A personal favorite! Streams of Civilization Volume One provides a comprehensive overview of ancient history from creation through the 1620's, written from a Christian perspective. While the layout and illustrations look dated (by our modern, high-tech, lots-of-glitz-and-color standards), the book is unique in that it does an excellent job of showing the themes—or streams—of history. As with every textbook, it is a general overview, so there is far more to cover in any given area, but we think the authors did a great job of keeping the text balanced, informative, and flowing.
One odd thing about this edition of the book is that it does not include chapter comprehension questions. Each chapter provides two assignment options. The first is a list of vocabulary words, which the student should define—or at least make sure he understands. (There is also no answer key available so teachers will have to check a student's definitions either by drawing on their own knowledge and experience, or by utilizing a dictionary or encyclopedia.) Second, each chapter offers a list of projects to do, including biographies to read, drawings or models to make, reports to write, field trips to take. . . Some of these are fascinating ideas to expand!
This book is highly recommended by many people as a reference book and will work well for that. If you wish to use it as a textbook, we recommend you purchase the 3rd edition and use it for grades 8-10.
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