Customer Reviews

Streams of Civilization: Earliest Times to the Discovery of the New World (Vol 1) (79555)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This history text gives good data and fair inclusion of both a creationists and evolutionist theory of beginnings. The author treats the Bible as one reliable historical document to be included among all the rest. The reading is frequently dry. My older daughter consumed it, but my son has to be urged to get the reading done. This is a fine textbook.

My 12 year old son and I bought this book from a homeschool store in CO in August upon their recommendation. We were not disappointed. We liked the balance presented by the authors and feel they did not try to hide the truth about what evolutionists or creationists think and why each side believes what it believes. We learned many things about civilizations that Mom (graduated 1976) or son had not read in previous Christian & non-Christian history books.

One of the few world history texts that combines a biblical worldview, creation science, and church history; it gives a solid overview of civilization. It has fair inclusion of both creationist and evolutionist theory of beginnings. The authors treat the Bible as one reliable historical document to be included among all the rest. This is an EXCELLENT introduction to western civilization, interesting, clear and full of opportunities for discussion. Major world cultures, religions, and their development are explained with the aid of maps, timelines, and graphics. This material provides information for classroom conversation which will in turn help the students to process, apply, and remember what they are reading. Compliment and enhance the students learning with biographies, films, picture books, and historical fiction novels.

This book is very detailed, easy to follow and engaging, and even more importantly, by openly discussing the various viewpoints of history (uniformitarianism vs. Catastrophism) in the very beginning, it encourages analytical thinking skills and not merely fact regurgitation. This book could easily be supplemented with the following fiction books.
Chapters 1-2: Journey To The Ice
Chapter 3: Tirzah
Chapters 7-8:Twice Freed (Freestyle Fiction 12)
Chapters 11-12:Augustine Came to Kent (Living History Library (Warsaw, N.D.).)
When we studied these time periods, we liked to find great historical fictions to help us "visualize" and "experience" what we were learning.

We enjoyed using this text, and also bought the teacher's manual and tests. I found the coverage of important events to be better than most textbooks. However, we mainly use textbooks as a sort of timeline or outline for history studies. It's great to add some hands-on activities, videos, and also historical literature to really round out your study.

This book is an amazing value for the price, and so are the tests! Since it is so inexpensive, you can use your homeschool dollars on some fun books and supplies to liven things up!

I agree with Lina King's description. This is an EXCELLENT introduction to western civilization, interesting, clear and full of opportunities for discussion. I do not understand why she did not give the book any stars.

The vast majority of public school history textbooks are written from a secular, evolutionary, humanistic point of view; frequently contain anti-Christian and even anti-American bias; and present a distorted view of history that has contributed to the strong modern-day decline of interest in the subject. Streams of Civilization is the result of a four-year project sponsored by the Institute for Creation research to produce a truly objective textbook on world history from a Biblical worldview, suitable for use in both public and private schools. It was republished by Christian Liberty Academy and made available for homeschooling families.
Starting at the beginning, the book explains the differences between the beliefs of evolution and special creation, with very convincing explanations concerning some of the evidence, biological, anthropological, and geological, that is often given for macroevolution. Then, from the dawn of civilizations in the Fertile Crescent, the Indus River valley, and ancient Egypt, it moves on through ancient and medieval times, down to the Renaissance, Reformation, and Age of Discovery (c. 1620s), with copious discussions of non-Western civilizations in Africa, the Far East, and the Western Hemisphere. It is not normally my purpose to review curriculum, but occasionally I do. While there are other good world history textbooks available for homeschoolers, we chose this one because it shows the relevance of the Bible and Christianity to the interpretation of historical events and personalities.
Yes, Streams of Civilization is a textbook. Some homeschoolers despise textbooks. We don't rely solely on textbooks in our homeschooling, but we prefer to have them around to provide some structure and outline to our learning. Then we like to supplement them, especially in history with historical fiction, original source material, and other "living books." Yet, Streams of Civilization is not like many other textbooks in that it presents the material in more of a narrative fashion that ties events and people together rather than just dry, dusty factoids to be memorized and regurgitated on a test. It is actually fairly interesting reading, and while I might not agree with every observation made, I really found nothing major to which I would object. Both of our boys have had it in their sophomore curriculum, and we found it very helpful. Also, I used it to prepare a world history course for a homeschool co-op. Christian Liberty Academy also publishes a teacher's manual which we did not use, tests which we did use, and a second volume.

Our Christian High School needed a few more history books. It was great to find just what we needed on Amazon and at a great price.

When I studied this book, I knew it solved my dilemma as to how to answer the question;
"How Does One Teach History to Students in Homeschool?"

This is a very exciting book. I knew it to be a good instruction when on page 7, there was an illustration of a ChessBoard, with a caption which indicated that some historians view History as a game.

It is richly illustrated, and can be used also in conjunction with other books that one might find which also cover some aspect of Mankind's history, Culture, Religious Movement, and the Rise and Fall of Empires.

I am really looking forward to reading this with my students. Volume I covers from "Earliest Times" to the Discovery of the New World. Volume II follows.

This book was purchased on the recommendation of several homeschooling websites as I wanted to have another read aloud history book for my kids. I like the organization, projects and that many important biblical and church history is presented in their historical context.

Chapter 10, entitled "The Dark Continent and the Mysterious East" covers Indian and Chinese Civilizations and Africa. The author calls African the Dark Continent "because so little was known about its history and inhabitant", some of these inhabitants being "negros". This is antiquated language that should not be used for people made in the image of God and worthy enough in the sight of God for him to sacrafice his own son. I haven't looked for how other people groups are title in this book.

With a bit of rewriting this could be a great book. As a member of a diverse community, church and homeschooling group, I cannot recommend this book.