Living Book Recommendations for Science & History

For science in the elementary grades I like to use lots of animal and nature stories. Burgess Bird Book, Burgess Animal Book, Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas (first geneticist), Little Wanderers (how seeds travel), Secrets of the Woods, Pagoo (life of hermit crab and other sea life), Madam How and Lady Why, The Storybook of Science. Outdoor Secrets & Dooryard Stories for the younger ones. I pull heavily from the Ambleside Online lists.

For history we use An Island Story (British history from early Roman rule to beginning of 20th century), This Country of Ours (American), A Child’s History of the World by Hillyer (a family favorite) Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty, Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History, Abraham Lincoln’s World, George Washington’s World, Augustus Caesar’s World, (all 3 tell stories of important people around the world during the life of -Lincoln, Washington, or Caesar-).

Plus lots of great biographies. We enjoy the books by D’Aulaire like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Buffalo Bill, Pocahontas, Leif the Lucky. Some other good ones by Dianne Stanley are Joan of Arc, Michelangelo, Good Queen Bess, Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare. Some more biographies (yeah, we enjoy a good biography around here 🙂 ) Leonardo Da Vinci by Emily Hahn, Squanto by Feenie Ziner, Poor Richard by James Daugherty, Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober.

Specifically for Ancient Greece for that age, there are a few I would recommend.

Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago by Cowles

Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago (both reprinted by Yesterday’s Classics)

Lysis Goes to the Play by Snedeker

Theras and His Town by Snedeker

Greek Slave Boy by Carroll (my boys were a bit older, 5th grade, but enjoyed this)

Web of Traitors by Trease
Also biographies of Archimedes. Many enjoy Archimedes and the Door of Science, though it may be too advanced. Lots of science in this one. Archimedes Takes a Bath is easy and fun if you can find it. Also Jim Weiss has an audio that my boys LOVED. The Quest of Archimedes by Harvey is good also.

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Lasky is an excellent picture book

The Great Alexander the Great by Lasker

D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths

Jim Weiss also has a few audios of myths

You’re welcome.  Hope you enjoy some of those. Some are OOP so I hope you can find them.

No, I have three sons.  The oldest is almost 26.  I have two 12yob at home, the youngest of them adopted from China six years ago.  So hard to believe I’m finishing my 20th year of homeschooling…

Yes we did.  And will, Lord willing.  It’s so much a part of our lives.  My oldest son is an engineer even though he was CM educated.  ?  We’ve always used living books and I collected so many I opened a homeschool lending library.  Now I have about 18,000 living books and families drive as far as an hour and a half one way to come.  Here’s my blog.

http://childrenslegacylibrary.blogspot.com

So I don’t have answers…but I do talk to and counsel with lots of moms who come to my library.  We’ve hashed though a lot of stuff over the years.

We use Truthquest and have since its release so we just move through chronologically.  We are nearing the end of the Middle Ages.  My planning philosophy is “turn the page” so we just move through at our own pace.  My boys are 7 months apart so we do all of our content subjects together.

I have a blog where I have put together lots of booklists for science and history units. It’s not so much a list of all the options but of some of the better, not to missed choices, I’ve used through the last 20+ years. Reading is the core of what we do homeschooling and I love to share great books with fellow homeschoolers!

Here is my blog:
https://readingvoyages.blogspot.com/

This is a great blog article when it comes to choosing living science books: http://www.livingbookslibrary.com/2012/04/is-new-always-better.html

There are some great vintage books like Chipmunks on the Doorstep.  We read another this year called Bird Watchers and Bird Feeders by Glenn O. Blough.  Yesterday’s Classics has some good choices too.  The Arabella Buckley series called Eyes and No Eyes is very good.  A fun science book is the Berentstain Bears’ Big Book of Science and Nature.  We also like A Year at Maple Hill Farm.  And of course all the 106 Days picture books are great too!

For history, we really enjoyed SOTW 2 this year.  Even my 6yo enjoyed the stories and coloring pages.  I didn’t think I’d care for SOTW, but it really is a great choice for elementary ages.  If they don’t care for the SCM spine (Story of the Greeks), you may want to give SOTW 1 a try.

From the SCM booklist, you should enjoy the Our Little Cousins books.  We read one of them aloud, and everyone liked it.  My science-loving DS really enjoyed Archimedes and the Door of Science and it still comes up in conversations, over a year later!