Here Comes High Tide
The Story of Science: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim. Our history spine for the high-tide parts of our year. Yup, history: Hakim’s Story of Science series takes a historical-biographical approach to science, tracing the development of ideas in the context of the lives of the great thinkers and scientists, and the cultural and political events surrounding them. This is book two in the three-part series, beginning in the 1450s: the printing press, the fall of Constantinople. My heart goes all pitty-pat when I think about some of the books I can pull off the shelves this year to go along with this one: The Apprentice by Pilar Molina Llorente; The Second Mrs. Giaconda; Twain’s Joan of Arc; Diane Stanley’s Michelangelo for starters.
Jenn asked for the titles of some of the natural-history books Beanie has been enjoying, so I’ve started a list in the comments of this post.
And for readers who are new to Bonny Glen: here’s a bunch of links to my Tidal Homeschooling posts (explaining how we’re unschoolish but not full-fledged unschoolers, Charlotte Mason-influenced but not strictly CM.)
And while I’m at it: Things to Buy Instead of Curriculum.
Penny says:
High Tide – Yum. The Hakim books are a big hit here too.
I waved to you from Alaska last week – did you see me? lol I figured that’s about as close as I’m gonna get!
Thanks for all this great info Lissa, it’s nice to jump back into high tide after a crazy summer – however long it lasts!
On August 15, 2013 at 11:53 am
Ellie says:
We love Hakim’s Science series 🙂
On August 15, 2013 at 3:14 pm
maria says:
For those of you using this Science series, do you use the student or teacher guides?
Love the look of these books! Melissa, thanks so much for mentioning them!
🙂 maria
On August 15, 2013 at 7:22 pm
Nancy says:
I’d love some companion book suggestions for book one in The Story of Science — ’cause you may just have started us down that road. I am a real sucker for companion books. Dover packages Men of Iron with a knight coloring book? Yes, please! I love that! And I love, love all of your suggestion posts.
On August 16, 2013 at 5:05 am
Ellie says:
@ Maria, I would love to purchase the Teacher and Student Guides for Newton at the Center — if only to actually hold them in my hands to see if they’d be a good fit for us! They *look* like they would be, but on Amazon the Look Inside feature isn’t enabled, pity, so I can’t tell for sure: I spend my homeschooling pennies cautiously! 🙂
On August 16, 2013 at 1:24 pm
Maria says:
@ Ellie
Yes I do too, on spending those pennies cautiously. I may order them via free shipping on B&N and then return them to local store location if they do not look like a good fit for us. Honestly it is rare we use teachers guides or student workbooks it is just the enticement of that they exist or something it seems. 🙂
On August 19, 2013 at 1:06 am
Melanie B says:
I recently picked up book one, I’ve actually got a draft of a blog post waiting to be completed. I really liked it, but sort of regretfully concluded that I didn’t think it would be a good fit for our family right now. I think it’s just a little more than Bella could handle and also I found that it hit one of my pet peeves: the extensive sidebars and photos with long captions and all the visual clutter drove me a bit batty. I am driven to distraction when I try to read this kind of book aloud. I want to just follow the main narrative, but there are so many interesting things in the sidebars that I don’t want to skip but I hate bouncing back and forth between the two narratives and oh I just get a sort of mental log jam. It seems like this sort of book might work better with a parent reading the main narrative out loud and the child following up with reading the sidebars and extras to herself. But my kids are all still non readers.
Anyway, does anyone else use them for read alouds and how do you deal with the sidebars if you do? Do you read them or ignore them?
On August 19, 2013 at 4:32 am
Ellie says:
Melanie, for the bulk of our History, Science, Cultural Studies, Religious Studies etc etc I do still read aloud to my kids (they are 11 and 14). And, they now share in the reading aloud. It is a wonderful way to learn in a group setting.
With Hakim’s books specifically I do most of the reading. I agree with you about the layout; I plan ahead (sometimes only a day ahead!) so I can follow the narrative plus sidebars seamlessly. Sometimes I do the bars first, sometimes not, it depends on the material and what makes the most chronological sense.
I do agree with you that these books are geared towards students older than yours currently are, but reading through them now on your own can help you plan for the future and also be good for your own understanding? If that works for you? I do **a lot** of background reading and reading ahead — helps me a lot! 🙂
On August 19, 2013 at 5:32 am
Melissa Wiley says:
Melanie, you had me confused at first because I remembered writing out exactly how I deal with the sidebar issue (I agree with you about the visual clutter, yeesh)—but it turns out that was in a note to my local hs’ing group. Ha! I’ll paste that part here (it’s essentially the same thing Ellie suggests above):
“For our history spine, I’m using Joy Hakim’s The Story of Science (a historical-biographical approach to science, quite wonderful) with lots of historical fiction and biographies to tie in. We worked with volume 1 last year and started volume 2 (Newton at the Center) this week. My approach with this book is to read the chapter aloud, discussing and adding historical context as we go. I read the main text only, and then after I’ve finished the chapter I have the girls go back and read the sidebars and sum them up for the rest of us.”
As for age, I think it’s better for a bit older–10/11 and up. Bella’s a more advanced listener than Rilla is but I would still hold off (thinking back to Jane at this age, also a precocious listener) until older.
Ellie, there are samples of the student and teacher quest guides at Smithsonian Books:
http://www.smithsonianbooks.com/usersection/Default.aspx?content=Curriculum
Direct links to pdf samples:
http://www.smithsonianbooks.com/UserFiles/File/NATC_TQG_04-05.pdf
http://www.smithsonianbooks.com/UserFiles/File/NATC_SQG_04-05.pdf
On August 19, 2013 at 5:55 am
Ellie says:
Lissa thank you so much for the links! Oh, that helps tremendously 🙂
On August 19, 2013 at 6:25 am
Melanie B says:
Oh thank you, Ellie and Lissa. I did love the book, spent some time in the doctor’s waiting room flipping through it and enjoying it thoroughly. They are definitely going on my wish list and I’ll probably get them sooner rather than later. And who knows if they are on the shelf then maybe the kids themselves will sort out whether they are age-appropriate or not. Often I learn when they are ready for something because they find it and bring it to me to read.
On August 19, 2013 at 2:55 pm