Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Pathway to Liberty US History Level 1-3 Review


We recently started using Pathway to Liberty's US History, part of Pathway to Liberty's History Curriculum, from Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum.  This curriculum is available in both physical and digital format.  While the physical format is to be used by only one student, the digital version can be printed and used by your entire family.  We were provided with the digital curriculum for Levels 1, 2 and 3 of US History.  This included a Teacher's guide for all levels and a Student Guide for levels 1-3.

E with Level 1

D and C with Level 2

B with Level 3

There are four levels in this curriculum.  Level 1 is geared for the early elementary years K-3rd grade.  Level 2 is geared for upper elementary who can read and write fluently, 4th-6th grade.  Level 3 is geared for middle school and early high school students, 7th-9th grade.  While Level 4 is designed for 10th-12th.  This curriculum is specifically designed so that you can learn history with your entire family using the same material at their individual levels.  That's huge!


Pathway to Liberty has four years of study:  Universal History (Year 1), The Middle Ages (Year 2), US History (Year 3) and World History (Year 4).  Each year of study has materials for Levels 1-4.  As I mentioned earlier the level of study is based on age and grade level.  Guess what?  They even have a suggested way to use this curriculum with a CoOp, love that!

  

In Year 3, US History is studied in order to understand the foundation of our American Republic.  This program begins with foundational principles, transitions into the early colonies and finishes up with the Civil War.

Scope and Sequence

I really appreciate the Scope and Sequence.  It shows an overview for every level for each week in the curriculum.  The program has 26 weeks of material and has 4 days of lessons each week.  The last few weeks are built in as catch up weeks to complete any unfinished assignments and to reflect on the year.  I love these at a glance views of what we are studying as it is helpful to see where we are going.

Overview For Week 1

I also appreciate the weekly overviews for the same reason.  Each week has a scripture, principle idea and leading idea.  I really like the way that it lays out the materials for the 4 different levels.  This makes it a lot easier to grasp what the different levels are doing and how they overlap and differ.  This was convenient as I was using it for 3 different levels.

Watching the video on The Pilgrim's Journey Documentary

I would say that the first two weeks of this program is a bit of a transition as they are foundation weeks.  They are specifically designed to build a solid foundation of history to then build onto.  After the first few weeks, you get into more of a rhythm I would say so give yourself that time to adjust and adapt.  I enjoy the flexibility within this curriculum as well.  You do not have to do everything!  You can adjust and adapt as needed.  You may notice in the overview for week 1 that the students will watch YouTube videos.  Pathway to Liberty has their own YouTube channel which makes everything easy to locate!

Teacher Guide

The Student Guides includes step-by-step instructions on how to use the curriculum, weekly lesson plans and student assignments, study guide questions, vocabulary words and writing options.  The Teacher guide is chock-full of great resources including additional writing sources, vocabulary, devotional models as well as information about Pathway to Liberty's vision to name a few.

This program has a strong Biblical Worldview and I personally love that but those that are looking for secular options should not use this curriculum.  We are enjoying the weekly scripture verses and I love seeing my kids digging deeper into the Bible.  I really appreciate the word studies as well.  I think my kids are really getting a lot out of them.

Pathway to Liberty is a holistic curriculum in that it includes a lot of subjects within the program like Bible, history, writing, vocabulary, geography and character to name a few.  In other words, it's not just a history program.  So, if you already have an intense writing program, then you will probably not do all of the writing assignments.  You will adjust as you need to.

I really appreciate the way that this program is designed and set up so that I can teach my kids the same lessons using the different levels.  I will say that I think Level 1 has been a bit advanced for E, who is age 7.  She is hanging in there so far but I have been adjusting it more for her; whereas, Levels 2 and 3 have been pretty spot on for my kids in a great and challenging way.

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of Pathway to Liberty including the different four years of study as well as the four different levels.

Universal History,  The Middle Ages,  US History & World History Curriculum {Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum Reviews}

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Check out Pathway to Liberty's video below on how their curriculum works.  I hope you find it helpful.



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3 comments:

Cindy said...

What a great curriculum! I love that they provide so much supporting material, making your job easier. And how awesome that they have their own YouTube channel!

Kathryn said...

Right Cindy? Makes it super convenient.

meximoments said...

This is so great, They really have some great resources for Home Schooled families! Thats so awesome!