Who is Veritas Press?
If you aren’t familiar with Veritas Press and their Self-Paced History courses, let me tell you a little about them.
The Detweilers, Marlin and Laurie, founded Veritas Press during their own quest to homeschool their own children in the classical way, teaching history chronologically along with their Bible readings. Beginning with the history and Bible flashcards and moving forward to today and the establishment of the Veritas Press Self-Paced History and Omnibus programs.
What is the Veritas Press Self-Paced History Program
The Veritas Press Self-Paced History consists of 5 courses in all:
- Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt
- Veritas Press Self-Paced History: New Testament, Greece and Rome
- Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation
- Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Explorers to 1815
- Veritas Press Self-Paced History: 1815 to Present
The online program is fun, engaging, and interactive. There are songs, quizzes, games, and instruction. The tutorials help the child and the parent learn to navigate the program. The quizzes are self-scoring and the grades are tracked in the program.
The course covers 32 important events between 1815 and Present day. It is designed for the student to complete 5 lessons a week and includes 160 lessons total. Each lesson is approximately 30-45 minutes in length. Every 5th lesson is a quiz. The material in the quiz is material that was reviewed frequently in the prior lessons and was a good test of knowledge.
The flashcards that correspond with the course you are taking are essential to the program. These timeline flashcards show the timeline event on one side and explain the highlights of the event on the back side. They are colorful and very informative. The card are high quality and a great addition to any history program.
The timeline flashcards are an excellent addition to the Veritas Press Self-Paced History course. The card provides the student with concise information on a particular timeline component. The front of the card provides the timeline name such as The Great World War and then the back of the card provides specific, concise information regarding the timeline event.
What We Thought
Overall, I would say that the Veritas Press Self-Paced History: 1815 to Present is a great investment. Though it is a little pricey, you really do get a great course for the money. You don’t need many additions other than the flashcards. There are suggested additional readings throughout the course, but we found that they were easily available at the library. My daughter loved the course (eventually – see below). She found the instructors fun and engaging and really liked the review games. For instance, the spelling game allowed her to spell the vocabulary words to beat the clock, which she enjoyed and, it turns out, was motivating, and the other favorite review game allowed her to smash the wrong answers, which she thought was fun.
The kids really enjoyed the timeline song. There is a song that goes with the timeline flashcards to help the children learn the cards in order. The song was fun and helped the kids learn the order. By about the third day the kids had most of the song memorized. They thought that part of the lesson was fun. This is the part that my young son cued in on and tried to sing along. Otherwise, he didn’t pay much attention.
The one criticism I have is that there is no way to reset a lesson or test. For instance, the first quiz is graded and required the use of the flashcards. We had not received them yet and I didn’t realize that there was a sample of the required card available. So after the lesson, my daughter took the quiz. She couldn’t remember the answers but I told her to do her best and see how she did. She failed the test. Giving her the first “F” she had ever seen. This was VERY hard for her. I reminded her that it didn’t matter because she didn’t have the card but it was on the log-on initial page EVERY TIME WE LOGGED IN and there was no way I found in the parents section to reset the test and let her redo the lesson. After I looked back at the lesson it stated to use the card to take the quiz but I didn’t realize that (the baby had pulled me away for a moment). So, this was a little frustrating as the grade was there ever reminding her. This was a little hard to overcome at first but once I told her it would change later and reminded her that no one saw it but me, she agreed to keep moving forward. And once she got to the parts when she was getting all the review questions all correct, she felt better but every time she asked when the initial grade would change. If I were to suggest anything, it would be to allow a parent to reset a lesson if necessary (maybe at least one time in case something truly out of the child’s control happens). Otherwise, the course is well designed, engaging for the kids, and a great value.
Veritas Press Self-Paced History: 1815 to Present is recommended for grades 2 through 6 and is $199 with a $100 discount for siblings enrolled in the same course. The course is available online for 12 months. The flashcards, for us the 1815 to Present Flashcards, are available for $19.95.
Check out Veritas Press on social media:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/veritaspress
Twitter — https://twitter.com/veritaspress
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/source/veritaspress.com/
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