• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Crafty Classroom logo

BibleLetteroftheWeek
PhonicsPrintables
ColorScience
BrickBuilder
  • Home
  • Curriculum
  • Crafts
  • Printables
  • Bible
  • Notebooking
  • Games
  • DIY Tools
  • Join
You are here: Home / Archives for living books

living books

Can History be Engaging?

July 23, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments


Warning: Soapbox Post Ahead
The printables and Free Curriculum Offers are at the bottom, scroll if you must.

So, what do you think?

CAN History be engaging?

If you would have asked me that 20 years ago,
I would certainly answer that with a big fat,

NO!

In fact,
I can even go further and tell you the specific night
that I decided that I HATED History.

H.A.T.E.D.
I would use a milder word,
but it really wouldn’t convey my actual (10 year old) feelings about History

(and yes, if you do the math that makes me 30)

Ahem…..

So, it was 20 years ago and
I vividly remember sitting in my uncomfortable wooden chair,
with my gigantic 5th grade (public school) History book propped on it’s spine.
The tendons between my thumb and pointer finger ached from holding
this monster of a book upright.
It was massive.

I was tired.
It was late,
Homework was due,
and I had more pages to read then I cared to count.

I tried my best to read. I willed myself to focus.
Self motivation kicked in; “You can do this!”
With heavy eyelids I read a full page.

Great!
Until I realized,
I hadn’t a CLUE what I just read.

(ever done this?)

Giggling at myself,
I started to read again…..this time outloud.

An hour passed, until I just couldn’t stomach any more.
I had no idea who these “historical” people were.
I had no personal frame of reference for where they were at in the world,
or even what period of time they existed in.
There were dates and numbers and facts,
graphs and arrows and lists of accomplishments.
I had no connection to any of it.

My brain was jumbled.

That was the moment I realized my complete hate disregard towards History.
(yes, I was a moody young girl and my feelings quickly swept from hatred to apathy)

I closed my book,
went to bed and
took an incomplete on my lesson the next morning.
No Joke.
Big fat ZERO.

And, now that I’ve written that all out,
It is almost sad to remember how much
I actually loathed History lessons.

I know better now.
I’ve actually become quite fond of History over the past few years,
Mostly from reading His-Story from an entirely different perspective,
but also out of a necessity to teach it to my own children.

I want my children to actually connect with the people and stories they read about.


This is one reason we will be using many living books
from our Heritage History Curriculum.

PSSST…..
If you are making a purchase at Heritage History use
coupon code: valerie7
It will give you the Spanish Empire Library FREE
with any Curriculum CD purchase! Ends 10/31/12Click Here for more details

So mostly I’ll be assigning these living books during independent reading time,
but for some of the titles I’ll be following up the reading time with
actual assignments. It is for those times that I made a set of Notebooking pages:

notebooking living books

And of course I couldn’t wait to share them with you too!
If you use living books or any kind of chapter book as part of your weekly lessons,
you’re going to love this 5 day spread of self-guided notebooking assignments.

You can read all about each daily assignment and print the free notebooking pages here.

TIP: Print up an extra set and keep them in a folder
for one of those “mom is sick, everyone pick a book” moments.

Happy Notebooking!

Filed Under: History Printables, homeschool printables, Living Books, Notebooking Printables, Reading Printables, Writing Printables Tagged With: free printables, heritage history, homeschool, Lessons, living books, notebooking, notebooking pages, printables, questions, quiz, reading, writing

Heritage History

May 20, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments

Last year I wrote a post entitled 10 Things I bet ya didn’t know about me.

I posted 10 because it’s a nice round number, and it seemed like a good place to stop.

But if I had to write a #11, this would be it:

#11. I love to read.

As a child I would read anything and everything that I could get my hands on.

Sometimes this was not such a good thing.

*ahem

Flash Forward 20 years and you’ll see that my 9 year old daughter shares my passion for reading.

Christmas and Birthdays are easy for this little girl.

Her stocking is filled with little brown rectangles and she cherishes every single one.

With her I hear, “Can we go to the library” more often then “Can we go to McDonnalds?”

What could be better right?

Well, if you have an avid reader you probably already know that
keeping the bookshelf stocked can be a bit of a challenge.

And if you’re a homeschooler you know how wonderful it is when you find an appropriate book….
a Classic even that teaches your children about important facts in a fun, and memorable way.

I believe the term for these types of stories are called Living Books!

heritage history

“Putting the story back into History-
Heritage History promotes traditional narrative history. Our online library contains biographies, legends, adapted literature, and introductory histories. All were written for the general reader and are easy and enjoyable to read.”

So here’s the deal with Heritage History:

heritage History

Isn’t that neat?

Heritage History has over 400 titles, and you can purchase a single book, or an entire collection!

heritage history

We were sent the Young Reader’s Curriculum

Every book in this curriculum was written pre-1923
You can check out theYoung Readers Book List here.

The Young Readers library is one of our largest collections, with over eighty books to choose from. Many of the books in this collect are simple enough for a fluent reader to complete in only a few hours, so avid readers may be able to read dozens of books from the collection before moving on to more challenging curriculums. Reading a few dozen of these books will expose students to hundreds of famous historical characters and will be an excellent foundation for future learning.

Ok.

Stop right here.

I HAVE to tell you that I was a bit worried when I saw that these were pre-1923 books.

Wait….Wait….Wait. Back up even further here.

Let me just say something here:

We are not KJVer’s.

I simply can’t get through the thee’s and the thou’s and the thy’s
without spitting all over myself
and that never makes for good worship.

Anyway, when I saw that a lot of these books had that old world ring to them,
I was a bit worried.

Read:
A bit worried was I that my eldest would find the text
a daunting reversal of mirrored context, neglecting to partake
in the fanciful pleasure of each winnowed passage.

(I’m 74% sure that actually makes sense.)

In short, I wondered if it was going to be too much for my little 9 year old girl to handle.

Would she get all tongue twisted and frusterated?
Would she just skip over the seemingly backwards sentences and simply go for the general idea?

Nope. She read them.
She understood them.
She enjoyed them.
She wanted more.

(And of course I secretly took Homeschool Mom credit for providing her
such a wonderful resource that I knew she would like)

Ahem.

Actually all of the stories in the Young Readers Collection are chosen
because they are told in a “child-friendly, easy-to-understand manner.”
You can read them online to get an idea of the tone.
(Green books are for Young Readers)

Quite a contrast to fact drilling, public school, History books that i grew up on!

What a great way to learn!

Just as a side note here: I believe I remember a certain someone
who used easy to understand parables in His teaching as well.

Just Sayin’

Anyway,I really love that Heritage History is providing these classic stories in an updated format, making it easy for today’s homeschooling families. You can easily print multiple copies, and reuse your teaching materials for your upcoming students. Some of the more difficult passages make excellent read alouds as well.

There are also additional resources like Teacher Guides, maps and clipart for you to use alongside the books.

(I smell a Notebooking project)

You can pick up the Young Readers Collection for $24.95

There are quite a few other collections for older children as well, and right now if you purchase multiple CD’s Heritage History is running a special deal you can take advantage of!

Be sure to check them out on Facebook, and subscribe to their newsletter.
(Which enters you in a giveaway for a Kindle Fire!)

Overall, I’m really excited about having this resource at my fingertips. I know that I’ll be putting our new books to good use, and tying them into all of our unit studies over the coming years.

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this product for review purposes. Check out what other TOS Crew Review Bloggers thought of Heritage History!

Filed Under: Am. History Crafts, Ancient History, Reviews Tagged With: american history, ancient history, classical, e-books, free, heritage history, homeschooling, homschool, list, living books, notebooking, online, resources

Primary Sidebar

Tags

activities art art projects bible bible crafts bible printables bible verse children children's ministry christian christmas craft crafts curriculum educational crafts file folder games first grade free games giveaway history holiday homeschool homeschool crafts homeschool curriculum homeschool printables Homeschool Tools japan kids kids crafts kindergarten math mazes mom crafts notebooking preschool preschool printables printable printables science sewing st patricks day sunday school valentines day worksheets

Kindergarten Math Worksheets

Footer

I am a Christian mother of four, with over 13-years experience homeschooling in Southern Oregon. The resources and products I create are designed to keep the prep to a minimum while also bringing a little educational fun to your classroom

  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Disclosure Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact Us
#worksheetsforkids #numbermats Fine Motor Number C #worksheetsforkids #numbermats Fine Motor Number Charts, numbers 0-30. Our number charts will help your students learn one-to-one correspondence, numbers in order from 0-30, patterns, numerals, and their names. Our number charts are colorful and fun, making them a great first step to getting your students to count. Add them now to your math center! (Link in Bio) #craftyclassroom #homeschooling #homeschoolmom https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fine-Motor-Numbers-Charts-6734309?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=thecraftyclassroom&utm_content=Fine%20Motor%20Numbers%3A%20Charts
#worksheetsforkids #numbermats Fine Motor Number C #worksheetsforkids #numbermats Fine Motor Number Charts, numbers 0-30. Our number charts will help your students learn one-to-one correspondence, numbers in order from 0-30, patterns, numerals, and their names. Our number charts are colorful and fun, making them a great first step to getting your students to count. Add them now to your math center! (Link in Bio) #craftyclassroom #homeschooling #homeschoolmom https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fine-Motor-Numbers-Charts-6734309?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=thecraftyclassroom&utm_content=Fine%20Motor%20Numbers%3A%20Charts
Our HUGE Maze Activity Bundle includes a wide vari Our HUGE Maze Activity Bundle includes a wide variety of hands-on learning opportunities for your students!  Includes 15 maze activity packs filled with differentiated learning material for multiple ages and abilities.  Includes our popular Editable Word Mazes set that will allow you to create your own mazes using spelling words, sight words, student names, and more! (Link in Bio) #craftyclassroom #homeschooling #homeschoolmom https://craftyclassroom.com/product/maze-activity-bundle/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=thecraftyclassroom&utm_content=Printable%20Mazes%20for%20Kids
A-Z Beginning Letter Alphabet Mazes: This set incl A-Z Beginning Letter Alphabet Mazes: This set includes 26 individual letter mazes for students to practice the beginning letter sound. Students will follow this letter from start to finish by identifying different beginning letter sound pictures.
Alphabet Order Letter Mazes: Additionally, this set includes 10 A-Z mazes where students will follow the alphabet in order through the maze. These are a fun challenge for students who are ready for more. #superstarworksheets #craftyclassroom #homeschooling #preschoolprintables #sped #finemotorskills (Link in Bio) #craftyclassroom #homeschooling #homeschoolmom https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beginning-Mazes-for-Kids-A-Z-and-Single-Letter-Alphabet-Order-Sheets-6502236?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=thecraftyclassroom&utm_content=Beginning%20Letter%20Picture%20Mazes%20and%20Alphabetical%20Order%20Mazes
Load More... Follow on Instagram

SUBSCRIBER FREEBIE:

Join over 100,000 subscribers and receive our free teaching newsletter!  Join FREE today!

Copyright 2018 Valerie McClintick LLC