I don't think that is what "secular" means, at least that is not my interpretation of it. When I see secular hsitory I think that means that the publisher/author does not relate things directly back to the Bible and there are no Bible lessons. If history is leaving out the influence of faith and God then that isn't history. Ditto for Science. Now maybe I am missing something that the public schools do now (my kids have never takenpublic school American history), but when I was in public school and learned American History, we read and talked about God/Founding/faith for an entire year.
These days they dont. at least not in my state, they re really pushing other religion studies but ignorning any mention of God the creator etc, its not fair,
3Peas, you can do whatever you wish. That's what I like about MOH, it's VERY flexible. You can just read the book as is, or add a timeline, do activities, read lots of additional books..... The author is a strong Christian, and it comes across. Colorado Mom, when I was teaching in the public school, I was very frustrated to learn that the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving to give thanks to their Indian friends for all their help. No mention at all about them giving thanks to God. And that was 13 years ago. It's gotten worse!
Thats one of the reasons I like the US history you have Colorado mom cause you mention things like that! I like the biography infos too! I can't wait till next year now either, hah! But I know I will enjoy my MOH for this year too!
thanks for the help with moh, i will def be researching. colorado mom, that is what i was talking about, not bible being throughout history, but just the misrepresentation of history, leaving out the basis of our foundation being a Christian nation and such. i have a bible curric that i like, but i was looking for a history curr that would delve into the history with deepness, and be accurate in portraying the founding fathers background, and how the country was really looking for many freedoms, religious included. history books in ps also seem to portray America as a bad country in some ways, pointing out all the flaws and mistakes, and not focusing on the great country we are and the great morals we started on. so, your definition of secular would be great, but it just isnt out there, unless you get a history written by a Christian author, who can be unbiased and just discuss and research the facts. i have no problem with discussing some of the founding fathers faults, ie slavery etc, but i want the truth. so you are right on in what you are teaching. so is that how your curr is layed out. just the facts, the good (God and moral) with the bad? i am going to look at your curric.
so you want what I do, a complete and total history, I end up using library books and the internet a lot to get a full study anyway, you may watn to try that!
Colorado Mom I got the email with the History curriculum and I am half tempted to get it for this year. We have planned to use Abeka this year but yours looks awesome. Great Job!
TeacherMom, I was just going to say, the library is the best source. Our library allows us to put books on reserve from home, using their online catalog system, and access books throughout the county and have them brought to my local branch. I mentioned earlier that we are going to do American History thru the Presidents, by exploring each of their lives. So for instance you could search the subject and or title for "George Washington" ("Constitution", "Declaration of Independence," "FDR", "World War I", etc) and put several books on hold. Frankly, I like reading the books I get for the kids first because it gives me an overview, and then I search for the things that I want to explore and go from there.
ScottieGazelle- check with CSPAn we have a huge presidential informative poster , big! like 4x6 in size from them! My mom ordered it years ago and we finally put it up this year its really good, but only goes to clinton. they may have an updated version?
Thanks for all the nice words guys! I guess I am totally out of touch with the "secular" people any more. That is not my idea of what it menas to be a secular homeschooler. LOL...I guess I am a Christian homeschooler then? 'Cause there's no way I'm gonna sign up for that version of secular.
first a disclaimer...ds and I did not like MOH. That being said. One of the activities was to build a Zuggernat with sugar cubes. (Mesopotamia) I was not comfortable with that so we didn't do it. (plus I didn't want to go buy sugar cubes) My son LOVES Mythology, and it has gotten awkward. "why is what we believe true, but mythology isnt'?" But that is life. We enjoyed learning about different cultures and flood stories...."why would there be so many cultures with flood stories?" Well, because it is common history. Mythology has gotten him READING! so, I am ok with that. But just understanding the stories doesn't equal worship. (and the Greek Gods are everywhere!!!) We actually did a project looking up advertisements and other references to Greek and Roman mythology in our culture. There is a financial company named Cerberus that determines if a company is financially solvent. My son 'got' the joke. I liked that. To the original poster...I have heard of a book about the founding of our country based on a christian perspective...but it was on talk radio and I didn't get the name of the book or author. The radio show was CBN, but I never could find the book. ugh.
i actually bought the book, original intent by david barton. someone recommended that so i ordered it from amazon after i researched a bit. i look forward to digging in.
Was it "The 5,000 Year Leap?" I got that one and it came with an audiobook so we will probably read it for history at the end of the year so he can make all the connections.
