Secular Charlotte Mason

This page is more for creating a record of KodyGirl's (my 8 yo) history program than for use by other people.  Feel free to sneak a peek but know that it is not here as a website enhancing page lol. 

 We are starting with prehistoric stone age man.  Kody Girl has already sat in on numerous history lessons with her older siblings but this is her first chance to go in chronological order starting with the Ancients. At her request we will be skimping on topics she is already well versed in and focus in on the topics she is less familiar with.  As an example we will be skimming Ancient Egypt and focusing more on Mesopotamia.

In general the book listings will be of four varieties:

1. Spines: These are the books that provide the "glue" to hold all the other readings and activities together.  Sometimes we will read these together and other times she will read them on her own.

2. Read Alouds: she and I will read these together, probably just one or two per topic

3. Required Reading: for each topic she will be given approx. 5 to 7 books and she must read at least 3 of them.  More is okay but 3 is the minimum. Most oral narrations will come from these selections.

 4. Optional Reading: this will be the pile of books that she can choose to read or not. 

You may also notice that not all of the book choices are great or living books.  I still have a fair amount of twaddle from my earlier homeschooling days and I tend to toss those in as she really enjoys some of them. I will mark the best books as: *=recommended,  **highly recommended .

Spine: Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History . Mostly because we already own it, not because I think it is so great. I am actually not an Usborne fan.

2nd Spine: How Children Lived: A First Book of History, by Chris & Melanie Rice.DK. 1995. I used this with my other kids when they were in grammar stage.

Topic spines: The Step Into.....series from Lorenz Books.  I love this series because it has both background information and projects all in one source. We will be using these in place of SOTW and HO activity guides. KG will get to pick and choose her own follow-up activities from the options in these books. I will read the informational part of the text to her.  

Book of the Centuries.  Rather than using any of the premade ones she will be creating her own utilizing scrap/lapbooking techniques placed in a sturdy artists sketchbook.

Timeline:  Note that we also have a family wall timeline that she will be adding to.

 Prehistory:

Read Aloud: *Life Story: The Story of Life on Our Earth From It's Beginning Up to Now, by Virginia Lee Burton. Houghton Mifflin. 1962.   I am using this book to set the stage. 

 Related activities: mark the timeline accordingly

Prehistoric Man:

Topic Spine: **Step Into the Stone Age.

Required Reading:

The First Humans: A Prehistoric Guide by Alan E. Mann. Running Press. 1997. This is a book from a kit done by a sibling. 

Prehistory by Roberto Carvalho de Magalhaes. Peter Bedrick Books. 2000. Part of the Art and Civilization series. 

Life in the Great Ice Age by Michael and Beverly Oard. Master Books. 2004. 

Optional Reading:

*First Dog by Jan Brett. Great for the under 7 crowd or beginning readers. 

The Iceman by Don Lessem

The Best Book of Early People. Especially good for younger learners.  My kids loved the Best Book series between the ages of 4 and 7.

Ice Age. A Kids Discover Magazine. 2003. Excellent magazine, especially good for kids who get tired of reading books all the time. 

Usborne Young Scientist: Evolution by Barbara Cork & Lynn Bresler. I am less than fond of this book. It just skims information and is a disjointed format. The similar book from DK's Eyewitness series is much better. 

Mammoth by Patrick O'Brien. A decent read for beginning readers. 

Frozen Man by David Getz.  Good choice for kids who really want to the step by step details of finding this Austrian prehistoric man.  

The Evolution Book by Sara Stein. A tome of a book.  This could be your one-stop book on evolution. Best for older grammar stage. 

From the Beginning: The Story of Human Evolution by David Peters. For older grammar stage. Nice format. 

The Human Story: Our Evolution From Prehistoric Ancestors to Today by Christopher Sloan. National Geographic. 2004.  I really like this book.  It is a fairly easy read for older grammar stage and younger logic stage.  The Leakey family were consultants for the book so it also provides a good jump off point for reading biographies of the various Leakeys. 

Related projects/activities:

1. Add to the timeline

2. Cave art lesson from Artistic Pursuits. 

Last year she used the American Girl books and History Pockets as her main history materials for the 1700s. This year she is ready for a bit more and is moving on to the 1800s. Not sure whether to make a US History based Book of the Centuries or not. She will get plenty of handicrafts in since she wants to focus on the pioneers and such. Due to her age and interest in these series we areincorporating some decent quality twaddle (American Girls, Dear America) along with the good stuff.

Spine: DK Smithsonian Children's Encyclopedia of American History. I like how this book is laid out and it will help fill in those gaps that can happen when doing history via CM.

America Grows: 1800 to 1850

Birchbark House series. Native American perspective on Westward Expansion. Balances out the Little House on the Prairie books.  (1847).

Related projects: 

1. make moccasins like Omakayas

2. make a leather pouch, decorate like a bandolier bag?

3. eat Native American foods for supper (wild rice, maple syrup, etc.)

American Girls: Josefina. A Mexican-American perspective of life in the SW. Both the fiction and the nonfiction books. (1824).

1. make a serape

American Girls: Kirsten. Swedish pioneer. Actually relates to this chapter and the next. Both the fiction and the nonfiction books. (1854).

1. sew a quilting square that can be a doll blanket

The Union Shattered: 1850 to 1876

American Girls: Addy. (add info and date!) Both the fiction and the nonfiction books.

Settling the West: 1869 to 1900

Little House on the Prairie series. Typical story of pioneers and moving from the East to the Midwest. (1800s).

1. make a corn husk doll

2. make butter

America's Industrial Age: 1865 to 1900

? American Girls: Samantha. Also works for the next chapter.  Both the fiction and the nonfiction books.