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  • Low-Carb Lifestyle!
    • Trim Healthy Mama-inspired Grocery Lists
    • THM-style Beverages >
      • Mock Starbucks Mocha Frappuccinos
    • Family Favorite Recipes (Not Low Carb) >
      • Snacks >
        • Delicious Homemade Gooey Granola Bars!
        • Healthy Peanut Buttery Treats
      • Soups and Stews >
        • Jamaican Seafood Chowder
        • Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
      • Salads >
        • Red Cabbage Coleslaw
      • Main Dishes >
        • Beef >
          • Beef Stroganoff
        • Chicken >
          • Chicken Fiesta
          • Chicken Nachos
          • Marinated Zucchini and Chicken Sandwiches
          • Chicken or Turkey Enchiladas
          • Hungarian Chicken Paprikash
          • Green Chili Chicken Lasagna
        • Lamb >
          • Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder
        • Seafood >
          • Chilled Quinoa and Salmon Salad (E)
          • Shrimp and Zucchini Tostadas
        • Pasta Recipes >
          • Baked Lemon Pasta
          • Paccheri (Pasta) with Cauliflower and Tomatoes
      • Desserts >
        • Cookies >
          • Free Christmas Cookie cookbook download!
          • Healthier Gingerbread Man Cookies
          • Healthier Holiday Cut-Out Cookes
          • Maple Leaf Cookies - YUMMM!
        • Donuts
        • Frozen Desserts >
          • Lemonade Ice Cream Pie
    • Recommended Ingredients and Foods >
      • Inspiration Mixes - Gluten/Dairy/Caseine/Wheat Free and delicious!
      • Organic Maple Syrup
  • Homeschooling
    • Homeschool Curriculum & Product Reviews >
      • Homeschool Curriculum Reviews >
        • Art >
          • ARTistic Pursuits
          • Simply Draw!
        • Grammar >
          • All About Homophones - (Marie Rippel)
          • Time 4 Learning
          • Daily Grams
        • Handwriting >
          • Cursive Handwriting - New American Cursive
        • History >
          • The Mystery of History >
            • MOH vol. 3 Audio MP3's
          • Tapestry of Grace History
          • U.S. History >
            • America, The Last Best Hope (William Bennett)
          • Winter Promise
        • Latin >
          • Latina Christiana, by Memoria Press
          • Visual Latin
        • Literature-based Unit Studies >
          • Beyond Five in a Row
          • Further Up and Further In by Diane Pendergraft
        • Logic and Reasoning >
          • Building Thinking Skills (Critical Thinking Skills Co.)
        • Math >
          • Math Mammoth
          • Math Tutor DVD.com
          • MathRider: Horselovers' Math Facts Software Game!
        • Music and Composers
        • Online Educational Courses >
          • Aleks Online Courses
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          • Apologia Science >
            • Apologia Science's Notebooking Journals
            • Zoology 1 - Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day
          • Science Weekly newsletters
        • Spelling >
          • Phonetic Zoo (by IEW)
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          • WriteShop's StoryBuilders
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          • Dreams and Designs—Homemade Supplies to Complement Your Homeschool
          • Help, Lord, I'm Getting Ready to Start Homeschooling My High Schooler!
          • The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner
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          • KB Teacher
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          • Polymer Crystals
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          • Latina Christiana Level 1 Lesson Links >
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            • Year One Sayings
            • LC1 Intro and Lesson 1
      • Latina Christiana (Level II) >
        • Latina Christiana Level 2
        • LC2 Intro and Lesson 1
    • Forms and Charts >
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      • 2012-2013 Homeschool Attendance Form
      • 2012-2013 Homeschool Attendance Form
    • Free Audio Books to Download
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    • Handwriting
    • History: Classical / Chronological >
      • The Mystery of History, by Linda Lacour Hobar
      • The Middle Ages (MOH vol. 2)
      • Ancient History (MOH vol. 1) >
        • Ancient Rome >
          • Roman Architecture
          • Roman Houses
          • Roman Town (software game by Dig-It)
          • Roman Trade and Commerce
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      • Training Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home >
        • Keepers At Home - "Beginning of Club Year" Helps
        • Keepers At Home - "End of Club Year" Helps
        • KAH Skills >
          • Bible Memory >
            • Memorizing New Testament Books and Their Meanings
            • Proverbs 31:10-31
          • Cake Decorating
          • Card Making >
            • Stitched Cards
          • Computers
          • Character Studies >
            • Contentment and "I'm Bored" phrases
            • Willingness
          • Decoupage
          • Hospitality
          • Library Skills and Literature Pins
          • Sewing >
            • Beauty and the Pig - Goldie Doll
            • Edwardian-Style Aprons
            • Paper Piecing
      • Children >
        • Bible Study Bookmarks
        • The Church History ABCs (for kids!!!)
        • The Lord's Prayer - copywork
        • Some Thoughts...Family Bible Time
        • Running Away...with permission
      • Young Adults (Teens) >
        • Stepping Heavenward, by Elizabeth Prentiss
        • Deeper Roots: Discovering Our Amazing God
  • Frugal Family Trips to Washington, D.C.
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TruthQuest History

4/11/2012

5 Comments

 
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     I hated history.  As a child.  As a teen.  And as a college student.

     Now, we've taught our children to not say "hate" unless it is regarding something evil and worthy of that word, so please don't be "hateful" and think that we talk like this all the time! 

     Growing up, though, I had little discretion on when and where it was appropriate to use the word "hate."

     And history was nearly at the top of my "hate list."

     Why?

     Because I had a really hard time memorizing dates, places, and names of people.  And history was taught by reading boring chapters and answering questions at the end of the chapter, followed by a hard test.

     And that was what learning history was all about, right?

     Ugh.

     I even flunked my first midterm in college, in my Bible history class, because we were supposed to list all of the Old Testament kings and prophets in order, chronologically.  Except that the prof never mentioned we'd ever need to know that information or do that in order.  I barely escaped passing the class with a D.  Sigh.


     So when my girls were much younger, and we were going to be just starting out learning history, I knew I wanted to do something different than how I learned in school.  But what?  I hated history, after all, and didn't look forward to teaching it to the girls.

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Brittany and Kelsi in 2007
     I did, however, enjoy reading historical fiction, starting around my junior high school years.  

     Hmm.  Maybe we could choose a curriculum that included lots of literature books. 

     After lots of searching online, dial-up internet, no less, I found a curriculum that would meet our needs.  And we have loved it, over the years!

     It wasn't TruthQuest History, although I did take a quick glance at their online sample all those years ago.


     This spring, however, I've had the opportunity to use and review TruthQuest History with our family, as a part of The Old Schoolhouse (TOS) Crew.

     We were able to select which era of time we wanted to use and review.  Since I am currently beta testing another history curriculum in great depth, I decided to select Age of Revolutions III (1865-2000) because this selection would easily accompany the era we were already learning about at home.


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What did I think about this?


     I have to admit it.  At first, I wasn't all that impressed.  I had scrolled down in the Guide to where we were currently studying at home, and there wasn't all that much to read through in the curriculum itself:  reading 4-6 sentences about an important event in history, and then choosing a literature selection for each child to go into a bit more depth.  Hmm. 

     We were used to reading an in-depth lesson about an event or person, that wove God's view of history and humanity into the lesson.  And we loved that!

     I checked out two books for the library, one for each of the girls, for the particular topic we were studying (World War II - The Holocaust).  I do love the way that TruthQuest History has books listed in age-appropriate order, so it's easy - at a glance - to see which books would most likely be in the right age range for my children.

     I thought it would take the girls a week or so to read their books.  Not so.  They had them read in 1-2 days.  Wow!

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     But then I did what I should have done from the beginning. 

     I took the time to start reading through the entire TruthQuest History guide from page one.  Why didn't I do this earlier? 

     What I noticed right away is that there are many multiple-page, in-depth narratives contained within the TruthQuest guides.  Not just 4-6 sentences here and there, although you will find short bits and pieces from time to time.  But often, there are lengthy descriptions of historical events.  What the author of TruthQuest, Michelle Miller, has done is to show us how each human being's view of God and humanity has swayed history for individuals, groups, and nations.  She reveals how a nation's worldview changes history for the better...or for the worse.

     What I realized, after reading through most of this guide, is that our children will learn that their own individual worldviews (humanism, materialism, God-centered) will greatly effect the rest of their lives - and the lives of those around them.  Maybe their worldviews will even influence nations!


     That's when I became excited about TruthQuest History Guides!  While they could be used as a stand-alone, I really like having in-depth lessons on each event or person we study.  So, I'm going to use TruthQuest History Guides as a supplement to our core history program.  They compliment each other beautifully, and I'm thrilled with the lengthy book and film list contained in TruthQuest, especially since the beta history program I'm testing doesn't yet contain book and film lists, although it will in its finished form. 

     Some notes about the book and film lists in TruthQuest History Guides:

     Not only will you find lists of books (and some films) for each event or person that is studied in this Age of Revolutions 3 (Modern History) Guide, you will also find book lists on:

  • well-known authors of that era
  • artists
  • Native American groups
  • famous inventions and inventors
  • explorers
  • achievements of women
  • achievements of blacks/African Americans
  • musicians
  • missionaries
     Even though children of different ages in my family would be reading different book selections based on their ages and reading abilities, we can be having wonderful discussions as a family about what they are learning as we sit at the dinner table together. 

     Older students who want or need to research particular topics in greater depth are free to do this with TruthQuest History.

     Families can include extras to their reading and literature selections by adding in oral reports, skits, projects, foods, lapbooks, notebooking, timelines, and anything else they can imagine - although please note that those activity and project ideas are not contained within the actual TruthQuest History Guides themselves.


     The TruthQuest History Guide website sells some Companion Resources to be used with the Guides:

  • AJTL Binder-Builders (lapbooking kits)
  • Notebooking page kits
  • AJTL Map/Timeline/Report packages
although those products don't seem to be available for Age of Revolutions volumes 1-3 yet.

     A quick note about the books listed throughout this guide (and all of their guides):  while some of the books have been published more recently, many of the books listed in the guides are much older books, which means that quite a few of them are available free on the internet in eBook form!  (Think Kindle, Nook, downloading to your computer or device, etc.)  That is exciting!  Free is always a good thing!  Mrs. Miller notes that the older books tend to be more conservative and morally appropriate for young readers.  I like that, too!

So, what's the final verdict?

     I really like the spiritual and historical tone I see throughout the TruthQuest History guides.  It is amazing and life-changing! 

     I like the fact that my children (and me!) don't have to be subjected to memorizing long lists of dates and events.

     My girls loved reading the book selections that we chose!

     I still want to combine this with our current history program, but it could easily stand alone and be very useful for families.  I think the time-consuming part for the parent would be to identify which books each child would read, since the whole family can do this one curriculum together, and then to either buy or borrow from the library - or download free from the internet - the books a family wants to use for each section.

     This is a fabulous curriculum, one of my most favorite products I've reviewed this school year. 


     You may look at the Table of Contents for my specific guide (Age of Revolutions volume 3 - 1865 to 2000).

     You may view samples of American History 3 as well. 


     TruthQuest History's website shows the many Guides they have available for different areas of history.


     A TruthQuest History user has created an online discussion loop for fellow users. They would love to have you join them as they share ideas, victories, insights, and questions. To join, simply send an email to: HIStoryQuesters-subscribe@YahooGroups.com.

The cost?  Each Guide is from $24.95 to $34.95, with the PDF versions (if available) costing $5 to $6 less per Guide.  Since these Guides could easily be used for a full year of history, for all of the children in your family, this is quite reasonable!  Any additional costs would be for purchasing various books, buying lapbooks and notebooking journals, etc., which are all optional.

     If you have questions about TruthQuest History, please let me know in the comments section below.  Thanks!
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Julieanne
Joy In Our Journey.com

Disclosure:  I received a PDF version of the TruthQuest History Guide:  Age of Revolutions, Volume 3 in exchange for an honest review of this product.  No other compensation was provided.

5 Comments
Kristen H. link
4/11/2012 07:24:46 am

Great review Julieanne. I agree it doesn't look like much at first, but when you dig more deeply you see there really is a lot to this program.

Reply
Julieanne Miller
4/11/2012 10:27:21 am

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thought of TruthQuest this way! I think the reason I like it so well, now, is that I can see the spiritual impact this curriculum can have on an entire family, especially after a few years of working through their different Guides.

Reply
Ginny
4/14/2012 08:20:16 pm

Thanks so very much for posting this review. I had purchased a used copy of TQH and sold it for similar reason that you posted. This appears to be what I will need this year.

Reply
Julieanne Miller
4/15/2012 10:06:53 am

Ginny, I think it's amazing how much we can learn about a curriculum when we dive in and really begin to figure out its usefulness! What can appear to not be a good for a family can sometimes turn out to be the BEST fit for a family! :) Thank you for taking the time to come by and comment.

Reply
Curri
10/16/2015 01:13:54 pm

I just have to know what your history curriculum is that you mainly use...we are using Truthquest for thr 1st time this yr.

Reply



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