Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: History, science

This topic has 20 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by Regan.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)

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April 19, 2016 at 1:50 am
Regan
Participant
I would love for you wonderful ladies to share with me your favorite living books for Science and History! Next year, my oldest will be in 3rd grade, with 2 sisters in 1st grade (and 4 more littles). For Science will be doing 101 Days of God’s Creation and Considering God’s Creation! For History, we will moving on to Joshua – Malachi & Ancient Greece. Great books are so important to us and breath life into our days. In May I will be ordering all of next years curriculum and books so I am trying to make final decisions! I am looking for any feedback on books recommended by SCM or any others you love or don’t love and why! This year as we went through Ancient Egypt, I found my son enjoying Boy of the Pyramids and lots of the other living books, but Ancient Egypt & Her Neighbors was too much information! I started pre-reading the material and hitting the highlights with my son. He found it interesting when I condensed it a bit, but finding time for that can be a little challenging… especially with 6 kiddos 8 and under! 🙂 Next year I would also love my 1st graders to spend time with us doing Science and History and our living books will need to appeal to them as well! Thanks in advance! I always look forward to your suggestions ladies!
April 19, 2016 at 8:55 pm
SowingLittleSeeds
Participant
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.
April 20, 2016 at 10:01 pm
Regan
Participant
What great suggestions! I have a lot to look into! Thank you, SowingLittleSeeds 🙂
April 21, 2016 at 7:34 am
RobinP
Participant
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
April 22, 2016 at 12:44 am
Regan
Participant
Thanks so much RobinP! I value your feedback and experience! I will look into these! As a mom to 6 young kiddos, I think I have come across posts where you have shared you have a large family as well, if I’m not mistaken!
Thanks for sharing!
April 22, 2016 at 4:15 am
RobinP
Participant
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…
April 22, 2016 at 6:21 pm
Regan
Participant
Okay, maybe I was just thinking you were one of the experienced homeschooling mamas! I remember thinking I needed to pay attention to your recommendations :). Did you homeschool all the way through? I know you’ve learned so much over those 20 years! I have many friends that are surprised I am planning to homeschool all the way through! :). Thanks for chimming in!

April 22, 2016 at 9:17 pm
RobinP
Participant
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.
April 22, 2016 at 11:37 pm
Regan
Participant
Wow! That is amazing!!! What an amazing gift to the people of your area! I know what you mean about hashing things out over the years! We all need that from time to time! I am thankful for this forum! Speaking of hashing things out…. This is slightly on topic in that it is about history! Have you ever combined two years of ancient history for younger kiddos? That would change my living books needed a bit! I have heard some recommend it for younger ages!
April 23, 2016 at 5:07 am
RobinP
Participant
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.
April 23, 2016 at 3:30 pm
Regan
Participant
Hey, that sounds great! I like the “turn the page” planning philosophy :). I am not familiar with Truthquest! Before I discovered the Charlotte Mason style of education and Simply Charlotte Mason, I was planning to do Tapestry of Grace! I know many who find it overwhelming and it is from the classical approach, but I still wonder if I will use it one day! I have heard of moms using just the curriculum and living books and doing it with a more Charlotte Mason approach! While the kids are little, I am trying not to complicate things too much:). My kids ages are 8, 7, 5, 4, 3 and 1! I think resisting the urge to think more is “more” is a constant battle! Lol.
May 9, 2016 at 11:39 am
keechivalley
Participant
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/
May 26, 2016 at 2:50 pm
Regan
Participant
Oh, thanks so much for sharing! I’ll check it out 🙂
May 27, 2016 at 6:26 am
HollyS
Participant
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!
May 27, 2016 at 6:55 am
Michelle
Participant
We used Outdoor Secrets this year and loved it! Also, since he wasn’t mentioned… RobinP introduced my children to Robert McClung. His books are my absolute favorites for science.
Thank you for your experience with Ancient Egypt. I’ll be using with my 8 (almost 9) and 7 year old this coming year. I love to hear things like this was too much…this was just right info. 🙂