Pathway to Liberty’s The Middle Age History Curriculum

We have been working through Pathway to Liberty’s The Middle Ages part of the Pathway to Liberty’s History Curriculum, from Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum. We received access to the digital downloads of the student and teacher guides for levels 2 and 4 as part of the Homeschool Review Crew. As always, all opinions are our own.

History is a subject that I did not really enjoy much when I was in school. But, when I reached adulthood I became more fascinated with studying those who came before us.

A key for teaching history is to tie everything together to make it more relevant.

Just learning facts with catchy phrases like “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” does little to make the study of history relevant to our lives now.

Where it often falls short in schools is pulling in a Biblical Worldview. Because once you put everything in the context of our Christian faith, things are never seen in the same way.

About Pathway to Liberty’s The Middle Ages

At the core of the Pathway to Liberty History Curriculum is the desire to teach students how to reason through what they are studying and to use a biblical lens. Basically, the student should not only be learning facts but be transformed in the process.

This year-long curriculum focuses on the time from Ancient Rome until The Age of Exploration. Students walk through 26 weeks of lessons. Each week has a weekly overview along with 4 daily lessons. This allows you to do enrichment or catch up on work on the 5th day of the week.

You need the student guide, teacher guide, and books that are found on a required reading list. For Level 2, main ‘texts’ include Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2. Another anchor title for all of the history curriculum is The Chain of Liberty by Jayme MacCullough, the founder of Pathway to Liberty. A separate Teacher’s Manual is highly recommended, especially if you will be teaching multiple grade levels.

The teacher guide is written for the teacher and the student guide is written specifically for the student. As we were sent the digital copies of them all, worksheet pages from the student guide need to be printed. Pages include fill in the blank, mapping exercises, questions and writing prompts.

Video About How the Pathway to Liberty History Curriculum Works

My Thoughts: Pathway to Liberty’s The Middle Ages

Before I received the full curriculum, I took time to glance through materials on the site. I was excited to get my hands on the program as we had just reached the study of Ancient Rome with my 3rd-grade son.

Sadly, I did not find this history curriculum to be a great fit for our family.

I like that she is consistently tying the study of history back to the Bible. However, it quickly became apparent that her Biblical Worldview did not parallel our own.

I tried just referencing our own Catholic version of the Bible for Scripture references and tweaking different parts of the material. However, as a busy homeschool mom who is also working full time at the moment, this is something that is taking way too much energy for me to do.

I then elected to cut swaths of material from our studies using pages that needed no tweaking at all. Another reason for this was Level 2 moves at a pace that was faster than my 3rd grader was used to doing.

Looking at the Level 4 materials, I realize there would be an uphill battle with my high school student who detests writing anything. However, the amount of work expected for a student at that level is definitely preparing them for college-level work. For a high school student who struggles with writing or reading high level books, Level 3 is a better option.

If you can use the program as is, then things are laid out rather nicely for the homeschool parent. Student pages can be printed ahead of time for them to complete as you walk through the different days.

 

Do you and your family prefer history with a Biblical Worldview?
Would this particular curriculum be appealing to your family?

Don’t just take my word for how we found this to be. Visit the Pathway to Liberty review post on the Homeschool Review Crew website to see what other homeschooling parents thought about this book.