Has your family ever watched Drive Thru History Adventures videos?
Do you have boys? Kids? Teens? Adults that act like
kids? 😊 Then you’re going to love Dave Stotts
and his videos! While we own all of the Drive Thru History DVD sets, we were
surprised to find out that it now has an accompanying curriculum for high
school, called Drive Thru History Adventures.
DriveThru History Adventures can be used for any age student, but if you use the
full curriculum, with all of its components, it is appropriate for the high
schooler. We watched the videos together
as a family, and went through discussion questions with our younger son. Then, our older son completed all of the
other components on his own – including extra readings, question and answer
worksheets, side roads (even further off the trail), and some of his own
‘follow the bunny trail’ research.
The curriculum includes video, illustrations, art, readings,
worksheets, discussion questions, and opportunities for digging deeper. There are currently three courses offered :
American History, Biblical History, and Ancient History. Naturally (if you’ve followed our blog for
any length of time, this won’t be a surprise), we chose to delve into Ancient
History first!
The Ancient History course focuses on Rome, Greece, Turkey,
and the eastern world (of the era). It
has twelve different episodes, each which are 45 minutes long. The first thirty minutes are the same as the
DVD collection, so if you have that, you will have seen those. (My kids, however, enjoy watching them over
and over again.) The last fifteen
minutes are extra content that delves into the history a little bit
deeper. Not only is this ‘extra’ content
meaty, but it provides several jumping off points for further research. Every single day, my son was digging through
internet research to find out more about something that had piqued his interest
in these videos….so much so, that at times, I had to put a stop to it. When your teen is loving something so much
that you have to make them stop going down the bunny trails? That’s a curriculum worth using!He typically went down these bunny trails after completing the art history, side roads, and suggested readings (rather than printing those out, I had him read them from the computer), and then he completed the course worksheets. These worksheets are a way for me to keep track of what he’s learning for future reference.
In addition to the curriculum itself, Drive Thru History Adventures
subscribers also get access to Adventures TV and a Facebook group specifically for
curriculum users. While we spent more
time on the curriculum itself, we did find a couple of family favorite episodes
on Adventures TV….including an episode about Roman coins and a super-goofy
episode about the History of Cheese…complete with about a million ultra-‘cheesy’
puns! His personality doesn’t just stop
at the curriculum, though. When Facebook
group users left feedback about this episode, Dave responded with :
If we were allowed to teach religion in the schools today,
this would be the perfect series for middle and high schoolers. It's
informative and engaging, and the narrator is just goofy enough to keep you
asking what will happen next! The cinematography is well-done, and the
history is presented at an age-appropriate level for children to understand and
adults to want to learn by their side.
