My kids looooove this! I didn’t buy the teacher manual but we listen, narrate what we heard and look at the time line and then add to our book of centuries. They beg to listen to this
My husband and I just started RCIA. I’ve been pretty adamant about a particular Protestant curriculum, so I’m excited to research and learn about Catholic curricula. Would love to see some reviews/overviews of Catholic Bible curricula!
Congratulations!! I just found out that Tan Books also has a Bible curriculum called "The Story of the Bible" with a similar format as "The Story of Civilization". I just ordered both!
Completely off topic !!!! I didn’t know you were expecting again ❤️❤️❤️ Congratulations 🥰 I don’t use Instagram and you haven’t posted a video in a bit so I thought hey I’ll be a friendly stocker and check in on you. I’m so happy for your family ❤️ Welcome to the 5 kido club lol 😂 We have 4 boys ( 15,9,7 and 9 months ) and one girl ( 6 ) Congratulations again ❤️ God bless your whole family ❤️
Hi Valerie, how did Tan Books Story of the Bible work out for you last year ? Do you also own Story of Civilization? I'm trying to decide what to use for History and Theology and am trying to decide between TAN Books SOC + SOB, or Mystery of History + Bible Quest for next school year.
We love them all. I bought them on audible and the kids listen for fun at rest time or bedtime. They don't even see it as "school" even tho it totally counts as school hours!
@@user-vg8ez9cu6u if you are Catholic I would only go with story of civilization without a doubt! They are a fully Catholic company. All the others you mentioned are not.
@@valeriesearles3000 thank you so much for the feedback. Curious to know if they are retaining the information? Also, do you think this could work for 1st through 8th grade?
@@user-vg8ez9cu6u they do retain the information, my oldest especially does (5th grade). I would say through 6th grade the curriculum could stand as is. However, for 7th and 8th I would probably add some required historical reading on their own. Mother of Divine Grace homeschool and or RC connecting History would have great book recommendations. Both are Catholic programs as well!🤗
You may like Catholic Classical Memory. It’s like the Catholic version of Classical Conversations. They use this curriculum. We listen to the Story of Civilization books on Hoopla...a free app through the library. 🥰
Yes, please share your confirmation name process and why it’s done... all the details! Did you just do the name change or your whole family? How do you choose one? So many questions.
Can you purchase this in a PDF download for the books? We are in Canada, and shipping, customs, taxes keep us for being able to afford purchasing anything physical from the US. Thanks for a great review!! :-)
Hi 👋, do you own TAN Books Story of the Bible? I was wondering how it is different than Story of Civilization? Wondering if you can do a flipthrough video on your thoughts about both of them and whether you'd need both. Thanks you. I gave you a thumbs up 👍.
Hey! I have all of the series! So all 4 history books, both Bible series books and the History of the Catholic Church and they are ALL excellent! I plan on filming this week on all of them in one video!
@@SaltyTribeCo THANK YOU SO MUCH! There is no such video on youtube. I've searched. Anyway, I hit the notification bell so I won't miss your video! God bless you. So very helpful! ❤
@@SaltyTribeCo that is awesome! I’m not really sure where to start... I will have a third grader and a Pre K. Our Catholic foundation is not very strong but we are planing on changing that with the start of our homeschool next fall. Any recommendations on where should start?
Would you recommend this over TGATB history? We are a Catholic family. I definitely want something family style, and I don't mind different perspectives, but I also don't want something that has animosity towards the Church.
Excellent question! Now that we have made it to 12th grade and have a soon graduated kid, I would do the four years of TGATB for elementary/middle 4th/5th through 8th grade and then do the four years of Story of Civilization. If I had too far a spread (which I will have when the toddlers start school, I’ll have a high schooler) I would have him do history solo with SoC and do TGATB with those grades mentioned before. BUT I would make sure to either listen to the audio (or read the chapter) of SoC with my eldest if I hadn’t heard it before because it’s THAT awesome and I learned so much. Basically, I feel that TGATB does a great job making history fun, engaging and doesn’t “pick sides” while SoC shows us how the Catholic faith was and is always there and it’s extremely accurate. The topics in SoC make for AWESOME conversation topics when you have high schoolers and even middle schoolers. It has been a joy now that we have used every single volume!
once per week is plenty since there are 36 lessons. We do ours in unit study [similar to a waldorf style homeschool] and did it in 9 weeks doing 4 lessons per week.
So excited to check this out! Thanks for doing this review!! I am looking for catholic character studies, and theology to use for next year with my kiddos... got any suggestions?
Bambi there's story of the world that has the same things there's also by Master books the world's story that carries the same type of curriculum for Protestants
hi I have devoured your videos...I think I have watched all of them! lol. thank you for making them, for your experience, and putting it out for us. I am a new homeschool mom. I consider myself a minimalist and live overseas and travel a lot. I am also an artist and have tried to incorporate art with everything since my children were babies! I connect with you on so many levels. I am making this comment on this post as its the most recent one you have done so I figure you will see it...my question does not pertain to this video. I hope to hear back from you. You have done videos of what your day looks like and what "resources" you use for your children and how you keep homeschool minimum...however I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and am beginning to be "unclear" with what you actually do as you have done many videos on different curriculum for different subjects...Are you using these curriculums along with your other activities. for example you showed us your "daily notebooks" with assignments written in them for each child...This curriculum along with a complete science or history curriculum and LA curriculum videos you've made were not part of it...along with the other activities that you may/might do to re-enforce a topic...I just get the feeling its not as minimal as you describe. When you said you use the mcguffey readers for your 1st grader and then the BF reader....do you also use the flashcards, and the entire LA curriculum? I noticed you also have him read other books aka from the library ect...It would be helpful to get a clearer picture of what you actually cover in a year/day with your children. how much time does he spend reading or being read too...The video that said your youngest does maybe 1-2hrs of school max...I can see via "workbook/curriculum" style learning but what about all the times you read to him...or take him on nature walks and he paints/writes something...ect...seems to me there is more learning going on then what is depicted in your "minimalist homeschool videos"...its like each video gives you a glimpse of something else that you do....it all adds...up...and from the outside can begin to feel overwhelming...IDK...maybe its just bc I'm a newbie...the amount of books that you review and make videos on...is massive...thats a lot of books that you go through...how much time do you, your children, read, get read aloud too? So many say "nature journaling' is "enough" for science...yet when I dig I find many are promoting an actual science curriculum as well...how does someone navigate this? What is "enough" as I am really trying to be minimal...my house is small (no storage) we have no library (3rd world country and different language) I am really trying to navigate how I can move from teaching each subject (what I did this year) to a more fluid way of teaching where things connect and are more integrated...I get the idea of integration, however I find most who promote this seem to have a curriculum on the side that they don't mention when they talk about that, but then mention the curriculum when they suggest recommendations for people....SO what do you actually do in a day/year? how often do you littles create art work that you put in a binder, how often do they memorize poems/songs/scriptures phrases these are topics that you mention but don't cover in the day to day schedule...so it gives the viewer a "minimal" view of what you actually do...with a lot left out that really creating a more well rounded education...sorry this is so long...I am only writing and asking as I really enjoy your content and think very highly of what you have achieved and are doing! thank you.
What I wrote as Lamp + Light Homeschool Curriculum is what my kids did in the past. It was written as we did it. I also share other curricula ideas to help others find what works for them. I do lots of giveaways so I do not keep things long. We use McGuffey readers (as part of our Lamp + Light Homeschool Curriculum) and the readers from the good and the beautiful. Not the whole curriculum I have old videos on the whole curriculum that are from a couple years ago. We only use the readers now. I used them in the past for a season because I was going through a rough time with my health and needed something done for me. I wrote and talked all about it on social media and my old blog (which is now gone). My videos are just to show what you CAN use or to help others see rarer curriculum not heard of in case it’s what THEIR kids need. All of my kids do Nature science through high school. They also do the science we wrote in Lamp + Light Homeschool. If there is a specific science my high schoolers need, they do that solo. I’ll do another video once we move and get settled but our days are very relaxed and generally short. Daily takes 2-4 hours depending on what we are doing. We do bible, history and science together. We alternate science and history (sometimes daily sometimes weekly). After that they read, do math, handwriting or journaling or art notebooking and any solo work (if applicable). Read alouds are just part of life and bedtime for us. Not really school. We create art 0 to 5 times per week. That’s how much it varies. It depends on what is inspiring us to create! I don’t make it a set number. If it’s a crazy week, zero. If it’s a chill week and we learned about someone cool, maybe 3. I don’t make my kids intentionally memorize Scripture, poetry, songs. They just kind of memorize things they have seen lots of times. They enjoy memorizing Shel Silverstein because it’s funny! Not because I required it. We use my Lamp + Light Homeschool (what hasn’t been written yet) as our guide but love to add in dramatic audio like from this history for fun! The kids think the activities are cool so we will do them! My kids spend the majority of their time on family time, faith and exploring their talents and interests. Formal schooling, like described above is done up to four days per week. Sometimes 5, sometimes 3. The other days we unschool and it’s relaxing or a field trip or developing a new skill or talent. I hope any of that rambling helped lol. There will be videos, I’m just super busy with moving to another state, new baby on the way and year II of Lamp + Light coming out this month. 🙌🏽
Question: I’m a first time homeschooling mom. I got an assortment of books from different resources and this happens to be what I picked for history. In our schedule we need: English (lit, grammar, spelling, penmanship, composition...lots of reading); math; history; science; French. My question is...since I’m not getting an all in one curriculum...this particular subject...how often do you use it in a week and how long do you spend on it? What format do you use? Read/audio, activity from book? In all, how often and how long pls? I have a 3rd grade and 1st.
I didn't do history with those ages with my own children. We read aloud some picture books for american history for fun! With this I would maybe use the activity book that they make to go with the Story of the Bible vol. 1 and use the coloring & activity sheets. With my 4th graders and up, we do about 30-40 minutes on days we do history unless we are watching a movie! Total for all schooling [elementary, middle and high school] we do 2-4 hours [4 hours being high school level]. That's for all subjects.
I have a 1st, 4th, and 8th grader and first time homeschooling this year. We are mostly following Angelicum's curriculum and they have Civilization vol II listed for 4th grade, The Story of the Bible vol I for 1st, and something completely different for 8th (Lands of Hope and Promise- American History). I have two questions for you: can I use one of these sets for all three kids? Do we need to do Vol I before Vol II?
Yes! You can use one for all three of your aged children! I don’t think you do. So you would be starting with a different time period and they might refer to an earlier even from the previous time period but not in a way that would make it hard to use any volume in any order. I would go with any time period you would like to study
Hi! I was really touched hearing your journey towards Catholicism. I cried a lot! Just wanna say, as a devout catholic, I'd like to suggest NABRE , the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE) is the culmination of nearly 20 years of work by a group of nearly 100 scholars and theologians, including bishops, revisers and editors, its what's used in the Catholic. NIV had some contradictions, that's why I recommend this one. God bless you ma'am! :) I hope you'll notice my comment. Love from PH!
I do use our curriculum! The ones that are written my kids did years ago! That’s how I wrote them. It’s what my kids did. 💕 We creates Catholic curriculum so we use a different core book. We love history and add in when we want. I created Lamp + Light Homeschool Curriculum to be enough on its own while leaving room for people to add what their kids love studying! 💕
Yes! I would say that this would work for all ages due to coloring pages for younger kids but info packed enough for older kids and activities for all ages in between.
My kids looooove this! I didn’t buy the teacher manual but we listen, narrate what we heard and look at the time line and then add to our book of centuries. They beg to listen to this
I love that you can use what fits best for your family and still get a full experience! 💕 Thank you for sharing that!
My husband and I just started RCIA. I’ve been pretty adamant about a particular Protestant curriculum, so I’m excited to research and learn about Catholic curricula. Would love to see some reviews/overviews of Catholic Bible curricula!
Congratulations!! I just found out that Tan Books also has a Bible curriculum called "The Story of the Bible" with a similar format as "The Story of Civilization". I just ordered both!
Thank you for making and sharing this video!
Love your confirmation name! "Star of the Sea".. it's perfect for you !
Thank you! 🥰
Completely off topic !!!!
I didn’t know you were expecting again ❤️❤️❤️
Congratulations 🥰
I don’t use Instagram and you haven’t posted a video in a bit so I thought hey I’ll be a friendly stocker and check in on you.
I’m so happy for your family ❤️
Welcome to the 5 kido club lol 😂
We have 4 boys ( 15,9,7 and 9 months ) and one girl ( 6 )
Congratulations again ❤️ God bless your whole family ❤️
Yes!!! I was hoping this was your history choice. This is what we were already planning to use next year.
I have been wondering about this history. Thanks for sharing.
"The Story of the Bible" by TAN is great also. We own both volumes on audible.
Hi Valerie, how did Tan Books Story of the Bible work out for you last year ? Do you also own Story of Civilization? I'm trying to decide what to use for History and Theology and am trying to decide between TAN Books SOC + SOB, or Mystery of History + Bible Quest for next school year.
We love them all. I bought them on audible and the kids listen for fun at rest time or bedtime. They don't even see it as "school" even tho it totally counts as school hours!
@@user-vg8ez9cu6u if you are Catholic I would only go with story of civilization without a doubt! They are a fully Catholic company. All the others you mentioned are not.
@@valeriesearles3000 thank you so much for the feedback. Curious to know if they are retaining the information? Also, do you think this could work for 1st through 8th grade?
@@user-vg8ez9cu6u they do retain the information, my oldest especially does (5th grade). I would say through 6th grade the curriculum could stand as is. However, for 7th and 8th I would probably add some required historical reading on their own. Mother of Divine Grace homeschool and or RC connecting History would have great book recommendations. Both are Catholic programs as well!🤗
The audio is also available on Audible which may suit some people.
Hello, Jane! I miss your videos! Praying you and your beautiful family are doing well!
You may like Catholic Classical Memory. It’s like the Catholic version of Classical Conversations. They use this curriculum. We listen to the Story of Civilization books on Hoopla...a free app through the library. 🥰
Our Parish’s co-op uses this!
SaltyTribeCo love it!
Thanks for this video!!! Considering using this next year!!!
And now after watching this...I'm sold! 😍
Yes, please share your confirmation name process and why it’s done... all the details! Did you just do the name change or your whole family? How do you choose one? So many questions.
Can you purchase this in a PDF download for the books? We are in Canada, and shipping, customs, taxes keep us for being able to afford purchasing anything physical from the US. Thanks for a great review!! :-)
Quick question, I see that there is Some, Greece, Egypt, etc on there, but what about Asia?
Hi 👋, do you own TAN Books Story of the Bible? I was wondering how it is different than Story of Civilization? Wondering if you can do a flipthrough video on your thoughts about both of them and whether you'd need both. Thanks you. I gave you a thumbs up 👍.
Hey! I have all of the series! So all 4 history books, both Bible series books and the History of the Catholic Church and they are ALL excellent! I plan on filming this week on all of them in one video!
@@SaltyTribeCo THANK YOU SO MUCH! There is no such video on youtube. I've searched. Anyway, I hit the notification bell so I won't miss your video! God bless you. So very helpful! ❤
@@SaltyTribeCo that is awesome! I’m not really sure where to start... I will have a third grader and a Pre K. Our Catholic foundation is not very strong but we are planing on changing that with the start of our homeschool next fall. Any recommendations on where should start?
Would you recommend this over TGATB history? We are a Catholic family. I definitely want something family style, and I don't mind different perspectives, but I also don't want something that has animosity towards the Church.
Excellent question!
Now that we have made it to 12th grade and have a soon graduated kid, I would do the four years of TGATB for elementary/middle 4th/5th through 8th grade and then do the four years of Story of Civilization. If I had too far a spread (which I will have when the toddlers start school, I’ll have a high schooler) I would have him do history solo with SoC and do TGATB with those grades mentioned before. BUT I would make sure to either listen to the audio (or read the chapter) of SoC with my eldest if I hadn’t heard it before because it’s THAT awesome and I learned so much.
Basically, I feel that TGATB does a great job making history fun, engaging and doesn’t “pick sides” while SoC shows us how the Catholic faith was and is always there and it’s extremely accurate. The topics in SoC make for AWESOME conversation topics when you have high schoolers and even middle schoolers. It has been a joy now that we have used every single volume!
How many days a week do you do this curriculum to get it done in a year?
once per week is plenty since there are 36 lessons. We do ours in unit study [similar to a waldorf style homeschool] and did it in 9 weeks doing 4 lessons per week.
So excited to check this out! Thanks for doing this review!! I am looking for catholic character studies, and theology to use for next year with my kiddos... got any suggestions?
I’m reviewing through lots of things like this. It’ll be a bit as I go through resources.
Bambi there's story of the world that has the same things there's also by Master books the world's story that carries the same type of curriculum for Protestants
hi I have devoured your videos...I think I have watched all of them! lol. thank you for making them, for your experience, and putting it out for us. I am a new homeschool mom. I consider myself a minimalist and live overseas and travel a lot. I am also an artist and have tried to incorporate art with everything since my children were babies! I connect with you on so many levels. I am making this comment on this post as its the most recent one you have done so I figure you will see it...my question does not pertain to this video. I hope to hear back from you. You have done videos of what your day looks like and what "resources" you use for your children and how you keep homeschool minimum...however I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and am beginning to be "unclear" with what you actually do as you have done many videos on different curriculum for different subjects...Are you using these curriculums along with your other activities. for example you showed us your "daily notebooks" with assignments written in them for each child...This curriculum along with a complete science or history curriculum and LA curriculum videos you've made were not part of it...along with the other activities that you may/might do to re-enforce a topic...I just get the feeling its not as minimal as you describe. When you said you use the mcguffey readers for your 1st grader and then the BF reader....do you also use the flashcards, and the entire LA curriculum? I noticed you also have him read other books aka from the library ect...It would be helpful to get a clearer picture of what you actually cover in a year/day with your children. how much time does he spend reading or being read too...The video that said your youngest does maybe 1-2hrs of school max...I can see via "workbook/curriculum" style learning but what about all the times you read to him...or take him on nature walks and he paints/writes something...ect...seems to me there is more learning going on then what is depicted in your "minimalist homeschool videos"...its like each video gives you a glimpse of something else that you do....it all adds...up...and from the outside can begin to feel overwhelming...IDK...maybe its just bc I'm a newbie...the amount of books that you review and make videos on...is massive...thats a lot of books that you go through...how much time do you, your children, read, get read aloud too? So many say "nature journaling' is "enough" for science...yet when I dig I find many are promoting an actual science curriculum as well...how does someone navigate this? What is "enough" as I am really trying to be minimal...my house is small (no storage) we have no library (3rd world country and different language) I am really trying to navigate how I can move from teaching each subject (what I did this year) to a more fluid way of teaching where things connect and are more integrated...I get the idea of integration, however I find most who promote this seem to have a curriculum on the side that they don't mention when they talk about that, but then mention the curriculum when they suggest recommendations for people....SO what do you actually do in a day/year? how often do you littles create art work that you put in a binder, how often do they memorize poems/songs/scriptures phrases these are topics that you mention but don't cover in the day to day schedule...so it gives the viewer a "minimal" view of what you actually do...with a lot left out that really creating a more well rounded education...sorry this is so long...I am only writing and asking as I really enjoy your content and think very highly of what you have achieved and are doing! thank you.
What I wrote as Lamp + Light Homeschool Curriculum is what my kids did in the past. It was written as we did it. I also share other curricula ideas to help others find what works for them. I do lots of giveaways so I do not keep things long. We use McGuffey readers (as part of our Lamp + Light Homeschool Curriculum) and the readers from the good and the beautiful. Not the whole curriculum I have old videos on the whole curriculum that are from a couple years ago. We only use the readers now. I used them in the past for a season because I was going through a rough time with my health and needed something done for me. I wrote and talked all about it on social media and my old blog (which is now gone).
My videos are just to show what you CAN use or to help others see rarer curriculum not heard of in case it’s what THEIR kids need.
All of my kids do Nature science through high school. They also do the science we wrote in Lamp + Light Homeschool.
If there is a specific science my high schoolers need, they do that solo. I’ll do another video once we move and get settled but our days are very relaxed and generally short.
Daily takes 2-4 hours depending on what we are doing. We do bible, history and science together. We alternate science and history (sometimes daily sometimes weekly). After that they read, do math, handwriting or journaling or art notebooking and any solo work (if applicable). Read alouds are just part of life and bedtime for us. Not really school.
We create art 0 to 5 times per week. That’s how much it varies. It depends on what is inspiring us to create! I don’t make it a set number. If it’s a crazy week, zero. If it’s a chill week and we learned about someone cool, maybe 3.
I don’t make my kids intentionally memorize Scripture, poetry, songs. They just kind of memorize things they have seen lots of times. They enjoy memorizing Shel Silverstein because it’s funny! Not because I required it.
We use my Lamp + Light Homeschool (what hasn’t been written yet) as our guide but love to add in dramatic audio like from this history for fun! The kids think the activities are cool so we will do them!
My kids spend the majority of their time on family time, faith and exploring their talents and interests. Formal schooling, like described above is done up to four days per week. Sometimes 5, sometimes 3. The other days we unschool and it’s relaxing or a field trip or developing a new skill or talent.
I hope any of that rambling helped lol. There will be videos, I’m just super busy with moving to another state, new baby on the way and year II of Lamp + Light coming out this month. 🙌🏽
Question: I’m a first time homeschooling mom. I got an assortment of books from different resources and this happens to be what I picked for history. In our schedule we need: English (lit, grammar, spelling, penmanship, composition...lots of reading); math; history; science; French. My question is...since I’m not getting an all in one curriculum...this particular subject...how often do you use it in a week and how long do you spend on it? What format do you use? Read/audio, activity from book? In all, how often and how long pls? I have a 3rd grade and 1st.
I didn't do history with those ages with my own children. We read aloud some picture books for american history for fun! With this I would maybe use the activity book that they make to go with the Story of the Bible vol. 1 and use the coloring & activity sheets. With my 4th graders and up, we do about 30-40 minutes on days we do history unless we are watching a movie! Total for all schooling [elementary, middle and high school] we do 2-4 hours [4 hours being high school level]. That's for all subjects.
Can’t wait for that Confirmation name story!
I have a 1st, 4th, and 8th grader and first time homeschooling this year. We are mostly following Angelicum's curriculum and they have Civilization vol II listed for 4th grade, The Story of the Bible vol I for 1st, and something completely different for 8th (Lands of Hope and Promise- American History). I have two questions for you: can I use one of these sets for all three kids? Do we need to do Vol I before Vol II?
Yes! You can use one for all three of your aged children! I don’t think you do. So you would be starting with a different time period and they might refer to an earlier even from the previous time period but not in a way that would make it hard to use any volume in any order. I would go with any time period you would like to study
Hi! I was really touched hearing your journey towards Catholicism. I cried a lot! Just wanna say, as a devout catholic, I'd like to suggest NABRE , the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE) is the culmination of nearly 20 years of work by a group of nearly 100 scholars and theologians, including bishops, revisers and editors, its what's used in the Catholic. NIV had some contradictions, that's why I recommend this one. God bless you ma'am! :) I hope you'll notice my comment. Love from PH!
Does the dramatic audio include everything in the text book? Like basically reading each chapter aloud?
Yes! Word for word!
So are you saying you don't use your own curriculum that you created if not why is that... I'm sure that there is history in there if I'm not mistaken
I do use our curriculum! The ones that are written my kids did years ago! That’s how I wrote them. It’s what my kids did. 💕 We creates Catholic curriculum so we use a different core book. We love history and add in when we want. I created Lamp + Light Homeschool Curriculum to be enough on its own while leaving room for people to add what their kids love studying! 💕
@@SaltyTribeCo OK I thought it had history and I just wasn't certain that's wonderful
Is this for all grade levels? Nice ☺
Yes! I would say that this would work for all ages due to coloring pages for younger kids but info packed enough for older kids and activities for all ages in between.
That's great!
I think the coloring pages would be great as inspiration for notebboking pages as well.
YESSSS!!!!! I thought the same since my kids aren’t fans of coloring pages. But they love notebooking and drawing in them!
This is for Catholics only?? I wish there was something for us "others".
It reminded me of The Good & The Beautiful with the dramatic audio! We love G&B!
I believe Story of the World is similar for Protestants. 😉
My daughter’s christmation/confirmation name is Marina. 🌊 ⚓️ 😉