Pathway to Liberty World History Year 4 Level 1 Review

I’m excited to share with you another review from  Pathway to Liberty's History Curriculum . My daughter has enjoyed doing World History Year 4 Level 1 from Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum has been a success with her this last year.

It’s not too often that I get to write a review for a curriculum that we have completed and used for a complete year from the 1st lesson to the last lesson in the curriculum. I’m using this with my 17 year old daughter with special needs and she has some significant learning challenges. It is extremely important to me having a comprehensive and flexible curriculum that works for a child with special needs. You can read my last review when I used it with my son here. My son doesn't have any learning challenges. We used it successfully with him for the rest of his 7th grade.

I received a physical set that includes your Teacher Guide, and Student Guide. You can also purchase this in a digital format. The only other resources you will need are a good internet to access the videos. A 1 ½” 3-ring notebook binder which allows your child to have a place to keep all their assignments like vocabulary, and other things they have been learning. I used a 2” ring notebook binder that I already had on hand.

There are a few core books required to complete the program.  One item is the Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary can be found free online or you can order a physical book.

 

You can also add in literature books. Something else you can add to enhance your literature books are the Literature Guides. I could be wrong but I think these are newer as I didn’t use them nor did I see them until very recently.

A timeline can be downloaded from the website for a notebook version or a wall timeline. My daughter used a timeline that she has used since 1^st grade that we added too when we came across timeline activities.

The front of the book for both the Student and Teacher guides has information on getting started . For Level 1 I set up my daughter’s notebook with dividers. My son used his notebook regularly but with my daughter I found the Student Guide was sufficient for her.

You are covered for a complete cycle of history and for grades K-12^th grade is covered with all the different levels 1-4.

Pathway to Liberty’s Universal History

Pathway to Liberty’s The Middle Ages

Pathway to Liberty’s US History

Pathway to Liberty’s World History

Each history course has 4 different levels. You choose the level according to your child's grade or abilities. With your history course you have all your levels in the Teacher’s Guide. The only thing you will need to obtain as your kids advance yearly is the Student Guide which the physical book is consumable and intended for only one student. Or buy the digital book which can be used with more than one student.

Level 1: K5-3^rd grade

Level 2: 4^th -6^th grade

Level 3: 7^th – 9^th grade

Level 4: 10^th -12^th grade

Not only are you teaching history but this is a Biblical Worldview Curriculum that covers Bible, literature, geography, writing assignments, and vocabulary. All of this makes Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum a complete comprehensive history curriculum.

There is a suggested 4 days a week schedule. The curriculum is flexible enough to adjust if needed. Our time varied with my daughter from 30-60 minutes. With her learning challenges we would sometimes split up a lesson depending on the content and what kind of day she was having with focusing. This included the literature books that I read out loud to my daughter.

Teacher Guide and Student Guide

 Both guides have the same layout other than the Teacher Guide having your answers to the questions and a some helpful information.

Both books are also high quality spiral bound books! Not plastic combs that tend to crack after awhile and tend to come lose. The spiral bound makes it easy for the books to lay flat without having to hold down one side to keep the book open.

There are 26 weeks with lessons 4 days a week. I like the 4 day option as it helps me to play catch up if we get behind or some lessons require a bit more time for her to finish. With this not being a 36 week curriculum it helps me personally not to stress out to much with sickness, vacations, holidays, and appointments-I don’t feel like I’m behind! I hope I’m not the only one who feels like that. When my kids were in elementary we schooled year around but now that my kids are older they want more of a summer schedule school. Whether you school year around or more of a traditional schedule this is flexible to adjust to your unique homeschool!

This is more than history with other subjects weaved into every lesson. My daughter is learning geography, Bible scripture copywork and memorization, writing assignments, vocabulary, reading assignments, and more all wrapped up nicely in this step by step curriculum. The Bible verses used are from the NIV.

Some lessons include videos for most of the weekly lessons. The videos vary in length and can be anywhere from a few minutes to 45 minutes. The videos are offered on the Pathway to Liberty video channel and we haven’t had any that I was concerned about or her clicking off on to other videos. I just make sure the videos are full screened for her. I appreciate that the author gives you a heads up with videos and offers options. Even though we didn’t do level 2 or 3 one of the videos for them have war and death images that you may not want to show your kids. Another video mentions some profanity and gives you the time stamp so you can skip that section. That isn’t the normal for the videos as just a few of them are highlighted.

What history is covered: Foundations, Welcome 20^th Century, Around the World, and several Presidents are covered. Within each of those main topics you cover a plethora of topics from first colonies, slavery, Constitutions, expansion in America, Henry Ford from his childhood to inventions, World War I, World War II, Nazi Germany, Helen Keller, Civil Rights, Neil Armstrong, Presidents, and much more.

At the beginning of each week you have an overview. Each week you have a scripture verse, principal, and a leading idea at the top of the weekly overview. The rest of the week is a laid out schedule broken down by all 4 levels and into a 4 day lesson schedule. You will see what you are reading with the page number or chapter, writing assignments, vocabulary, video information, and History expanded.

Some assignments are labeled optionally too. Most of the optional assignments were writing assignments. For my situation with my daughter’s dysgraphia and arthritis we did a lot of oral assignments for writing.

Each week your lessons are broken into 4 lessons. Your first lesson always covers your Scripture, Principle, and Leading Idea. That is weaved into the other lessons throughout the week.

All of this is broken down by level. For kids that are independent or even semi-independent this makes it easy for them to complete the lessons. Your week is laid out in step by step instructions for both student and parents to follow. This is what I call an open and go curriculum. I know I can just open the book and it is all planned out for me.

In Level 1 my daughter had several activities that varied in her Student Guide. She filled in the blank to complete sentences, comprehensive questions that she had to write out a complete sentence to the questions, coloring pages, videos, and plot elements that you write down main events and draw them out. There are map activities, state activities, and vocabulary, cut out activity, character qualities, timelines, and more. Your questions are a mixture of facts, your own personal thoughts on the lesson, and some discussion questions.  I liked the variety for this age group. It keeps it different and interesting for the intended grades. With a child with special needs it was a good balance of activities. The lessons didn’t overwhelm her with long lessons and it was fun for her. Another thing I want to point out is the amount of writing space on the assignments. It was very sufficient for young writers with a lot of space to accommodate those who write larger like my daughter. For me that is a huge plus!

Below are several worksheets throughout the curriculum.

The lesson flow nicely once you get a few weeks into it. If you’re like me it always takes me a few weeks getting a feel of a curriculum and seeing what works and what I need to adjust for my daughter’s learning style.

My daughter enjoyed Pathway to Liberty World History Year 4 Level 1 for her 11^th grade. She has retained a lot of the information with history. Her favorite sections where on Neil Armstrong, Helen Keller, and Ronald Reagan. She loved the areas of study on inventions. That surprised me how much she really got into them. It led to a few rabbit trails. That is the joy and advantage of homeschooling your kids. The book selections went well with the curriculum and she didn’t complain about them.

I would like to touch on using this with a child with significant learning challenges. My daughter has Autism, dysgraphia, arthritis, genetic disorder, vision issues, and other issues. I pretty much have to adapt all curriculum in some aspect for her. Sometimes a curriculum isn't adaptable and I feel that I just washed down the curriculum or it required more work than I wanted to put into it.  Pathway to Liberty World History Year 4 Level 1 I needed to adapt the optional parts. We did it orally. Some videos were longer and I split them up in smaller sections. Sometimes I had to break up a lesson because it was just a bad day or week. The core assignments and the writing space in the workbook was perfect for her. Granted we are way below her grade level but it's perfect for her academic level. She didn't fill overwhelmed with the amount of work and writing. The books were for the most part at her level. I was able to do them as a read out loud. This made it very easy for me with her history this year. My daughter would tell you, "History was fun this year mommy!" That says a lot and it tells me it was successful! 

I like it when I can teach my kids history that isn’t washed down and that emphasizes a Christian worldview.  I appreciate that I only need one Teacher’s Guide for all 4 Levels. Check it out yourself. Ask questions in the comments below or ask the author Jayme McCullough about the curriculum if you don't find it on the website.

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I received a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this information accordance with the FTC Regulations.