"'Education is the Science of Relations'; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––
'Those first-born affinities,
That fit our new existence to existing things.'"

Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education
with a quote from The Prelude by William Wordsworth

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Colonial History

Our family will be studying Colonial History for the next eleven weeks and I put together our reading schedule based on Eva March Tappan books along with a few others.  Here are the spines linked to their full text at Google Books or Open Library:

An Elementary History of Our Country by Tappan
This is a straight-forward chronological history of the United States.  It's good for dates and facts.

Letters from Colonial Children by Tappan
As I mentioned in the last blog, this lovely historical fiction is a series of letters written by colonial children to their families and friends in the Old World.

American Hero Stories by Tappan
This is a book of biographical sketches that is great for younger children.

Builders of Our Country Vol. 1 by Gertrude Van Duyn Southwick.  I'm not sure where I found this, but I had it in my Google library.  It is also a series of biographical sketches, many of which are colony founders, so it filled in a lot of gaps I had.  This will be a read aloud.

The Catholic Pioneers of America by John O'Kane Murray
This is another series of biographical sketches dedicated to American Catholics.  It has over 80 biographies, written more as stories than a factual retelling, arranged by date of death.  I found sorting through this book fascinating.  This will also be a read aloud in preference to Builders when they both cover the same person.

I have two stories about South Carolina in Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston.

You can download the entire 11-week schedule as a PDF.

Now to search through For the Love of Literature and Let the Authors Speak for some good historical fiction to go along with this reading schedule!

7 comments:

Nancy Kelly said...

Kris,
I really like Tappan's work, so I am interested in checking out these titles! How kind of you to share your schedule, too.
Ring true,
Nancy

Eve | Inchworm Chronicles said...

The book about letters from colonial children looks fascinating.

Anonymous said...

Kris,
are the letters from colonial children actual true letters, or did Tappan make them up?
Kristi

Kris said...

Tappan writes in her preface that she made up the children and the letters, but the details are historically accurate. So consider it an historical fiction if you will. She also writes that she wrote it in "modern" language; I wonder if she thought the book would be read some 90 years later?

Amanda said...

Kris,

Have you been successful finding many of Tappan's works in print, and if so, where? I see many of them on mainlesson but not all are reprinted there. I noticed St. Jerome's Classical school plan uses many of her works on Greece and other middle age characters. Thanks!

Amanda said...

Kris,

Have you been successful finding many of Tappan's works in print, and if so, where? I see many of them on mainlesson but not all are reprinted there. I noticed St. Jerome's Classical school plan uses many of her works on Greece and other middle age characters. Thanks!

Kris said...

I download the pdf and read it on my Kindle or computer. I just discovered today! that Heritage History sells ebooks for $2 and they carry many of her titles.

As for print versions, Heritage History has some available through Amazon. I find abebooks.com to be the best source for old books, checking back periodically for new stock if a title you're looking for is not there or too expensive.