Heritage History Review: A History Worth Learning

     I am a reformed history-hater.

     I hated history when I was in my school years.  Ahem.  Okay, greatly disliked history.  Does that sound more mature? 

:)

     I've met so many other adults, mostly in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, who dislike history because of the way it was taught in the public school system in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and to the present.

     Now that I'm a reformed history-hater / disliker, I have found all kinds of amazing curricula to use to present history to my children in a fun and interesting way!  Even if it isn't their favorite educational subject, they certainly don't despise history the way I did before becoming a home educator. 

Heritage History's Classical Curriculum on CD is one of those very interesting methods of teaching history!

     I was thrilled to learn that our family would be able to use and review Heritage History's "Ancient Greece" Study Guide this spring.  We are excited to continue using it in the fall with a new school year...just three months away!

     So, here's the deal.  You know that Kindle Fire you've been wanting?  Especially if you don't have a "smart phone"?  Well, now you can place that Kindle Fire on your educational/curriculum shopping list and show it to your hubby!  (Hint, hint!)

     See, what's so neat about Heritage History's study guides is that these collections of illustrated "living history" books, maps, timelines, battle and geography dictionaries, biographies, historical summaries, study guide helps, and suggestions for reading are all on this one CD...and the books can all be easily transferred to a Kindle device, iDevice, Nook, etc.  Nice!

     Heritage History has searched historical literature in the public domain (pre-1923) to find books and texts that would have great interest to students these days!  Links to these books are available on their website so that you may read them on your computer screen for no charge.  You may also download individual titles (for a small fee), or you may purchase the CD which contains all of the texts plus study guides and many of the items I've already listed for you:

• living history books
• maps
• timelines
• battle dictionaries
• geographical dictionaries
• biographies
• era summaries
• study guide helps
• suggested additional reading lists
• and more!
  

     The #1 benefit of purchasing these books and additional materials on CD is that this program is easily outlined for you and organized so you can quickly pick out which titles you would like your students to read for the various eras of history...and that they can pick out titles for themselves to read.  While you can find free versions of these titles online in other places, they often don't translate as well to e-readers.  Heritage History has made certain that these historical titles are designed exclusively for your e-reader!  You will be able to read the e-books in three different ways: PDF, Kindle or EPUB, and they are easy to transfer to your e-reader because clear directions are provided to help with this.  They can also be read on a computer monitor, if your family doesn't have an e-reader.

     There are 11 Heritage History libraries on CD, but only 5 of them have full study resources, a printable study guide, curriculum guide, maps, and timelines:

• Young Readers
• Ancient Greece
• Ancient Rome
• British Middle Ages
• British Empire

     Here's a brief description of the Ancient Greece collection I received:

“The Ancient Greece collection covers Greek history from the earliest days of myth and legend, through the Golden Age of Athens, to the Greco-Roman Era.  Of special interest to older students is a selection of simplified classics based on the works of renowned poets, historians and playwrights.  Includes 46 books, 50+ maps, teaching aids, and a Study Guide.”  (from the Heritage History website)

Some additional helpful information from
Heritage History:

     About a quarter of the books in the Ancient Greece library could be considered "comprehensive histories", meaning they cover the whole span of Greek history from the Heroic Age of mythology to the conquests of Alexander the Great. Every student should read at least a few of these selections. The rest of the collection is composed of a variety of genres including biographies, mythology, adapted literature, military history, and historical fiction.  Only a few books are written below a fourth grade reading level, although they can be read orally to younger students. 

     In addition to providing book lists organized by genre and reading level, the Ancient Greece Library contains two additional reference pages intended to help students and instructors identify books of particular interest. The Book Summaries page includes a short description of each book in the library. The Series Descriptions page, which features descriptions of overall series rather than individual books, may be helpful to those readers who enjoy a particular book and would like to locate similar volumes.

How is the Heritage History Curriculum different from other history curricula?

• It is based on a Living Books approach, rather than a textbook approach to history.
• It is based on national histories instead of epochal histories. Students study one civilization at a time rather than a multitude of civilizations at the same time
• Instead of being an analytical approach, this is a narrative, story-telling approach to learning history
• American history is introduced in the early grades and again in high school, but it mainly focuses on ancient, medieval, and early modern history during the middle school years.
• It focuses on studying the most important periods of Western Civilization in depth rather than touching lightly upon dozens of unrelated cultures.
• It encourages students to pursue historical topics of personal interest in addition to making selections from directed reading lists.

You should be aware:

• Most 20th century history is omitted because the Heritage library only includes books published before 1923.
• No books in the Heritage collection suffer from the distortions of political correctness, but a few share biases that were common in the early twentieth century.
• Because analysis and commentary are not the key focus of the Heritage collection, this is not an adequate curriculum for teaching civics or political philosophy to high schoolers. 
  
• Heritage Classical Curriculum doesn't include tests or structured learning activities.
  

How is my family using Heritage History's Ancient Greece classical curriculum?

     We will be starting our second "run through" of historical eras this autumn, beginning with ancient history.  We'll use a history curriculum we just love - and using Heritage History's CD and materials to supplement it! 

     I've tried to use more of a literature approach to our history studies over the years, with a couple of different programs.  But here's what I've run up against:

1.  The literature books are expensive, causing me to need to spend too much money on selections - or else feel guilty about making substitutions or going without.  I didn't mind substituting books in the elementary grades, but now that I'll be teaching junior high and high school this fall, substitutions are just not practical.

2.  If some of the literature selections are available at our local library (and that's a BIG if), they are often not available in the weeks I need them.  And sometimes, I'll admit, we've had to pay overdue fees, especially since our library is no longer open during the most convenient hours for me to pay a visit.

     So, we'll be starting with ancient history again this year, and we'll use our regular history course for our "spine."  In addition, I'll use the planning guide/study guide on the Heritage History CD to schedule out the various historical literature selections for my girls for the entire school year.  It will be easy to do because they are arranged by age level and by era.  I love that!

     No more big purchases of selections from the stores; no more endless trips to the library.  Wonderful! 

     Heritage History recommends that each age group reads at least 3 core selections each year and four choices from the supplemental book list (biographies, episodic histories, folklore, or historical fiction) or several other choices.

     They recommend that students plan to spend about 3 hours per week reading from their assigned book list.  A Book Selection Register is provided for parents to use to assign reading lists.  In addition, two types of Weekly Reading Registers are provided for students to keep track of their reading.  It's great that these types of accountability forms are provided with the curriculum!

In summary . . .

     This has been one of my favorite curriculum products to use and review this year!  I've enjoyed it so much that I'm planning on purchasing Heritage History's Ancient Rome Classical Curriculum this summer, to also use with our ancient history studies this next year.  The price is perfect for our limited curriculum budget!  And now that I have a Kindle Fire (Mother's Day gift) and our oldest daughter won a Kindle Keyboard version, the girls can both read their historical literature texts at the same time.  I'm excited!

     Each Heritage History CD sells for $24.99 each at the time of this review, or the entire 5-disk set may be purchased for $99.99. To learn more about this and some of the other collections in the series, please check out the other TOS Crew members' blogs or visit the Heritage History website.

Julieanne
Joy In Our Journey.com

Disclosure:  I received one printed copy of Heritage History's Ancient Greece Study Guide plus the Ancient Greece CD in exchange for my honest review of this product.  No other compensation was provided.

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