TOS Crew: Heritage History

Heritage History is a homeschool curriculum company based on classical children's history books.  This company strives to produce the easiest, least expensive and most enjoyable way to learn traditional history.  They focus on living books instead of textbooks -which we love!

Here is how The Heritage History company explains the approach that they take to teaching history (from their website):

•Takes a Living Books rather than a textbook approach to history—students read a variety of engaging biographies and historical sketches rather than one comprehensive text.

•Is based on national histories rather than epochal histories—students study one civilization at a time, rather than contrasting contemporaneous civilizations.

•Is narrative rather than analytical—students are introduced to the great characters and events of history without being required to make comparisons or draw conclusions.

•Focuses on studying the most important periods of Western Civilization in depth, rather than touching lightly upon dozens of unrelated cultures.

•Explicitly encourages students to pursue historical topics of personal interest in addition to making selections from directed reading lists

Three books in one!!

With history being one of our favorite subjects, I was very excited to be able to pick one of Heritage History's Classical History Curriculum CD's.  Our choices were:

• Young Readers - includes easy-to-read, introductory selections from many historical periods and provides a broad introduction to Western Culture suitable for grammar school age students. Specially featured are short stories from American, European, Ancient, and Biblical history.
• Ancient Greece - covers Greek history from the earliest days of myth and legend, through the Golden age of Athens, to the Greco-Roman Era. Of special interest to older students is a selection of simplified classics based on the works of renowned poets, historians and playwrights.
• Ancient Rome - includes romantic stories for students of all abilities, from legends of early Roman heroes that fascinate youngsters to stories of political turmoil in the imperial era that provide food for thought to older students. Stories from Gothic, Carthaginian, and Byzantine history are also included.
• British Middle Ages - features books that cover the 5th through 17th centuries in Europe and the British Isles. Topics include barbarian invasions, Christian conversion, feudalism, medieval war-craft, church-state conflicts, and the Reformation, all covered with a special focus on British history.
• British Empire - focuses on 18th and 19th century world history, with a special emphasis on colonial development. Stories that highlight scientific discovery, exploration, invention and industry are featured, along with those that cover regional histories of Ireland, Canada, British Africa, India, and East Asia.

I felt that Young Readers was the best choice for our crew, it was well rounded and fit the age of our children pretty well (3,5,8 and 11).  Along with a Teacher's Guide, there were 86 stories included.  The stories included Joan of Arc, American History Stories, Vikings Tales, Napoleon, Nursery Book of Bible Stories and Aesop's Fables. 

I liked that the Young Readers Curriculum had a such a wide variety of stories that we could choose from no matter what time period we were currently focusing on.  The stories included are exciting, interesting and very informative! 

I believe that the variety of this particular CD makes it a very useful resource that we can use over and over through the years.

I found the Teacher's Guide that was included on the CD to be very helpful.

The Curriculum CD's allow the user to view the stories as a PDF file, which is what I did right on my computer, as well as EPUB and MOBI files for e-readers.

Heritage History Curriculum can be used as a stand alone history curriculum or as an additional resource to whatever you are currently using.  They even have a section on their website that explains how you can use it along with another curriulum like Tapestry of Grace or Ambleside Online.  

If you are interested in purchasing any of the Heritage History Curriculum CD's now would be a great time to do so!  They are currently having a Buy 2 Get 1 FREE Spring Sale!  Each of the Curriculum CD's are $24.99.

Check out what other members of the TOS Crew are saying about Heritage History!


Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.