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History resource must have's?
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We are gearing up for Modern. I have compiled a list of the SCM recommended resources for US and World History. Whew! I have children in all three forms, so the list is long! And unfortunately, my local library only carries a few of them. For those that have done this loop in the cycle, which of the recommended resources would you say are the absolutely must-have selections? Are there any that you didn’t do/didn’t enjoy? If I purchase every book new, we won’t be able to eat or buy clothes, lol, so I’m thinking I need to look for other options. Any advice is appreciated! Thank you.
We haven’t done this level yet, but I’ve already started keeping an eye out for the books. The list is a bit intimidating! I will say we’ve enjoyed the Elizabeth Mann books scheduled in the Ancients years, so we’ll definitely be reading at least one of those.
Do you have inter-library loan? Our library has a couple dozen libraries in their system that we can easily borrow from. I can usually find most of the books through the system if not at our local library.
My priorities for purchasing books are books we use for more than a few weeks or books I can’t find in the library system. I try to find books used through Amazon or other used book sites. Do you have a Half Priced books nearby? I’ve found several of the titles there for just a couple dollars.
Another thing I often do are look at other literature based programs. Sonlight, Veritas Press, and Heart of Dakota are just some of the ones I look at. By looking at their booklists, it gives me possible books to substitute. They may list a book my library does have or one already on my bookshelf. I try to sub in a book of a similar length and similar topic.
Another possiblility would be to combine the age groups a bit. Each of the older ages have a Wright Brothers biography. I would think you could use the same biography for grades 4-9. The same with Abe Lincoln.
Also, I often hold off on buying books we don’t need until the 2nd or 3rd term. I pretty much order our books year round. When I’ve finished buying for one year, I start working on the next year. We used to use our tax refund, but now we always seem to owe money at tax time!
We did this a few years ago. The ones I remember liking are the SCM book spines Stories of America and Stories of the World, and the Dog story. Then from Amazon, the one by HA Rey and the picture book on Churchill. I would use a mix of the younger books and older books combined for the middle age group, to shorten your booklist. For biographies, I would use whatever your library has, age appropriate. Maybe even Childhood of Famous Americans series. I buy used 6 for $15 at betterworldbooks with a SALE tag. Or I buy used at Amazon.
I really liked how nicely SCM covered sensitive topics like WWI and WWII and 9/11. *I* cried with some of these stories.
We also watched the American Girl movies of Samantha, Kit, and Molly. We really enjoyed those additions, even my son. Your library might have them, or look for a 4 pack at Amazon, with Felicity in Colonial Williamsburg.
My son really liked Snow Treasure, he read in grade 4. Twenty and Ten is another good one, a short chapter book. Of the Holling books, we did only Tree in the Trail and saved the others for another time. But we did enjoy that one. We read Chestry Oak from our library which was oop at the time. It is in pb now and would be a good substitute.
There are many good books on Lincoln you could use, but we did like all of the d’ Aulaire books.
I think the SCM spines are well worth the money. And I, too, really appreciated how they handled the wars. In fact, the Modern module was our very first SCM history experience and that’s what won me over!
And we loved Treasures of the snow, too.
Such great ideas! Thanks to each of you for your thoughtful responses! It didn’t even occur to me to combine ages on some of the biographies — why didn’t I think of that?? Our library does, technically, offer interlibrary loan services. But unfortunately, there is no way to predict how long it will be to get a book in (it can take anywhere from 10 days to 6 weeks), and they must be returned in 2 weeks. So for a little leisure reading, it’s useful; but not really a great resource for our homeschooling materials. I did find some good used book online vendors though.
I’m pretty sure we already have Snow Treasure… Thank you so much for your help, everyone!
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