The Classical Historian {Mosaic Review}

         


 History was not my favorite in school.  I wasn’t good at it.  There were too many dates and different people. and I didn’t test well no matter how much I studied.  As an adult I am more interested in history,  however it is still not my favorite subject or hobby.  It intrigues me to see how our country started and how far it has come.  When looking for history curriculum to teach the kiddos I look for hands on curriculum.  Any game, activity or yes even a video that would allow my children to learn history painlessly is at least up for trial in this house!  When I found out I was reviewing the Go Fish Ancient History card game I was so excited!  If we had played games, watched movies or did hands on activities maybe I would have caught on quicker with history.  At least I may have found it more interesting in my school career.

A little about The Classical Historian …..
            The classical Historian was founded by John and Zdenka De Gree.  After working in private and public school education for over twenty years, John realized the great need in American society to promote independent and critical thinking through open and thoughtful discussion of history. Zdenka realized that nowhere could she find fun games that taught history.  Together they founded this company that was based on the  Socratic Discussion.  This form of discussion is a negative form of hypotheses elimination.  Named after the classical Greek Philosopher Socrates, it uses two or more parties to debate or pin their opposing viewpoints against each other.  The opposing sides may try to point out facts that contradict the opposing side’s theory.  I have never liked debates or arguments of any kind, so I have not tried this style in our homeschool.  I am however like I said up for anything when it comes to history, so it won’t hurt to check it out, right?  You can check out their website here and take peek.  You can also take advantage of their FREE summer lesson on Independence Day!


From The Classical Historian I received the Ancient History Go Fish Game.  This sturdy laminated deck of cards contains 48 jumbo cards and is recommended for ages 3 and up for 3 or more players.  Included with the cards are directions for  4 games:  Continents Game, Collect the Cards Game, Chronology Game and Ancient History Go Fish.  The playing cards cover areas of ancient histoy, of course, like: Asia, Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece and Roman Republic. 

  As you can see (hopefully) on the cards they can be grouped together.  There are four cards in each group.  When I received the cards I gathered my children around the table and told them we were going to play a game.  They were eager to know what game it was.  We often sit at the table and play Apples to Apples, Monopoly or some other board game.  I wasn’t sure how they would react when I said it was a history Go Fish Game. I figure the two older ones would get up and say “No Thanks”  however they stayed and we played. We asked for Ancient Greece, Seven Continents and the like and had fun telling each other to go fish.  I liked the concept of incorporating the games however I felt that these games were not set at the appropriate age level for my younger kiddos.
  We moved on and tried to play the continents game and found the same thing.  The older children were able to match most of the continents.  I think that this is a great idea/concept, however it wasn’t a great fit for our family.   These are probably a great asset to supplement the curriculum from The Classical Historian.  The card games are set at a great price of $14.95 so they don’t break the bank if you wanted to try them out.

  You can check out The Classical Historian
on the web at http://www.classicalhistorian.com/
on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/classicalhistorian?fref=ts