History homeschool curriculum from a Reformed perspective

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jennywigg

Puritan Board Freshman
I've found some older threads on this, but nothing of late. Can anybody suggest a good Reformed history book/curriculum for my 9, 7, and 6 year olds? We tried Tapestry of Grace last year, and it was so overwhelming and complicated we quit midstream. Christian Liberty Press looks good, but I'm not quite sure how/what to order it without having to order each child his/her own kit ($$$). Not trying to be cheap or skimp on my kids' education, but Sonlight looks a bit expensive, too. Any suggestions?
 
We ordered this for next semester. History of Christianity & Western Civilization Course Set
We use a Charlotte Mason style so we will go with the videos and follow the work book and then go to the library to find 'living books' for each of the kids reading levels (ages 16, 10, 8, and 5). We let the kids follow their curiosity and we give them projects to reinforce what they are learning. The kids also are putting together their "Book of Centuries". Here is more on Charlotte Mason if you are not familiar.
 
We ordered this for next semester. History of Christianity & Western Civilization Course Set
We use a Charlotte Mason style so we will go with the videos and follow the work book and then go to the library to find 'living books' for each of the kids reading levels (ages 16, 10, 8, and 5). We let the kids follow their curiosity and we give them projects to reinforce what they are learning. The kids also are putting together their "Book of Centuries". Here is more on Charlotte Mason if you are not familiar.

We tend to take a similar approach. At this age, children should be focusing the greatest part of their academic time on learning to read, write, and do arithmatic well. We took the approach of going through Bible history, then Greece, Rome, Egypt and the Middle Ages. By the time we worked through that, they were in middle school and ready to handle serious study of history.
 
I've been looking for a good history curriculum myself. I like the idea of studying history chronologically, and of starting at an early age. "Story of the World" is a chronological history text that's been well-reviewed, but I wasn't personally impressed with it (too much time given to mythology, and the "story" of Jesus presented in the same way as the mythology.) A more explicitly Christian history would be "Mystery of History," but the writing style makes me cringe a little. I think I might just have to wing it, checking out books appropriate to each period of history from the library, and supplementing with maps to color, etc.

For church history from a Reformed perspective starting from the time of Christ, I would highly recommend:

God's Care and Countinuance of His Church, 3 Vol. - Reformation Heritage Books
 
It's been a few years since my daughter graduated but I still have some preferences. We went the "living books" route for history and were very pleased with the results. We used Beautiful Feet history study guides as a core which included a ton of great books, research assignments, mapping, Bible memorization, etc. It is not necessarily Reformed but can be tweaked as much as one would want. My daughter is currently using My Father's World materials for her children - it is another living books/consecutive history curriculum. Again, it is not overtly Reformed but can be tweaked. Both of these programs can be used with children of varing ages and are moderately priced.

We played a bit with Sonlight and were NOT impressed with it - it was quite pricey and exposed children to rather problematic topics at a younger age than I thought appropriate.
 
We ordered this for next semester. History of Christianity & Western Civilization Course Set
We use a Charlotte Mason style so we will go with the videos and follow the work book and then go to the library to find 'living books' for each of the kids reading levels (ages 16, 10, 8, and 5). We let the kids follow their curiosity and we give them projects to reinforce what they are learning. The kids also are putting together their "Book of Centuries". Here is more on Charlotte Mason if you are not familiar.

Thanks Bob, just ordered this set. Any other good suggestions?
 
We have been using Sonlight for years now and have, where it is lacking, 'made' it reformed. But just at a glance it is fairly broadly evangelical, so it may need some work.
 
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