(Please forgive the horrible pictures.)
I know right now many moms are thinking and planning for next year's curriculum. So I thought I would throw in my one cents worth about History.
I have been using Veritas Press and their history cards for two years now. I LOVE them! I can't imagine doing anything else. I probably don't use them just like they were planned, but it works for us.
Each set of cards covers a specific time period and it helps keep me on track. This year we did the Middle Ages to the Reformation. Each card covers a topic and at the bottom of the card are extra resources you can use to extend the lesson. It usually takes us about a week to cover one card (working three days a week). When you order the catalog there are also many other book listings you can get to go along with the cards. I like this because they have such a wide age range for each time period. That is good when I have three all doing the same history curriculum, but there is an age range from 4th to 7th grade. I can pick and choose which books I want them to read on their own and then which books I will read to them myself.
I do buy some of the books from Veritas Press, but mostly I just use the library.
This year I also discovered Story of the World. LOVE it also. I like Veritas Press because it covers lots of Church History. Story of the World covers the WHOLE world. So now I am combining them both. And it isn't hard at all. Story of the World has a timeline in the back and I can just look through the cards and then fit them in where they need to go. Story of the World is so teacher-friendly. You just read the next topic. I have learned so much myself.
I am not an expert reviewer, as I'm sure you can tell, but I wanted to tell you about this two great resources.
****Oh, and the Veritas Press people and the Story of the World people have no earthly idea who I am. They didn't send me anything free, but if they ever want to I certainly will not turn them down!
I totally agree with you!! I have used Veritas Press for history and Bible for years, and I absolutely LOVE them! I wouldn't use anything else. My teenagers are taking VP's live online Omnibus classes now, and we've been extremely pleased with that. The omnibus classes are for students in grades 7-12. For my younger one (now in 3rd grade), I had been doing the cards and books like you do, but this year I let her try one of the self-paced online classes, and I'm very pleased with that as well. I always love to tell folks about Veritas Press--whether they want to do online classes or teach their children themselves using VP materials. And I, like you, am not affiliated with VP nor do they send me free stuff for telling folks about them. But I love to tell folks about them anyway! :)
ReplyDeleteI love these...and this is the first time in my life that I've seen Biblical and secular history laid out together! We use them in Classical Conversations as timeline memory work, but we read the backs at home and use Story of the World as well.
ReplyDelete