine? I want to make sure he is ready for high school in 2 years yet I want history to come alive for him. He keeps telling me that he keeps reading the same info over and over again on a textbook and it just doesn't stick.

Would love some ideas.

Thanks,

Beth

jawgee
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Posted: Aug 25 2015 at 5:16pm \| IP Logged

A few suggestions that have worked for my 13YO (who now loves history):

-Story of the World on audio

-other compelling history-related audio books. Check out Jim Weiss' recordings. My son loves those and often listens to them more than once.

-lots of historical fiction (I think Johnny Tremain was a book that turned my son into a history-lover.)

-the Simply Charlotte Mason spines (Stories of America and Stories of the Nations) have been successful read-alouds in our family

-movies or shows, when appropriate, to supplement the material. "Liberty's Kids" was popular around here for a while.

Finally, my son's love for history grew when he started memorizing some speeches and source documents with Classically Catholic Memory. When he memorized Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty" speech, it inspired him to learn more about the place/time/setting for that speech. When he learned the "Bill of Rights," he studied more about what each of them meant. He knows that this year he will be learning the "Gettysburg Address". Coincidentally, he just got back from Gettysburg with his Boy Scout Troop. He used some spending money to buy a shirt with the entire text of the Gettysburg Address on it.

Hope that helps.

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Monica

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Erin
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Posted: Aug 26 2015 at 11:13pm \| IP Logged

Beth

We've recently discovered HE Marshall's books - Our Island Story and This Country of Ours. Children are loving the first book.

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Erin
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jawgee
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Posted: Aug 27 2015 at 6:03am \| IP Logged

Erin wrote:

Beth

We've recently discovered HE Marshall's books - Our Island Story and This Country of Ours. Children are loving the first book.

My eldest listened to This Country of Ours on audio. He really enjoyed that book.

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Monica

C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
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nightgalaxy
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Posted: Aug 27 2015 at 4:51pm \| IP Logged

Thank you for all these ideas. Is there any Catholic component to any of these resources? Or is there anything problematic from a Catholic point of view?

Thanks so much!

ekbell
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Posted: Aug 28 2015 at 9:54am \| IP Logged

A good source of interesting history ebooks is the Heritage History website. They've been converting public domain children's history books into electronic form.

There's around 500 books, many of them biographies (ie about people) including Marshall's books. The Christian Heroes section has several Saint books (by Amy Steedman and F. A. Forbes among others) as well as a Church history series by the Sisters of Notre Dame. It also has a few Protestant books so some care needs to be taken. There are books retelling classic Epics and Legends, historical fiction and much else (including a comic history of the U.S)

A library pass allowing you to download every book (ePub, PDF and/or mobi) costs $40 for 3 years - the PDF's are optimized for printing.

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