Yesterdays Classics – which modules?

Tammy, I haven’t particularly noticed that they use the same books.  I have only had my Kindle since Sept and we are in`Module 2 – Ancient Greece right now, so those are the ones I’ve really been reading and checking out.  They are excellent stories, though!  I sat down with the master list that came from the YC collection and made Collections with those titles so I can locate them quickly.  Having done that, I have found some lovely stories and histories.

For Ancient Greece, I have to tell you that I really, really enjoyed reading the YC book “The Story of Greece“ by Mary MacGregor.  She ties in all the Famous Men of Greece into a coherent flowing story so now the Famous Men of Greece series makes sense to me!  She also doesn’t spend tons of time talking about their gods.  I am using that as my spine and adding the Famous Men as we get to them.  I am currently reading Guerber’s The Story of the Greeks.

Our Little ______ Cousin from Long Ago series is also excellent. You can read them alongside the Famous Men series used in Mod 2 as they go along with the men’s city-state.  I am working on getting this into a PDF form so I can see all of it at a glance instead of trying to remember where it all fits. (There is the Spartan Cousin, the Athenian cousin, the Carthaginain cousin and the Macedonian Cousin in that set.)  I am sure that you don’t have to read them in any particular order, but I wanted to read each as we got to them The Story of Greece.

Stories of Ancient Greece by Emma Firth is a fun way to teach some of the mythology in a non-threatening or non-scary way for kids who are sensitive to false gods or scary sounding monsters.  I thought it was good too.

In the book On the Shores of the Great Sea by M.B. Synge a brief overview of Greek history is covered in Chapters 15-33.  I listened to the whole thing in about 2 hours this weekend.  Each chapter is only about 5-7 minutes long total. It doesn’t give great details of the Trojan War or other things, but the over-view is great to give you a basic understanding of what you are reading sbout in the other books.

As for the ones in the Nature section, my children are really enjoying those.  We have explored the Christmas books and liked them very much. =) 

I also started one about the history of Britian.  In fact, I was learning so much and getting so much out of it I decided I needed to get on the ball and create my own Book of Centuries instead of just a family one. 😉

Sorry I can’t give you more! I think that these will be wonderful additions to the SCM Modules.

I ordered the books last fall (and even got an e-read to go with it)!  I went ahead and put them all on the reader.  I also printed a list of books from their website to keep in my planning binder.  That way I can skim the list every few months and see if any would fit in our schedule.  There are a few used in the modules and a few recommended for science books.  I’m planning on reading Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt to go with Mod 1…I skimmed a few chapters and it looks really good!  There are also some good literature books for read alouds or independent reading.

I’m not sure that many of the YC books are used in the SCM modules, but I do know that many of them are used in the Ambleside Online curriculum, FWIW.

Jen