Item: Veritas Press Self Paced Course Review
Rating: 5
Author: Jessica

When I was asked to work on a Veritas Press Self Paced course review, I was pretty darn happy. I like reviewing products from companies that I’ve heard about from other homeschoolers whom I trust. I always want to know what all the buzz is about!

Before I get into the Veritas Press Self Paced Course review though, I’d like to give you some general info about the company – Veritas Press is a company that offers Classical Education from a Christian worldview.

In terms of Classical education, Veritas uses the Trivium as the building blocks for all their curricula. The Trivium = three different stages of learning and they include the:

Grammar Stage: Young children (in grades K–6th) are naturally inquisitive and they are willing and able to memorize lots of material. In this stage, Veritas Press uses historical and biblical timelines to help children absorb lots of information. Also, they teach children the basics of Latin and math.
Logic Stage: As children get older (7th–9^th Grade), children tend to become a bit more argumentative. This stage of learning is called the Dialectic or Logic Stage. In this stage, Veritas Press teaches students about cause and effect, and how to think and argue using logic. While students are learning to reason, they’re also learning how they can express themselves via the written word.
Rhetoric Stage: When kids are in the 10th–12^th Grade, they become more concerned about how they are perceived. At this stage, Veritas Press teaches rhetoric and how to communicate effectively.

This is a great video overview of the Trivium.

Regarding their Christian perspective, Veritas likes to say they have– “an unapologetic, Christ-centered focus”.

Veritas Press Self Paced Course selection is expansive. Each of the self-paced history courses has 160 lessons covering 32 historical events. Each of the 32 events covered has 5 lessons, usually completed one per day so that one event is covered each week. At that pace, the course is completed in 32 weeks. The first lesson of each five lesson sets includes a graded quiz (for which the student may refer to his or her flashcards), and the fifth lesson of each five lesson set includes a graded test (which is closed book).

So, what course did we review? The Veritas Press Self Paced Course focused on the Old Testament and Ancient Egypt course (a journey through the beginning of history).

So, can you name all the twelve tribes of Israel? Do you know the seven days of Creation? How about the order of the major dynasties of Egypt and where they fall related to biblical events? No? After taking this course, your children will know all of this!

That’s because the course covers important events from Creation to the fall of Egypt – all in chronological order (chronology is stressed in this course). All of the following is covered – whew-that’s a lot of information!

Creation
The Fall in the Garden
Cain & Abel
The Flood
Tower of Babel
Unification of Upper & Lower Egypt by Pharaoh Menes
The Old Kingdom in Egypt
First Intermediate Period in Egypt
Call of Abram
God’s Covenant with Abraham
Hagar & Ishmael
Sodom & Gomorrah
Birth & Sacrifice of Isaac
The Middle Kingdom of Egypt
Joseph as a Slave
Famine in Egypt
The Twelve Tribes of Israel
Second Intermediate Period in Egypt
Code of Hammurabi
Hyksos Invasion of Egypt
Early New Kingdom in Egypt
Moses’ Birth
Plagues in Egypt
The Exodus
Ten Commandments
Amenhotep IV and Monotheism
Reign of Tutankhamon
Later New Kingdom in Egypt
The Davidic Kingdom
Solomon’s Reign
Alexander the Great Conquers Egypt
Egypt Falls to Rome

I’m going to talk about the first ten lessons, and show screen shots from them – as these are the lessons my daughter has been working on for the last two weeks. She’s doing one lesson per day.

Here are some of the things taught in the first 10 lessons:

The Bible is always true. If something doesn’t agree with the Bible, it’s untrue. The Bible is God’s word and can always be trusted.
The Tree of Knowledge may have been a Pomegranate tree.
Adam’s sin made us guilty before God.

The lessons include interactive, live action teaching videos; an animated talking Great Sphynx; games and more.

Here are the many things my daughter and I like about the course:

There’s an overview of the course as well as a supply list – as a parent, I appreciated being able to review both before my daughter started the course. Whew! I didn’t need any supplies until lesson 18!
There’s a tutorial for your child, before s/he starts the class. It gives your child the “lay of the land” so to speak – teaches where to find things, what buttons to click, etc.
The lessons are interactive. Kids nowadays kind of expect that. There are lots of pictures and lots of video. And it feels like Simeon (one of the live action characters) and the Great Sphynx are actually talking to your children. My daughter liked all of this.
There is a course Memory song that is a part of every lesson. Music is great for learning timelines! Kids are encouraged to sing the song – and sing it loudly! (Loudly – that’s coming from the sphynx!) If interested, you can print off the lyrics for the Chronology (Memory) song. I appreciated that! There are a lot of things to keep straight.
After a quiz, students get their results immediately – and can print out the answers if they want to.
Kids learn vocabulary! For instance – consequences, transgression, etc.
There is a lot of review in this course – I really like that. I think it benefitted my daughter.
There is a Historical Literature option at the end of many lessons – so if a student is really interested in a lesson and wants to read/learn more, s/he can do so easily.
It’s self-paced (although it’s recommended that the child finishes one lesson per day)
Kids can learn any time, any place. Again, something that’s kind of expected nowadays, especially among homeschoolers.