History Odyssey by Pandia Press

Last year as my oldest was about to enter 5th grade, and consequently the logic stage, I needed an ancient history curriculum.  I also wanted it to be self taught as my goal in our homeschool is for our children to do most, if not all, of their school work on their own.  This does not mean I am not involved with our children's education, as I do check up on them periodically and look over their writing and other subjects; but having them do their work on their own provides two benefits: they learn how to organize their time and it gives them the confidence and knowledge that in the future they can learn something new.  I truly believe this is one major benefit of homeschooling as my children do not expect others to teach them, but instead they know they can teach themselves.

So in my quest to find an ancient history curriculum, which focused both on the logic stage of the trivium and was self taught, I came across History Odyssey by Pandia Press, and from the moment I started to read about this curriculum I was hooked. Throughout the year the student reads quite a few books, dose map work, creates a timeline, and works on various writing assignments from outlines to research papers.  The course guide includes the maps, worksheets and appendices to correspond with the lessons. Most, if not all the books can be found at the library and the only other items you may want to purchase is a timeline and timeline figures.  I am too cheap to do this, so I found an old scrapbook from a garage sale and my child wrote in the centuries and I went online and copied images and had them printed off.

My one and only complaint is the history textbook:  The Story of Mankind by Van Loon.  First off, if Van Loon isn't anti-Christian he is quite close to being one.  Now, even in other subjects we do not keep our children from reading opposing viewpoints but discuss them with our children, but it should be known that there are a few instances in Van Loon's book that you may want to review.  My major concern, though, is the depth to The Story of Mankind.  Van Loon seems to gloss over quite a bit of world history and only touches on the surface of many major events, but I must admit that there are not many options to choose from when it comes to world history written at a middle school level and as History Odyssey requires other reading assignments with an in-depth study to coincide with Van Loon I have to say my concerns were not enough to keep me from purchasing the curriculum.

Well, after the first year of using History Odyssey Ancients Level II I am extremely pleased with the results.  I was happy to see, with the help of the guide, my child stayed on track without my intervention and my 5th grader loved the reading, writing and other assignments.  This was a wonderful curriculum and so for 6th grade we are now using History Odyssey Middle Ages.  

One other thing I love about this publisher is their "try before you buy" option.  You can download close to 1/3 of the course guide to see if it is something that will work for you. Not many publishers allow so much of their curriculum to be viewed and used and it is a nice option as I have found that just because I love a curriculum and it works for us does not mean it is a good fit for others.  So if you are looking for a history curriculum that is student led check out Pandia Press, it won't cost you anything but your time.

One last thing:  since I did a bit of work finding images I thought I would provide links for both the Ancient and Middle Ages.  Also, this year I wrote up a 36 week schedule to help my child keep up with the lessons and you can access them as well.

Ancients Timeline Figures
Middle Ages Timeline Figures
Middle Ages Schedule