First Grade, History, Set Two

In addition to Child's History of the World (chapters 46 and 47) we used:

• We are reading stories from The Arabian Nights. Below is a list of the books I am using.
• I started by reading the chapter "Scheherazade or The Story of These Stories" from Teneggren's.
• Next we are reading Genies. This book has three stories, and puts them in interesting, easily understood language, but it is not a picture book. The stories are divided up into short chapters, so there are good places to stop when it is time for history to be over.
• We finished Genies, and now we are reading The Arabian Nights.
• Teneggren's Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights by Gustaf Tenggren
• Genies, Meanies, and Magic Rings retold by Stephen Mitchell
• The Arabian Nights by Wafa' Tarnowska
• Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp retold by Andrew Lang
• Tales from the Arabian Nights adapted by Elisabeth Gille
• After reading chapter 47 in Child's History, we looked through these books:
• Education by Alex Woolf -- we looked at the pictures and read a few sentences here and there that I thought would be interesting to her
• Charlemagne and the Early Middle Ages by Miriam Greenblatt -- we mostly just looked at the pictures and read the captions, but this will assuredly be a book we will use when we revisit this era when K. is older
• The World in the Time of Charlemagne by Fiona Macdonald -- here, again, the text of this book is over K.'s head, but the pictures are good
• This week we combined History and Fine Arts and read Moonlight on the Magic Flute by Mary Pope Osborne. This is from the Magic Tree House series. K. really liked the story, but I was disappointed. Although it did teach a bit about that era -- clothing, palaces, queen -- it didn't really teach anything about Mozart, except he traveled with his father and sister and played the clavichord very well.

Sometimes I wonder how much K. pays attention when I read. If you wonder the same thing, here's a funny story that should encourage you.

Last weekend my sister was over to visit. She had something K. wanted to play with. My sister asked, "What are the magic words?" K. looked at her quizzically (we don't use that term) and said, "Open sesame?

If you aren't laughing, you need to read Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves.