History is usually dry and boring but my son just keeps

asking to read more. i feel this book gives you a great

background of how things used to be back in ancient times. it doesnt hide the reality of the worship of other Gods ect.

i want my son to be able to understand what times were like in biblical ancient times and this is a good base. we also use the books that go along with

I dont know about you but I have always found history to be somewhat dry. I searched high and low for a curriculum that would bring history to life for my 6 year old daughter and I found it in this curriculum. My daughter says this is one of her favorite subjects and remembers the history facts because of how well its presented. I find it awesome to learn history through people, not dates. I get that dates are important, however I want to instill a love of history for my daughter by relating to the people of our world while shes young and the date memorization can come later. Another important thing for me was keeping my daughters attention and the sections in this book are broken up in such a way that they are only a few pages at a time. This way she has just a little bit of history several times a week and its not overwhelming. We will definitely continue with the curriculum next year.

Oh, I understand some of the other reviewers concerns about how Biblical stories are presented as just another story and the book references gods, however I use these as teaching moments for my daughter. We live in a world where shes going to encounter people with these beliefs so I want her to be aware of them in relation to our Christian beliefs.

Our first set of this got left out in the rain. I enjoy it so much, as do my children, that I purchased it again

I enjoy the narrative writing style of the book, but I will never use this as a core textbook for my children's education for several reasons.

1) The dating system used throughout the book is largely traditional, secular dating. The first chapter starts out post-flood as it takes the reader to a retelling of life in the Fertile Crescent about 7,000 years ago, placing it before the flood which occurred around 2348 BC and before Creation which occurred around 4004 BC from a young-earth creation calculation. This "older" dating is a by-product of secular historians who reject biblical history as accurate - but love Manetho's stretched-out Egyptian chronology and evolution - and seek to ignore any evidence that might speak to the contrary, such as Assyrian or Babylonian chronologies that more closely align with scriptural events. This book, written by a Christian, is attempting to merge secular dating with biblical events, but it becomes a mixed-up mess that I've found myself having to correct in both word, as well as in organization of chapters. I think it's bad when I have to jump all over the book to give a more accurate timeline to fit in with biblical history, with reference to other cultures with better chronologies. I understand that the author's intention is not to expressely align Scripture with exta-biblical history or go into great depth, but rather to just introduce children to these events. However, as much as possible - given human error - I desire to start with Scripture as my central focus of historical timeline accuracy and moving out from there.

2) Biblical "stories" are pretty much told in the same tone as other stories. Who can tell which ones - just by reading the text - are true accounts and which ones are just myth?

3) The name "God" is not always capitalized appropriately, which is something important to me. In the chapter on Joseph, the dreamer tells Pharaoh that Joseph's "god" tells Joseph the meaning of dreams, and later Joseph says that his "god" gives him wisdom. Regardless of who is speaking, the reference is to the true God of the Bible and thus should be capitalized by the author. I can overlook the lack of capitalization on pronouns related to God, but not nouns.

4) Some of the information is just simply dumbed down. Yes, I realize that the textbook may be used by a younger audience and so the author is trying to be sensitive, but let's not overdo it. For example, in the chapter of Hapsetsut (which is set way too far back in history from what I'm finding as I do my own research using several unrelated sources), we're told that her brother ascended the throne and died young, leaving a young son, and that Hatshepsut simply stepped into the role of co-regent until her nephew became old enough and then declared herself Pharaoh. Thutmose II was not merely her half-brother, he was also her husband. Delicate subject matter? Yes. To be excluded? No.

So, it's a so-so text to use as a narrative supplement to ancient world history, but not one I'd want my kids to base their knowledge off of.

I will start by saying these books are straightforward with their approach to history which I appreciate because my kids do not have long attention spans. I personally would not deduct stars for this not being creation history. For a child growing up in a Christian home I don't find it necessary, they are learning that already. I do not find it pagan or anti Christian in any way, it's just history in a very direct, yet unique way. If you're looking for an easy to deliver history lesson then this is for you. You read a chapter, the child takes a test (test book sold separately, highly recommend.) My daughter who struggles greatly with paying attention or retaining things is doing wonderful with this approach. She has even asked me to look up more info on certain things when our lesson is done. We take our history lesson to the park and read it under the trees while we eat lunch. It's size makes it very manageable to take along. I really think this series is wonderful and should be given more credit.