Name: Teach Them Diligently (Branson)
Start: 2025-05-15T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-17T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Branson, MO

Tagged: Greeks spine, High school history, History overview, history spine, Romans spine, What is a spine

This topic has 11 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 9 months ago by blue j.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

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June 25, 2014 at 10:56 pm
Nina
Participant
Ok ~ more questions for you wonderful people 🙂 I posted on another post that I have 4 yrs left with my son who has had very little experience with history. I got wonderful advice and am looking for a little more, please.
I am going to use spines and history books for most of his literature. Not all but a bit. I want to go in order starting of course with Ancients and follow through to current. My question to you is what are your favorite books that cover a certain time period that would/could be considered a spine?
TIA!
June 26, 2014 at 12:17 am
nebby
Participant
Eva Tappan’s Story of the Greeks
Around the World in 100 years on exploration of Americas
Coffin’s Sweet Land of Liberty on settlement of US with a good setting of it in the context of world events
June 26, 2014 at 5:34 am
Wings2fly
Participant
We LOVED the SCM history spines for modern times: Stories of the Nations and Stories of America volumes 1 & 2. I really learned a lot reading it aloud to my children with modules 5 & 6. But it does state grades 1-6, so I am not sure if it is what you are looking for.
June 26, 2014 at 1:44 pm
Nina
Participant
My son is 15. So I am looking for spine books on his level for all of history 🙂
June 26, 2014 at 2:49 pm
sheraz
Participant
I enjoyed The Story of Greece and The Story of Rome by Mary MacGregor as our spines, adding in a few other books to round out specific people or events, including Famous Men of Greece and Rome as they came up in the spine. I am using them for my 13 and 14 yo who like them pretty well. We have learned a lot.
I have just started to read and get into the Middle Ages, so while I am reading some of those, I haven’t picked my favorite yet. =)

June 26, 2014 at 3:27 pm
anniepeter
Participant
Just a thought…for the quick survey of Modern History, the Stories of…here at SCM may still be a great solution. That’s what i ended up doing with my high school son. We had plenty of difficult books planned too, and it proved to be too much to have a spine that was difficult besides… while going at a rapid pace. This way he could breeze through that and get the flow of history while digging in to the more meaty books about particular periods of interest that were revealed in the spine.
June 26, 2014 at 6:55 pm
eawerner
Participant
I second the Mary MacGregor books for Greek and Roman history. I like the way they read better than the Geuber books and they have more of a story format than Famous Men which is more biographies.
June 26, 2014 at 11:19 pm
Nina
Participant
Thank you all!!!!!
I was wondering if I could still use SCM’s spines 🙂 Do you think it would be ok to use Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors?
And thank you about the MacGregor over Geuber. We have the MacGregor books already 🙂
June 27, 2014 at 3:48 pm
anniepeter
Participant
The SCM plans were developed to work for the whole family, and I have found that they do in the ones I’ve used. If you just make sure you’re not skipping the high school selections, I think you’ll be fine. The easier books allow you to cover a lot of ground in a light way, and then you dig in with the heavier stuff where you want to pause. If you’re adjusting the plans to cover ground more quickly, just make sure you balance the two. You can loosely track/estimate your time spent to make sure your course has enough material and time spent to warrant a credit. Roughly 150 hours (I think the ranges I’ve read and used are 120-180) or 180 if you want to be more rigorous. Also, I’m considering doing school year round for 4 years to get the 6 yr history rotation in. I’d probably still have to cut some out…but I think I’m going to try it with my soon to be 9th grader so we can make the whole rotation. Hope that helps a bit!
June 28, 2014 at 4:20 pm
Nina
Participant
I’ve thought about going year round to get in the full 6 yrs too. I’m just not sure it is doable for us. Arg, lol.
June 28, 2014 at 7:05 pm
Monica
Participant
I have really liked using Story of the World on audio for a history spine, and then filling in with appropriate literature/historical fiction. SOTW is a four-year history cycle.
June 29, 2014 at 3:05 am
blue j
Participant
We, too, like MacGregor’s books for Greece and Rome. We used Dorothy Mills books for Middle Ages and Renaissance and liked them, but be aware that she will go in a spiral type format – covering one aspect a series of rulers, then going back and covering a different area, etc. It seemed more combersome in the second book than the first, but still enjoyed them.