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CatholicMommy
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I think that Eggleston's book, read together, along with some extended reading in areas of interest would be enough for high school - certainly more than I really got in public high school ;)
The Reader's Guide also offers suggested activities, focuses on key dates, and fills in information about this past century (which Eggleston's book won't touch anything after 1888).
Just flesh it out with reading of choice; perhaps some sort of project (timeline or the like)....
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Mackfam
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I don't think "spines" are necessary, and if your dd has been struggling with FSTSS for awhile, it would be completely fine to stick with living books for a bit and really focus on working in a Book of Centuries...at least while you research this more.
Keep in mind that the books/authors you mention are available to read/preview online and I'd highly recommend that before choosing another. You know best the reading level and abilities of your dd and previewing these books will yield a better sense of whether or not the book will fit...or not.
Which Eggleston book are you looking at for American History???? Because I don't know of any that I'd give to a 14yo/high schooler. Including A First Book In American History. It is a good book; yet I have always considered a high schooler/14yo ready to read/approach something more...something with more meat, content and scholarly writing. But perhaps there is another Eggleston book out there I'm not familiar with, so I thought I'd ask. ??
I notice that you're intentionally trying to choose "easy books" for your 14yo? Should we be brainstorming around an appropriate reading level or perhaps your dd is working at a particular grade level-ish? Knowing that would help me make recommendations. Because off the top of my head - for a high schooler, I'd recommend books like Bennett's America: The Last Best Hope or Clarence Carson's excellent series, A Basic History of the United States. Both are excellent, with the latter containing more scholarly writing.
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Mackfam
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CatholicMommy wrote:
The Reader's Guide also offers suggested activities, focuses on key dates, and fills in information about this past century (which Eggleston's book won't touch anything after 1888).
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I have had this Reader's Guide by Memoria Press for a number of years, and it is excellent for recommending a great variety of age appropriate booklists for American History. Highly recommend it!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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Mackfam wrote:
CatholicMommy wrote:
The Reader's Guide also offers suggested activities, focuses on key dates, and fills in information about this past century (which Eggleston's book won't touch anything after 1888).
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I have had this Reader's Guide by Memoria Press for a number of years, and it is excellent for recommending a great variety of age appropriate booklists for American History. Highly recommend it! |
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I wanted to check on this quickly and confirm it...but this Readers Guide only recommends books for grades 3 - 8, so you won't find high school reading for American history recommended in it.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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Since I'm going through bookshelves this morning and sorting out books for the new term I came across another book I'd recommend for a 9th grader:
The Age of Revolution by Winston Churchill (Volume 3 of his 4 volume set, A History of the English Speaking Peoples) - this is excellent writing, but will definitely have to be read VERY, VERY slowly because it's NOT an easy read. Challenging, but very worthwhile! For a slightly more manageable approach, you could read Henry Steele Commager's excellent arrangement of Churchill's histories which he condenses into one volume.
Also, some recommend Paul Johnson's A History of the American People, but I've never looked at it so I can't tell you anything about it.
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Jen Mackintosh
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CatholicMommy
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What I have found with the Reader's Guide is not so much that it is particular to a particular grade level, but that it is organized by topic thus making it easier to discover age-appropriate resources.
It gets us in the right area of the library with the right topics - with a wide variety of reading levels there ;)
It also guides us to topic-appropriate videos and outings. Both of which can be geared for high school.
I did something similar for a US History course in college. I was doing the course online, could not purchase all the required texts for anything under $400 (for ONE class - at a community college). So I used the syllabus to get books and videos from the library, as well as other resources (I was living in Virginia at the time just outside of DC - perfect place to explore some of that history ;) ). I aced the class.
;)
Mackfam wrote:
Mackfam wrote:
CatholicMommy wrote:
The Reader's Guide also offers suggested activities, focuses on key dates, and fills in information about this past century (which Eggleston's book won't touch anything after 1888).
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I have had this Reader's Guide by Memoria Press for a number of years, and it is excellent for recommending a great variety of age appropriate booklists for American History. Highly recommend it! |
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I wanted to check on this quickly and confirm it...but this Readers Guide only recommends books for grades 3 - 8, so you won't find high school reading for American history recommended in it. |
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CatholicMommy
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Mackfam wrote:
Which Eggleston book are you looking at for American History???? Because I don't know of any that I'd give to a 14yo/high schooler. Including A First Book In American History. It is a good book; yet I have always considered a high schooler/14yo ready to read/approach something more...something with more meat, content and scholarly writing. But perhaps there is another Eggleston book out there I'm not familiar with, so I thought I'd ask. ??
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The book I am referring to is A History of the United States and Its People.
I have something of a kind-of-review here:
http://montessoritrails.blogspot.com/2012/10/american-histor y.html
Since the writing of that review, I have had local people here tell me they would like to switch to something similar for their middle and high schoolers - because the textbooks they are using (a wide variety of them) are not of any use at all.
Living books, outlines and a good overview is my personal preference ;)
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hsmom
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I will get this from the library later today to check it out. The Eggleston book for 12+ was the one mentioned above. If something is recommended for the 9th grade it is probably too advanced. Early middle school books would work best. Thanks.
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CatholicMommy
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Interestingly enough, I went to look up "A First Book in American History" because I didn't think I'd heard heard of it before (I had and had chosen against its use for our current needs) - and I discovered the various sources of biographical information on Edward Eggleston have different titles for the books, even with different publication years. Some sites have the same information, many vary. Odd!
This has all three main texts I had considered - http://www.lostclassicsbooks.com/catalog/2 - only the middle one is written for ages 12 and up, and it is meaty enough.
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hsmom
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Good to know. It is very reasonably priced. I also noticed that chapters are only 4 pages long, an extra added benefit. 
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AmandaV
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CatholicMommy wrote:
Mackfam wrote:
Which Eggleston book are you looking at for American History???? Because I don't know of any that I'd give to a 14yo/high schooler. Including A First Book In American History. It is a good book; yet I have always considered a high schooler/14yo ready to read/approach something more...something with more meat, content and scholarly writing. But perhaps there is another Eggleston book out there I'm not familiar with, so I thought I'd ask. ??
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The book I am referring to is A History of the United States and Its People.
I have something of a kind-of-review here:
http://montessoritrails.blogspot.com/2012/10/american-histor y.html
Since the writing of that review, I have had local people here tell me they would like to switch to something similar for their middle and high schoolers - because the textbooks they are using (a wide variety of them) are not of any use at all.
Living books, outlines and a good overview is my personal preference ;) |
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Here is a link to the sample of this book:
History sample
CatholicMommy, what age are you using this for? We've used Eggleston's other books and I had thought of this one for 4th or 5th grade.
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CatholicMommy
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It is admittedly hard for me to judge the actual reading level. I know many 4th/5th graders who would get NOTHING out of this book because they are just not ready for it.
The reading level of A History of the United States and Its People is stated as 12 and older; I would generally agree with this assessment. Not so much because the language is too hard, but because of the maturity level of the students (there is reference to cannibalism by some of the earliest settlers); the questions at the end of each chapter are more appropriate for middle school and older (I skim them with my own son but only because we have a different intent of purpose - we're not using "as" a textbook). And there is an expectation that one doesn't need flowery language and things glossed over - it's a narrative, but it covers the facts.
With that said, my son is 8. He reads at a high school reading level; is participating in a middle school literature class on the Lord of the Rings and his only complaints are related to the depth - it seems he would be more appropriately placed in the high school group for that particular study.
Back on the history book, I also have two middle school young ladies (family friends) who find this book suited more to their own levels than other history books we tried out. These girls are 13 and 15 now.
I'm not sure that was any help ;) It might be worth checking to see if the library has it to preview it?
Here is the Google link that might have it online:
http://books.google.com/books/about/A_History_of_the_United_ States_and_Its_P.html?id=sLobAAAAMAAJ
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MNMommy
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stellamaris wrote:
To get through a denser text, such as From Sea to Shining Sea, I would really focus on consistent narration. You will not be able to cover as much material, but your children will both learn and retain more, and they will learn as well how to approach a text.
Here's what we do for our history text:
Before actually reading the material, briefly review the previous lesson, and then introduce any new words/ideas/background knowledge needed to understand the selection. If the text refers to any geographical location(s), locate it(them) on a map. Then,
1) Read a smallish portion (usually 1-3 paragraphs). I only rarely read aloud. Usually, I have the children take turns reading the material. Sometimes, I'll ask them to read silently.
2) After reading once, ask the children to narrate the selection.
3) Read another portion. Narrate that. Continue this read/narrate process for the time allotted for the subject.
4) Wrap up the lesson by asking a "thinking question" about the material you have covered. |
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My 5th grader is going through FSTSS this year, and this is exactly how we are handling the reading. It's not an indepedent book at all, but she's learning how to read more difficult text. I tried to have her read it indepedently, but she just wasn't ready yet. I'm hoping she'll be ready in another couple of months after I've modeled how to read the test.
I'm also looking at the Our Lady of Victory American History option, but I don't want to buy another 5th grade American History book.
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AmandaV
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CatholicMommy wrote:
It is admittedly hard for me to judge the actual reading level. I know many 4th/5th graders who would get NOTHING out of this book because they are just not ready for it.
The reading level of A History of the United States and Its People is stated as 12 and older; I would generally agree with this assessment. Not so much because the language is too hard, but because of the maturity level of the students (there is reference to cannibalism by some of the earliest settlers); the questions at the end of each chapter are more appropriate for middle school and older (I skim them with my own son but only because we have a different intent of purpose - we're not using "as" a textbook). And there is an expectation that one doesn't need flowery language and things glossed over - it's a narrative, but it covers the facts.
With that said, my son is 8. He reads at a high school reading level; is participating in a middle school literature class on the Lord of the Rings and his only complaints are related to the depth - it seems he would be more appropriately placed in the high school group for that particular study.
Back on the history book, I also have two middle school young ladies (family friends) who find this book suited more to their own levels than other history books we tried out. These girls are 13 and 15 now.
I'm not sure that was any help ;) It might be worth checking to see if the library has it to preview it?
Here is the Google link that might have it online:
http://books.google.com/books/about/A_History_of_the_United_ States_and_Its_P.html?id=sLobAAAAMAAJ |
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I missed your reply, sorry! I found a link on archive as well:
A History of the United States and its People
Any other opinions of this book? It does seem living to me.
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Angel
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I'm coming to this thread late, but...
After reading the sample of this book, I'd have to say that in my opinion:
*It does sound like a living book.
*I would probably give it to my 13 year old to read - not because she has difficulties with reading, but because history is not her "thing" and giving her the kind of dense history book that my ds was reading at her age would probably be counterproductive.
*I would not give it to my hs-aged ds (10th grade) because it doesn't seem quite at that level... but it does seem nice for a middle-schooler (which is what it seems to be targeted for?)
*I would probably read it aloud to my dyslexic 9 yo and I imagine he would enjoy it.
My 13 yo has been reading Landmark books and historical fiction thus far this year and enjoying it, which was my goal over other goals for her and history. I consider the Landmark books to really be below what she could actually handle (she reads quite sophisticated books in natural history), but since she is technically 8th grade, I thought we had some leeway.
For the record, my 10th grade ds who in general likes history does not really like American history, and it has been somewhat challenging this year to find texts that work for him. In fact, I think I am failing miserably! I am considering handing him either Churchill's book, which we own (he has read and enjoyed vol. 1 in that series) or Paul Johnson's book, A History of the American People (which Jen linked to also), and calling it good. This is not an easy text either, though, and it is rather intimidatingly thick. Our usual approach is to have some big, comprehensive books (or textbooks) around for reference, but mainly to study history through lots of smaller, more focused living books, both fiction and non-fiction, so this would be somewhat of a departure for us.
(To come back around to the original post, this is basically how we use FSTSS... as a reference book, not as our primary read aloud... although I do read aloud bits and pieces from it occasionally.)
I'll throw out a couple of other titles that are new to us this year, for elementary and middle school-ish American history:
A History for Peter, which is a 3 volume set. My dh read the first two volumes to my 9 yo and 7 yo twins this year. He ran into a few problems -- most notably, I don't think he agreed with the standard line on the "robber barons" -- but for the most part, they seemed to be pretty good books. I also picked up The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Great Republic from Memoria Press because I was going to use it as a sort of spine for middle school history, at least. I haven't really used it in that fashion yet, but it does sort of give itself to reading in small bits, as the chapters are short.
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SeaStar
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Bumping this thread up...
I am using Simply Charlotte Mason's Stories of America this year for history.
I read each chapter aloud from the main text, and then the kids have their own grade level books to read and narrate from.
We are finding the FSTSS is a fantastic supplement for us. The pictures are great, since the CM text has none. But what I am really liking is the detail.
I am finding that this text works very well for us as a read aloud to compliment what we are reading in our other books. It has a very living style. And it adds a solid Catholic element.
I almost did not buy this book after reading all the comments on this thread, but now I am really glad I gave it a chance.
Again- it is the detail that is drawing us in. Ex: The story of John Rolfe marrying Pocohantas is fascinating on many levels, but most books only briefly mention it. FSTSS goes into detail about it- I never realized that it was not only a love match but also a very wise political move. Just neat stuff like that... 
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