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History Spine for High School Help Please!
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Hi there, I have a high school son in need of a history spine for Middle Ages through Reformation. We are Christians, and prefer a book with either a Christian world view, or at least neutral. I was planning on using Mystery of History, but it’s dry. I really want to find a living book. I’ve been considering The Story of Europe by Marshall and Famous Men of the Middle Ages, etc.. Has anyone used these for high school? Does anyone have another suggestion?
Dorothy Mills’ Book of the Middle Ages is written at a slightly higher level than the Famous Men book. I can’t say if it’s dry or not, since I haven’t read it.
I really like The Story of Liberty by Charles Coffin for an upper level spine for that age. My daughter used it last year in the 8th grade along with Famous Men of the Middle Ages. I think Famous Men covers a bit of an earlier period and The Story of Liberty picks up sometime around the Reformation. Both are decidedly Christian in world view. We used Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation as well but there was a lot of overlap.
My daughter is using the sequel-Sweet Land of Liberty as her main spine this year for 9th grade.
Depending on how you time those categories:
The two you mentioned aren’t really strong enough for high school
Susan Wise Bauer’s The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade (between the fourth and the twelfth centuries)
or
The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople (years between 1100 and 1453)
She covers more than just Western Europe, which is a nice change
I like the idea of Susan Wise Bauer’s high school books, but I can’t have him spend 2 years covering Middle ages through Reformation, nor can I make him read both of those books in 1 year. I wish she had written her high school series in the same fashion as Story of the World, only for a more mature reader. I think I may have to use MOH, and add on Famous Men for fun. Then I’ll do my best to beef it up with lots of rich literature (Beowulf, G.A. Henty novels, etc…). I can’t believe there aren’t better high school spines out there. I guess most homeschool students get a thorough world history when they are younger, and do a more focused study in high school. However, we didn’t start homeschooling until my son was in 6th grade, and the history he received in traditional school was seriously pathetic.
I like A Living History of our World. It can be used with high schoolers and is written in a conversational way.
You could look at the BiblioPlan Companion text. It would be year 2. http://www.biblioplan.net
I’ve not seen that Companion personally, but I do have Year 1; it’s what my family is using next year. The BP lessons in the family guide come with so many great lit suggestions and the Companion is not dry at all…really interesting info, written well and conversationally. It’s billed as a classical curriculum, but it’s super easy to make CM. We won’t do a ton of the “questions” in the Cool History book (though the high school level one has great writing prompt ideas), but the maps are great, and the discussion guide is awesome. The literature lists are inspiring. Great stuff. You can get a 3 week sample of any year to see, if you are interested. I’m pretty excited to try this out. I have heard through a fb group that the Medieval year is particularly delightful.
HTH!
Then, I would agree with the above suggestion to use Dorothy Mills’ two books for that time, plus Story of Liberty somewhere, combined with age appropriate bios, speeches, and lit (check AO for the speeches, especially) over Famous Men…it’s just not at a high school level.
Cathy Duffy even recommends the Middle Ages and Ren. And Reformation books for high school.
Another option could be Streams of Civilization.
Your child can track the geography of the countries involved.
I think we’re going to use Bauer’s books for audio listens in the car and anywhere they want to over the next four years.
I’m hoping she comes out with another one fairly soon in the series.
I think the key word here is spine. If you’re wanting to work through these spines while adding in many other living books, then the length of the spines have to be kept to a minimum so that there is time to fit in all the other living books.
I really have no problem with including Famous Men as part of a high school history course. If it were the only spine, maybe not, but in conjunction with many other high quality, living books, it could help to fill a hole in a living history course.
The Story of Liberty and Sweet Land of Liberty are both high school level books.
Books like Bauer’s are so lengthy, it seems like they would dominate the history course rather than frame it as a spine should do. We prefer to read lots of shorter books rather than just a few long ones in our homeschool history courses. I like for us to to get a view of history from many different viewpoints and reading varied authors helps us to accomplish this.
Just thought I’d share another perspective. 🙂
That’s what I was thinking. A shorter spine, so that he has more time to read other books. I picked up a copy of Remember the Days. It’s written for k-6, but reads like it’s geared for 5-7th IMO. I’m going to add Famous Men, Beowulf, The Shining Company, Black Arrow, Winning His Spurs, Magna Charta, In Freedom’s Cause, Voices of Rennaisance and Reformation (original speeches and documents), and some Shakespeare plays. He is into Sci fi, so for fun literature I added The Invisible Man by Wells, Out of the Silent Planet by Lewis and Tripods. I hope it’s enough, and not too much.
Andrea-I think your plan sounds good! You can always start with the most important books and just see how many you are able to get through this year.
I have more thoughts on using “high school level” books that I thought I’d share. When I was in school, I thrived on literature. I made all A’s in English and was in English Honors classes in high school. However, I despised history. The textbooks were “high school level” but they were dry as dust. I made good grades but my history knowledge was abysmal.
Fast forward to years later when I began homeschooling my own children. I learned about Charlotte Mason’s methods and started reading living books for history. As I read books like the D’Aulaires’ biographies and Landmark biographies I began to realize that I didn’t hate history at all! In fact I love history! It quickly became my favorite subject and still is today, 13 years later.
My point in sharing all of this is to say that reading “high school level” books may not be nearly as beneficial as reading interesting, living books that appeal to the reader. Charlotte Mason said that students should enjoy their books and I agree with her.
On that note, I am more than fine with including some easier reading books in a high school history course. Most, true living books are worthy of being read over and over again by people of any and every age. Some books are written down to the child but those are not the type of books that Charlotte Mason ever recommended. I enjoyed Bambi and Swiss Family Robinson and Columbus and Buffalo Bill and as much at 21 as I would have at 6. They are timeless and cross age barriers.
All of that said, I do make sure to include books in our curriculum that challenge my children. I just don’t think that every, single book they read needs to challenge them on every, single level. Sometimes, the information contained in a book, and the style with which it is conveyed, is more important than the level of the book.
Of course, all of this is just my opinion and you know what they say about those. 😀
We prefer to read lots of shorter books rather than just a few long ones…get a view of history from many different viewpoints.. .
I agree; that’s why Bauer’s books will be audiobook selections for long car trips (of which we have many!) over the next four years.
That’s why I like the J. Stobaugh History courses, because they are concise and cover a broad range of events, so that leaves room for other interesting books and speeches. For American history, I’ll use the Clarence Carson series as spine (short, to the point segments), and supplemented with the Stobaugh material, and good books/speeches.
Dorothy Mills’ books are high quality, BTW, and not long in length.
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