Island Story

Because this question comes up so often, I've pulled together some helpful comments from previous discussions of the book Island Story, used in the early years of AO's curriculum.

Lani: An Island Story is the history spine for the first three years. Nothing compares or can truly replace it. Are you reviewing the previous chapter before starting the new one? Using a map to show where these are taking place? Maybe showing pictures from the time so he can visualize the stories? You may just need to do more scaffolding....Before the reading [showing] Pictures of what the people, places, armour, etc looked like so he can make those mental pictures?

Karen Richmond: This is one they have several years to grow into, and the history seems most abstract to the youngest students. Focus on the individuals and the most exciting parts of the stories and don't worry as much about the connecting parts for now. Add to a timeline and look at a map. And give it a *lot* more time.

Kathy Folden Livingston: Do not give up on this book! It forms the foundation for all your history learning. TCOO means much less without the background of OIS. ... It's foundational because it provides a framework of ideas on which all your history learning builds. Your child may not be able to verbalize it all now, but it's accumulating.

Treat these chapters as exciting stories about interesting people. Maybe some links from my Year 1 Pinterest board would help: https://www.pinterest.com/kathyl2032/year-1/

Also, the Form I area of the forum has links to helpful resources like maps and pictures. Just post your question there and we'll find the links for you. Don't drop it. Seriously. I don't use the resources with it, so I know it can be done without them. I suspect how much enthusiasm Mom has is a big factor. Look up one thing, even on Wikipedia, to give yourself some background for the next chapter, and just forge ahead.

Mary Frances Pickett: Please do not dump this book. What a child can express is not necessarily what he is understanding. We are finishing YR 3 now and my child is devastated that the rest of this book is not scheduled. He loves it and he cares so much for the characters. But that's now. The perceived level of connection when he was in YR 1 was about what you were describing. But he wouldn't feel that way about it now if we had quit using it.

I know it is so frustrating; I remember. I really do. But this book is so very much worth continuing. It's not well known here in the US, but it is a highly respected children's history book and will ultimately make the study of American history.

Katy Waterman: We haven't disliked it but it does lack the "stickiness" of the other books. A timeline is a must! I recommend that the child draw the picture of whatever they find important. Perhaps you are expecting more than you should. I find that my son recalls things later that I had no idea he cared about. I bet there's a lot happening in his mind that you will find out about months from now. Also.... I know my emotions about a book rub off on my son and I have had to fake excitement to not taint it. Possibly you need to take a look at how you've been approaching and presenting it.....'Try pre-reading and introducing the names before you get there.

Kimberly Hawkins Haren: I don't think the foundation it builds is entirely historical in nature. When you perservere with difficult books, you also build habits of attention and endurance.

Tamara Bell: I have a question...please hear my heart on this. I am not trying to be negative...this is a sincere question. I am reading over and over again how OIS is "foundational". What about all those kids who moved into AO without OIS? They seem to all do beautifully without having ever read OIS.

Mary Frances Pickett: Based on what I've seen many of them struggle with Churchill when they get to YR 7 when they get back to this same time period and may have to opt for an easier option then. Which is fine if that's what they need. And personally, I've been reading through YR 3 with my oldest and having the British history along side the American history is adding a whole new dimension to my understanding. And then there are all of the novels that reference a particular time in British history. Those novels make so much more sense now, because I have a framework. So, if you leave OIS out, you're missing that....I really didn't understand all of this when we started. It's taken really getting into YR 3 to understand how marvelous this book is and how it supports the other history books. I would literally cry if someone prevented me from using this book with my other children. I would drop any other book from YR 1 before this one.

Karen Richmond: Sometimes we used to get out little figures and props and act the battles out. It really is worth finding a way to make it work. There is not a better history book for young children anywhere. History is *hard* for young children to grasp because they don't have an understanding of the flow of time yet, not having experienced it. But they'll only get it by engaging it.

Melisa Hills Tamara Bell - not foundational as in the foundation to all things AO and understanding future history. More of the foundation for how the year is built.. For those starting with Year 1, it is the framework they are building off of the skills they are learning. This is their beginning, thus, their foundation. If parents start dropping the main spine of the year in Year 1, then they have lost the history spine (that years history foundation) and lost what helps tie the year together. ETA: That is probably as clear as mud....

Michelle Yates Burzynski: I keep going back to Karen Glass' book Mind to Mind when I feel this way about a reading.... Someone here said it too; read for exposure not mastery. That is exactly the point for Y1... "Providing a feast of ideas". Agree w focusing on timeline or individual and keep it short. We just finished Y1.... It's does get better! Trust the process!

Lani Dingman Siciliano: Yes, OIS is foundational to years 1-3. And many stepping in later do try and read OIS as it is on the pre-7 list too. British history repeats in year 7 as history cycle repeats.

Brandy Josiah Vencel: If he's narrating the other books well -- and it sounds like he is -- then it doesn't sound like it's a general narration problem, which is really nice! smile emoticon At my house, we usually have one book a year that this happens with for each student, and I have found it very valuable to push through. Now, this isn't because Island Story is a foundational book (which it is -- I don't know how we would have made it through Churchill in junior high unless we were building on the understanding we'd gained through all the years of reading it), because it applies to other, non-foundational books as well. If a child is struggling with *everything*, then yes we need to adjust something. But if he has one single book that is hard, then this becomes his challenge book -- his chance to grow and tackle something that is hard. To me, this is an intersection between our educational trinity of atmosphere, discipline, and life. In atmosphere, we are learning how to interact appropriately with the world around us. In discipline, we are building good and healthy habits. And in life, we are receiving living ideas from the curriculum. When my children come face to face with their challenge book, all three of these things come into play. First, atmosphere: they are learning to face a challenge with the right attitude. I help them, yes, but they must do it for themselves. Second, discipline: they build the habit of overcoming rather than quitting just because something is hard or not to their taste. Third, living ideas: they get what they can out of the book.

Wendi Lord Capehart My four year old son listened on his big sister's school and narrated the chapters from Island Story - it was his favourite book. It was not his sister's favourite book- she said there was too much fighting and battles. But she had to do it anyway. Every book need not be met with enthusiasm and smiles. We actually do our children a grave disservice when we do not encourage them to do hard things, challenging things, and overcome them.

If a child is struggling, then you do some additional things that we have talked about here on FB and over in the forum before- you give them plain gingerbread man style figures to decorate as the person being read about. You introduce the chapter with the names "Today we're going to read about two people named Hengist and Horsa." You read slowly and stop for narrations. You let them use their characters or some beanie babies or legos to act out the reading- and you join in. When you start the next chapter you ask them for a sentence or two about what happened in the previous reading, and if they can't give you, you read the last paragraph to remind them, and if they still don't get it, you try modeling the sort of thing you are asking. You also model enjoyment, interest, enthusiasm, curiosity.

And if they are still totally not understanding anything at all, then honestly, there's a good possibility the child is not ready for year 1 itself. and it would be best to spend another year building good habits, playing outside, listening to oral story telling and poetry, singing, and so forth.There has been some terrific advice here on how to work through a book when the child does not seem to be getting it (and there's more in the forum and on the Advisory blog), so I'm not going to push the original poster to keep a book that and her child have developed an aversion to- sometimes when that happens, it's like what happens when you eat some new food at the same time you happen to come down with a terrible flu bug- you associate it always with that sick feeling and you can never appreciate that food on its own merits ever again. It's not the fault of the food, but sometimes it just can't be helped. It's regrettable, and in the case of Island Story, it's immensely regrettable. Something precious is lost without this particular book. But, again, if you've tried all the methods and approaches and it's not working, move on.

HOWEVER- for those on the fence, let me share some things about Island Story:

Island Story is simply one of the best history books for children of this age ever written. That's not just my opinion. That's the vote of thousands of children over multiple decades. Generations of children made it a best-seller for the five decades or so it was in print. Think about that- a *history* book was a best-selling children's book for over fifty years. Somewhere else I used to have a newspaper article where several movers and shakers were asked to name the most influential books they'd read, and a shocking number of them named Island Story.

Lady Antonia Fraser is just one of many significant and influential personages who praises it highly (she's a historian who also writes some cracking good historical fiction)

Here are some others: "When I was younger, I particularly enjoyed OurIsland Story by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall. It is written in a way that really captured my imagination and which nurtured my interest in the history of our great nation.” - David Cameron, Prime Minister

"The delight of Our Island Story lies in its emphasis on personality, the unalloyed certainty that Britain has produced some remarkable people, and some extraordinary tales." - Ben Macintyre, The Times

"The reason that parents will go to such lengths to try to track down copies of Our Island Story is because of the sheer quality of the writing. Telling a story from history might be old-fashioned, but it stimulates a child's imagination like nothing else." - Andrew Roberts

"Our Island Story, first published in 1905, must rank as one of the most influential works of history of the 20th century." - Times Higher Educational Supplement http://www.civitas.org.uk/islandstory/

It was included in the Telegraph's listing of the 100 best Children's books of all time: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../100-best-childrens-books.../ .

It's really just not to be missed- unless, as I mentioned at the beginning, something has happened which renders a specific child unable to appreciate its depth and riches. But ideally, we will do everything we can to prevent that from happening, or to ameliorate it if it does before giving up on this book, because it really is that special.

Incidentally, when our family went to Washington D. C. several years ago we visited the Supreme Court building, specifically the bronze doors. My kids looked at the panels and identified most of them. At least two of the stories inIsland Story are on the US Supreme court's doors. (Others are found in other years' readings of mythology.)http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/bronzedoors.pdf) HEre's another thread where lots of good advice and some useful links to resources for helping children work through books that are at first seemingly too hard:https://www.facebook.com/groups/18541076090/permalink/10153967878106091/

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$5.00- Education for All, vol 2- the Imagination (and more) issue!- transcript of the imagination talk from the AO Camp meeting, with additional material I had to cut to save time.  

   
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