We are studying ancient history through living books, activities, and videos. We are exploring what life must have been like when people hunted mammoths, lived in caves, and traveled around looking for food.
We are using these books:
Maroo of the Winter Caves is a story of a girl and her family’s life as they travel from place to place in search of food. They spend the winter in caves. We are about 6 chapters into this book right now. It is a great book for the subject matter, but it is probably most suitable for ages 8+ as a read aloud. The subject matter has been fine for my younger kids so far, but the writing style is more suitable to an older listener. Nevertheless, it is a good book that gives my kids a glimpse into daily life of someone who lived ages ago.
My kids adore The First Dog. It is a story of a little boy who is dressed in animal skins and constantly snacking on a woolly rhino rib. He runs into several close calls with ancient creatures like a cave bear and saber tooth tiger. It is the dog who saves him and therefore becomes the first dog. This book is full of wonderful drawings and will be a book that you will have to read over and over again.
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Mammoth Hunter is another one of my children’s favorites. It takes a humorous look at live back in prehistoric times. It is full of fun drawings and packed with lots of information. Neither of my kids want to be a mammoth hunter now 🙂
Those are the main books we are using for our study of prehistory. We use activities and videos to round out our study. This week we are watching videos on mammoths. Next week we are making a woolly mammoth cake. Now that should be fun!
