This is a sponsored post and that means I received the curriculum free and was compensated for my time. What it does not mean is that I have to write a positive review or have to accept any reviews that I don’t want to. All opinions are my own or those of my family and you know I will always tell you what is on my mind. You can click here to read more about all that legal stuff.
Since moving here to South America, I have been focused on sharing and using more digital courses. Too, with this being the last year for Mr. Awesome, he wanted a no fluff approach to world history.
Though Mr. Awesome shares my love of hands-on history, he would rather not lounge around in all the details of history like Mr. Senior 2013 did.
Strange kid I know to not share my love of savoring history and geography at every waking minute, but my goal in high school is for Mr. Awesome to pursue high school courses in a way to help him accomplish goals he has set.
So when I heard about Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum, I was delighted to do a review of World History because I wanted Mr. Awesome to move along at his pace and not mine.
A nice plus about the PAC homeschool curriculum is that it comes in both a digital format and printed book. Mr. Awesome liked having both options but almost always prefers to read in a digital format.
Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum – Back to Basics
When I first got the curriculum and we looked it over together, it almost felt too light on content.
However, going through it longer, we liked that it was just the back to basics in world history that Mr. Awesome wanted.
There were other things I liked about it too.
In the course description it certainly takes the guess work out of creating your own high school curriculum because it gives not only a course description but gives you the amount of credit hours.
It is easy to create your own unique high school transcript too with Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum because you have both credit hours and course description.
Too, during the high school years, is the time to prepare your teen for the type of educational approach that will take place either in college or a vocational school, which is really a textbook format.
It is hard to maintain your homeschool approach that has worked so well for you up to this time and balance that with preparing your teen for a more formal approach.
I don’t want to have to give up my unit study approach with a love for living books in high school.
I want to feel I have a choice when we want to pursue a unit study approach and add in what I need to prepare Mr. Awesome more formally for the next steps in his life.
Using PAC and integrating it with the themes we discussed over these past months has been very doable because of the set up the curriculum.
At this grade level, independence should be encouraged and required and the curriculum is set up in a straightforward and easy format.
Homeschool World History Digital Course
Look at some of these details that make this formal approach pretty easy to navigate even for the most unorganized teen.
There are 3 parts to the world history curriculum.
One part has 6 booklets or chapters, which is the student text.
I actually think this part of having only 6 chapters is a great way to encourage a teen that may feel behind or overwhelmed with a lot of information.
The part I like as teacher mom who wants this kid to have a well rounded out view of world history is that each chapter contains the following 15 topics:
|
|
Can you think of anything else to include in a world history course?
The second part is the Activity book.
This is where the student reviews the text by filling in the answers by multiple choice, filling in the blanks, defining vocabulary and labeling small portions of the map.
You know my fondness for quotes too.
So one part I really like is that each chapter ends with a character building quote called Life Principle. Your teen then copies this life principle in the student activity book.
Then, like a high school course should be, it also encourages independent self-checking by the student using the teacher’s resource kit.
The teacher’s resource kit is the third component to this set.
Though I glanced at this tool in the beginning, it was mostly Mr. Awesome who used it to check his work.
The teacher’s resource kit has the answers for each chapter’s activities, quizzes and test.
There are a few extra forms in the teacher’s resource kit, which are formulated more for use by private schools.
However, there is one form that I see being particularly helpful to homeschoolers, which is the High School Transcript Planner.
PAC – World History in Broad Strokes
Another important reason I wanted to review this was because I was looking for a high school program that could cover world history in broad strokes too.
I know that not every child of mine is going to want to linger over all the details of world history.
You know we have used a program at the elementary level that had broad strokes and it was such a huge success for my kids.
Since I can’t be selective about the details when it comes to history because I love them all, having the world history program from PAC, which is a framework for world history, keeps Mr. Awesome from being weighed down with nonessential details.
Though we covered as much of the booklets in chronological order as we could, one of the advantages for me in using this with our unit studies is that we can pick and choose which booklet we want to do because each one covers a certain time span.
For example, Chapter 1 covers from 5000 to 1200 BC and Chapter 6 covers from 1800 to 2011.
I have changed my mind from when we first got this curriculum because it has been a good fit for Mr. Awesome who wants to move along faster in world history.
Too, covering such broad strokes has allowed him to match or parallel the same material or theme we are doing in our unit studies.
For example, Mr. Awesome was able to read Chapter 4, which included Marco Polo while I did that unit study with Tiny.
Certainly, with the booklets you do not have to cover history in chronological order, which is the part I love because I can still use this program and cover unit studies in the order we want to.
PAC would be a good fit for a teen who wants to move on with world history at his pace and still review major turning points in history.
If a teen has failed to get a good picture of significant events because he has been weighed down with unnecessary details, this curriculum would bring a blessed relief.
Written in a conversational tone, with black and white images and with timelines, PAC makes a workbook approach a lot more appealing.
There is just one thing I want you to know about too that I wish were a bit different.
The box with the printed curriculum arrived fine but the curriculum had dog eared and wrinkled pages.
I wish the booklets were packed with a bit more care and conscientiousness because first impressions do mean a lot. Maybe this was just an oversight, I don’t know.
When you pay for a high school level course, you want it in excellent condition.
Overall though Mr. Awesome was very happy with this straight to the point no frills world history curriculum and I was delighted that we used this curriculum.
I am looking over other parts of this curriculum to complete some of the other requirements for high school for Mr. Awesome.
Look at the details I gathered up and put here for you in one spot.
Company Name: Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum
Website: PACWORKS
Product Name: World History
Age: High School
Credit Hours: 1 credit.
Format: In both digital and print.
Note: PAC is in the process of incorporating QR codes into all their courses, allowing the students to access extra content via smartphone. As of now, the only course with this technology is biology.
Price in printed format: $111.35
Price in digital format (remember you need all 3 components): World History Text $24.00, World History Activities $18.00 and World History TRK $5.69
Note: PAC has informed me that they are updating their website to make it easier to recognize the digital downloads. A lot of people get confused because the digital downloads serve 2 purposes.
One is just to make the print curriculum available to their customers at a cheaper price by providing them with a digital download option.
The other is to use in unison with a third-party text-to-speech software for students with reading disabilities, such as dyslexia, which they call Audio Enhanced Learning.
Essentially, they are one and the same, but some people get thrown off by the title, which is what they are changing to make it more recognizable.
The digital downloads are titled “Digital Downloads (Audio Enhanced Learning)”.
Discounts you’ll love:
20% Discount
PAC offers a 20% discount to active military, ministers, missionaries, farmers, ranchers, and first responders (police, firemen, EMS, EMT, etc.).
40% Discount
PAC offers a 40% discount to single parents.
PAC also offers a 40% discount for homeschool support groups who make a combined purchase of $1000.00 or more retail.
Follow them:
Hugs and you know I love ya,
All product information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.
My son and I have been considering PAC for various courses including world history. Your review and pictures have helped us realize it is the perfect fit for us as we utilize the unit study approach too.
Thanks so much for your thorough review.
You are so welcome Jenn..It was a perfect fit for us and what our needs were at the time…
Hi Tina,
Are you using PAC along with North Star Geography this year?
Thanks!
Hi Jennifer,
Yes, this was an unexpected and nice surprise for my kid who loves this kind of set up. I really liked it too.
Like I said it allowed me to add in my unit studies but prepare him for a more formal approach.
Hope that helps Jennifer!
Hi Tina,
Approx. how many pages does each chapter booklet have? And each activity booklet? What kind of worldview does the course present?
Thank you!
Hey Cindi,
For sure I love answering your questions. Look here:
Text
Chapter 1 – 56 pages
Chapter 2 – 76 pages
Chapter 3 – 68 pages
Chapter 4 – 72 pages
Chapter 5 – 71 pages
Chapter 6 – 73 pages
Activity Book
Chapter 1 – 39 pages
Chapter 2 – 39 pages
Chapter 3 – 32 pages
Chapter 4 – 34 pages
Chapter 5 – 36 pages
Chapter 6 – 36 pages
Worldview is a little harder to define with the 4-6 weeks we used it,but I love the character building principles at the end which are to shape their world view.
I went off their mission,which is as follows:
The mission of Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum (PAC) is to train parents, teachers and educational entrepreneurs to provide for students an individualized learning system and principle-based curriculum specifically designed to address the character, academics and emotional needs of students who have been under-served or have underperformed in conventional classrooms.
To that objective, PAC publishes soft-cover 8-1/2″ by 11″ individualized print books, audio enhanced coursed, and online interactive courses via smartphones, tablets, and computers for math, science, history, and English for grades seven through twelve. PAC offers staff training in an individualized, accelerated learning system based on The Six Principles of Learning, designed by internationally-recognized educator, Ronald E. Johnson, C.Ph.D.
I hope that helps!!