History and Science at Ten

One has continued to read history - and even some math and science books - at bedtime. So far since his birthday he's consumed:

Science and Math:

Five of the Simon Basher series: Physics, Biology, the Periodic Table, Astronomy, and Rocks and Minerals. This is a great series; even Two likes to browse through them and read bits as he goes along.

Kingfisher's Genes and DNA

Stars and Planets, by James Muirden

Why Pi? by Johnny Ball

History:

Three books on the Ireland in the 'teens and 1920's: Easter Rising 1916: Birth of the Irish Republic, The Irish Civil War, 1922-23, and The Anglo-Irish War: The Troubles of 1913-1922. This is a new series for us: they are all military history books, from the Romans to the modern era. One has loved every one he's read, and has asked that one of his focuses next year - when we return to ancient history - be military history. The series is full of books on Greek, Roman, and other ancient battles and wars: he's very excited to sort through the titles and pick out a good selection for himself.

A number of Sterling books, which we always love: General George Patton: Old Blood & Guts, Invasion: The Story of D-Day, The Sinking of the Bismark: The Deadly Hunt, Pearl Harbor Attack, The Great Escape: Tunnel to Freedom, Thomas Edison: The Man Who Lit Up the World, and Marie Curie: Mother of Modern Physics.

Gandhi: The Young Protester Who Founded a Nation, by Philip Wilkinson

Children of the Dust Bowl:The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley

Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun, by Rhoda Blumberg

The Usborne World War I History pictured above

Winston Churchill: Soldier and Politician, by Tristan Boyer Binns

A Young Person's History of Israel by David Bamberger

Orthodox Christians in America, by John Erickson

Keeper of the Light: Saint Macrina the Elder, Grandmother of Saints, by Bev Cook

The Road from Home, by David Kherdian - a history of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks.

The Great Depression, by Elaine Landau

The Arab Revolt 1916-18: Lawrence sets Arabia ablaze, by David Murphy - from the military history series I mentioned above. He's in the middle of The Boer War 1899-1902 volume right now - one of those events that sort of slipped my mind when I was choosing books earlier in the year. Sorry, Boers.

As I said, he continues to love history more than any other subject. We've followed a four-year path set down by The Well-Trained Mind, and this year has been focused mostly on the Victorians through the modern era. Next year we'll go back in time and start again with the ancient world; this time around he'll have a lot more say in the books I select. We're hopeful he'll be able to continue this cycle around two more times, and that by high school he'll be reading mostly primary (albeit translated) sources. Fortunately, he is as excited by that plan as I am. With his brother - well, we'll see if the same method works quite as well. But for One, History is as essential as oxygen.