Does anyone strictly use the Yesterday’s Classics or Heritage history books for their history and literature programs? I’m asking strictly for budget reasons, I’m thinking of getting the YC or the HH Young readers CD, but I “really” need to use them with an eye to “not” being able to buy any other books for the rest of the year. I will have access to the library and we have some books in our home library, but this year i’m hoping to cultivate a deeper love of reading in my Ds.
We use Heritage History and I would say you could definitely do just that for history. I have gotten a few other books from
the library for my kids to read but I have 4 and it is hard to find ones at each kid’s level. I could have managed without that though. We also own yesterday’s classics but I haven’t used them so systematically.
You can get both HH and YC free to be read online. I think that both are great, and each has it strengths. Most of the YC history selections are available from HH, and since they have a much wider historical selection, you get a better deal from HH. These stories are living books, with heroes, action, and morals…making them easy to read for literature as well. To read YC on an ereader, you have to purchase them, and as far as I have seen, you have to buy the whole collection. HH lets you buy and download individual books.
The advantage that YC has is that they include a variety of things, including science, kindergarten stories, etc. Depending on your needs, that could be good. (these are also wonderful living books with heroes, action, and morals).
If you are looking for classics for literature and you have an ereader, you can find those for free all over the internet. Kindle has tons of them for free, you just need to search the Kindle store. Using Calibre, you can convert the files to any erader that you have. I have been locating and downloading literature options as I have time in order to be ready this next year.
Specifically to answer your question, Des, HH is the route I am most likely to follow in the upcoming years as I am trying to my older girls independent and responsible for their educational choices (within my guidelines of course). I am loading and sorting their Kindles/content so that we can review their choices together and get a list ready for next school year. My hope is that as we get into some of these cultures that they find something of interest and I can immediately show them a great option… =)
I do not anticpate “needing” to buy books for history for many years because I bought the 8 disc collection for $140 (8 different eras of history). Wanting to buy books because I love them is another matter, lol!
Sheraz, thank you, I love hearing your thoughts on this subject. I’m having a doozy of a time trying to decide which collection to get first. I might try just picking and choosing a few books from each collection to get us through next year.
Des, for your ages, I really think that would probably be happy with the Young Readers since it already has a wide variety of each collection’s subject, and you can just choose them on chronological order if you chose too. It would really be easy and less time consuming, overwhelming, and frustrating for you. It has over 80 books on it, too, so there is a lot of variety for one year! That gives you time to feel them out and plan for the year after. 😉
@Lady in Pink – I did not realize that they were available as Kindle books on Amazon! Thanks!
@Des – I was thinking about my reply and was going to ask your children’s ages, too…they are 4th grade and under, aren’t they? What have you done for History and Literature until now?
Lady in Pink- the two i’ll be using this for are 10 and 5.
Sheraz–We’ve actually done a smathering of Ancient history this year, but he wants to do it again. I don’t think we dug as deeply as he probably needed to. Last year we did MFW Adventures, the year before he followed along with his older siblings in SCM’s module 4. He’s also been listening to SOTW vol. 1. I have the other volumes for him to listen to as well. For literature, we’ve not really followed a plan, we’ve just read books (mostly done as read alouds).
I have another question for you Sheraz, do you think the Young Readers Collection is still the way to go if we have a few of the books in paperback edition? We have:
Famous Men of Greece
Famous Men of Rome
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
The Jungle Book
Aesop’s Fables (not the Milo Winter version)
Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago (kindle version)
The Famous Men collections are not on the Young Readers collections. They are on the CD’s of the time period (Greece, Rome, Middle Ages, Christian Europe – except the Renaissance and Reformation. I am not seeing it listed at a quick glance).
Here is the list of the Young Readers Collection:
American History
American History Stories—Volume I
American History Stories—Volume II
American History Stories—Volume III.
American History Stories—Volume IV
Stories of American Life and Adventure
Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans
America First
Stories of the Pilgrims
Story of Abraham Lincoln
Men Who Found America
Story of Columbus
Buccaneers and Pirates of our Coast
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Told to the Children
Colonial Children
Peter of New Amsterdam
Ruth of Boston
Seth of Colorado
Richard of Jamestown
Hannah of Kentucky
Stephen of Philadelphia
European History
Old Time Tales
Viking Tales
Stories from English History
Stories from French History
Stories of the Vikings
Stories from Pilgrim’s Progress Told to the Children
Stories of Gulliver’s Travels Told to the Children
Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children
Stories of Don Quixote
Children’s Heroes
Story of Joan of Arc
Story of Robert Bruce
Story of Sir Francis Drake
Story of Sir Walter Raleigh
Story of Lord Clive
Story of Captain Cook
Story of Napoleon
Story of Nelson
Stories of William Tell Told to the Children
Ancient History
Stories from Greek History
Stories from Roman History
Stories from the Iliad Told to the Children
Stories from the Odyssey Told to the Children
Aesop for Children
Our Little Cousin Series
Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago
Our Little Roman Cousin of Long Ago
Our Little Saxon Cousin of Long Ago
Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago
Our Little Viking Cousin of Long Ago
Our Little Celtic Cousin of Long Ago
Our Little Crusader Cousin of Long Ago
Our Little Norman Cousin of Long Ago
Our Little Carthaginian Cousin of Long Ago
Historical Anecdotes
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
Fifty Famous People
Thirty More Famous Stories Retold
Bible and Saint Stories
In God’s Garden
Nursery Book of Bible Stories
Stories from the Life of Christ Told to the Children
Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts
Stories from the Old Testament Told to the Children
Heroes of Israel
God’s Troubadour: The Story of St. Francis of Assisi
Saint Christopher and Saint Cuthbert
Legends and Folklore
Jataka Tales
More Jataka Tales
Page—Esquire—Knight
Stories of King Arthur’s Knights Told to the Children
Stories of Siegfried Told to the Children
Stories of Beowulf Told to the Children
Stories of Guy of Warwick Told to the Children
Stories of Robin Hood Told to the Children
Stories of Roland Told to the Children
Book of Legends
Stories from the Arabian Nights
Twins of the World
Belgian Twins
Dutch Twins
Eskimo Twins
French Twins
Japanese Twins
Mexican Twins
Puritan Twins
Scotch Twins
Spartan Twins
Swiss Twins
So out of over 80 books, you have 3 of them.
Keep in mind that hese books are aimed at 4th grade strong independent readers or as great read alouds for anyone as they learn oral narration skills.