We have a DECISION!!!

For the past several days, I've been trying to tackle the conundrum of what to do about history next year. I wanted to study Biblical history alongside of our ancient history schedule, but every time I tried to put together a framework it just didn't work. Either the Biblical history took too much time and pushed us way over in the numbers of weeks scheduled, or I felt like I was trying to cram so much into one week when we covered Biblical history that the kids would not be able to retain anything. After several failures and lots of prayers, I'm finally excited about our schedule for next year, and I feel like God has really directed me into a schedule that will work best for our family. The results: a two track history program for the upcoming year. We'll use our timelines to tie everything together for the bigger picture of to show the overlap between civilizations.

For ancient civilizations, I've divided up the year into one 13 week term and two 12 week terms. Term 1 is Middle Eastern history focused on all the civilizations mentioned in the Bible with an emphasis on Egypt. Term 2 is ancient Greece, and term 3 is ancient Rome. If I get the time we may tack on a quick 4 week study of other ancient cultures at the end. I have TruthQuest guides in route to cover Egypt, Greece, and Rome. For spines, I know Jessie will use The Story of the Greeks and The Story of the Romans by Guerber with the added benefit that I can use the schedules available from Ambleside to avoid starting from scratch. I'm undecided about using The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Payne or piecing that section together a different way. I'll make a final decision there when the guides arrive. For Violet, I'm leaning toward using the Famous Men series to cover Greece and Rome and will definitely piece together the first term. I'll have to decide how to fit Benny in each week once I start looking at the resources.

For our second track, we'll be studying Biblical history at a more in-depth level. We'll spend 25 weeks studying Old Testament history. Jessie will be using Bible readings based on The Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament(which I picked up used at a local curriculum sale) while Violet and Benny read the corresponding stories using Egermeier's Bible Story Book. I just have to plan out a 12 week study for Jessie to cover the New Testament history. To get a bigger picture of the overall Bible, the girls will also be reading What the Bible is All About for Young Explorers by Graham. I've already pieced together a weekly schedule for the Old Testament to coordinate the kids into covering roughly the same material each week.

I still have a lot of work to do, and some days I look longingly at my three week sample of TOG wishing that most of the planning was already done for me; however, in my heart I believe that this is the course that God is directing us so I'm trusting it will all come together in the end.