Saturday, October 16, 2010

Biographies for Kids (and Their Grownups)

History has been and will continue to be a big part of our homeschool, mostly because we find it fascinating!  Not to mention applicable, valuable and thought-provoking.  I am eating up all of this history business and feel like I'm really learning it for the first time in a real way.  Kuddos to biographers, researchers, writers and of course all those clever folk who can sort the grit from the fluff and give it to us in engaging ways.

This week we delved into a Time for Kids biography about Benjamin Franklin, which was the perfect introduction to this undeniably great man.  Max was really surprised to learn how much Mr. Franklin accomplished in his lifetime in many disciplines - the man had an incredibly active brain and insatiable curiosity and he was driven for a better future for his country.

These are rated for ages 4-8.  Max is 11.  I'm not buying the 4-8 thing and think these are a good segue into more material about a subject. 




I really like the format of these books.  Factual, colorful, varied, interesting and manageable.  These are perfect for this stage of the game so that we can begin to introduce ourselves to remarkable figures in history.

To follow up with more on Ben, we'll be using this book:



Here are some other biographies by Time to note and perhaps search for at the library:





The following series is rated for 9-12 year-olds and are touted as being humorous.  I'd like to look for these, too:






We had a good week learning about George and Ben and Henry (Ford).  Some of this is directed by an online history class Max is taking, and some is directed by whatever trail we pick up and feel like following.  I, for one, am happy to know a lot more about how our country was knit together by some undeniably brilliant and historically well-timed people. 
  

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