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Veritas Press History Cards: Any Experiences or Anything Better?


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My DS is a humanities kid who tends to just love the snot out of history. Moreover, he loves reading literature and Great Books for history. His timeline knowledge is a bit rusty, though. Lots of cultural information, lots of Western Civ, not much chronology. I was a STEM major and am way out of my league on this stuff.

 

We will be starting Spielvogel next year, so I have been looking into Omnibus and the variou curriculum there in. My kinesthetic, visual kid about hyperventilated in joy at the Internet ads. Anyone have any experience using these? Anything better out there that we might consider instead?

 

For what it is worth, we are not a religious family (though I have an extensive Catholic background). My son openly realizes the value of knowing the Bible from all his reading. As a budding a Classics major, he is well aware of his need to not only know the books and names but also a good deal of chapter and verse. So the Biblical component is not a problem, but we do not have to use Biblical resources.

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There are songs/hand movements with chants that help with memorization of the timeline. Check YouTube. If you're at all interested, Classical Conversations also developed their own timeline cards. I think they are six of one/half dozen... But there's even more videos/hand motions/memory mnemonics/enrichment opportunities for it due to CC's own marketing as well as their propensity to encourage tutors AND parents to develop their own materials to enrich the base cards, etc. so check Pinterest before you buy ;)

 

My DD mastered the VP timeline in 8 days with a YouTube video.

 

She also drooled over the Omnibus sample.

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My daughter(8 years old today!  :001_smile:  ) - is currently doing two courses: Middle Ages and Ancient History/Old Testament through VP - and in the past (age 7) she did Explorers-1812.

 

The classes (and cards) are quite religious.  DD loves the class and the cards - but DH doesn't like that they don't differentiate between Biblical History and Secular History - so...it's a little confusing for her to tell the difference between what is religion and what is secular history.  It is through a very Christian filter - and has sort of convicted my DD to be very religious and Christian - and not really to see or appreciate other viewpoints.

 

This bothered DH greatly - and so we've basically stopped the courses - which is a shame bc DD loves them.  But right now, it just doesn't seem like a good fit for our family (translation:  I don't want to fight with DH about it anymore)...

 

I got my cards on Ebay - BUT - this was a mistake because the cards I bought were for the WRONG class (they said they were for ancient history but they were actually just for Biblical History) - I didn't realize this for several weeks bc there is a great deal of overlap between the courses.  Also - some of the sets sold on Ebay are older- so they don't go as well as the classes.  Long story short, I ended up buying the Ebay cards and then rebuying them for full price on the VP website.  ugh.

 

I wish that VP had a more secular course - because really, the format is so fun and good - and I haven't found anything else like it for history.  So, now I am piecing together a lot of other things to teach history - which is a lot more work for me!  So, if anyone has any ideas besides VP that are more secular, I would love to hear!

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But there's even more videos/hand motions/memory mnemonics/enrichment opportunities for it due to CC's own marketing as well as their propensity to encourage tutors AND parents to develop their own materials to enrich the base cards, etc. so check Pinterest before you buy ;)

 

She also drooled over the Omnibus sample.

  

 

I have the go ahead from DH to go into the Big City and check out Omnibus at the homeschool store. I have hopes, but am a bit daunted by the level of the religious content. DS wants to do it, and I do not want to have to recreate Omni if I do not have to.

 

 

The classes (and cards) are quite religious.  DD loves the class and the cards - but DH doesn't like that they don't differentiate between Biblical History and Secular History - so...it's a little confusing for her to tell the difference between what is religion and what is secular history.  It is through a very Christian filter - and has sort of convicted my DD to be very religious and Christian - and not really to see or appreciate other viewpoints.

 

This bothered DH greatly - and so we've basically stopped the courses - which is a shame bc DD loves them.  But right now, it just doesn't seem like a good fit for our family (translation:  I don't want to fight with DH about it anymore)...

 

 

I wish that VP had a more secular course - because really, the format is so fun and good - and I haven't found anything else like it for history.  So, now I am piecing together a lot of other things to teach history - which is a lot more work for me!  So, if anyone has any ideas besides VP that are more secular, I would love to hear!

That pretty much sums up my worries. I do not care, nor does DS care about the religious content. DH however, major caring! He had one bad religious experience as an early teen and is rather convinced that it is all brainwashing and very negative. He has no issue with religious publishers as long as he is assured our son will not convert. I could care less what my son's faith turns out to be. Currently DS is more fascinated with the Biblical illusions which show up everywhere in what he reads and wants to know more. If there was any faith we would need to worry about in terms of conversion it would be Greek mythology. Percy Jackson is a major hit around here!

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I have the go ahead from DH to go into the Big City and check out Omnibus at the homeschool store. I have hopes, but am a bit daunted by the level of the religious content. DS wants to do it, and I do not want to have to recreate Omni if I do not have to.

 

 

That pretty much sums up my worries. I do not care, nor does DS care about the religious content. DH however, major caring! He had one bad religious experience as an early teen and is rather convinced that it is all brainwashing and very negative. He has no issue with religious publishers as long as he is assured our son will not convert. I could care less what my son's faith turns out to be. Currently DS is more fascinated with the Biblical illusions which show up everywhere in what he reads and wants to know more. If there was any faith we would need to worry about in terms of conversion it would be Greek mythology. Percy Jackson is a major hit around here!

FWIW, DS loves Percy Jackson and the information in those books paired incredibly well with the VP on-line Ancient History course.  He loved the reinforcement from both sides.  And the courses really are fun.  Just pretty heavily Christian.  The cards were great for the course.  Not sure about using them without the course....

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