Fantastic History Read-Aloud

On one of the message boards I frequent a member posted about a book she'd picked up, A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich. She raved about it and said it was suitable for secular homeschoolers. On her recommendation I ordered it and since it was one of the few books I didn't pack, I picked it up to read aloud to the kids last week.



What a fantastic book! First written in 1935 this little book is packed with fantastic writing, colourful stories and lots of humour. The author knows how to use an image when needed; the exploration of history is compared to dropping a light down a well where we can only see a parts of the well at any point in the light's descent and eventually, we can't even see the light. That doesn't mean he gets flowery though. This guy is my favourite kind of writer, one that can edit his writing down to the bare minimum needed to get an idea across and yet still leave the reader full images and curiosity.

Gombrich's style makes reading A Little History of the World aloud a real joy. It has a conversational tone that engages the kids and let me relax in a way I couldn't with Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. The sidetracks and explanations in Bryson's book, although also full of humour, sometimes lost us a bit. But that's only to be expected. Bryson wrote a work for adults while Gombrich is writing for children. But "writing for children," doesn't mean Gombrich talks down to kids. It means he constructs a warm tone, doesn't overload the reader/listener with too many dates and frequently draws connections between characters in history so a child can construct a mental timeline.

This book does talk about pre-history and espouses an Old Earth or evolutionary view but it's such a joy that I wouldn't want a YE creationist to skip it just on that account. It also discusses some aspects of biblical history as history (although not to the extent of Wise-Bauer's Story of the World) but again, it's such a joy that it would be a shame to dismiss it because of that.

Gombrich died in 2001 so I can't write the man any fan letters. But I can and will plug his book to anyone who wants a well-written and engaging approach to history for their kids. And I can offer up a thank you to the man for leaving this book behind for us to discover.

Cave Paintings Discovered in Basement!

This afternoon we followed up on our latest Story of the World chapters with a reading of the first two chapters of E.H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World (my review here - LOVE this book). Both dealt with prehistoric humans so in keeping with the theme we first looked at cave paintings on the internet and then grabbed some brushes and paint and headed for the basement.

While some parts of the basement walls are finished some are still bare cement. This makes them perfect for cave paintings! I poured out black, red, orange, yellow and white paints (in keeping with the colours we saw in the real cave paintings) and we got to work.



Catherine did an awesome job:


Harry had a whole story to go with his involving cavemen tumbling off waterfalls, mystical artifacts and a Beast God of Doom:


And here's the finished product:


My contributions are in the upper right hand corner: the gamer in red, the orange hand outline and our three pets. Harry's turned out great but I thought his creepy red handprints were fantastic. I LOVE Catherine's scene with the mammoth hunt on the bottom left. The three hunters have it backed up against a cliff while a fourth hunter is ready to drop a boulder on its head.

Tons of fun!

And Now For the Grade Five Line Up

   Yesterday I outlined the programs and resources my daughter is using for Grade Nine. Planning for my son has been a little easier as we're simply continuing with many of the things we had success with last year. I've finally learned what I think is probably one of the most important lessons in homeschooling, it's not the curriculum, it's the commitment. I can be swayed by all the fun and fancy programs out there but ultimately the ones that bring the most success are those I simply keep puttering away at and refuse to give up on even when they get boring and hard for Harry and I.

   English is finally starting to feel like a real subject. Harry is finished the Dancing Bears reading series and is now a confident and capable reader. He's still working through Apples and Pears spelling from the same publisher and will likely finish the last two levels during this school year. For grammar it's back to KISS. Yes, the site is hard to navigate and yes, there's a lot of printing but it's free and probably one of the best grammar programs out there. So far he's enjoying it. For writing It's Writing With Ease which he definitely isn't enjoying right now but I don't care. I've learned the virtue of pushing him through things he's not found of because he eventually reaps and enjoys the reward.

   Math became a bit of an issue because I was skipping back and forth between Singapore Primary Mathematics and Math Mammoth. Harry liked both but I kept running into issues where one would work for one concept but another was better for something else. I solved it this year by going with the Key to...Series. Since Harry understands arithmetic we'll keep it fresh with drills and occasional worksheets but otherwise he needs a more specific and in depth program for each of the concepts that are starting to pop up in math.

   History may finally get done this year. I'm back to Gombrich's Little History of the World. It's a magical book that seems to work well for Harry. Bringing Up Learners offers it's Mosaic World History program for free and LHotW is one of the two spines you can use. I'm modifying it quite a bit as it's a bit young for Harry but it's still a great outline for us to follow.

   Science is, as always, the toughest subject for me. There's nothing out there that is really written for homeschoolers from a secular perspective. With Harry I'm simply going to read lots and have him do some notebooking.