World History Detective Review (incl. Short Lessons in World History)

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For the past few years, I have spent quite a few hours browsing potential world history curriculum for my current 7th grader. As an Orthodox Christian, it has been very difficult to find something that comes from a perspective that really resonates with me and doesn't have too much included that I would want to change or add.

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Generally, I really like curriculum from Christian Light Education, but the sample I saw of their World History curriculum for 7th grade was not going to work for us. The sample I saw of BJU's World History surprisingly seem much more balanced regarding the Orthodox Church but it was very pricey! I happened to see a sample of it at a Mardel's store and realized why. Many of the pages are 80% photo! I really didn't want to pay for a curriculum just to get colorful pictures. I also didn't really like the layout of the textbook. It's certainly possible that I'm being too picky!

 

What I had wanted to use for world history was Story of the Middle Ages and Story of the Reformation by H. A. Guerber. That would have worked. However, my son begged me not to use these resources. He actually enjoyed Story of the Greeks when using my workbook. However, since I haven't made a workbook for these books yet, he would have to use a strictly Charlotte Mason method of learning (reading following by narration) and that is his least favorite. (Since he gets his school work done without complaining on most days, this is one area where I am happy to compromise.)

 

However, I wanted to share what I ended up choosing in the end in case the idea might help someone else in the same situation. I have actually been using two resources that are technically considered "secular."

 

The first book that I am using is World History Detective by Critical Thinking Press. I have mixed feelings about this book, but I have decided to keep using it. While most of the reviews I have read of this resource is very positive, I have a few things to share that I don't love about the curriculum.

 

In every lesson, there are multiple choice questions where you have to list which sentences in the text support the answer. The problem is that often the answers that my son lists are very reasonable, but are not the same as the answers in the answer key. This has made checking the work quite tedious because I have to go through each answer along with the text and decide which of his answers are reasonable and which ones need to be changed to align with the answer key. The short answer questions at the end of each lesson are another portion that leaves something to be desired. At the end of each lesson there is a question with an area to write a paragraph. However, it is often difficult to find details in the text to write more than a sentence or two. I was hoping for more writing practice than that. Furthermore, sometimes the question is hard to answer from the information given in the text, which is sometimes the point, and other times, seems like there should have been a different question.

 

Since I wasn't very happy with those aspects of the World History Detective, I almost purchased BJU's World History for middle schoolers. However, on the Rainbow Resources website I stumbled upon a resource that I had never heard of: Short Lessons in World History. This is the perfect resource to supplement World History Detective. Individually, neither curriculum provides a full year of material, but when combined there is definitely a course robust enough for 7th or 8th grade. I am also happy that the Short Lessons in World History comes with better discussion and short answer questions that the World History Detective so that my son can still practice writing and discussing history, even if we don't do those lessons every day. I may also supplement with a few "living books" to round out the course.

 

Another thing I have been doing to add variety to the curriculum is having my son write his own flash card questions and answers. This has been a great way to help him focus on the keys parts of the text in a fun way. It has actually worked really well!

 

I'm not sure when I will get the time, but I'm thinking of creating lesson plans for combining World History Detective and Short Lessons in World History for other Orthodox Christians (and anyone else interested) to use if they are interested. I know not everyone is comfortable with "winging it" with curriculum, like I am, so if I get the chance to do that I'll definitely share it. (I think I forgot to mention that my middle school aged son does not enjoy the Charlotte Mason method and also does not like historical fiction. He does like history enough, just not when combined with fiction, so certain curriculums don't work for us so well.)

 

As far as content that goes against Biblical Christianity, there hasn't been too much. There was a lesson on Buddhism in the World History Detective that we skipped because, in our opinion, the content was too much for middle school and more appropriate for high school. There were also a few sentences/questions here or there that were definitely more "secular" as far as the text insinuating that religion is just a product of where you live and not related to it being The Truth, but by age 12, my son was mature enough to encounter those. (As I find other things about these curriculum that seem to contradict a Christian worldview, I'll update this portion of the post.)

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