Why aren DK and Usborne books scheduled in Amblesides lineup?
Karen’s Response: Well, for starters, the text is little more than disjointed snippets of information. It is not consecutive or literary. I absolutely loved Usborne books when I first saw them. My oldest was 3 at the time, and I thought they were fabulous. I had a big Usborne party, and earned about $150 in credit, and purchased many of the hard-bound copies of multiple books. A few years later, using Sonlight year 2, I read through two of these big books with my son. Every day, another two-page spread of snippets of information–you can’t hope to get a decent narration from this, by the way. By the end of the year (and I did stick it out), my love affair with Usborne was history. My kids still pick up these books and look through them, but I don’t. And I would no more assign them as core school books than I would…well, we’ll let that go.
