If you have used the Guerber books that Christine Miller revised can you weigh in here? Are they good family read alouds or would they be better for independent narration?
We love these! I use them as my basic “spine” for most time periods. We read them aloud mostly, then the children narrate, although my oldest son who has ended up in a different time period than the rest of us has read and narrated them on his own. I think they are perfectly appropriate for both–the stories are complete, well-written, just the right amount of detail, a good length–plus we love the maps, pictures and reading suggestions that accompany them.
We love Gueber. There is one missing from Christine Miller’s website and I don’t know why she hasn’t reprinted it. It is The Story of the Chosen People and it goes very well with Module 1. It got my copy from Google Books for free to download.
Actually, the Nothing New release Story of the Ancient World is basically the Story of the Chosen People, with additional material added on other ancient civilizations. We have it too. We have the entire set, in fact. 🙂
Michelle, how does that translate into highschool work for your teen? Or is he still jh? I am so looking for those things we could do together, but it gets kind of picky here as far as what’s considered highschool level.
I am curious about high school too. It is always good to have great spines around the house. That sounded funny as I typed it.:) Anyway, I am all ears to hear about how far these books can take the kiddos in their education.
I would not consider these high school level for independent reading. Now, if you have younger children and wanted to add them in for family history I could see that working. Gueber’s books are setup like SOTW and MOH in that they start our easier reading and advance as the progress chronologically. Miller suggests them for K-6. HTH.
I’m doing module 3 – ancient Rome and had planned to use only the SCM book list, including the famous men of Rome, for my kids – 8yo and 5 yo. Should I consider adding this in or should I save it for the next time we cover this period? Will it be too much for my age kids? Thoughts?
For the ages you have what you are doing will be more than enough. But, if you find you have extra time (LOL!!) and desire to add in more history read alouds then I would definitely consider adding these but not because you will be lacking.
Could someone compare/contrast the original Gueber books with the Miller editions? There is a large price difference and so I’m wondering if it’s worth the extra cost.
It kind of depends on the book, Cindy. Which ones were you looking at? The two American history ones, and the Greek and Roman ones, differ mainly in the addition of maps, pictures, timeline and reading list. The other ones Nothing New Press has done have more major additions and editing. I just like the looks of the Nothing New Press additions and did pay the extra $ for them, and am especially glad for the ones like Middle Ages and Ancient World where there was significant input by Christine Miller to make a book that is more useful for me. But if the money is really a concern and you were looking at one of the others that the additions were less critical, I think you could do just fine with other editions.