Reviews for World History Detective®

Excellent curriculum!

I find, especially in ancient history, the civilizations start running together in both my daughter’s and my memory. Our discussions often include questions like, “Wait, was that the Babylonians or Hittites?” Using this curriculum as a review helped both of us organize the ancient civilizations in our memory. I love the convenience of perforated pages in this book. That makes my life so much easier, since we tear out all of our work and place it into a weekly binder for more mobile schooling. I also appreciate the copyright on this book. Copies are allowed for family use in one home (or in one classroom for school teachers), so I can make copies and save the book to use with the rest of my children. Overall I am very impressed with World History Detective®.

My daughter absolutely loved it. She loves workbook formats, so the work pages were perfect for her. I love how the Critical Thinking Co. helps train students' brains to think and problem solve. She really liked how the book challenged her to remember facts with each lesson. She also loved the word box diagrams and how there was a test-like format at the end of each lesson. She especially liked how some of it let her use her own words to describe what she had learned. She also loved the essay portion because she was able to write what she thought.

My son has an insatiable love of history. He enjoyed working through the lessons and gaining historical knowledge, as well as developing his critical thinking skills. As he progressed though the book, my son found it much easier to complete the lessons. Obviously, his critical thinking skills were being sharpened. As both a parent and a teacher, I would call that a SCORE!!! Being 13 years old, I doubt that he would actually admit it, but I think that he enjoyed World History Detective. I highly recommend this curriculum to others.

I am classical, home-educating parent and have fallen in love with World History Detective. After many years of memorizing dates and facts about history and geography in his grammar years, my son was ready for more information to tie the facts together. We now have the best conversations and I am experiencing the joy of "watching the lightbulb come on" each and every day as we work through this book! I couldn't be more pleased to see his love for learning grow and anticipate the release of the next volume!

Importantly, the workbook portions are not simple read-and-regurgitate queries. Instead your student will be asked to point out which statements in a set of four are fact and which are opinion; or which of these phrases can be inferred from the lesson, and which sentences best support that theory. These types of questions help your child to grasp that history is always interpreted by those telling the story and to think through the varied reasons why an event happened as it did.

Importantly, the workbook portions are not simple read-and-regurgitate queries. Instead your student will be asked to point out which statements in a set of four are fact and which are opinion; or which of these phrases can be inferred from the lesson, and which sentences best support that theory. These types of questions help your child to grasp that history is always interpreted by those telling the story and to think through the varied reasons why an event happened as it did.

Surprisingly my 11-year-old REALLY got into this workbook. GASP! A workbook for history? Yes! Honestly, I was just as surprised! World History Detective® has 78 Civilizations to learn in self-guided chronological order. My son really like the condensed and concise information about civilizations filled with great maps, timelines, deductive question and concept maps.

World History Detective® accomplishes more than just teaching world history. It also can replace reading comprehension activities since that is a major function of the lessons. It might provide a significant amount of composition activity, especially if you use the opportunity to help students develop essay writing skills. Depending upon how often you use the lessons, students can complete World History Detective, Book 1 in one or more years. A one-year schedule would require at least two lessons per week, but using it alongside another program over a longer period of time should work fine too.

World History Detective® is effective as a standalone textbook, as an enhancement to another textbook, or as a review course for older students. In any event, the benefits the student gains from it will be lifelong.