TruthQuest History Guides

 

I have been using theTruthQuest History Guides with my family for over two years now and am delighted with the way Michelle Miller  has brought HIStory to life for our family.  She brings God's sovereign hand into all of history in a down to earth, yet very articulate manner.

 

The author of TruthQuest History, Michelle Miller, has home schooled her own children, worked as a librarian, created a home library of 18,000 books to share with other home schoolers, and written ten TruthQuest History guides.

 

In each TruthQuest Guide, Miller includes an emboldened text that gives you and your children some interesting thoughts and facts on History from a Christian perspective which you are to read aloud to your child (in the younger elementary years) and which your older children will read themselves. After the emboldened text (which is Michelle Miller's own commentary based on her research) you are given a list of books that you may choose from to read aloud to your younger children, or that your older child may choose from to read on their own. In the list are several "spine" books such as Child's History of the World, The Charles C. Coffin books:  The Story of Liberty, The Boys of ‘76, and the Guerber history books (being republished by Nothing New Press).

 

You may choose to read portions from these "spine" books that are pertinent to the person or time period being studied. Or you may skip ahead to the exhaustive list of living books to choose from on the topic at hand. Since Michelle Miller is a librarian she has a vast knowledge of excellent books for various topics, and that can easily be found through a library system. After you have read as much as you want to on a certain topic (the choice of how much to cover is always up to the parent, so the program is very flexible) you move on to the next section and read Michelle's commentary in the emboldened text and proceed again to choosing which books you will read to elaborate in a memorable way on the topic.

 

Many of the living books Michelle lists in her guides may already be on your shelf such as Childhood of Famous Americans, Landmark books, Genevieve Foster books, and the d'Aulaire books. What is nice about the TruthQuest History guides is that they help you use these well-loved books in a timely fashion while encouraging you to dig even deeper than the print for the reasons these people did what they did, or thought how they thought.

 

Michelle has also introduced me to some new treasures and after reading them from our library I have an eye for what to look for. If I go to a library discard sale (if a book looks old it is likely to be discarded....there are many great finds) or a rummage sale I seek out these great books for my home library.  I have already found many great classics at our library discard sale using Michelle Miller’s guide!  Happy shopping!!  I also enjoy building my home library through shopping at www.alibris.com or  http://www.doubledouble.net/books.htm which specializes in out of print books at great prices.

 

I really like Michelle Miller's commentary. She has put into words some of my lingering thoughts or doubts about how American History and/or World History has been traditionally presented.  As well, Michelle brings to light many fresh ideas and facts that I never knew or considered. She brings God's sovereign hand into all of history in such a down to earth, yet very articulate manner. Of course, Michelle acknowledges that no one on earth knows the absolute mind of God, but in each section of the commentary gives thoughts and ideas on how God may have been working in this period of history.

 

 When studying about the Romans she wants the kids to examine their "Big 2 Beliefs" 1) Who is God (or god in the case of the Romans)? 2) Who then is mankind? Simply knowing facts and dates about the Romans will not give us wisdom. We must delve into their worldview, or definition of life to truly understand why they did what they did.

 

Her choice of books is excellent.  She gives a wealth of books to choose from written during “the golden age of children’s literature” which is approximately from the 1930’s to 1960’s.  One such book that I read aloud to my young boys (ages 4, 6, and 7 years old) is the story of Balboa, Finder of the Pacific, by Ronald Syme. They truly understood the story and enjoyed it. My 4 year-old son kept handing me the book all weekend and asking me to read more. And quite frankly, this was the first time I had read anything on Balboa that was interesting to me and that my mind could grab a hold of.  I read of Balboa, Finder of the Pacific to these boys over two years ago, and one of my sons recently brought up the story.  He wanted to know who the explorers name was who smuggled himself and his dog on board a ship (Balboa!)  This incident is proof enough to me that the learning is sticking!  Michelle Miller also cites some interesting, but not widely know books on historical figures who were also Christians (such as Pocahontas and Her Son by M. Hanes).

 

Also included in the TruthQuest History guides are ThinkWrite sections. These are thoughtful questions for the children to think and/or write about. The younger children may answer these orally or give a dictation. Older children will write their own responses. I use the ThinkWrites as a part of our writing curriculum for my older boys.

 

Michelle Miller quotes writings from Francis Shaeffer, How Should We Then Live? and gives us further readings of his that we may like to continue on, and encourages us to ask and answer this question in response to history. At the very back of each TruthQuest History guide she writes sample answers for each ThinkWrite so that you will know if your children are on the right track.

 

I have used the TruthQuest: American History For Young Students I Guide and American History For Young Students II Guide to teach my primary aged boys who are 8 and 9 years old at this writing.   I go through each guide in the spring and assign about one book on each topic for the boys to read independently. They read through this list on their own at the rate of approximately one book per week. By the end of the year they will have read between 35-40 books on American history!  The boys are also making a history notebook with a picture to color and a few sentences they have written on each book they read.  They read through their notebooks and are remembering the books they have read and the general flow and chronology of history.  For more details on what books I look for and how we do TQ go to:

How I’m using TruthQuest History: American History for Young Students II Guide:

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/58401/

 

 

 

For my older two boys, I used the TruthQuest History Guides that  lined up with Veritas Press New Testament Ancient Greece/Rome for my 7th grader; and lined up the TruthQuest History guide and Guerber history with the Veritas Press Renaissance/Reformation for my 9th grader. This has taken some reading and planning from me to make this all match up, but it has really enhanced our history studies.  To find out more about this read:

How I’m using TruthQuest Middle Ages Guide:

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/58357/

 

 

This year each boy is onto the next year of studies and using the next level of TruthQuest and Veritas Press combined.  They are also making a history notebook which contains their typed up writing about the various books they are reading or an answer to a ThinkWrite. My 2^nd son keeps going back to the TQ guide (Ancient Greece) he had last year to find more books he may have missed the first time around.   He’s requesting these books from the library and reading them for fun while keeping up with his other studies this year. This week his library requests haven’t come in yet and he’s reading Theras and His Town by Snedeker for the eighth time.  Ahh-if I had only been so well read at age 13!

 

Each TruthQuest guide is designed to last for one full year of history with the average price being $24. This is quite a bargain considering the rich listing of books and commentary in each guide.

 

Here is a portion of an anonymous poem quoted in the TruthQuest Ancient Greece guide (quoted from: Varner, William "The Greeks" Israel My Beloved, Aug/Sept 1994: 14):

 

Jesus and Alexander

 

Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three;

One lived and died for self; one died for you and me.

The Greek died on a throne; the Jew died on a cross;

One's life a triumph seemed; the other but a loss.

One led vast armies forth; the other walked alone;

One shed a whole world's blood; the other gave His own.

One won the world in life, and lost it all in death.

The other lost His life to win the whole world's faith.

 

Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three.

The Greek made all men slaves; the Jew made all men free.

..................

The Greek forever died; the Jew forever lives;

He loses all who gets, and wins all things who gives.

 

Many thanks to Michelle Miller for putting together these excellent guides and bringing history alive to our family, while always pointing us back to the author of HIStory!

 

Truly,

 

Britta McColl R

Morning Star Learning

 

 

 

To purchase a complete line of TruthQuest History Guides go to www.morningstarlearning.com

 

A TruthQuest History user has created a discussion loop just for fellow users. It's called HIStoryQuesters. Just type in that name at www.YahooGroups.com. There are over 700 committed and lively Christian moms participating in this group.

 

Here is a note from a satisfied user of TruthQuest on the Yahoo group:

 

 

Guess What my Son asked Last night?

 

 

We are finishing up our FIRST book on Ancient Egypt.  I have been Home schooling for 8 years now and always my son hated being read to or reading for himself. 

 

As he finished reading the LAST page to me in Krensky's  "EGYPT" he said: "Mom, when you go to the library, can I go with you to get more books on Egypt?" 

 

I tried not to kiss him and squeeze him to death right there on the spot, I made no yelping noises but very calmly and maturely nodded that I would.  I hope our WHOLE TruthQuest journey is like this;-)

 

Mary

 

For other writings on TruthQuest history click on these links:

 

Veritas Press (VP) History and Age Recommendations

(And how I combine VP with TQ History)

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/58522/

 

How I’m using TruthQuest History: American History for Young Students II Guide:

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/58401/

 

What is a TruthQuest History Guide?  AHYSII

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/58399/

 

How I’m using TruthQuest Middle Ages Guide:

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MorningStarLearning/58357/

 

 

To read about TruthQuest History on their web site go to:

http://www.truthquesthistory.com/