Do you use a spine?

Good questions. Let’s see . . .

How do you choose one and add to the planner?

You should be able to add a spine history book to the CM Organizer just like you would any other book. Select the chapters you want to use, the starting date, and the days of the week that you want to use it.

Can you plan a “spine” whlie reading literature to go with it?

Absolutely. That’s a great way to approach a spine. I also like to add other, more detailed, history books along the way. And biographies make great additions too.

What I usually do for the Organizer is schedule the spine book to show up every day we plan to do history, then schedule the “add-on” books using the “Use With” feature to tie them to the spine book, and the “Use After” feature to put them in the right order. They show up every History day and I just check off whichever one we read that day. I also will assign some “add-on” books as independent reading for the older children. In that case, I schedule the spine book for Family and that particular add-on for the Student.

What are good spines for K-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 for all periods of history?

Here are our suggestions for books for history. Some of our favorites for spine books are

• the Famous Men series from Greenleaf Press
• the Guerber books from NothingNewPress
• Genevieve Foster books
• Charles Coffin books

I believe the first three are recommended for 1-6 by the publishers, but I always learn a lot from them so I figure the older kids will too.

Does anybody have other spines they like?

From this list, for example, you would pull out The Story of the Middle Ages and The Story of the Renaissance and Reformation as your spine books. Schedule those first. Then I’d choose a list of books I wanted to read aloud (in my home it would be utterly impossible to read ALL of those above books aloud in one year!) I might try to “align” the books with where the student is reading in the spines, or I might not (I find this is not strictly necessary) Then I might choose a few more to assign to the child for independent reading (if I have more than one child in an age group, I assign the same book at different times to avoid competition in using the book) I wouldn’t feel pressured to use EVERY book here, but would use what I already had, and what seemed to fill a need for us. There are TWO Genevieve Foster books in this list. I might assign ONE of those, but not both–they are long, involved and wide-ranging.

Then I’d just set it up simply to do. For example, in my house, we might read the spine two or three times a week. Then, one other day, we may have a Biography set up to read. On another day, a historical fiction book. So we are concurrently reading three books related to history, but of different types. Then I’d just, as they finished one book, line up another of the same type to read.

For example, from the above list for my next year’s 7th grader, I might schedule the two spines, consider ONE of the Foster books, pick out another biography or two, then add in tales/legends or fiction, one or two. If I had an Arthur fan, or a Robin Hood one, I’d be sure to include at least one of those, one good solid biography, perhaps about an important Reformation figure, then fill in with what I had already. I like to have at least one scientist biography, too.

So my schedule MIGHT look like this: on Tuesday and Thursday, read the appropriate Guerber spine. On Mondays, read a Foster book. On Wednesdays, a biography. On Fridays, a historical fiction. Or perhaps we’d read the historical fiction as a family read-aloud in the evening.

That’s just an example. You’d want to choose the books your children need, and set it up in your own way.

Does that help?

Michelle D

I realize this is an old thread, but I have a question pertaining to it, it just seems like a LOT of reading to fit in, when do you find the time to read all these, especially outloud? And then if you space out the books read concurrently, will it take forever to read them all? And then if this is just for history, what about the literature and science and other books that must be read? I’m just trying to get a grip on how to practically accomplish what needs to be done. Thanks for any input!

Blessings, Lisa

children ages 13, 11, and 9