I still have quite a ways to go before I have our plans for this coming school year finalized. However, I have decided on our history course, and I am very excited!!
This past year we switched to studying history through the use of living books combined with lap books and notebooking. It was a huge hit. We all loved it!! I used Beautiful Feet’s Early American History as a guide, and tried to supplement with Catholic books as we went along. It worked out alright, but I was really hoping to find a Catholic program to use for this coming year.
Well, I ran across RC History, and it seems to be just about perfect for us! One of my favorite aspects of the program is that we will all be doing the same time period together each year, based on a four year rotation. Yeah!!!
We have found that history comes alive when the family learns together. Particularly if you are not well-acquainted with history yourself (which I am not!!), or you are teaching multiple ages (which I am!!), studying the same time periods together will strengthen everyone’s learning and interest and make your job of teaching simpler! (Anything that will make my job a bit simpler, sounds good to me!)
It should be a fun year as we make our way through the Old Testament and Ancient History!
I have just finished ordering all of our books, and the kids have really been enjoying previewing them as they arrive in the mail.
Here’s the list of what we will be using…
Teacher’s Guide:
Connecting With History: A Guide to Salvation History
Year One: Old Testament and Ancient History
“Connecting With History is our first self-published history curriculum. It takes an integrated approach to history and literature from a thoroughly Catholic perspective, covering the Old Testament and the ancient cultures of Israel, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome.”
(I am also hoping to read a few books myself from the Logic and Rhetoric book lists.)
Reading List:
- Usborne Time Traveler
- Archaeologists Dig for Clues
- Noah’s Ark by Peter Spier
- Tut’s Mummy Lost and Found
- Aesop’s Fables Coloring Book
- Pyramids: 50 Hands-On Activities to Experience Ancient Egypt
- Old Testament Days: An Activity Guide
- Classical Kids: An Activity Guide
- The Trojan Horse or How the Greeks Won the War
Supplemental:
- The Genesis of it All
Noah’s Ark (It’s not on the list, but my kids LOVE looking through the pictures in this book!)- The Great Pyramid
- Favorite Greek Myths
- The Librarian Who Measured the Earth
- Exodus
- The Story of Hercules
- D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
- Blackline Maps of World History
- Jewish Holiday Stories
- Tales from the Old Testament
- Egyptian Treasures: Mummies and Myths
- Greek Myths
- Strengthened by God/The Great Deluge
Each of the children will also be starting their own Book of the Centuries (updated link), as well as a couple lap books throughout the year based on Ancient History. I am also considering ordering the Timeline, for our school room wall, or possibly making our own. We’ll see…
I did order the book History Pockets – Ancient Civilizations to help us with our lapbooks, as well as an Ancient Egypt Toob
is to blame inspired my love of history through living books last summer!! 🙂
Oh, and I even ordered a number of stickers and stencils too…
I can’t wait to start… Is it September yet?? 😉
Looks like it will be a blast! Keep us updated on how it goes!
you are the kind of teacher my kids would love to have!!
r
Thank you for sharing! My plans are pretty much set for this year, but I will definitely keep RCHistory in mind for next year.
It looks wonderful! And it makes me second guess myself! We’re going with Serendipity history this year for the youngest two and I think it will be fun. Maybe next year for the RC (I bookmarked it), unless Elizabeth is doing something great again.
We’ve been doing RC History this year, Archaeologists Dig For Clues was a blast hit! Here is a very successful idea we did
http://sevenlittleaustralians.blogspot.com/2007/11/archaelogists-dig-for-clues.html
I lent the book to a friend and her boys starting digging up an old house site on her property.
looks awesoms as always Jessica! Your kids are going to enjoy it:)
This is what we’re doing too!
Thank you everyone! We really are excited about this course!
Erin ~ That is awesome!! Thank you so much for the link! Any other suggestions, or books worth adding?? Thank you!!
We just purchased year 1 of RC History. I went through the lesson plans last week they are amazing. I am most thrilled about having everyone studying the same thing! We will really be able to sink our teeth into it. Thanks for listing all the books that go with the plans on your site. I will be ordering many of these books to go along with our study. I have noticed that this post was from 2008. Will you still receive financial credit for these purchase? You and your ideas have been so helpful to me and my children that I would love to help you in any small way I can. God bless you and your lovely family.
Aren't they great! I am so excited to have a little extra help this second time through, from the new lesson plans, especially since I will have children in 3 different levels!
And thanks for checking! I've been an Amazon Affiliate since the end of 2007, and at that time I went through and updated any old posts, so everything should still contain my affiliate information. I really do appreciate it very much! God bless your family too! 🙂
I am also an affiliate for RC History now too – you can find the link/ad in the sidebar, and I also updated the links in the various posts as well. The commission is only about half of what Amazon pays, but it is always nice to support Catholic Businesses first when possible.