What's the best reference book you own for...

[Amber in AUS]

history, art (picture study, appreciation, artist info), geography, animals, composers, dictionary, etc, etc ??

My DH has given me the goahead to put together all of our reference books that we are going to need for the forseeable future. I'm talking atleast the next 10 years. Needless to say i want to purchase the very best reference books available for every topic. I have an almost unlimited budget as we have just got a great bonus so suggest away.

[Linda (Australia)]

history, art (picture study, appreciation, artist info), geography, animals, composers, dictionary, etc, etc ??

My DH has given me the goahead to put together all of our reference books that we are going to need for the forseeable future. I'm talking atleast the next 10 years. Needless to say i want to purchase the very best reference books available for every topic. I have an almost unlimited budget as we have just got a great bonus so suggest away.

Hi Amber!

Well, after homeschooling for over 11 years, the reference books we tend to use over and over are:

Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World (we have the 'old' version - white cover, but the red book is good, too)

World Book Encyclopedia. I've purchased a ton of 'junior' encyclopedias over the years, and they were quite useless - we tend to go to the World Book a lot, and can fnd the answers to most questions.

An electronic dictionary / thesaurus! Brilliant reference tool, especially when the child is in the middle of a piece of writing, and needs to find a word to use.

And, I'd also have to say 'Teaching Writing, Structure and Style' from IEW - I constantly refer to it for ideas, teaching tips, etc, and the same for 'Teaching the Classics', when it comes to literature.

Hope that helps!

[Julie in MN]

I second the World Book. I've heard you can get an educator discount, or can get them slightly used for very cheap. We bought ours new & love it.

I've used Sister Wendy's painting book a lot when we read about an artist.

I like the Merriam Webster series of dictionaries. Currently we use the Intermediate one and the Collegiate one, but I'm thinking of getting the one in between there. Dictionaries are a delicate balance. It's so great to have a word explained at a level the child can understand it, but it has to be advanced enough to include the words that you don't know.

This year for science (7th grade), I like A Guide to the Elements by Albert Stwertka. We mostly use the photos but I think will continue to use this in the future in more depth. In other words, some reference to make sense of the periodic table is nice. I'm sure there are other options. I've seen a poster with photos of the elements in each box, but haven't used it.

Some of those quick reference cards have come in handy, especially for math conversions & even formulas we haven't used in a while.

A good quality, current globe is excellent. It doesn't have to be expensive, but does have to have some detail. I used to have one with "bumpy" relief for mountains & loved that. We also love our placemat-sized map from My Father's World. Beyond that, we use our Worldbook for more detail.

I like having several versions of the Bible for comparing translations. We actually use the NIrV the most here -- a full Bible but in short sentences & easy words. But we often compare to NIV, KJV, etc. etc.

We have tons of reference books here. Tons of books in general. But those are the references I find us using a lot.

I love the thread & hope to hear many more great ideas.

[LindaOz]

I'll third the World Book recommendation. We have a hard copy set and the CD Rom version. To be honest, the hard copy rarely comes off the shelf but the CD Roms are brilliant and my children love looking things up on it. It includes video footage of some things as well.

My eldest dd also loves the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and we have got a lot of use out of the Usborne World History Book for the younger dc.

For LA/grammar I like Scholastic Guides 'Checking your Grammar' which is a manual which covers Building Sentences, Parts of Speech, and Style and Usage.

There is also an Australian book called The Primary Grammar Handbook by Winch and Blaxell which covers Traditional and Functional Grammar, Punctuation and Usage. It includes a chapter on different writing genres.

That's all I can think of atm. I might get back to you later....

[Amber in AUS]

Thanks for the suggestions so far, keep them coming!

My parents have a set of world book not in use, i wonder if they would part with them??? They have offered loads of other books including some excellent geography ones i think they are called People & Places, so i don't see why not. Will have to put a call in today.

[Donna T.]

I like all the Usborne reference books - Internet-Linked World Geography, Internet-Linked World History, Internet-Linked Science. They also have a couple of math reference books that I like. Their internet linked art books are really nice.

Favorite Poems Old & New is an awesome poetry anthology.
Abeka and Rod & Staff have grammar handbooks that I enjoy.

If I had the money, I'd get IEW and Sister Wendy's.

[Sahamamama]

No advice here, but I think this is a great question/thread and I want to bump it up to get more responses!

:bigear:

[Another Lynn]

We have Kingfisher's for history and for science. The history encyl. is useful. We rarely touch the science one and when I do look things up it is usually not what I'm looking for.

The dictionary I have is supposed to be for children or family, but it's frustrating because it doesn't have word origins in it. I suggest looking for a dictionary that will be useful all the way through, not just when they're young.

Something for art is a great idea. I don't have anything like that yet, but sometimes wonder about Sister Wendy's or Hillyer's history of art/architecture, etc. (though I don't know if that counts as a reference book).

Most of all, I would just do a little at a time. If you buy a lot now, you may find things you like better as you go along. I would add things here and there along the way, jmho.

[dymphna57]

I second the Usborne. We have World Book, Encyclopedia Britianica, Encyclopedia Americana, Annals of American History, Britianica Great Book Series, Harvard Classics , Kingfisher and mucho. I think the Teaching Company DVD's on art and music history combine all the resources ,ie pictures, music, that is hard to compile otherwise. We like Art in Focus and Enjoyment of Music though as they are chronologically oriented.

[Cadam]

Can you set aside some/ most of the money so you can buy these things as you go along and find a need for them? What you think you will need changes over time as the kids age and change.

[Amber in AUS]

We could set aside some of the money for sure and probably will but we literally have no reference books so if the kids ask a question i can't answer i am suck. It is onto the computer or off to the library (not always convenient). I guess if i am going to spend money i feel i don't want to waste it on junior versions of things or 1 part when i can get an anthology or compilation IYKWIM.

[KJB]

We have the National Audubon Pocket Field Guides and my kids have used them a million times for almost every subject. They use them for art when they draw, they use them for nature walks and science projects, they use them for reading since they're just fun to read.

We have the entire set and I think we bought them from Rainbow Resource. Here is one at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Familiar-Minerals/dp/0394757947

Also, I like the American Heritage Dictionary. We have the "adult" version since it's more complete than the student version without being much more complicated to use:http://www.bartleby.com/61/

I also use our Timetables of History book frequently to match up events from different subjects.

http://www.amazon.com/Timetables-History-Horizontal-Linkage-People/dp/067174271X

And, if I were you, I'd make the case that you need all of the Jim Weiss read-alouds on CD since you will get a ton of use out of those if your children enjoy listening to stories.
http://www.greathall.com/

And, I also have all of the Vox Music Masters CDs which are really nice to pop in the CD player in the car. We listen to them on the way to music lessons.

http://www.bestprices.com/cgi-bin/vlink/musiclabels/cds-by-recordlabel-Vox-Music-Masters.html

Have fun shopping!

[LoveBaby]

I 2nd the World Book encyclopedia's as well, but I wouldn't pay full price for a set. I picked up a gorgeous complete set for $10 at the local library book sale. The children use them a lot.

[keptwoman]

Books we use a lot:
Kingfisher History
DK Science Encyclopedia
DK History Atlas (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=0756609674)
DK Human (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=0756605202)
DK Universe (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=0756636701)
DK Earth (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=075663332X)
DK Animal (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=0751334278)
and I'd like DK History (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=1405318090) and DK Ocean (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=1405330929). They are very large reference books 500ish pages per book. Book Depository has good prices on them and I've seen some of them at bargain book stores from time to time. Yes... I LOVE DK books. Guilty as charged LOL.

We also have a Cronins Key Guide to Australian Wildlife (http://www.bookshop.unimelb.edu.au/bookshop/p?9781741750751). It's not as comprehensive as some I have seen but it's small enough to put in a bag when you are going out. We use it a lot and have found it contains most things that we have wanted to look up. Fishpond sells it for $30

This thread has inspired me to look for a second hand World Book set.
The other thing that we use a lot is the Atlas and ours is only a little one. I'm wanting to buy a really large one like DK (no really LOL) or Readers Digest.

[dymphna57]

I guess I assumed that DK were just another form of Usborne books. What makes you such a fan? Really interested!
I am in a practiacally no library area unless you think of RL Stine as a reference and I hated when I didn't have any in the house. The web is a lifesaver but the kids do better with hard copy.

[keptwoman]

I'm a sucker for photos and the photography in DK books is beautiful. They have a range of books for different ages and subjects. We have a couple of e.explore books on Weather and Plants which have good weblinks and their various series for different ages are fabulous for diving deeper into various topics. Of course the information in them is excellent too... but it's the photos that really draw me in.

To be honest I don't own any Usborne books so I'm not sure how they compare. I've got a few Usbornes out of the library for various things and seen them at book fairs and from memory they seem to favour illustrations over photos. The layout is slightly different too.

[Stacey in MA]

I like this science/inventions book because it is laid out chronologically. That way, you can look up the inventions and discoveries that go along with your history time period:

http://www.amazon.com/1000-Inventions-Discoveries-Dk-Reference/dp/1405314192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227968549&sr=1-1

I also think that a nice children's poetry collection is essential. I'm not home, so I can't remember the names of the ones we have. I have 3 that I like and use regularly. The kids do some of their copy work from these.

I love the activity guides that go with SOTW and wouldn't do without those. I use the book lists for each history chapter to look up books we'll get at the library. Do you have the AG's? They have some good book lists.

Also, a good unabridged dictionary (we have an old Webster's from about 30 yrs old - it's retail price was $80 -yikes!), and a good detailed globe and set of wall maps. About dictionaries.... SWB mentions in the WTM something about a dictionary printed before certain dates (can't remember which!) because the examples of usage and pronunciation guides we done better/different back then. I don't have my WTM with me right now, but perhaps you could look it up in there somewhere....

For art (at my kids' ages 9 and under), we like the Come Look With Me series of art learning books. Pictures of an art piece, a few paragraphs about the author, and a few questions to provoke thought about the picture. Basic, but nice coverage.

I would say a grammar reference book would be necessary over the long run, but I don't have one yet myself!

Anyway, those are just a few thoughts. Good luck and congrats on the spending spree!


- Stacey in MA

[LisaK in VA]

Kingfisher World History
Usborne Encyclopedia of World History
New Standard Encyclopedia Set
A Short History of Art

These are my favorites thus far (although my children also like the "My First Britannica" They read these cover-to-cover :D

[Melanie]

I just wrote a blog post about our favorite reference books HERE (http://foursquares.squarespace.com/home/2008/11/21/our-homeschool-reference-shelves.html). :001_smile: If I had to choose, I'd say the World Book encyclopedia set is the most useful. (I got our 1990 set on eBay for $50; most of that $$ was shipping, so try to find a set locally!) I also have some college survey course texts in various subjects that are just the ticket for looking up answers to the questions my kids come up with. You can find old college texts for next to nothing at used book stores and thrift stores.