We’ve been studying ancient history this year this year in our homeschool, and we chose to use Diana Waring’s Ancient Civilizations and the Bible as our “spine.”
Things I Like: I am impressed with Diana Waring’s grasp of creationism and her strong stand that the Bible must explain history, not that history explains away the Bible. I also love her creativity and her attempt to reach students with a variety of personalities by her teaching style. I like that the teacher’s manual contains helpful appendices and lists of additional, helpful resources. Finally, I really love her CDs. They’re easy for a mom like me to use, but they contain solid (and biblical) teaching.
Things I Don’t Like As Well: It seems that these books are really best used in a classroom. Many of the activities are difficult in a homeschool setting or are redundant. If I use the next book in this series, I probably won’t also purchase the student workbooks because they contain a lot of busy work.
Overall, I’m pleased, but I might look for another curriculum that serves the same purpose. Some have recommended Mystery of History and Student of the Word curriculum. If you have a suggestion, please leave me a comment below.
Hugs,
P.S. For more great links on teaching history, visit my website: HomeschoolingBible
Hi Anne,
We love Diana Waring, and her audios are awesome. I agree with you about the books. I personally greatly preferred the first edition, as they weren’t so “schoolish”. They were an outline, great booklists, and interesting activities we could do at home. I’ve kept our old editions, and only have the first one of the new ones.