Readers, Fairy Tales, and American History

Can you recommend something for ages three to five who are learning to read? Also, I have had children requesting fairy tales (I would read them aloud) Our third grader could use some books on Native Americans, the Revolutionary War, or the Wild West to supplement school.

Another sweet friend sent this request in.  I talked some about readers yesterday, but I'll add some more to that.  We love the Ted and Friends Phonics collection.  It's similar to the Very First Reading Set, but without the obvious parent-child collaboration.  Instead of letting the child exclusively work on learned phenomes (letter sounds), the Ted and Friends only emphasizes certain letter sounds.  The Combined Volume (CV notation) means there are several books in one, and you get a great deal since it's bound into one book!
Ted and Friends has 12 of the 16 Phonics Readers.  This is the same illustrator as Farmyard Tales, so you know it's a favorite at our house :)

Now onto Fairy Tales.  The Usborne Illustrated Stories are phenomenal.  Beautiful illustrations and any collection of stories you can think of.  These are great as read-alouds, but as you get more confident readers, they will enjoy curling up with these books. Here are the Fairy Tale specific books:

Usborne Illustrated Grimm's Fairy Tales

Usborne Illustrated Fairy Tales

Usborne Illustrated Classics for Girls

Usborne Illustrated Classics for Boys

If Usborne has a fault, it is the lack of early American history material.  Lots of modern history, lots of ancient history, not a lot of American history.  This is one that I've used:

Who Were the First North Americans?

A little easy on the reading level, but the material is good.  The Internet Links are also helpful - you know they're safe, so no worries about what 'interesting' things he may find while researching.

Hope that helps!  

**Disclaimer - The links on this page go to my personal UBAM consultant page.  I receive a commission from sales on that site, but your price remains the same.  I am an Usborne consultant to help contribute to my family.**

5th Grade History

 I will have a 5th grader next year and we will be starting our second history cycle. I want to do three years instead of 4 so that 8th can be US history and civics/government. Anything I should start collecting?

My first assignment here on this little blog.  A friend of mine sent this in.  She's a fellow homeschooler, so I know education without boredom is priority.  Usborne books are phenomenal in this area.  The non-fiction books at higher levels have information broken up into lots of little word sections with big pictures (and lots of them).  This keeps the information manageable.  Does anyone else's eyes glaze over when reading long pages of boring text?  It's not just me, right?  We want kids to enjoy learning, homeschooled or not.  There is TONS of cool stuff out there to learn about, let's encourage them to learn it!

This is, of course, your basic History Encyclopedia.  This is a great reference tool.  It has the chunks of text with lots of neat pictures, including cut-aways, diagrams, illustrations, pictures.  Is it weird that my oldest likes to read it like a fiction book?  ;)

The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History

Reduced Version (Same book, smaller size)

Here's some books on Ancient History:

Usborne Romans

Usborne Greeks

Roman Britain

If you're doing Greek history, we love these Greek Myths books (link goes to more options for all ages): 

  

The Usborne Book of Greek Myths

Usborne Illustrated Guide to Greek Myths and Legends

If you are studying Shakespeare and his works in your World History tour:

Usborne Stories from Shakespeare

The Usborne World of Shakespeare

If you are doing art history along with World/US history, some great resources that cover the classics:

The Usborne Book of Famous Artists

The Usborne Book of Famous Paintings

One of our educational philosophies is to make history and geography come alive with stories, not just names, places, and dates, but real stories that kids will enjoy reading.  The True Adventure Stories are a great place to get those. Especially this Second World War or War Stories.

Did you know that 2014 commemorates the 100th anniversary of World War I?  Here are some great books to learn about both World Wars:

The Usborne Introduction to the First World War

The World Wars

More World War Books

Another fun history book that is 100% true, but more fun than boring is The Story of Inventions

You do not have to get all of these!  Some would be redundant, some may be too easy/hard.  Some may not pertain to what you're studying.  But this is a good place to start.  Usborne also carries some easier versions of classic literature that you may want to use when studying a time period - like A Tale of Two Cities when studying the French Revolution or King Arthur when studying 5th and 6th century Europe.  

I hope that helps give you some ideas!

** Disclaimer - The links in this post go to my personal UBAM consultant page.  I make a commission off sales from my site.  Your price does not change, but it buying books from my site helps to support my family.**