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American History for Young Students 1 (Exploration-1800) Review by Amy Amos

Binder Builder: Maps, Timeline, and Report Package; and Notebooking Pages.
Michelle Miller
Truth Quest History
526 W 14th St., Suite 161
Traverse City MI 49684
http://www.truthquesthistory.com/

The following is a review of Truth Quest History’s American History for Young Students 1

(Exploration-1800). This is a curriculum based on living books and focusing on the Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling intended for grades 1 through 5.

Most of us remember our history lessons during childhood as time spent reading excerpts about historical people and events summarized neatly into excerpts in our textbooks. As we got older history became lectures about these same people and events with notes of dates to be memorized for quizzes and tests.

Growing up I always found history fascinating, but sadly history class at school made me incredibly sleepy. What I really loved was reading about these people and events in stories. I loved all kinds of books! Biographies, historical fiction, you name it. If a book took my imagination and dropped me into the middle of history then I would read it with pleasure.

Once I began homeschooling my children I realized that the Charlotte Mason method encouraged the use of living books, which is what I found so much enjoyment from as a child on my own outside of school.

I then spent the first few years of homeschooling my children searching for the perfect living history curriculum. We used that very popular online plan for history from a well-known Charlotte Mason website, but I always felt like something was lacking. The book list was great, but history lessons didn’t pull together nicely for my children. We read the listed chapters on the right days in our schedule, tried to do some narration orally or through drawing pictures, and then we moved on to the next subject and I was left feeling like we were somehow missing out on deeper connections. Then one day I stumbled upon Truth Quest History.

Truth Quest History is very similar to that popular Charlotte Mason history plan you can find online. At first I wasn’t sure why someone would purchase Truth Quest History rather than just use the free plan from the other Charlotte Mason website. It looked like just another list of books to me.

However, the difference is in the way Truth Quest History is laid out. Not to mention the amazing amount of books cited for each lesson, and the wonderful supplemental PDF files they’ve created. It’s certainly more than just a book list!

Truth Quest History’s curriculums focus on periods of time. We were given American History for Young Students 1: Exploration-1800 to review. This is intended for elementary school aged homeschoolers. The text is a sturdy spiral bound book, which is very easy to flip through and lay open. (Note: Truth Quest History also has curriculum for upper grades, and curriculum for every period of history available on their website.)

American History for Young Students 1 covers quite a bit of material. It begins with the discovery of the American continent and takes us through the founding of the colonies. We learn about many different Native American tribes, the discovery of the Mississippi River, life in the colonies, the French, the Dutch, Pioneers, the French and Indian War, Hawaii, the growing unrest leading up to the Revolutionary War, famous battles, and the new constitution and the founding of America as we know it.

Believe me when I tell you that this history curriculum does not leave out a single detail! There are many things included here that I never learned about in school at all.

What does a Truth Quest History lesson look like?  

Each lesson has two components. First, there is an introduction to that lesson’s topic intended to set the stage for the subject. The introductions are suitable for all ages of children and written in a conversational tone. These are only a few paragraphs long and don’t take much time to read.

After the excerpt is read, the second component of each lesson uses living books. There’s a list of multiple books to choose from for each lesson. This is awesome! The books include “spine” books that are frequently used in multiple lessons of the curriculum, such as A Child’s History of the World. Other books are recommended reading to supplement the “spine” books.

We were also given the three supplemental PDF files that go along with the main book. These are titled Binder Builder; Maps, Timeline, and Report Package; and Notebooking Pages.

“Binder Builder” is the main supplemental PDF file. It has printables and instructions for using 40 sheets of colored cardstock, 7 tab dividers, and a 1 inch binder in 52 lessons for children to create a last memory of what they’ve learned. I’m fairly certain Charlotte Mason would also count the creation of this binder as written narration, and narration through art! The Binder Builder pages include maps, biography pages for important historical figures, and space for children to write down facts they’ve learned for each lesson in their own words.

To go along with the “Binder Builder” there are two additional PDF files available for separate purchase. The “Maps, Timeline, and Report Package” is the first one. It includes maps for tracing, coloring, labeling locations or battles, and drawing lines between locations to represent journeys. The package also has memorization cards for important historical figures, events, and even cards for the colonies which you can laminate and cut out to place on your timeline. There are pages to color for posters or to place in your binder. Finally, this PDF file provides notebooking pages for reports and charts to write down what you’ve learned.

The third PDF file is titled “Notebooking Pages”. This is where the main part of narration kicks in! There are lined pages with black and white graphics for each topic or lesson in the curriculum that you can print out to use for a binder.

The three supplemental PDF files are what really rounds out this history course, in my opinion. It’s so nice to have everything at your fingertips! There is just enough content to be fun and cement what children are learning without feeling like it’s busy work.

Everything is laid out so easily for parents/teachers to utilize. All we have to do is to open the book to the next few lessons, place the applicable books on hold from the library or pull them from our bookshelves, be sure the PDF files are printed, and history lessons from living books are prepared.

I found the simplicity of using Truth Quest History to be the very best thing about it. It’s very organized, there is no confusion, no attempting to match up periods in history with multiple books on your own.

Another wonderful aspect of this living history curriculum is that it is very easy to use with multiple children at different grade levels. The reading list for each lesson tells you what books are best for which grades. Since we now have children in several grades I love knowing we can do history together without the lessons being too complicated for one child or too easy for another.

I love that the curriculum focuses on simply enjoying history and finding pleasure in learning. The letter to parents at the front of the book gently tells us to relax and not to attempt reading every book on the list for each lesson. Instead, feel free to pick and choose which books click best with your children. If one book isn’t interesting to them, put it back on the shelf and try a different one from the list. The flexibility is wonderful.

This is truly what Charlotte Mason intended to happen. Find joy in learning and seek out the type of books you love!

I do have to note that Truth Quest History is firmly Christian based. There are Bible verses scattered throughout the lessons. The main goal of the program is to find God throughout history. Each book on the recommended reading lists for the lessons will have notes if something in it may be questionable from a Christian standpoint so that parents can be prepared before that lesson, or choose not to use that particular book at all.

One last positive thing about Truth Quest History? It’s affordable. The combo price for all three PDF files plus the spiral bound book is only $36.95. The main book and all three PDF files can also be purchased separately from the Truth Quest website for individual prices.

Our family highly recommends Truth Quest History! If you favor a Charlotte Mason education style and you’re looking for something with depth, with options to choose what suits your family best, and filled with lists of living books then this is definitely the curriculum you’ve been searching for.

-Product review by Amy Amos, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October, 2016

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