Book Reviews
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European History 300-500AD
We have been continuing our history studies using RC History as our outline but substituting where I have felt a need for our family. To this end I purchased History Links Unit Eight The Medieval Era to help out with some more hands on activities, it does and it doesn’t have what I was searching for. Truly I am coming to realise more and more that every family is unique and we all have our own style of learning. For my family we are definitely literature orientated. I have been trying to incorporate more hands on activities with my children and yet they often aren’t interested. Some of them seem…
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China
With the recent Olympics the past several weeks seemed a suitable time to study China. PC and I thought there would be a fair amount of information available, and to our pleasure there were several very good documentaries on China on the television. We also splurged and purchased several new books and found a few in our library. I share the list in the hope of assisting anyone studying China. The chapter books were all after Mao’s Revolution, the picture books more a cultural exposure. Picture books for the younger ones: The Cloudmakers – James Rumford was a big winner. The pictures were soft and inviting and the storyline was…
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Early Church /Roman History
This Term we have been studying Roman History. We started back at Easter time by reading many books from the Time of Christ. This flowed very nicely into Early Church history. We have covered from 33AD to 300AD using RC History as our spine. I have found RC History very useful this term as I was needing something from a Catholic worldview and was tired of inventing the wheel from scratch. It answered those needs but from our families viewpoint it lacked in areas too. It lacks sufficient hands-on projects and lacks plenty of read alouds, I have two children who read an enormous amount, I also felt it lacked…
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Lenten/Easter Books
During Lent and leading up to Easter we read a lovely collection of books. Every year I add a couple of new titles so we enjoyed some new ones as well as old favourites. I thought I’d share here. The Little Rose of Sharon’ by Nan Gurley is a beautiful story of sacrifice. About a rose who gives up her most prized possession (her lovely petals) to save a baby dove. The illustrations are beautiful. This is a favourite. Another story about continual self-sacrifice, The Giving Tree continually gives to a boy/man who took and took and never appreciated the sacrifices of the tree; the…
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Ancient Egypt
As we conclude our Ancient Egyptian unit I share here the books we used and enjoyed. For the older children approximately 10-up The Golden Goblet is an exciting adventure, the story of Ranofer who wanted to be a goldsmith and was prevented by his brother Gebu. Ranofer finds a golden goblet in his brother’s room and knows that it has been stolen from one of the tombs in the City of the Dead. With his two friends Ranofer sets out to prove his brother’s guilt. My three older children LOVED this book and were clamouring for more of McGraw’s books. We did have another McGraw book, Mara Daughter of the…
