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In this series of reviews, you’re learning about all the books we’re using this year!

Here’s how we’re using this marvelous, engrossing series: everyday, I read aloud about 3 chapters in The History of US. We want to finish the series this school year, so we figured out that’s about what we need to read per day.

Sometimes, I check in at the end of a chapter, should I keep going? And my audience of one usually says, “keep going, this is interesting!”

I’m finding once again, that one of the hidden benefits of homeschooling is the life-long learning that it awakens in the parent.

Again and again as we read, I say, “I didn’t know that!” And I swear I graduated from college, and took history all through school.

Oh! If only it had been this interesting!

I’m lucky enough to own the entire series plus the index and teachers manuals, though I haven’t used the teacher’s manuals yet.

We’re using the History Pockets books (previously reviewed, see below) along with The History of US, plus maps and a geography book.

In addition, we’ll be getting DVDs from Netflix as we go along through the books and the years. For example, we might get The Civil War by Ken Burns when we get to it in the book.

Right now, we’ve got map reading DVDs from the library.

This is another example of a history “spine” that I talked about in a previous post. See, The History of US is our history spine, but I’ll be adding other books as we go along, those books are great, but they’re supplemental, the spine book is the main thing, the organizing force.

It’s a great series, the author makes it interesting, a story, and doesn’t talk down or hold back. The back of the book says it’s for ages 9-100 or something like that. My friend who passed it down to me said it’s junior high level. My ’student’ is 5th grade and the level is perfect for us.

In the introduction the author writes that the book can be used at many levels, and that not everyone is expected to read every sidebar.

If you’re going to study American history in depth, I don’t think you could find a more comprehensive and interesting resource/spine/book than these.

I think a friend gave me this book. Thank you to her, because that’s vastly improved our homeschooling lives. No more complaining during spelling time. Our old spelling list was a list of random words.

The AVKO spelling book has lists of words that are related to each other and build on each other. So the first word on the list is a short word, and the later words on the list (some of them) contain the same ending. Themes within lists go on for days.

Here’s another cool thing: the instructions are that you correct the student right away when they make an error. How cool! They’re not going to write in incorrectly for weeks, only to find out on a quiz that they had it wrong.

It’s also nice and simple. There are word lists, do one a day. That’s it!

I really, really love this spelling book and highly recommend it to all homeschoolers, and also to kids in school who maybe need a different way to learn spelling.

One of the great things about homeschooling is that sometimes you’re learning, but you don’t feel like you’re learning.

And why shouldn’t learning be fun?

This is one of those areas where the parents have to overcoming their own schooling experience, and math seems to be the hardest to de-school yourself in.

Homeschool mom and speaker Kathy Wentz says that math doesn’t have to be a negative experience, she says that if you had a bad experience, why do you want to pass that bad experience on to your kids?

Here are some resources to help you make learning math less serious and more fun.

The board game Smath:

Co-op member and new homeschooler writes:

“This may not be attractive to the “seasoned” homeschoolers, but for those like me just starting out, I really appreciated this book, “Homeschooling at Loving It.”

And now on her website, there is a $6 discount, and many testimonials…”

The coupon code is = LoveToHomeschool

The code is only good while supplies last.

To order the book go to: http://www.homeschool.com/hli

This book is a great supplement to the study of Plymouth with young children. By the time were had completed ours, each child had a delightful “scrapbook/portfolio” of different aspects of Plymouth life.

The book explains how to set up your project “portfolio.” You can do all the projects or choose the ones you prefer (we liked them all). As we completed a project, we displayed it for awhile in our family room and then later it would go into the corresponding pocket. One thing I like about creating memory books or portfolios of subjects studied is that they’re fun to pull out later. This is instant review, hitting the highlights of what we had studied.

I found it key to run off all the copies needed ahead of time and get any unusual supplies ahead, as well (not much in addition to easy supplies such as construction paper, scissors, markers, and glue.) For me, having the whole thing ready to go makes all the difference in our really using it. We also found that there was too much coloring, so we just colored certain aspects of projects and left the rest white. It still all looked fabulous! On the other hand, if your kids love coloring, coloring while listening to a book read aloud can work beautifully.

Check it out at Amazon where you can “look inside.”

Nesthaekchen and the World War by Else Ury

-Great WWI novel that is a gentle but honest introduction to war. It is told from the perspective of a young German girl in Germany who starts out rather spoiled. As the story unfolds through her eyes, she experiences home life as a member of a war torn family. The story develops great depth as a situation arises which puts the reader in the position of loving the character but hating something she’s doing. Resolving this in the story is part of what makes this book so worthwhile.

This would be a good introduction to the idea that war is not fun and does involve death without going into the actual horrors of war. I also think the book gives some beginnings of insight into the question of why Germany played the role it did later in WWII. With all this depth, it is still truly a children’s book! I read the book to my two oldest when they were 8 and 10. They both loved it.

By Magellan Geographix

I’m all for kids marking and coloring black line maps to help ground them in geography as they study history and literature. But for quick, convenient maps which focus on specific aspects of American history that you’re studying, you can’t beat this atlas. We just pull this out right in the middle of our reading and flip to a relevant map which gives us a visual of what we’re learning. Might you have thoughts and questions like these while reading living books?

1. Where did the Pawnee Native Americans live?
2. That battle we just read about was interesting, but I’d like to get it straight in my head. Can I see it on a map showing me the highlights of troop movements?
3. What were the slave trade routes?
4. I know the Spanish had a lot of territory out west around 1800, but how much?
5. I think I would understand the Missouri Compromise a lot better if I could see it spelled out on a map.
6. I didn’t realize the extent of wind erosion during the dust bowl until I saw it on the map.

These and so many more thoughts and questions can be addressed by this handy, colorful reference book.

by DK Publishing

I love all the books in this series. Each book  takes a plot of land and shows how it changes from pre-history human occupation through various key times in history (such as Greeks, Romans, Middle Ages, Industrial Rev. through to modern times).

Because of the detail in these books, it would probably take several sittings to go through one together with your kids. Any would also be a great one to leave out on the coffee table. These are the kind of books kids will pick up over and over again.

There’s a small amount of text on each page. Then to help give the pages focus, around the edges there are “characters” which you can then try to find in the picture. –Cool supplement to world history study and just for fun.

Other titles in the series include A Port Through Time and A City Through Time.

by Magellan Geographix

Like the United States History Atlas by the same publishers, this book is an invaluable tool for us while studying history together. Being able to pull this out and flip to a map relevant to our reading can make all the difference in our understanding the events we’re reading about. It’s painless geography, really!

Here are some questions this title will help you answer:

1. If agriculture started in the fertile crescent, where did it go from there?
2. Where were the Minoans in proximity to the Mycenaeans in Ancient Greece?
3. Hearing about the different Germanic tribes who invaded Ancient Rome is interesting, but I can’t keep them straight. Who went where?
4. What part of India did the British control in the early 1800’s?
5. Where were some of the major battles during WWI?
6. How did Europe get divided after WWII?
7. Where was the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War?

These and so many more questions can be answered by this handy, colorful reference book.

Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield

Because a Shakespeare play is so difficult to read with its English from another time and place, a book like this makes the stories accessible to younger readers and listeners. Garfield has taken select Shakespeare plays and retold them.  I’d recommend reading a given story from this book or its second volume before reading or seeing a Shakespeare play in its original. –Kind of like reading the storyline before attending an opera or becoming familiar with certain classical music pieces before hearing them in concert. It ups the enjoyment factor of the real thing immensely, in my opinion.

While these stories are retold beautifully, they are not an easy read. To read them independently, perhaps one would need to be at least 13 years old, or even older. With an adult reading aloud and retelling much along the way, this book is working well for my 10 and 11 year olds. And while we don’t have immediate plans to head out to a Shakespeare play, this is a good read just for the sake of these most interesting stories.