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Loving Hans Christian Anderson and Picutresque Tales…
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I snatched my beautiful, leatherbound, Barnes and Noble Hans Christian book when I was home last week and am so glad I did. My kids have been narrating like little champs since we started this. His stories were too hard a few years ago, but today my 10 year old narrated for 10 minutes and got nearly every detail of Big Claus and Little Claus. They still sell them at B&N if you are interested. I was inspired after hearing Charlotte mention Anderson and so thought I would try again.
We also have been reading out of the second half of the first volume of Picturesque Tales of Progress. I would not recommend the first half, but since we just did a few Master books on the Ice Age, we were set to talk about Egypt anyway. I like how it flows. My kids are narrating well out of this as well.
It is so true that narrations are only as good as the books from which they are taken!
Do you use the SCM guides for History? I’m just curious if you use Picturesque Tales along with the guide or if you just use it as your spine. We plan on following Module 1 this year and I’m trying to get together my resources. Also, you’ve inspired me to get around to the Hans Christian Anderson book!! I’ve been meaning to but something always seems to distract me. (It doesn’t take much..
)mj
I don’t follow the SCM guide, but have used the organizer for over a year now. I love it.
I think the guides are wonderful, but I have a hard time sticking with anything for 180 days and tend to “tweek” things to death—a huge character flaw, I believe. I like to have books we gradually work through and I tend to cover a broad scope of history (both American and world) each year along wiith an in-depth study in each. This year we are covering the Civil war and Ancient Egypt/Exodus.
I use all the resources I can from SCM like Spelling Wisdom, Book of Centuries, Wisdom for Life, etc, but I just can’t bring myself to follow a schedule.
I am going to read Picturesque Tales along with the Mara Pratt books for American history.
Caroline4- Out of curiosity, are you finding the Pratt books to be “preachy” at all? I read several of her stories on The Baldwin Project website and it seems like she does an awful lot of moralizing and drawing conclusions for the child, have you found that to be the case? Also, do you find the need to “round out” any of the stories about the explorers, colonists and the native people? For example, she uses words like “savages” and states that all native women are called “squaws” and all their babies are called “papooses”. Perhaps it’s just the fact that her books are 100 years old and she didn’t have as much access to primary source material as we do now, I’m just wondering how you tweek her stories (if you do) to make them more useful and truthful for your children. Thanks!
Rachel
p.s. I posted this question on the World/US history thread just in case you didn’t notice it here
p.p.s. My children are loving Andersen’s tales too, such imagination that man had! I think Thumbelina is their favorite so far, but we were all reduced to tears by The Little Match Girl, such a sad, beautiful story
Hi Mamasong!
I’m not sure if the Pratt books struck me as preachy, but it may be because we read a lot of older books and my kids know that the mindset about people has changed since then. I do tweek quite a bit as needed, but my kids know that most of the older books have a limited view. We did do Sonlight Core 3 (Early Am history) so we had covered a lot of angles on the Native Americans already too. Many do not like the spine that core uses by Daniel Boorstein, but it was fairly balanced, but incredibly DRY. 🙂
I have found books that run the gamut from America being completely provincial to books that discuss how horrified some Christians were about the Constitution ( some felt that having the people as the final authority would have society “seek its own level” and go the way of Rome). I don’t think I will ever find a history series that I completely am in love with as far as content goes. I love the Pratt books because they are so perfect for narration with short chapters and a fairly continuing story line. We round it out with good Christian biographies which seem to fill in the gaps and create a sense of ownership for each era. They particularily liked a biography on George Washington Carver. His story is so rich and God-pleasing that you just have to love the guy immensely while you also share in his pain caused by the color of his skin. Biographies seem to be the key (at least for us) to making an overview of history more enjoyable and “real”.
Oh, I bawled the first time I read the Little Match Girl! Some of his stories have a very hard edge, but it always amazes my how the kids take it in stride sooo much better than me.
Thanks for sharing, I’m always interested in how others use and adapt certain books to fit their needs. We love biographies too! My husband is currently reading one to the kids about George Muller, wow what a life! George Washington Carver is our absolute favorite american scientist to read about, what a godly man he was! Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate your perspective on the Pratt books.
Rachel
I’m not Caroline4, but I agree with her regarding the Pratt books. We’ve used them for about a year and have finished the first 2.
I had to find something other than This Country of Ours. I know it is on many booklists, including AO, but we HATED it, even the audio version I bought! The stories were sooooo long and while not exactly dry, my 8 yo was dreading history. Not exactly what we’re going for. The Pratt stories have been more well received! We read many older books too and have a good understanding of the mindset, so it hasn’t been a problem yet. I’ve just bought many new biographies, including those mentioned on this thread and I am eager to start them.
Blessings,
Christie
I’m enjoying reading all your posts here. I feel like I’m gaining wisdom by the minute!!
Caroline4kids–I too end up tweaking alot; my problem is I start doubting myself, but God is helping me grow in that area. I’m curious what you all think about the Landmark books. mj
I like the Landmark books for the most part. Most of the ones we have read are good. Occasionally, we run across one that is a bit dry. They are written for about a 4th-6th grade level, but we have found that the books have a surprising amount of information in them and for the most part do a good job of covering an event or person in history pretty thoroughly.
Carline4kids:
You mentioned: <<We also have been reading out of the second half of the first volume of Picturesque Tales of Progress. I would not recommend the first half, but since we just did a few Master books on the Ice Age, we were set to talk about Egypt anyway.>>
I was wondering what chapter did you specifically start at in Beginnings I?
God bless!
Sharon
I had to go run and look… ah, yes, we started on chapter 5, page 71. They had some strange, unverifiable story about “the lake dwellers” that I was unsure about. I explained that chapter five was their opinion on origins and we took off from there. I started there because I wanted to avoid most of the the “pre-history” years and it seemed like the place in the book that started referencing real artifacts like the Rosetta Stone, vases, and sculptures, etc . Since they had had extensive coverage of creation to the ice age this looked like a good place to start.
My older son is reading The Cat of Bubastes by himself and he my other children are listening to Tirzah read aloud in addition to hearing PTP.
Thanks for the info! I totally agree with the beginning of the book. I had to chuckle at the second paragraph, pg. 76, “Soon the wise-men forgot that they were only guessing; they said it was really true……”
I know Jessica Hulcy from KONOS highly recommends PTP for her HOW I & II. I will have to check out their yahoo group and see what she actually recommends from the books and how their used.
The Cat of Bubastes and Tirzah are also on our reading list for the fall. I can’t wait to start on the unit. We plan to use the SCM guide for the first time.
That made me chuckle too! At least they admit that their wires got crossed somewhere.
I’ll have to look into the KONOS group as well–it would help to know how others use it. Thanks!
Blessings,
Caroline
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