History for younger children

[Calidris]

(inspired by another thread but taking a different approach, thus the spin-off)

I'm looking for suggestions for a good book covering human history. I have seen Story of the World recommended often. but usually in a Christian context, so I am curious to know how Judeo-Christian it's bias is. Is it overtly Christian? Is it focussed excessively on European and Judeo-Christian civilisations?

The bits I could see on the Amazon "look inside" thing seemed like a nice approach, accessible to children, but I am concerned about it's focus/bias.

thanks

[lach]

Story of the World claims to be secular, but the first volume on ancient history does present Biblical mythology as fact. I think it also does have a Western bias, but it's not overt. It's not like "In Europe they were doing great things and blah blah while over in that heathen China they were eating dogs and babies." It's more like "In Europe they were doing great things and blah blah. Oh yeah, and they were doing stuff in China too that was pretty cool. But back to Europe."

Unfortunately, there isn't much else out there. There's the Usborne and the Kingfisher encyclopedias, and you can often find lots of activity books about various different specific subjects.

I was really looking forward to this blogger updating her curriculum, but she never seems to have.

Pandia Press has a history textbook series that I haven't seen, but my understanding is that it's completely secular. I've heard really good things about their science series.

At this point, my plan is to follow along with a high school level textbook that I have and like, using age-appropriate thematic activities and books. I'm sure I'll buy Story of the World, but I'm not sure I consider it all that trustworthy a source.

[skueppers]

I have Volume 1 of "The Story of the World" here, so I thought I would excerpt for you a couple of sections that reveal the bias of the author.

Here is part of a section titled, "Gods of Ancient Egypt". It is typical of the way Susan Wise Bauer addresses myths and stories from various cultures throughout the book:

"The pharaoh wasn't the only god the Egyptians worshipped. Ra was the god of the sun. he was the chief god; other gods were part of his family. Osiris was the god who [...]

Egyptian stories about the gods often tried to explain why the Nile overflowed every year. One Egyptian story, or myth, tells about Osiris and his brother, Set. Here's the myth of Osiris as an Egyptian child might have heard it from his mother, long ago."

About 10 pages later, there is a chapter called, "The Jewish People," which includes the following:

"And a very important man lived in the city of Ur. His name was Abram. The book of Genesis, in the Bible, tells us about Abram.

Long ago, Abram lived with his father Terah in the city of Ur. He helped his father to run his business. [...]"

You can see how the stories about the Egyptian gods are presented as myths, whereas the Bible is cited as a source for accurate historical information.

I don't consider this to be a major problem, especially since my children will not be reading The Story of the World to themselves. I haven't yet decided whether I will include the chapters of biblical history in our family's study of The Story of the World, or whether I will omit them. I probably will include Chapter 39, "Rome and the Christians," because I believe it's historically important.

[Calidris]

thanks skeuppers, that is the sort of thing I was concerned about, and lach, those are some good ideas, I will probably end up sith some sort of DIY approach too. I just need to figure out an outline of some sort, I'm sure I can find lots of resources once i do. Just the planning part is hard for me.

[Collinsky]

I am using SOTW Ancient Times in a secular way - which means occasionally rewording what is said by throwing in a phrase or two, or leaving out other phrases. It's not been bad at all in that respect - I was prepared for SOTW to be much more Christo-centric than it turned out to be. Honestly, I've felt that the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History is a tad skewed in the Christian direction as well. (Specifically Protestant, which is NOT something I should be able to even speculate on if it were written in a truly objective way.) I wasn't prepared for that, at all.

I may not love this aspect that can tend to turn up even books that are supposed to be secular (in fact, I know many Christians didn't like the Usborne book because it discusses evolution and the dinosaurs in ways that were contrary to what they were teaching their children) but I do kind of accept it to some degree, particularly when it's subtle. We do live in a culture that has, for good and for ill, been influenced by Christian thought for centuries. It is not surprising that European and American history bears that stamp, that underlying bias, or that the European and American interpreters of these histories may tend to have the paradigm of their greater culture influencing their perspective. It's annoying, but at the same time it can provide an opportunity for teaching children something other than dates and names -- I think one of the greatest gifts we can offer our children in the study of history is the ability to question, to delve deeper, and to think critically. A parent just adding the words, "This author believes _______" or "Some people think ___________" can make a big difference, because it automatically implies there are other ways to see whatever is being discussed.

[tbone]

I'm not really comfortable using SOTW because of the way the biblical stories are stated as fact vs the stories of other cultures so I've decided that we are going to just piece together our own.

I have the Usborne internet linked book of World History and the Kingfisher illustrated History of the World on hand. I'm going to use these as the spines and supplement with books on the topic we're studying from our home library and the public library. I also plan to use dvd's where ever appropriate to try and bring the history 'to life'. I'll use blackline maps for coloring and labeling. I'm still debating about history projects. I'm not a project kind of person, but may just look up resources for the topic to do a project on. I've considered just getting the SOTW activity book, but I'm going to have to flip through it first.

[Collinsky]

Originally Posted by tbone

I have the Usborne internet linked book of World History and the Kingfisher illustrated History of the World on hand.

I did find a few things in the Usborne book that struck me as needlessly Christo-centric. Around 1100, the Vikings stopped pillaging the coast because they "converted to Christianity and became less violent", for instance. No other factors were offered, even though cultural shifts over time are quite normal, and generally pretty multi-faceted. I would much have preferred if it said that by 1100, Viking raids became much more uncommon. Because as anyone knows, conversion to Christianity doesn't lead to less bloodshed outright -- other factors HAD to be involved. It just rubbed me the wrong way, I suppose.

I understand that in a child's book, you can't talk about Charlemagne's massacres of non-Christians, so I forgave them them for glossing over that aspect.

But even so, it really felt to me that the Christian view of god was accepted as "God," and that other views of god were presented - ever so subtly - as "This is what those people thought about god/s." It's almost unavoidable.

[lotusdebi]

I've found it very easy to simply reword things while reading SOTW to my older son. It helped to read the book to myself ahead of time so that I was prepared. I've also chosen to skip a few of the coloring pages in the activity book that I felt were unnecessary. I consider it all a part of homeschooling - tailoring the materials to best fit the child.

[ocelotmom]

I don't find that SOTW presents Bible stories as fact to a greater extent than anything else non-factual. It clearly identifies Bible stories as Bible stories. If you've taught your child that the Bible is fact, then these will be interpreted as fact. If you teach your child that the Bible is the holy writings of a religious group which may not be literal truth, then they'll be interpreted as stories.

I find the stories about the various made-up 7 year old kids to be much more ambiguously represented than the Bible stories.

For me, the deciding factor was that, as far as I can tell, there is not a direct secular replacement for SOTW aimed at this age group. I like the narrative style of SOTW, and the fact that everything is all in one place. It's MUCH easier for me to explain that our family doesn't believe the Bible necessarily represents literal historical truth than to try to find appropriate replacements for everything covered in SOTW.

I also agree with the PP who said that non-Christo-centric cultures are touched on in a very cursory but fair manner.

[Savoir Faire]

Originally Posted by lach

It's not like "In Europe they were doing great things and blah blah while over in that heathen China they were eating dogs and babies."

I think I love you.

[Shelsi]

Hey thanks for starting this thread OP! I'm pretty sure my thread is what you're spinning off from and it's exactly what I was going to ask.

[dotnetdiva]

We're also going to use SOTW in a secular way, just rewording or skipping a few chapters, and adding other stuff to balance it out. It's not too bad! As I read more and more about classical education, I do think that Susan Wise Bauer's books are very tolerable to use as secular curriculum. I have been on very Christian Classical websites where they only recommend Christian authors and how horrible it is that SWB recommends Greek myths and such that cover other gods.

This summer we covered prehistory using Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia.

I'm having a blast picking out wonderful go-along books once we start Ancient History next week! I myself can't wait to learn all this and plan to give myself a very thorough education in history, literature, art, etc....

[Collinsky]

Originally Posted by dotnetdiva

I'm having a blast picking out wonderful go-along books once we start Ancient History next week! I myself can't wait to learn all this and plan to give myself a very thorough education in history, literature, art, etc....

Totally OT, but one thing that is SUPER fun is learning about food along the way. Food Timeline is a good resource to start with, IMO! Has some recipes for foods in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc - up through to modern times. I was stoked to find it... we had planned to do regional dishes as we studied different areas, but being able to learn more about the food that was eaten, etc, at different times in different regions has been really neat.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by Collinsky

Totally OT, but one thing that is SUPER fun is learning about food along the way. Food Timeline is a good resource to start with, IMO! Has some recipes for foods in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc - up through to modern times. I was stoked to find it... we had planned to do regional dishes as we studied different areas, but being able to learn more about the food that was eaten, etc, at different times in different regions has been really neat.

that is an amazing site

WOW

thanks so much

i never sould have even thought to LOOK for something like that.

[dotnetdiva]

Very cool link! Yet another way for us to tie it all together! History, literature, art, music, architecture, science, etc.. now food. Very fun for homeschooling.

[AngelBee]

Originally Posted by Collinsky

Totally OT, but one thing that is SUPER fun is learning about food along the way. Food Timeline is a good resource to start with, IMO! Has some recipes for foods in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc - up through to modern times. I was stoked to find it... we had planned to do regional dishes as we studied different areas, but being able to learn more about the food that was eaten, etc, at different times in different regions has been really neat.

Love it!