Veritas Press Self-Paced History Review

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Meet Veritas Press and their self-paced history program.

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Our family has purchased Self-Paced programs from Veritas Press twice in the past. Bug, my oldest, has taken Explorers to 1815, and the 1815-Present courses. This course, Old Testament and Ancient Egypt, has been Doodle’s first experience with online learning.

I was a little nervous about sticking him in front of the computer for school. Many of you know he’s my “alphabet soup” boy, and we are constantly trying to find programs that work with his particular learning needs. I wasn’t sure how he would do with sitting still and paying attention to his lessons, so I instructed Bug to be his “buddy” during his lessons and sit with him in case he needed help or got stuck on any of the activities.

Once again, I totally underestimated my child and the program. Doodle is almost eight and is a second grader, which is the target age for the first course in the self-paced history sequence. The program is set up in such a way to make learning fun and easy for an elementary school student.

Self-Paced History Review

What We Think of Veritas Press

Doodle LOVES this program. He sits down at the computer, logs himself in, and is good to go. Each lesson takes him 40 minutes or so to complete. What makes this program special is that it is fully animated. He isn’t required to sit down and read text- the program comes alive, and tells him the stories that make history interesting.

The program has characters who explain what happened, make jokes, and dig deeper into the why and how of the stories we all know. In this level, bible stories from the Old Testament fit into the timeline of ancient Egypt and are taught hand in hand with ancient history.

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The lessons are distinctly protestant, so as with all religious curriculum programs, sample the content to be sure it will fit your family’s needs. This program is difficult to adapt to a secular homeschool (you can’t skip around in the lessons or skip the ones that don’t fit your needs). I discuss the lessons with the kids to be sure the takeaways from the lessons fit with our worldview.

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For these lessons, your child will need a deck of timeline cards, which include an image, the important dates from the lessons, and an overview of what is happening at that point in history. During the lesson, he’ll listen to the characters explain the story, look at maps and images, play games, complete activities (such as matching people to bios, labeling maps, arranging events on timelines), and sing along with the history song.

The song is probably my most loved and most hated part of the program. It is so catchy- and tends to get stuck in my head. I find myself singing along as Doodle is completing his lesson. I love that he is able to memorize historical events in the order that they happened in a painless way. Learning history chronologically is something I never did as a child, and it’s fascinating to me to see my children put events in order and come to their own conclusions about why things happened the way they did.

Veritas Press

I truly love this program. I am such a history junkie, and want my kids to love it as much as I do. Veritas Press has found a way to create the same love of history in my children, and they have freed me to focus on hands-on activities, baking projects, art projects and all the fun extras I wouldn’t have time for if I was teaching history all on my own. The kids can complete their lessons independently, come back to me with a solid understanding of the events and concepts, and then use the extra time to explore their interests deeper.

If you are looking for a subject you can “outsource” without losing quality, look no further than Veritas Press self-paced courses. I know Doodle will be completing all five of the elementary programs in the next few years!

Check out our other reviews here.

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77 Comments

  1. I would choose 1815 to the present. This would be for my daughter who dislikes history. I have been looking at these and it would definitely hold her attention.

  2. We would pick the middle ages, renaissance and reformation. We have used several other curriculum recommendations from Vertitas Press and loved them.

  3. I would be interested in any of them. We have enjoyed the ones we have had the privilege of using. Specifically I would like Reformers or any after that.

  4. Thanks so mch for the review. It sounds exactly what we are looking for! I love history too and I think my kids have caught my love. We would love to try this next year!

  5. I don’t know what time period I would choose… there are so many options. Probably New Testament because it is not frequently covered by history programs.

  6. This would be such a treat in our home with little ones always running around. It would be a perfect gift to my older kids and Oh how it would be a blessing to me.

  7. Well we’re doing it all, so I’d choose any. We are about half way through OTAE and Genesis to Joshua for Bible. I just paid for us to do NTGR and Judges to Kings in the fall. And we’ll continue on the next year as well. So I guess if I could win right now I would pray for NTGR to pay for our fall term. It would be an incredible blessing to be able to move those funds to the next year! I cannot even image how I would feel. I’d cry for sure.

  8. I’ve heard amazing things about Veritas Press. I would LOVE the opportunity to try it, we’d probably start at the Old Testament

  9. This looks like a wonderful curriculum I will need to look more at it. I would love to get the 4th grade: Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation

  10. It is so hard to choose a level – the 1815-present level is our next history period to study so I guess I’d go with that one.

  11. Wow! These courses sound amazing! I’ve heard about Veritas Press, but didn’t know much about these courses. It was a hard decision but we would choose the New Testament, Greece, and Rome. It was a close call with Middle Ages. We viewed a few samples and my 8-year-olds daughter was hooked. Thank you for sharing your review, your experiences, and for giving us the opportunity to win.

  12. I would choose the Middle Ages – Reformation, Renaissance & Reformation
    We will be studying it next school year.

  13. I have been using Veritas Press since 2006 when I pulled my oldest from school and began homeschooling her 6th grade year. I am now homeschooling my next 3 children and have only used VP. They are wonderful! We’ve never done the self-paced curriculum but now that they are both old enough, I would love to get them started. We are currently doing Creation through Egypt and nearly finished. I would choose third grade Greece & Rome.

  14. Thanks for the giveaway! I would probably choose the program reviewed. I already own a Child’s History of the World and Streams of Civilization, so would not need to purchase as much. But am open to all. Looks fantastic! I home schooled our four eldest. Youngest is going to be in 4th grade and has always attended Christian private school. Keeping her home next year so need to look at all programs offered. Love history! This makes me excited for next year!

  15. I would probably go with: New Testament, Greece and Rome!! I’m so happy for your review. I have been looking for a history program JUST LIKE THIS!! Woohoo!!

  16. What a wonderful review. We would love any of the courses but I think we would like Old Testament and Ancient Egypt. Thank you so much.

  17. We are using Veritas Press History curriculum and it’s loved at our home! =) We would choose Explorers to 1815 or 1815 to Present. Thanks for making this possible!

  18. So hard to choose which level we’d use first!
    I think “New Testament, Greece and Rome” would be a great fit for two of my children, so we’d go with that.

  19. We LOVE LOVE LOVE Veritas Press Bible AND History! So excited for this giveaway. Thanks and God Bless!

  20. This looks great! Not sure which one I would choose though, maybe the Genesis one. Thanks for the giveaway!

  21. Chronologically we are at Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation but I think we would probably go with New Testament, Greece and Rome (such a fascinating time).

  22. We’re about to start Ancient History again, and I know Little Man would love it. It would also give my other two an opportunity to sit with him and watch, and the younger two girls love whatever big brother is doing on the computer! Thanks so much for the giveaway!

  23. It looks like a great way to learn history. I would be interested in getting one that coordinates history with the Bible, so probably the Old Testament.

  24. We would be so excited to get the Modern History as we are currently loving Explorers-1815! My son begs to do these lessons!

  25. Since we’ve just begun Ancient History recently, I think I would want to start with that for our 13 year old autistic son right now. We are always on the lookout for programs he not only enjoys, but REALLY learns from. They are very few that work, so we’ve gotten to the point we don’t even purchase anything that’s expensive since we’ve learned money back guarantees don’t always mean anything! We’ve bought so many programs to only find out they don’t work at all and we’re stuck with them and their cost! This one sounds like it might possibly work for us though, but we’ve thought that before and have been wrong. Getting a chance to try before we buy would be absolutely perfect for us!

  26. I’m still learning all the wonderful curriculum available for all subjects. I would love to try any of these!

  27. I’ve resisted purchasing this as well and, after reading your review, now feel pretty bummed that I didn’t purchase while on sale recently. I also have an 8 year old second grade boy that I think would love the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation for next year. Thanks for the great review and giveaway!

  28. I WOULD LOVE TO WIN. I’VE BEEN EYEING THIS CURRICULUM FOR A WHILE. I WOULD PROBABLY CHOOSE 1815 TO PRESENT DAY, SINCE WE’VE ALREADY DONE A LOT OF THE OTHER TOPICS IN OTHER CURRICULUM

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