The Cobblestone Path Church History Research Journal: The Apostolic and Early Church Ages – c.30-325 AD is a research notebooking project aimed at middle to high school aged students. This journal is a great way for students to dig deeper into the history of the Christian Church and learn more about the fascinating events that have shaped our churches today and then record their findings in their notebooking journal.

There are eight journals in the Cobblestone Path Church History Research Journal chronological series, with each journal divided into three eras. Each of these journals contains a timeline, important vocabulary, major and minor figures, important events and people as well as important documents.  We received a copy of The Apostolic and Early Church Ages, which is the first journal in the series. In this journal, your child will learn about the way the Apostles carried the Gospel through the Roman Empire, how they were persecuted and how the early churches grew.

For $20, you will receive The Apostolic and Early Church Ages (c.30-325 AD) as a PDF downloadable file, which can easily be printed. This also includes a family/household license allowing all your children to complete this journal together. For classrooms or co-ops, the license fee is $40. On the website, you will find a resource list for each of the Cobblestone Products, though your child is encouraged to complete their own research via the library or the internet as this will help strengthen their research skills.

We find notebooking journals are not only a great way to develop better handwriting, note taking and researching skills, but it also helps with organization and reading comprehension skills as well. These are invaluable skills for any child and as a homeschool family; I find notebooking journals are a fun and exciting way for our boys to learn them.

While completing this notebooking journal, you child/ren will research important terms and concepts such as Persecution, Martyrdom and Montanism, and record their meanings in their journal. When researching important people such as Emperor Tiberius, they will learn a famous quote and the theology / major beliefs of this person before recording their thoughts on the impact of this person during their lifetime.

When researching the Letters to groups such as the Philippians, the Colossians and the Galatians, they will learn about the date, the location and the purpose of these letters before again, recording their thoughts on each letter. This notebooking journal will be an amazing record of The Apostolic and Early Church Ages that your child can refer to in the years to come.

We have really enjoyed our time using this notebooking journal. Our oldest boy, who loves learning about history, enjoyed researching the topics and then writing his notes in the pages provided. Our youngest boy is a little young for this product, but he joined in, only writing a few sentences on each topic. I know that in a few years’ time, both of our boys will be able to complete this study again, going into more detail as their reading and comprehension skills will be so much better.

We found the notebooking journal to be very well written and easy to understand and have thoroughly enjoyed our time using it. I would definitely recommend it, especially to those (even adults) who would love to learn more about the history and the worldwide views of the church.

-Product review by Stacey Jones, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July, 2016