My kids have been learning about Ancient History in our regular homeschool studies this year, and I’ve loved finding content-rich supplements to help them experience the information in new ways. We were able to review the Ancient History Homeschool video curriculum from Drive Thru History Adventures. They also have online streaming videos for for American History and Bible History.
You can sign up for a 7 day free trial if you want to see what kind of content they have available. You could also choose to sign up with a monthly subscription, or subscribe for the full year to receive a free hard copy of their DVDs for The Gospels.
Drive Thru History is an interactive experience where David Stotts shares history with students, about aged 12 and up, by going to the actual locations where history was made, showing artifacts and important documents and places, sharing paintings, quirky tidbits of information, quotes, stories from the past, and more. Think of it as a history field trip!
It is unique from other curriculum we have used because it hits students of multiple learning types. My kids do learn best when they can see and hear the lesson at the same time. Their interest is held when they can see relevant supporting information instead of just reading a textbook or staring at a picture in one.
When you start looking around the Drive Thru History website, you’ll see that Bible History has 18 episodes, and American History and Ancient History each have 12 episodes.. While you can work through these at any pace you want, they’re intended to be used one adventure per week, viewable from any TV, computer, or tablet from the website. We actually used our Chromecast to Cast each episode to our television using the Drive Thru History Adventures TV app that is available to subscribers.
There are great additional resources to use so you’re not just watching the episodes and moving on. If you’re ready to dig in deeper, it is easy to help students get a full load of coursework from the weekly adventures. There’s a webpage for each individual lesson with traditional textbook style pictures, quotes, and summaries. Then, Suggested Reading is attached and available to view straight from the website. For example, we’re working on Ancient History Episode 5, and there is an excerpt from Plato’s Republic. There are also discussion questions. There are printables available if you’d like to have your kids work with paper and pen, as well as an answer guide that gives detailed explanations.
We worked at a pace of one episode per week. They are 45 minutes long each, so I would usually split the viewing into 2 different days, and we would answer the discussion questions orally on a third day. I have been using this with my 8, 11, and 12 year olds. While it is meant for 12 and up, my 2nd and 5th grader are getting so much out of it and are grasping the information. They’re able to answer the discussion questions better than I was expecting!
In addition to the Drive Thru History Adventures themselves, there are many resources available from Drive Thru History. There are tons of articles, expert papers, blooper reels and behind the scenes stories, and suggested readings. My kids loved the Side Roads videos, because they’re topical and a lot of fun, like the one on The History of Cheese or The History of Groundhog Day.
Drive Thru History Adventures is a Christian resource. It weaves the Christian faith and its roots and history into each episode. We all really enjoyed learning about Ancient History in this new way. When David would mention something the kids had already learned about in their core curriculum, I could see their eyes light up. Then I could see how they reacted when given even more information or shown pictures or video of things they had only read about before. It’s been a good supplemental resource for our regular curriculum and it’s something that they’ll remember so much better than a simple chapter in a textbook.
I’m looking forward to trying out the American History adventures. I think we’ll work on that over the summer so we can be “doing school” without cracking open any books. Surely the kids won’t be able to resist, right? 🙂
Drive Thru History Adventures is offering 20% for readers of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine on page 19 of the latest issue. I hope you’ll check it out. If you’ve been a fan of the DVDs in the past, you’ll love the convenience of having it located online and on an app so you don’t have to worry about losing or damaging a disc. Plus, I love having the supplemental worksheets and readings available all in one place, organized neatly to quickly pull together for a lesson. It’s so convenient.