Description of the Landmark History of the American People

Customer Comments: I found it to be fascinating, but it probably is over the kids' heads. Your assignments begin by exploring the reasons for the various colonies - the backgrounds for each, the real "behind the scenes" look at how and why each one began the way they did. Why Virginia was so much different than Maryland, right next door! Why NY was the way it was (and it explains how it was - gets into the pirates, etc.) so forth. I think I probably enjoyed the part about Georgia the most - the author really has fun explaining the silliness of the London men (though he explains their good intentions well) in planning the Georgia colony. But if you're doing Core 3 with kids younger than the Core was meant for, they'll be lost - the language isn't written for kids - the vocabulary will go right over their heads. They'll zone out.

It is an excellent book and we are all thoroughly enjoying it now - I'm in week 30 with one child, and in SL4, weeks 12 and 16 with two more. The book looks at the 'how' and 'why' of things - not so much the 'who' and 'where' and 'when' that you are used to, in studying history. You'll read about things that you never heard of, or never thought of, before. It will enlighten you to aspects of the USA that you'd never understand otherwise. Some of the chapters are just plain FUN. The ones about the rise of American style of hotels, and newspapers, and "what in the world can that have to do with settling the West?" are outstanding. Recently my SL4 kids were learning about the rise of the mail-order catalog and how that changed rural America forever. Would you have ever thought of that????

So if you get bogged down temporarily, either take John's advice for pencilling in the parts you'll skip over, or read it yourself the night before and then summarize for the kids the next day. You'll be rewarded if you hang in there, and you'll learn some nifty stuff yourself, too!

John's comments about history texts

I don’t think Hakim’s VOCABULARY is any simpler than Boorstin’s. Her sentence structure, in general, is simpler. Her "tone" at points seems quite clearly directed toward young children. (You can almost hear her saying, "Now, children!") BUT . . . the CONTENT is in no way directed toward elementary-age children. And--and this is why we put Hakim off till the upper grades--she includes WAY (I mean, WAY!) more detail than any younger child will want to hear or know.

Hakim has lots more PICTURES and ILLUSTRATIONS. That is definitely a plus for younger kids. But the captions aren’t designed for young ones. . . . [One caption, chosen WHOLLY at random from the page I happened to open to in Volume 1 (p. 84): "These Indians are preparing a corn liquor drink. The woman in the foreground isn’t throwing up; she's mixing the corn with saliva to start fermentation. Corns wasn’t the only new food Europeans found in America. More are listed below."]

Our sense: neither book is "perfect" for younger kids. But Boorstin (in OUR opinion) is easier to take. His CONTENT (after the first few chapters) is more "on their level" even if his PRESENTATION isn’t perfect.

Does Hakim include more memorable stories about individuals and specific events? . . . Yes and no. It has lots of sidebars about interesting (but not necessarily to young children!) sidelights in history. It also, as I said, has lots of graphic illustrations.

FWIW. HTH. John

I’ve read Carson. And he is, most definitely, conservative. But . . . I would NEVER read that to someone below high school. Not because the language is necessarily harder than Hakim or Boorstin, but because the SUBJECT MATTER is drier--as I recall, more focused on political issues. And Carson, as I recall, doesn’t write with the same verve.

What I love about Boorstin is his focus on the SOCIAL history. I find that stuff fascinating. And I think kids do, too. John