Johanna Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 I am having a hard time navigating the Veritas press site to find the american history cards, or at least a sample of them. Anyone have a link?? :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 The American History cards are the ones they use for 5th and 6th grades: "Explorers to 1815" and "1815 to the Present". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johanna Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 THANK YOU!!! that is exactly what i needed....just put my order in! How long do they take to ship??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Could these be used secularly? Or is there a very strong God theme throughout each? The description makes me think the later.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Are you just "not a Christian"? with no problem with things mentioning Christianity? OR, do you want NOTHING to do with anything mentioning God? If I knew that, I could be more educated in my response. Here's a sampling of the cards... Creation, Fall in the Garden, Cain and Abel..But, starting with card # 6.. it's Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt... There's a lot of Biblical History in the Blue Cards (Starting with Creation) If you want just the Cards that are "Ultra" Christian, You would only want to maybe remove 5 or so cards from each set. And, or course, the cards are from a Christian Reformed perspective. I think they are REALLY beautiful cards and I would probably get them, even if I wasn't a Christian. I would be able to present them in a more neutral way than I do now. I really like my children memorizing the history timeline... and here are some hand motions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBw6a9fq7hk Carrie:-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendi Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Could these be used secularly? Or is there a very strong God theme throughout each? The description makes me think the later.... If you're just talking about those two years, Explorers to 1815 and 1815 to Present, I think you could easily use them secularly. The only card that dealt with a specifically Christian event, as far as I can recall, is the Great Awakening. (Which you could still cover, if you're comfortable discussing church history at all. Or you could just skip that card with no problems.) Some of the cards mention a specific person's religious beliefs, but I don't think that's pervasive enough that it would bother the average "secular" person. Although, if you're atheist or just don't want religion to be mentioned, you could probably just black out those parts, I suppose. Overall, I think the religious part of Veritas, at least in those two years of history, comes up a lot more in the supplemental reading you can do, but again, there are plenty of secular books recommended, too. (For example, a biography that VP recommends might focus on the person's faith, but you could probably find another biography that doesn't.) Faith does come up in some of the projects that are read-and-discuss assignments. I confess we often skip those anyway, because the historical fiction and well-written history books appeal more to us. And often these assignments are from primary sources, which is important, but often difficult for my son to get much from. So using the cards for a "timeline" or "spine", I think you could do fine without making it a Christian curriculum. The cards contain infrequent references to Christian faith, and nothing I can think of that would offend a non-Christian or non-Protestant Christian. (Again, I'm talking just about the two years of American history.) The way I use the cards, as a jumping-off point for our own studies, work well. I have ds read the card and do the worksheet on Monday. We do read-alouds and silent reading, plus the occasional project, during the week. On Friday, we do some review, sometimes including the test, and sometimes just oral. If I can't find VP's recommended resources at the library, I often just substitute whatever my library has. HTH, Wendi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Could these be used secularly? Or is there a very strong God theme throughout each? The description makes me think the later.... I think you can easily use the 5th and 6th (American history) cards in a secular manner. As someone else pointed out, the only specifically religious card is the one about the Great Awakening, and that's still an important moment in American history. You might spend less time on it than the other cards, but I wouldn't try to skip it or anything. The previous card levels include a lot more religious content and would be harder to adapt. The cards are keyed to Hakim's History of US as well as a Christian American history textbook. You could easily just use Hakim and supplementary material of your choice and avoid any Christian material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johanna Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 I know that they are intended for 5th and 6th...but, are they adaptable for younger ages?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 We're Christian, but not reformed or evangelical and I've found that many Christian homeschool materials are so forcefully of a certain denomination that it just gets frustrating to use them. Secular materials are usually easier to implement because I don't have to keep modifying points of doctrine. That's why I asked. :) It sounds like these could be adapted, then. I like the idea of more focused memory on top of narration. Thanks for the info! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I know that they are intended for 5th and 6th...but, are they adaptable for younger ages?? Absolutely. VP uses them in 5th and 6th grades because they start their history cycle in 2nd grade and get to American in 5th and 6th... But the cards are pretty much the same format regardless of what grade you use them for... Also, if you look at the VP catalog, they list supplementary reading materials that are above or below that particular grade level, so you can find readings that fit your kids, whatever their age when they hit that part of the cycle. I used the VP 5th/6th cards last year with a 4th and 1st grader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johanna Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 Thank you so much!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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