Veritas Press has been a long time favorite of mine for our Bible History and World History curriculum. Veritas Press teaches History as well as the Bible in chronological order. This can be invaluable in a child’s life. It can teach them to put names and dates in order as well as time and place in the correct sequence. This can teach children how God has put everything together for His purpose and how He is actually working today through past events.
With the Veritas Press curriculum you receive the large flash cards with a beautiful print artwork on the front of each card. On the back there is a brief description of what went on during that period of time and at the bottom of the card is a list of books with pages numbers for you to further read that will help to enhance you learning of this topic. Children are encouraged to memorize the dates and or Bible verse that correspond with each card as well as the cards topic. One of the ways they encourage this is through a musical CD. The song is fun, easy and my kids really enjoyed listening to it and memorizing it. If you need the words to the song, the resource page on their web site has that information for you as well as a list of books that will be needed for the whole year so you can look them up at your library or pre-order them.
Along with all of this they also have a Manual. Each day there is a page for the children to fill out to help them memorize the information or a craft to do, a literature study, a readers theater, or something fun, entertaining, educational and or interesting thing to do that will have the kids understanding and memorizing the information so that they can have a good understanding of our past history.
There is a lot of writing with this curriculum. Too much for my son, so we did most of it orally. We also did not study 5 days a week as they suggested. We did history 3 days and Bible 3 days per week and as I said, did most of the question orally and did almost all the crafts they suggested, however we did do all the reading of the literature books. Well, I did the reading to him. He as well as my daughter enjoyed it greatly. The best part about this curriculum, I feel, is that they are getting a chronological study of our history that is from a strong biblical standpoint. The kids enjoy it, it has a good literature base and you can adjust it and make it yours. You do not have to follow it exactly like some curriculums. This one is one you can REALLY make yours. Most of the books I found either at my library or on Amazon or Ebay for real cheap. Oh and my daughter (4 yrs) sits in with us on this and learns with us. So even though it is not meant to be multi grade level it really can be. Like I said, this curriculum is really easy to fine-tune and make it what you want it to be. So if you have many ages this would be a great curriculum for that.
I highly recommend Veritas Press curriculum for anyone who wants to break away from the traditionally all over the place study of history and take it from the beginning all the way to current as well as adding in the Biblical Hostory. Veritas Press does this for you in a year-by-year study. Old Testament and Ancient Egypt, New Testament, Greece & Rome, Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reform, Explorers to 1815, 1815 to the Present. The Homeschool Kit includes the Cards and Enhanced CD (which contains the Memory Song and a PDF version of the Teacher's Manual) for $44. I give this a 4 out of 5.
Thanks for your kind words.
Hey! Thanks for the review. I'm really excited about using Veritas Press, but will probably wait to start in 3rd grade instead of pushing it now for 2nd grade. Maybe she'll be more ready for the writing. After receiving their catalog, VP looks like it will fit our eclectic way of homeschooling. I was wondering though, have you ever read to your children any of the stories of Mystery of History or Story of the World while using this curriculum, or is it too much of the same thing? Thanks for sharing your opinion. I've enjoyed looking around your site.
Rebecca,
Good luck to you! I think you will really like it. Just remember to treat it as your own. Do what works for you and leave out what does not. That’s is the beauty of homeschooling!!!
I do read the Story of the World. We do a lot of reading in our home and this fits right in. I only read the parts of what we are working on in history at the moment. But when my son was younger I read through the whole book to him just as a reader. It is a great book, but not a full curriculum! I suppose if you were the type who loves to put a curriculum together this book would be great starter point.
Another reference book (non Christian) is Kingfishers History encyclopedia. Awesome reference book. I highly recommend everyone have that one and the since one on their book shelved.
Good Luck!
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