Veritas Press Self-Paced History for Elementary...

I recently started Veritas Press' self-paced history program (Old Testament/Ancient Egypt) with my soon-to-be 7 year old. I have had several requests for info on it so I thought I'd blog.

First - I LOVE it. It is just perfect for her. We have finished two weeks worth of lessons now and she is retaining the information very well. Each week has 5 lessons and correspond to a weekly VP history card. The two "guides" are a man named Simeon and the 'talking Sphinx' as my daughter calls him. They start the day singing the history song. It's a following the bouncing ball type so my daughter can see the words on the screen as well as sing along. This is important for her because she learns best by seeing and doing rather than just hearing, which is why it wasn't going as well when I would just read the lesson to her. The first lesson of the week is usually the longest and includes telling the story of the event/person. So far both stories have been from the Bible and when they read from the Bible they put the text up on the screen so the student can follow along. Again, this is excellent in my daughter's case because it reinforces her retention.

Every day (except the last day which is a test) there is some kind of game for review and reinforcement. Today was a memory matching game where you turned over cards and tried to match up questions and answers about the Fall in the Garden. There have been ordering games (put events in order), fill in the blank readings with a word bank. All of these my daughter has found to be great fun. One day a week they fill in an on-computer map and timeline.

At the end of each lesson there is a 'Historical Literature' section. This is optional. If you choose to have your student read the assigned literature, they will choose 'Level 1' (for 2nd or 3rd graders) or 'Level 2' (for 4th and up) and they will see their reading assignment. Then they click on Finished and they are done. Level 2 has more reading assignments than level 1 so some days Level 1 doesn't have any. I don't know if Level 2 has them every day - they have so far. We are doing Level 1.

OT/Egypt is the only card set out so far. I talked to VP last week and they said they do expect the rest out for the 2010-2011 school year with the possible exception of Middle Ages - but they hope that one as well.

You can see a full sample week on their website (Noah and the Flood). Go to 'http://www.veritaspress.com and click on the Sphinx. It is not a cheap option but if you choose not to do the literature you only need the cards and the computer. No other readings, lesson plans, materials, etc. I sit with my daughter as she does it but older children, or ones more focused than mine, could do it on their own. She loves it. She begs for the Sphinx every day. More importantly, she is learning and remembering. I think they give a grade at the end as well but I didn't pay much attention to that because it wasn't important to me.

Heather