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I want to start my 5th grader in CtC. I know she'll enjoy the hands-on activities and notebooking. However, I have read somewhere that CtC and the studies of periods after are too heavy on Bible history. I know I want my child to learn HIStory but I don't want it to be ALL Bible that it would look like she is just doing in-depth Bible studies instead of learning history. I don't want to be misunderstood but writing is not my strong point. I was enthused about using CtC soon but the recent account I read made me pause in my tracks to check it out some more. The samples don't really tell me how intense all the Bible researching will be; the post said it felt like she was preparing her kids for seminary. Please advise and please be kind. Thank you.

Well, it would be hard to find a curriculum that had too much Bible for me. However, what I think some people forget is how much plain old history is in the Old Testament--and you are getting history from the only unbiased source--God. My husband just taught on 1 Samuel, and I was amazed at how much I learned about the Israelites and the Phillistines, not to mention the Biblical principles. There is a lot more to CTC than just the Bible. Just from memory, I remember learning about the Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Phillistines, Greeks (especially Alexander the Great), and Rome. I remember weekly projects that were not Biblically-based. My daughter loved the watercolor projects and the Land Animals book. I always find HOD to be very balanced. However, even if HOD was "preparing your child for seminary", you would be spending your time teaching the most important truths you can. I tend to put little stock in reviews these days. Look over the package. Look up the books and read parts of them. Do you like it? Then use it and enjoy it. I have used it once, and I am excited to use it again next year. For me, being excited about using a program a second time speaks volumes. In the past I have really struggled to use a program the second time (other publishers), but I am always learning something new with HOD. If you do use it, we can compare our journeys next year!

I just have to "ditto" what Melissa said. HOD is very balanced, so I am shocked that a review like that even exists. I wonder if the person actually used it to say that?

Oh, just wanted to add that HOD is very thorough on it's history teaching, but everything DOES point back to God and His Word through the key points in the manual. Carrie does an excellent job of showing this, and it is one of the (many) things I LOVE about HOD!!

CTC covers all of ancient history. Now it does have quite a bit of biblical history in the first 1/3 rd because after all the manual starts with creation. I have heard people say that is was too much biblical history, but often that person stopped doing CTC and didn't continue all the way through the year to get to the rest of the civilizations. Rome, Greece, Egypt are all covered. When you look at the books used to get the complete picture you need to not look at just the history spines, but the story time books and the Independent history box. The Diane Waring CD really covers things such as the Pharoahs in depth. I feel like my ds now has a grasp on how biblical history is intertwined with world history. He really came to have an interest in Alexander the Great during CTC and we ended up listening to other things about him.

The ladies have done a terrific job of answering your questions. These past threads will be of help to you as you ponder.

Cultures in CTC: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5751&p=42198

Projects in CTC: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4358&p=32069

Spine descriptions for CTC and further links: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4586&p=33847

Similar question: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10274&p=74786

Weekly check-in, where you can view past posts to "see inside" CTC extensively: viewforum.php?f=14

CTC photobook, another view into CTC: http://heartofdakotasphotobooks.shutterfly.com/

I will share that I have gotten a chance to do the ancients more than once with my oldest son (who is now a sophomore). I had done it the pretty much the "secular" way, although that was not my intention (as I was using a curriculum that was billed as Christian). However, I found so much actual history to be missing in our study, simply because the Bible was not used as a history resource.

So, when I wrote CTC, it was important to me not to omit or downsize Biblical history but rather to use the Bible as the true history text it is (and interweave it with other historical resources that cover the ancient time period). This is because the Bible is THE only completely true resource for ancient times. It is God specifically telling us what happened and what He considered to be important.

In this vein, you'll notice that The Story of the Ancient World weaves together ancient history from several authoritative sources, but uses the Bible as the plumbline from which all resources branch out. We use God's Word as the glue that holds all of history together.

I believe in this approach so much that I had my oldest son do CTC even though he technically was beyond the age to use it at that time, because I believed that his previous tours through the ancients were widely lacking without God's Word woven within them. I have since had my next son go through CTC as well and am so glad that he had the study of ancient history through HOD. From our perspective, you can honestly never have too much of the Bible, but you can have too much history told without the Bible (leaving out the most important telling of history ever written)!

Blessings,
Carrie