Tell me about Jackdaws, please.

[Alana in Canada]

1) They look really, really expensive. Thus, I'm thinking we'll only do two a year.

2) How closely should I stick with their "grade levels?" My son is just beginning Grade 5--and he's barely in Logic stage thinking as it is.

3) How much time did you allot per Jackdaw?

4) And what, exactly, does one do with a Jackdaw?

Thanks!

[Blue Hen]

They are really expensive and with the availablity of primary source documents on the internet now there really is little need for them.

We have 3 Jackdaws, used once with the older child and probably won't be used with the younger one. Well, not entirely true. We did look through the Martin Luther one on Friday --- yep, that was it before it went back on the shelf. The internet is where I go for Primary Source Documents.

How do I use PSD? There's a wonderful form in TWTM book, somewhere in the Logic Stage section, and we worked through that form as we went through the PSD. PSD's for ancients were there too, on the net.

Hope this helps, but unless the $$ are burning a hole in your pocket I'd save your money, buy something else. Use the net.

Carole

[Blue Hen]

Here's another post about them:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=357

[Alana in Canada]

Thank you! I just spent the evening combing their site and coming up with possibilities! Drat.

TWTM does give a source for on-line primary source material, so I'll look into that.

It seems like a lot of work to pull it together though. However $$ is NOT burning a hole in my pocket.

(sigh.)

Thanks!

[Blue Hen]

Here's all my bookmarked sites, however if you asked for PSD sites on the net to this group of folks, or posted on the high school board I'm sure you'd get tons of suggestions.

http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/index.htm#1501

http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/

http://www.huntington.org/Education/GoldRush/Entrance/lesson.html

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/helpfullinks.php

http://www.sierraclub.org/lewisandclark/notebooks/index.asp

http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~lyman/english233/Luther-Diet_of_Worms.htm

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

http://www.archives.gov/education/index.html

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/index.php?flash=true&

http://home.wi.rr.com/rickgardiner/primarysources.htm

http://www.socialstudies.com/

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/speeches.htm

http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/T/Trebizemp.html

http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/

http://www.fsmitha.com/index.html

Carole

[Stacia]

If you want resources in a book (rather than pulling things from online sources), here is a book w/ ancients sources:
The World in Ancient Times: Primary Sources and Reference Volume (http://www.amazon.com/World-Ancient-Times-Primary-Reference/dp/0195222202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220923542&sr=1-1)
We have this (though we haven't started using it yet), so if you have specific questions, I could try to answer them.

Also, this same series has a primary sources book for the Middle Ages/Early Modern times too:
The Medieval and Early Modern World: Primary Sources & Reference Volume (http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Early-Modern-World-Reference/dp/0195178483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220923818&sr=1-1)

[katilac]

I prefer something tangible to online sources, but I find that 'museum' books do the trick for us at a much lower price. These are simply books on a certain subject, such as the Declaration of Independence, that contain replicas of original documents, maps, posters, etc. The content seems quite similar to Jackdaws, going by their web site description.

The replicas might fold out of a certain page, or be in an envelope attached to the page - - think of the Egyptology/Dragonolgy books, or Griffin and Sabine. Very engaging.

Examing primary sources for specific topics isn't important to me, so I just buy whatever ones I find on sale/clearance.