Guest southernmommie Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 What is a good history curriculum or set of books without a religious undertone or outright religious?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay3fer Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 Have you considered Story of the World? You may have heard it's a religious curriculum, but we're Jewish and using it with no problem. It DOES include stories from Biblical traditions, beginning with Abraham, but they are presented as part of history and not in a religious way, if that makes any sense. The trouble is that religion IS part of history - a big part. You can't just leave it out, or history makes no sense; religion is the REASON that most of history happened in the first place. You can disagree with some of it, but the fact is that people have believed it, and acted on it, for the last 5000 years or so. If you don't want SOTW, if you're in the US, consider the Joy Hakim books (Story of US?). I just read the first one myself and enjoyed it very much. Lots of pictures, VERY well-written text. We're also enjoying Hillyer's Child's History. I suppose it's religious in that it mentions God, but it also opens with a kind of vague prehistory narrative that implies a longer period than just 7 days to create the world. Still mentions Judaism and Christianity, and even dates events from the birth of Jesus (which I don't love), but I've found its tone quite neutral so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 I have not used History Odyssey but I believe it is secular. I am looking into it for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillian Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 I have got a young first grader I'm planning for for next year and we are using A Child's History of the World. Some religious references but we are currently exploring Orthodoxy so I do want to stay away from certain sources if possible. Also because dd is young we are doing CHOW which is kind of a whirlwind tour from what I can best tell then the following year we are going to do US history and then begin the 4 (or 6) year cycle for history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melis Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 Good Morning :) Another vote for Story of the World (with the Activity Guide)! We love it :) We are currently working our way through Volume I and I find it's very informative, yet unbiased in terms of early religion. It was such a huge part of ancient history so we have read about the Israelites (some Old Testament stories), Egyptians and their many gods and Greek mythology. We belong to two, large secular groups where several (aetheist/agnostic) families use this curriculum and are happy with it. I hope this helps :) Have a great day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillian Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 Oh I also want to toss out the idea of Lesson Pathways. Just lessonpathways .com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 We are agnostic/atheist and my daughter uses SOTW 1. There is a lot of religion in it but it is treated fairly and in historical context. A really great series of books is "World in Ancient/Medieval Times". You could pull some stuff here and there from it. Reading level is a bit higher but could be a good guide. Also if you don't have one of them yet get either Usborne's "Internet Linked Encyclopedia of the World" or Kingfishers Encylopedia (white one). I know the Usborne covers prehistory, ape to early man, and treats all religions pretty evenly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest southernmommie Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Thank you for the reviews. I don't mind the curriculum teaching about certain religions at different times in history. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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