In the interest of being totally honest, they did give me a download of the entire book for free, in exchange for me agreeing to give my honest feedback about it; and I promise, I am being honest. I know that there is a whole lot of great curriculum out there already for history...namely, Mystery of History, Story of the World and TruthQuest history have been my favorites at different times. But this book really does something different and fulfills a different niche...it is history that is primarily aimed at thoroughly engaging the child in a fictional storyline about two boys and their adventures, and the history is woven into that story so painlesly that they don't even realize it's "school". We have been reading it at night as a story, rather than during the school day. It is different from Story of the World (which I really do like) in that it is from a thoroughly and unashamed Christian worldview. It is different from Mystery of History in that it is much more engaging for younger students. I will say it is probably not as thorough as either of those two programs in the scope of what it covers...to my knowledge there are no teacher guides, maps, workbook pages, etc. (UPDATE: The publisher sent me a note saying that teacher guides are forthcoming, you can see his comment below). But what it does, it does VERY WELL. One other great feature is that the events correlate with the Veritas Press timeline cards, and since I already own those, it helps to round out and cement the historical information. In my opinion, this program is ideal for grades K -3, and great as a supplement for all ages. (Even Matthew and Rachel are listening in; every once in a while I hear a giggle come from Rachel from her room when we get to a funny part, and Matthew does his best to look totally uninterested but seems to know what we covered afterwards!)
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