Today's History Lesson with Fairy

I have to be honest...this past school year, history with Fairy hasn't been regular. We started in September with the intention of reading through Kingfisher History Encyclopedia . Even though it is a good encyclopedia, it was just not "interesting" enough for her.

I decided that in January we would follow Ambleside Online's suggestions and read through biographies. I have read aloud last month Michelangelo by Diane Stanley. Fairy liked this book, I read a couple of pages twice a week, sometimes three times,and then she would narrate to me.

Today, we started Good Queen Bess also by Diane Stanley. She loved this one! I ended up reading the whole book to her in one sitting since she just kept on asking for more.

I think covering history through biographies or history tales is a lot more interesting to Fairy. She received a free book a few weeks ago from our local library, To Be a Princess, The Fascinating Lives of Real Princesses by Hugh Brewster. It covers the stories of twelve real princesses from Mary Tudor to Elizabeth II, from England, Austria, Hawaii, Russia, and India. I am planning on using this book as our spine. Whenever a particular princess' story appeals to Fairy, we will read extra books and research a little more.

I find that, for subjects like history, geography or science, when I try to follow a curriculum or a more textbook approach, it just doesn't seem to work for us. When I make up our own studies, then we enjoy them and learn so much more!