Both Bible History and American History Adventures videos include closed captioning. They have been in the process of updating the curriculum so closed captioning for Ancient History should be completed soon. The curriculum is geared toward ages 12 and above but younger students can certainly still enjoy watching the videos. The expert articles and extra reading materials are perfect for high school students who can also be assigned more research work.
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| The Drive Thru History Adventures app on an iPad mini |
In addition to the main curriculums, there are a plethora of resources available to supplement the curriculums. The additional resources include Articles, Expert Papers, Suggested Readings (none currently for Bible Adventures), Worksheets, Answer Guides, Welcome and Getting Started videos, Behind the Scenes, Side Roads (additional videos of interest including history on some holidays), and Dig Deeper (more articles and short video clips on Adventures TV). The videos are all available on Adventures TV. There is also a closed group Facebook Community that you can join once you are a member and it is a great source of communication and ability to connect with others. It also keeps you up to date on updates to the website and new material. It's where I found out about a new exciting curriculum to be released sometime in May!
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| Facebook closed group |
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| Additional historical videos |
I have been using this with my 7th and 8th grader but my K5 daughter really likes Dave too! She totally recognizes the intro audio when she hears it and gets excited. I knew I wanted to use the study guide and hopefully dig deeper with the articles and expert papers available. We chose to start with Bible History Adventures first which covers the life of Jesus and the four Gospels. So far we have been successfully watching the videos (which are approximately 27-30 minutes long each) and working on the study guide together. Neither of them is a great reader (don't enjoy reading) so the articles available aren't getting much use right now but I can't wait to get into them in my free time. The study guides are short, just 4-5 questions on 1 sheet of paper (front and back). We are currently in week 5. We plan to continue to use the program completing at least one lesson (episode) per week. There are a total of 18 episodes. Both American and Ancient History have 12 episodes each.
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| Worksheet |
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| Worksheet Answer Guide |
I LOVE that a bible app is embedded right into the page for the lesson you are on! On the desktop, when you click on a lesson, the lesson page opens up. You see the video window and then below it a scripture. Following is the order of a typical lesson page:
- a piece of art depicting something from the day's video
- Summary of the day's lesson
- another piece of art
- embedded bible with two scripture verses for the day. You can even change the bible version (there is a long list to choose from!)
- another piece of art
- Side Road (a paragraph ditty from something in the day's video)
- Discussion Questions (these are also on the printable worksheet for the day noted below)
- another piece of art
- Worksheet and Discussion Questions (links to download the worksheet for the day and the answer key for it)
- Dig Deeper (updates and articles related to the subject)
- last is a link to go to the next adventure or go back to the dashboard
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| Embedded bible app |
It's wonderful how he has everything you need for the lesson right there on the page. Embedding the related readings and articles without having to go to the resources tab to look them up is wonderful. I also like the included art that adds another aspect to being familiarized with historical art. I definitely plan to revisit this next year and dig deeper into all the wonderful resources available. Neither my 7th or 8th grader have the focus or patience for the extra work at this time.
I really like how Dave engages the viewer and keeps your interest going throughout the lesson. The kids absolutely LOVED IT when Dave cooked BBQ pork on his engine while he drove around on his adventures. Traveling with Dave is such a fun virtual field trip. It is exciting to see the actual places and get a better perspective on what things were like at the time things happened. You not only get a history lesson but, as Dave states, learn a little "geography, archaeology, classic art, and a Christian Worldview."
We all really like Drive Thru History and give it a thumbs up. I can't wait to see what is in store for the future in what improvements they plan to keep making. There were just two cons that I found that were not game changers for me. I didn't appreciate some of the art that was chosen in the videos (didn't quite seem to match with the story at times) and we couldn't understand why in one episode the male angels seemed to be depicted with very feminine features for some reason. Also, I REALLY wish the app were available for Kindle (hopefully a future upgrade).
Please also check out the other reviews.
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