Karen's History Project

America's Greatest Bargain

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:06:00 +0000

America's Greatest Bargain is the title of this week's free radio show from the Erskines. If you have never checked out their offerings, now is a great time to do so. Here is the description from their page:

This week's program tells the fascinating - and quite amazing - story of the Louisiana Purchase. Thomas Jefferson was the President at the time and he was concerned that either France or Spain would block the port of New Orleans for American trade. The decision was made to attempt to purchase the New Orleans port and possibly the Florida territory. But after lengthy diplomatic negotiations what we actually ended up with was a dream come true, effectively doubling the size of the fledgling United States. Great living history! This great audio program was originally broadcast on "Inheritance" back on July 11, 1954.

Transitioning to Living Math

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:24:00 +0000

Just when I think I have most of it figured out, my youngest keeps me learning and growing as I struggle to keep up with him and find ways to enhance his natural learning modes rather than try to force him into mine. Actually, I am rediscovering some of my more natural inclinations in learning as I lose more of what I put on in school to succeed and that is a very nice side benefit for me.

One of my current points of learning is living math. I joined a yahoo group and was rather lost. A good experience since it reminds me what it is like for those new to homeschooling and making their way through a sea of information and ideas. So this morning, someone in the group posted a squidoo lens called Transitioning to Living Math and it was exactly what I needed. So I am sharing it with you. And a few other resources if you have interest and need for something beyond Saxon or Singapore.

[Not singling those texts out particularly, they were chosen for instant recognition and alliteration!]

So what am I doing posting about math on a history blog? Well, living math includes a generous dose of learning about math history through reading living books together. I may be posting more of my journey as we explore those books together.

Lucky us, We got one of Tsereteli's best!

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:26:00 +0000

This morning, my mom sent me a forward from Snopes.com about a 911 monument in New Jersey given to the US by Russia in 2006. Like so many other people, I do not remember reading about this event at the time. I was able to find some news stories that date to between 2004 and 2007. One of them focuses on a potential controversy about too many names on the base of the monument. I found that link through a page that contains many other stories about the 5th commemoration of the 9/11 bombing. It is possible that the New Jersey monument got lost in a sea of memorials large and small. I found a whole website dedicated to various 911 memorials on Long Island. It would seem that we are unable to agree on THE best way to remember the victims and comfort their families while never forgetting this vicious attack on our nation. Or perhaps we are simply exercising our freedoms as Americans to do our memorializing in the way that we each deem fit and proper.

This particular 911 memorial was created by Russian artist, Zurab Tsereteli, who has left his mark on the world in many countries besides his native land. Tsereteli is a prolific designer and painter who works in many different media. This statue was dedicated on September 11, 2006 with then Russian President Vladimer Putin and former president Bill Clinton in attendance.

In any event, I was delighted to see pictures of this beautiful monument in Bayonne, NJ. The imagery of a rent in the two towers, seen as one, with a huge teardrop suspended in it evokes both grief and hope. I would love to see it in person. Here is another clear picture. It stands on the New York harbor across from the Statue of Liberty. The bronze-clad statue is 100 feet tall which makes it a few feet taller than the lady at 93 feet and puts it among Tsereteli's larger works.

As I researched this subject, I was fascinated by other works of Tsereteli, namely this rather hideous monument to Peter the Great. At 98 feet, it is close to the same size of the 911 monument and must be a constant eyesore to the residents of Moscow - especially since Peter dissed Moscow to build his capital at St. Petersburg at a huge cost of money and lives. As I looked at some more works, I became quite estatic that we got the one that we did.

This whole exercise reminds me once again that the volume of information on a particular subject sometimes has little bearing on its importance.

Picturing U.S. History

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:18:00 +0000

Found a very interesting website today while googling history news. Here is the description from the site:

Picturing United States History: An Interactive Resource for Teaching with Visual Evidence is a digital project based on the belief that visual materials are vital to understanding the American past. This website provides online "Lessons in Looking," a guide to Web resources, forums, essays, reviews, and classroom activities to help teachers incorporate visual evidence into their classrooms. The Picturing U.S. History site will also serve as a clearing house for teachers interested in incorporating visual documents into their U.S. history, American studies, American literature, or other humanities courses.

I went to the Lessons In Looking page and started reviewing the White into Black link at the top. Fascinating! It showed various media from antebellum America and used visual references in an interactive way to point out significant details in the figures that affected the way that the audience of that day perceived the figure. There are four different subjects at this time in this section.

Next I glanced at the Web Resources and found a long list of visual history resources. This is annotated which makes it even more useful. There is a grand variety. The first listing goes to Exploring Themes in American Art and includes commentary as well as pictures of works. In a later page, I found a link to a blog called Stripper's Guide. No, it has nothing to do with taking off clothes! It is by Allan Holtz, a comic strip historian. Comic Strips would be a delightful segue into history for a visual learner.

I should have started with this page, Using This Site. It describes how and why "Picturing U.S. History came into being. It is an interdisciplinary project that involves scholars in history, art history, and American studies as well as other areas of humanities. They want to help learners sift through the enormous number of images available to find those that are most helpful in understanding the past as well as teach ways of looking at this data in order to fully interpret it.

From the website, a series of questions are listed to be used when looking at a piece of visual historical evidence:

• Look at the image: describe what you see.
• What is most important in the image? How did the creator or creators construct the image to emphasize the aspect that you think is most important?

• Who created the image? What medium was used (painting, sculpture, drawing, print, photograph, etc.)?

• For whom and for what purpose was it created?

• How did people originally see the image? For example, was it displayed in an exhibition, published in a periodical, etc.?

• And also consider:
—If there are other contemporary images that seem similar or refer to the same subject.
—If the image changed over time and use. Was it later altered, edited, or cropped? Was it later used for purposes different from its original uses?

Considering that this has been created by academicians, I would expect to find some liberal bias at times. This will be an issue for some homeschools and a non-issue for others. I personally find it relatively simple to discern and discuss bias in any resource that I am using at home. I can foresee many fruitful discussions arising from the resources in this site in my homeschool.

Although the site seems directed towards the classroom teacher, it is a treasure trove for the homeschool as well. Certainly a great advantage of the internet is bringing so many resources that used to be open to only a privileged few to the masses. This site purports to be a prototype and they ask for feedback from its users. If you find this resource used, let them hear from you and be a part in shaping a potentially valuable resource.

Looking for fun online history games!

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:20:00 +0000

I am searching for fun online interactive history games for kids. I will post what I find. If anyone knows of a great site, please add in the comments!!

Here is one that I found:

http://www.kidspast.com/history-games/index.php

I played Hopping Through History and it was both fun and most of the information seemed accurate. If someone plays it and finds otherwise, let me know.

Oh my, here was a fun one:

http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/games/

I did the Duckshoot and picked the Renaissance for a topic. It would be interesting to continue playing there and get a UK perspective on history.

On this site:

http://www.history.com/games.do

I played Place the State and my 7 year old joined me. There were some fighting games there that didn't look real educational, but I didn't try them out. Might not want to turn the kiddos loose on it.

New evidence for historical Jewish Temple

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Talk about your disputed real estate! I don't think that any piece of property has been fought over more than the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Recent discoveries add hard evidence to the historical presence of the Jewish temple. Archeologists have uncovered official seals with the names of high ranking officials in Hezekiah's government as well as Hebrew inscriptions.

Another source reporting this information:

http://www.bib-arch.org/news/dailynews.asp

This article gives some background and interesting commentary:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6347077.stm

Reading these articles reminds me once again that history is largely shaped by politics, religion and geography.

All Things British

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:12:00 +0000

I have to admit to being a bit of an anglophile. So when I came across this blog today while researching the true story of William Wilberforce, I was simply delighted. One of the authors at Brits at their Best, Sharing the Inheritance, asserts that this inheritance includes...

liberty, love of God, reason, imagination, fair play, a generous and forgiving
spirit, the rule of just law, representative government, books, gardens, music,
art, sports, inventions. . .

I couldn't agree more!

Then I found this guide to British slang. That could come in quite handy when my husband and I watch our favorite British murder mysteries.

And if I find out anything interesting about WW, that will be a post for another day. I loved the movie, Amazing Grace. My inquiring mind simply wants to know how close it comes to the actual facts and where/how it was tweaked.

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:20:00 +0000

I went looking for a quote for another context and in the process found a few that I wanted to post here from one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis.

History is a story written by the finger of God.

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

Living History in Full Color

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:02:00 +0000

Just came across We Make History, providers of fine historic events. Someone posted to a local homeschool list about this Harvest Ball which is relatively close to our area and then I backtracked to the folks helping to produce it. This appears to be the second such ball in Virginia and the result of an expansion of We Make History to the east coast.

The historic events immerse people in history and include music, dress, manners and dance. Here is an excerpt of why include dance:

Historic dance gives us an opportunity to learn about the people, manners, and thinking of the past and perhaps experience the joy of recovering aspects of our wonderful (but often ignored or forgotten) cultural heritage. Historic dance is clean fun, good exercise and we believe a valuable asset in learning proper attitudes toward other ladies and gentlemen, particularly members of the opposite sex. Young (as well as older) persons are put in a framework of looking upon the other gender not as mere objects but as real persons worthy of grace, respect and honorable treatment. Since historic dances were multi-generational events, they are wonderful family activities and a good tool for connecting age groups who might otherwise have little interaction with one another. Historic dance also gives the opportunity for all of us to polish our manners. The pleasant, cheerful formality of such an evening stands as an enjoyable contrast to what is often experienced in our modern culture at large. Last but not least, historic dance makes people happy.

I would have loved to go to this 2006 Pride and Prejudice Ball!

Great site for Supplementing History

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:04:00 +0000

For those looking to supplement their history studies with literature, definitely bookmark
Literature to supplement History. Long lists of books for various time periods as well as links to other lists. The site contains lists of Story of the World and Sonlight resources as weel as movie lists from the now defunct Family Pass (Mentura) that would be helpful for ideas as well.

If the idea of supplementing history study with books and movies is new to you, these lists may entice you to try it out. No better way to put the story back into history and make it come alive. Sure, you will have to pick amny apart for historical accuracy - that is half the fun!

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:09:00 +0000

This is my all time favorite history text. It introduced me, at the advanced age of 35, to world history. Sure, I had had world history in high school...in 6th period...with the football coach as teacher. And he probably knew his stuff, but it couldn't get through the mid afternoon sleepies.

By the time I finished reading through A Child's History of the World with my oldest child in 4th grade Calvert, I finally had a clue. It really turned me on to history. Now it is available as a separate package from Calvert which I think is really neat.

This is a secular history that was written by a Catholic, V.M. Hillyer, that includes Biblical stories. Did you get all that ?! It starts with prehistoric man so it is from an evolutionary perspective. It treats historical stories from the Bible as history, as, indeed, they are. And every once in a while, you may get a whiff of a Catholic perspective. The stories seem simple one by one; however, taken as a whole, this book provides a memorable framework for further studies to fill out.

New Year at History at Our House

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:04:00 +0000

If you happen to be looking for a secular history curriculum spanning all age levels and provided by an experienced history teacher, take a look at History at Our House. For the 2008/2009 school year, they have simplified their tier structure. You pay by level so this may be good for those with more than one student studying at the same level. I have not used this curriculum; however, I would suggest listening to the free seminars to see if you like the way that Mr. Powell teaches.

Great List of Historical Documentaries

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:40:00 +0000

Check out this wonderful list of historical documentaries on my friend's blog! Stay and look around her blog. Lisa is a second generation homeschooler and has a lovely family that includes natural and adopted children.

A trip to our state archives

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:20:00 +0000

My son and I had a fascinating morning at the North Carolina State Archives Friday. He was there to do research for his National History Day project on World War I. This was a new experience for us both and we loved digging through the primary sources to be found there.

First you have to search through a finding aid. We looked through a volume on their military collections and a volume on private collections. Our first selection was a private collection of a college professor, Dr. Daniel Hill. It was mostly letters. As we read through, we began to form a picture of parts of this man's life. It turned out that the letters relating to WWI were about his son who was initially rejected because of his physical size. As we continued to dig further, we saw the trail of his father writing to people he knew and persons of influence to find a place for his son in the war effort. It did not lead to information pertinent to my son's project, but we certainly enjoyed the discoveries we made.

We did eventually find several items that he wanted photocopied or scanned including a booklet on the specific activities of two units in the war and two aerial maps of France. He will need to turn to the internet to look for other primary resources for his project but I look forward to future trips to the archive.

Speaking of kindness...

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:24:00 +0000

I love the old cliche What goes around comes around. Cliches that get old usually do so by having a large nugget of truth at their center. I was the recipient of a generous act of kindness this week. A nice man up in the state of Washington needed to divest himself of a large number of inherited books. Among them were 12 by Jacob Abbott. He found my blog and called me to see if I wanted them for the cost of postage. Wow! They are lovely and in fine condition and of a binding that I had not previously held in my hands. I wish I could include a pic but my camera is on the blink.

Thank you Mr. Herb Munson!!! May a generous act of kindness come around your way.

A random act of kindness...

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:51:00 +0000

Bloggers Unite challenge for today is to blog an act of kindness. I want to spotlight one of my daughters. Yesterday, we drove over an hour to see a performance of the Nutcracker. We arrived an hour early because the seating was general and we wanted to snag some good seats.

We did - the center of the center down front. Perfect! We settled down to wait another 45 minutes. About 5 minutes before curtain time, the announcer proclaims that this is the first sold out performance ever for this small town college performing arts center. Wonderful! However, some more senior citizens have arrived and the only seats left are in the balcony - would anyone be willing to give up their floor seats?

While I debated, and remembered the hour drive and early arrival, my daughter turned to me and said "We can go up to the balcony, Mommy."

"Are you sure?" I ask, still contemplating the "sacrifice."

"Yes."

Heavy sigh...checking to make sure there are still seniors waiting...OKAY!

We ended up in the nose bleed section only one row from the ceiling. But we had a great time and easy hearts. An act of kindness returns much to the giver.

History in the making...

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 03:18:00 +0000

Election years always press home to me that each day we are living, we are watching history being made. What will folks say about us 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years from now?

For those of you who are homeschooling and of a conservative bent, check out Homeschoolers Heart Huckabee. Great learning activities on government and opportunities (if desired) to support a presidential campaign from the grass roots level.

If Huckabee isn't your cup of Joe, I bet a quick search will find similar websites for the candidate of your choice. It can be exhilarating to have an active hand in making history happen.

National History Day - Get Involved!

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:24:00 +0000

I just learned about a drive to get students involved in real history study disguised as a contest. The tagline at National History Day reads It's Not just a Day, It's an Experience! In this event, the contest is downplayed in favor of the process and the learning which suits me just fine.

The initial information came through a local homeschool list and I immediately got excited about it. I have bribed my history loving son into doing a project by promising it would also count for part of his english credit this year since there is a 500 word process paper involved. Advanced homeschool mom tactics in action.

My son's project will naturally include some aspect of military history which won't be difficult to fit into this year's theme of Conflict and Compromise in History. He is already scheming to use this as an excuse to build a diorama of trench warfare in WWI.

You can get involved as a student, a parent or a teacher so check it out! It is open to all students, public, private or homeschooled, in grades 6-12. You can get more information from your state coordinator. Projects can be started by teams or individuals and the final presentation can be in a variety of forms as shown in this introductory video.

In Their Own Words: George, John, and Abe

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 19:24:00 +0000

Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest. Like these new resources I found at Rob Shearer's blog, Contending With the Culture. Imagine learning about George Washington, John Adams and Abraham Lincoln completely from their own words! Along with some photographs, prints, and artifacts. I can't wait to see these books with my own eyes. In the meantime, look at what Rob has to say about them...

57th History Carnival

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:02:00 +0000

Jinkers! My post on "Peter the Great...Right Brained Learner?" was selected to be in the 57th History Carnival over at the Official Osprey Publishing Blog. Here is what they say about themselves:

Osprey Publishing is an illustrated military history publisher, and we see our blog as a place for interested people to come together and talk military history – about anything and everything to do with it. We love it and we know you do too.

I am really jazzed to have my post included - even if they did put it in the evolution section - smile. The first entry in the carnival is from their own blog but very interesting...Why Study Military History? I am not going to duplicate the whole carnival - just want you to get a taste of the entries to pique your appetite. I am still browsing through the selections myself!

Peter the Great...Right Brained Learner?

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:08:00 +0000

I love it when two subjects I am studying suddenly converge. As my readers know, I have been working on a book project involving Jacob Abbott's Peter the Great. At the same time, I have immersed myself in teachings having to do with visual spatial or right brained learners so that I could figure out the best way to teach my youngest child who is certifiably weird. And I say that in the best "mommy loves her little darling" manner.

For those of you not curious enough to click on the link above, here is a list of some typical characteristics of right brained learners:

thinking in pictures rather than words
extraordinarily vivid imaginations
sensitive and intense
thrives on complexity - hard is easy and easy is hard
excellent visual memory
mechanical ability - love to take things apart
natural gift with puzzles, mazes or numbers

These are just a few and right brained learners will show some of these characteristic strongly and others not at all. Most right brained learners are intensely curious and driven to learn those things that they are fascinated with and they want to do it themselves.

Which brings me back to Peter the Great. Currently in my research, I am reading through the fascinating tome of Peter's life by Robert K. Massie: Peter the Great, His Life and World Several sections have struck me with the idea that it is highly likely that Peter was right brain dominant. Let me find a relevant passage...

From page 134:

His most extraordinary quality, even more remarkable than his height, was his titanic energy. He could not sit still or stay long in the same place...The most accurate image of Peter the Great is of a man who throughout his life was perpetually curious, perpetually restless, perpetually in movement.

Peter's curiosity and vision for his country led him to learn, by doing with his own hands, shipbuilding, sailing, dentistry, surgery, and barbering (all that cutting off of beards). While growing up and before the time when he took a more active role as tzar, Peter amused himself with war games as other little boys are wont to do except that Peter's involved real men and real weapons - with Peter overseeing and in the midst of all of the various preparations and maneuvers, never simply giving orders and leaving it to others to carry out at a distance.

In his endeavors, Peter started out at the bottom, at least as much as any tzarevich could manage, and worked his way up, wanting to learn all the various parts along the way for himself. In his peacetime war maneuvers, he dressed and marched as a simple artilleryman. In the second campaign on Azov, Peter went as captain of a vessel rather than as admiral.

Here is another passage (p.198) from the time of Peter's Great Embassy to Europe:

All along the road from Amsterdam to The Hague, Peter kept seeing new things. Passing a mill, Peter asked, "What is this for?" Told it was a mill to cut stones, he declared, "I want to see it." The carriage stopped but the mill was locked. Even at night, crossing a bridge, Peter wanted to study its construction and take measurements. That carriage stopped again, lanterns were brought and the Tsar measured the bridge's length and width, He was measuring the depth of its pontoons when the wind blew out the lights.

This puts me strongly in mind of my youngest son. In his only formal school experience, two weeks in an in home preschool, the teacher had this to say on his evaluation: focuses on unusual objects for long periods of time; enjoys this more than interaction with others. Accurate observation at the time; however, I declined to accept her suggestion to have him psychologically dissected as my mother's intuition pulled strongly in the direction that he was okay, just different.

Peter the Great was also very different. And it was those differences that allowed him to conceive, hold onto, and nearly singlehandedly bring to fruition a vision of dragging his Russia kicking and screaming into the modern age. While his methods were often brutal and insensitive to say the least, the sheer breadth of his accomplishments within a single lifetime is staggering. And, I truly believe, largely a result of being the type of learner who sees the big picture.

Blog Rush

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:52:00 +0000

This is a post for all you other bloggers out there. If you look down the right column, you will see a new widget called BlogRush. This is a new free service that any blogger can sign up for by clicking the little tab at the bottom of the widget. Then what happens is that as people click on the links provided, your blog shows up on a widget on another person's (related) blog.

I think this will get better as it goes along. I just checked the current links and they are okay. But as more blogs sign up, I think that the content will be more closely tailored. That is what I hope, anyway. That would be the only downside and if I find that the links are too unrelated - after giving it some time - I will take it down.

When other bloggers sign up through your link, you also get "credit" for the click throughs on their blogs so it multiplies. This isn't about making money, it is all about gaining targeted readers for your blog and getting the right kind of traffic.

The hardest decision I made was whether to list my blog under education or history. I went with history. I am hoping to see more tools as BlogRush gets past their growing pains that will allow me to target the links more closely.

So if you want to check it out, you can either click on the tab at the bottom of the widget or click here. There should be a very helpful and informative short video that explains the concept. Since it is free, there is nothing to lose to try it out!

Mapping Out My Journey...

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:41:00 +0000

I created this visual representation of where I am in my book project and where I need to go with a simple, free website. The intuitive Bubbl.us has you spawning bubbles right and left before you know it!

This is a simple version of mind mapping. This can often be more helpful than a outline or ToDo list when tasks overlap or interact. Visual spatial or right brained learners may find it especially helpful.

BTW, I think you can click on the image to see it much larger if you want to be able to read the little bubbles. Oh? You can read them as is? Get out of here!

Wrath of the Tsar

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:30:00 +0000

As part of my research for my current book project, I ordered a National Geographic dvd through interlibrary loan. It is called Wrath of the Tsar and is part of their Icons of Power series.

The 90 minute program is accurate and entertaining, if a little melodramatic at times. The life of Peter the Great needs no special effort at all to add color, action, and conflict! I think that some of the overblown feeling came from the repetition that occurs at the places where there were breaks for commercials. The producers also use the conflict between Peter and his son, Alexei, as the central defining relationship throughout the story. It works okay but sometimes it seems a little stretched, as if adding too much modern analysis to this late 17th/early 18th century tale.

The relationship between Peter and his son is one of the aspects of his life that is open to much interpretation and the actual cause of death of Alexei is shrouded in some mystery. Some materials will claim out and out that Peter had him murdered, while others attempt to document that Alexei was punished severely for traitorous acts and died as a result of the floggings.

There is an interactive history timeline that is basically a summary of the program. All in all, I found the casting and settings, as well as the use of art being interspersed, rather effective and the end result quite interesting. Keep in mind that any portrayal of Peter the Great has to include beheadings, battles, tortures, inquisitions and other unpleasantries so that needs to be considered for age appropriateness.

A History of US

noreply@blogger.com (~Karen) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 22:58:00 +0000

This year I will going through 5th grade Calvert for the third time. It is not my favorite Calvert grade and one reason is the tediously dull American History text. At least, it was tediously dull - perhaps they have upgraded to a less dull text but history textbooks seem to have dull as part of their definition.

But Calvert has other strengths and I know an excellent way to supplement middle school American history. About 6 years ago, I read through Joy Hakim's A History of US with my two older children. It was a delightful experience. I remember the writing being crisp and entertaining and the stories enthralling. The only downside, for me, was a strong liberal bent to both the selection and presentation of the material. However, I never mind getting more than one side of a story and this is no exception. I find my understanding of history to be greatly enriched by viewpoints that challenge my own.

I am quite looking forward to making the journey with Ms. Hakim again...