I had never heard of Drive Thru History until we took our tour of Focus on the Family.  This is one of their newest DVD projects in conjunction with the National Day of Prayer.  The tour guide raved about it and said it was an excellent resource, especially for homeschoolers.  When we went into the FOF bookstore there was a large screen tv playing the series and we immediately went to check it out. 

Well, I was shocked!  There was this goofy guy in front of the Eiffel Tower talking about croissants and the camera kept focusing on his...teeth!  His teeth were huge!  I think he had some geeky glasses.  The camera angles were playing all of this up and I didn't know how this was supposed to teach me anything about the Eiffel Tower.  I stepped away to look at the boxes of DVDs and saw they had some for Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Turkey, and Asia Minor...all of which we have been studying for the last year.  There is also a set about people who shaped America.    

I looked back at the tv and now the host was dressed in colonial attire, like Washington or Jefferson, with a contemporary look, a day's growth of beard and a very short haircut.  Well, scratching my head, I checked out the rest of the bookstore and found some other things. When done shopping, I found the family parked in front of the tv watching this guy.  They seemed to like it, but I didn't know.  I figured I'd do more research at home and that I'd eventually come across a sale.

Well I forgot all about it until last month when I got my sale e-mail from Library and Educational Services.  They were featuring Drive Through History.  Hmmmm, I did a google and found this to check it out more thoroughly.

   http://www.dthamerica.com/home/index.cfm?flash=1

I called the family in to get their opinion and I didn't have to say a thing.  They saw it on my pc screen and started raving about it and said I had to buy it.  We viewed the sample clips and they were funny and informative.  I bought the set, and last night we watched the first one, Ancient Greece.

It is a bit fast for my dh and I.  I don't normally like to have my kids watching things that are this fast paced action, because I don't think it contributes to brain development.  But I decided to take it for what it was and enjoy the benefits.  It was light hearted, yet a thorough review of everything we had learned last year.  It even brought in Biblical applications, mostly the same that we had learned through Tapestry of Grace.  Most of it was an excellent review and it was neat to see these places in context.  We had already seen many of these places in the Ray Vander Laan series (more our speed) but now we saw these places in context.  In other words, if I were to go there today, I'd probably see scaffolding at some of these places, we saw the numerous stray dogs, the busy city of Athens, and the ability to get lost!  The host turned every opportunity into a light hearted moment to put us in modern context.  

I especially enjoyed his showing us the Parthenon.  I had seen a replica of it here in America on This Old House with my husband and I was disappointed.  Although it was built to scale, it looked so small.  I had always thought the one in Greece looked huge!  Well that's exactly what the host brought out.  The Parthenon "was built perfectly imperfect to look perfect."  In other words, things were placed out of proportion to trick our eye.  As we look up into this temple on top of the highest hill, we think it is bigger than it is.  It's amazing to me how people in ancient times could figure stuff out like this. 

It was funny listening to the host complain about the switchbacks getting to the top of these hills!  Coming from Colorado, that's nothing, but we can appreciate the fear! One should really adventure and try those switchbacks at 14,000'!  Oh, and he had guardrails.  Nope, no guardrails in Colorado!  

The other feature I found interesting was the segment on Corinth.  Right now in devotions with the children, we are studying I Corinthians and I had told them this was a decadent culture and we had made comparisons to what we see in our own culture today.  Well, the host set out to explain why Corinth had such a decadent culture.  And the result, is a beautiful canal!  I loved the canal ride the host took!  To understand the connection, you'll have to buy the series for yourself!  lol  Yes, I'd have to say, you might enjoy... a Drive Thru History!