If you are looking for a history curriculum with a Biblical worldview then let me introduce you to the Pathway to Liberty’s The Middle Ages, part of the Pathway to Liberty’s History Curriculum, from Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum. This curriculum has 4 time periods and 4 levels for each period. I am always on the lookout for new materials for our family to use for history that do not rely on a dry, boring textbook. I want history to come alive for our children. Also, I want their knowledge of history to include the true beliefs and ideas of our founding fathers.
For this review, I wanted our 16-year-old daughter and our 18-year-old son to be able to do history together and at a level, I felt they would be comfortable with the work. So we selected The Middle Ages and Levels 3 and 4. Because I initially planned on my husband and I studying with our children, we ordered the digital version. The materials come either in digital format (able to be used by multiple family members or physical materials to be used by one student. For this review, we received the Teacher’s Guides for Levels 3 and 4, the Student Guides for Levels 3 and 4 along with The Chain of Liberty and The Chain of Liberty Study Guide.
Pathway to Liberty is the creation of Jayme Maccullough and it has levels for students of all ages. This comprehensive, principle-based history curriculum offers a lot of material. Jayme MacCullough is a speaker, writer, Bible Study leader, and more.
Their website states, “Through education, we can change tomorrow.”. The curriculum includes four years of materials and each year has four levels plus a teacher guide. The four years of materials are:
- Year 1 – Universal History
- Year 2 – The Middle Ages
- Year 3 -U.S. History
- Year 4 – Worl History
And the four levels are:
- Level 1 – K5 – 3rd grade
- Level 2 – 4th – 6th grade
- Level 3 – 7th – 9th grade
- Level 4 – 10th – 12th grade.
Students are expected to do readings, watch videos, answer questions and more through over 26 weeks for each year. Four lessons of history are to be completed each week. The lessons will take anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes to complete. How the lessons are completed can be customized to each family’s needs. Students have the option to break the daily lessons down into smaller parts. I have to say I wish this curriculum had been around when we first started homeschooling. I love the idea of all 4 of our children working on the same material at the same time but at their own level.
For The Middle Ages, students begin with the Roman Republic and the Heroic Age of the Church and conclude with the Age of Exploration.
For Levels 3 and 4, you need the Student Guide, the Teacher Guide, Chain of Liberty (book and study guide), along with some additional books, Internet access to watch the videos on YouTube, and a dictionary at the minimum. Other books will be required as the course progresses. If you decided to get the downloadable version, obviously a very good printer will also be necessary.
The Chain of Liberty and the accompanying study guide begin by taking a broad approach to exploring the pathway of liberty using past events. In the next section, readers learn about Liberty from ancient to modern times including the ideologies of various types of governments along with the influence of the early church and the Reformation through the founding, exploration, through the eventual erosion of the American government. The Study guide is the perfect accompaniment to the book providing students with opportunities to take what they are learning and make it their own.
The Teacher’s Guide provides information directly for the teacher. It includes all four levels along with the requirements for each lesson. The answers for many of the questions are supplied in the Guide as well. It includes helpful directions and more.
The Student Guides are designed for the students. This is where they find their schedule for daily work, helpful information, reading assignments, questions to answer and more. We loved how the digital version allowed us the option to print out the materials and place them in a notebook that our word studies and other papers could be added to as we completed them. However, I found it easier to put The Chain of Liberty on my tablet to where we could take it and read wherever we went.
Our family enjoyed the reading assignments and doing the word studies. When comparing the question from Levels 3 and 4, I could not find any real differences. However, I obviously would have different expectations for my child doing Level 3 versus my child doing Level 4, especially when completing the Word Studies. Here are some pages of the Student Guide along with some completed work.
For the Word Studies, students need a Study Bible, a dictionary (our family has the Noah Webster 1828 dictionary), and a Word Study model. One is provided in the Teacher’s Manual. Our family found the instructions for the Word Study to be very useful and the video on the YouTube channel provides excellent instructions along with an example to help demonstrate the proper process for doing the Word Studies.
You can find Pathway to Liberty on social media at the following locations:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PathwaytoLiberty/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pathway2Liberty
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pathwaytoliberty/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClVQD1kM1KnthMBWFTQ_AbQ/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pathwaytoliberty/
Our family loved the way this curriculum challenged us to think and expand our knowledge. If you are looking for a history curriculum with a Biblical worldview then let me introduce you to the Pathway to Liberty’s The Middle Ages, part of the Pathway to Liberty’s History Curriculum, from Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum. I promise it will be worth your time.
Other members of the Home School Review Crew are reviewing other years and other levels of this curriculum this week. So click here or on the graphic below to read some of these other reviews.
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy 