What is the best Ancient History curriculum that includes the Bible?

[Seeker of Schole]

The title says it all. What is the best one out there that includes the Bible as history and in the timeline? Is it Biblioplan? Or what?

[FlyingMOm]

Tapestry of Grace? :D

[k3bzr18]

Tapestry of Grace? :D

 

 

 

agreed!

[edeemarie]

We are using and enjoying Mystery of History.

[Holly]

We've enjoyed Simply Charlotte Mason. It's a bit light, but I love being able to add in extra books of our choosing.

[julikins]

We're doing MFW Creation to Greeks and loving it. VERY GOOD! The Bible is every day and you get to see what happened in other civilizations alongside the Bible narrative. Such good connections made as well. I'm doing it with a 5th and 2nd grader.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[mytwomonkeys]

veritas press is great

[AnnaM]

Mystery of History

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

Since I'm Catholic, I vote for Connecting With History. I know the OP might not find that helpful, but I wanted to include it in case a Catholic reading the thread would. I actually plan on using it during summers when we're in between our 'school syllabi'.

[tjlcc]

I'm not sure if there is a "best". There are many options out there, such as those listed above. There is also:

Foundations Press

Diana Waring's History Revealed

Heart of Dakota

[Susie in MS]

For lighter and slower pace, uses specific books-- Simply Charlotte Mason.

For quicker pace, more depth, lots more variety in activity, has articles and audio, and you choose books-- Diana Waring History Revealed.

[Chris in VA]

I liked how MOH integrated biblical history into the secular narrative. I'm not YE, tho, so I decided not to use it. BUT, it's a good resource, even if you don't follow it exactly.

Veritas did the same thing in Omnibus, but that's for older kids.

 

Honestly, I think the best way is to use SOTW, and read the bible alongside it. Since some of the dating is up for grabs, anyway, you can use a resource like The Archeological Bible to coordinate dates, and you can use the schedule at paula's archives to help.

[Amy M]

My Father's World's main spine for the ancients is the Bible, so if that's mainly what you're looking for, I think MFW does that specific aspect of the ancients year better than most. After them, I thought TOG or BP's Companion were next in line, but I haven't seen samples of VP.

[chicagoshannon]

Veritas press.

[Forgiven]

We are using and enjoying Mystery of History.

 

Ditto this. We started off our year using both MoH and SoTW, but have since gone down to just reading MoH, and then we listen to SoTW in the car. I really like the detail given to the different prophets, kings of Israel and Judah, and to other such figures, like Daniel.

[Ann.without.an.e]

MOH is great :)

[Danielle1746]

We're using Mystery of History now and loving it. Very Bible based, and until we started using it, I never realized how much I, personally, differentiated between "world history" and "Bible history", as opposed to seeing them as one, simultaneous progression. I think I am appreciating the approach more than my kids. lol

[twoxcell]

My ds will be using HOD CTC next year. I have it here and the books look awesome! We haven't used it yet though. ;)

[Seeker of Schole]

I liked this program so much I bought it used and adapted it for my first grader this year. Huge hit! I am tacking on two weeks (CtG is 34 weeks) for Ancient China. We'll cover Ancient Rome over the summer.

 

 

How did you adapt this for a first grader?

[Donna A.]

I liked this program so much I bought it used and adapted it for my first grader this year. Huge hit! I am tacking on two weeks (CtG is 34 weeks) for Ancient China. We'll cover Ancient Rome over the summer.

 

Liz, are you going on to use MFW Rome to Reformation? If so, Ancient Rome will be covered there.

[Donna A.]

 

How did you adapt this for a first grader?

 

Not Liz/Jaderbee, but generally speaking... keeping in mind that MFW is designed for families with multiple ages (i.e., the one-room schoolhouse that was historically in place for centuries before the modern age-segregated classroom setup!), you would adapt it by:

 

-- Doing all of the Bible lessons together. Everything in there is perfectly suitable for a 1st grader because Marie doesn't schedule *all* of the OT passages (think graphic scenes here). There seem to be a lot of Jewish feasts to cover in the beginning (this is history, too! Pretty significant for the Hebrew people, in fact, so you learn about the symbolism in them and how they point forward to Christ), but then after the first.... six? or so weeks, there aren't anymore until the second half of the year. They start with the Sabbath in Week 1 (since that one was done every single weekend by the Israelites), but after that, they're scheduled as they come up on the calendar. (The Jewish calendar in context of the Bible, that is.) Anyway, these feasts are part of the Bible lessons on certain weeks, so the 1st grader will be able to participate in this because it's to be done as a *family* activity. As much as possible, anyway.... some families aren't able to do it that way for whatever reason.

 

-- For the history lessons themselves, you wouldn't probably read the assigned passages from Streams to the younger children. Those are meant for advanced/older students, or for parents to read and summarize. (Not all of Streams is assigned, btw.... only certain passages for more context along with "the rest of the story".) However, you would use age-appropriate books from Book Basket with the younger children. Marie gives you a heads-up about content in those books, particularly since so many of the ancient pagan cultures had unbiblical worship in them. You can either use the library for this, or choose some from the list to purchase if the library isn't a good option. Marie has asterisked some titles that she recommends for purchase.

 

-- Younger children will participate in recipes/cooking, science activities (using Genesis for Kids** See comments below), some optional dress-up and hands-on activities that are scheduled along the way (such as making and playing the "Knucklebones" game), and possibly make their own timeline. They might also have their own 3-ring binder for notebooking pages, as there are several in the student sheet set that are coloring pages. You might also help them with a few activities such as the Greek alphabet and making their own rendition of the Tabernacle.

 

-- Younger children can listen to the music CDs at mealtime or in the van with the rest of the family. They can share their own thoughts on what it sounded like, their favorite pieces, and so forth. Basically they'll "narrate" their thoughts on the music to you just as they would narrate a book.

 

-- Younger children will listen in to the scheduled family read-alouds, which in CTG are Patricia St. John books. These aren't specific to the historical time period, but are more geared toward character and heart training *while* learning about God's Word and His redemptive work in the history of mankind. (Think Adam and Eve and all those other people who rebelled against God!)

 

-- You'll notice that a few books are included in the CTG package for younger children, such as The Trojan Horse (Step Into Reading) and The Aesop for Children. Obviously you can read those to or with 1st grader.... or have an older silbing read it to them. Or let the 1st grader read them out loud for reading practice. (When my girls were younger, we would take turns reading. Well, we still do. ;) But even when they were not yet proficient readers, everyone who could read, did.) Some parents may choose to have only older children read The Children's Homer, or read it with them separate from the younger ones. But again, there are many, many more choices on the booklist at the back of the TM for all different reading/age levels, as well as some video recommendations. You could also choose to buy books from other providers such as HOD or SL to use in lieu of Book Basket. (Some of those titles are on the MFW Book Basket list, anyway. The difference is that Marie has pre-read ALL of the books on that list and noted sensitive content, as well as recommended age levels where appropriate, so that the parent can decide which ones to get for which children.)

 

-- Younger children -- ALL the children -- will always do math and LA at their own level. As such, a 1st grader who's still in the learn-to-read process may do MFW 1st grade for their "language arts" (and maybe math, too). They can do whatever you want them to do for math and LA, of course, but MFW 1st dovetails nicely with MFW CTG since part of their reading and other LA skills comes directly from the Bible reader and notebook that will become the child's own personalized "Bible/history/reading" books all in one. A few of the same activities in appear in both 1st and CTG, such as the Greek alphabet and making a timeline. The 1st grade program just covers the Bible material in a more simple format than CTG. CTG has *more*, though, so if you're not doing MFW 1st (using something else for math and LA), then you would just pick and choose from CTG as I described above for that 1st grader.

 

I'm sure I've missed something, but the dryer just buzzed and I've got to get supper going..... :001_smile: