Great Catholic Textbooks

You might have noticed some titles you didn't recognize under the What We Use heading. I thought I'd take a moment to tell you what they are and why I chose them. You or someone you know might be looking for these kinds of books too. First of all, From Sea to Shining Sea: The Story of America, is a Catholic American history text. Apparently it's been around for a few years, but in all honesty, I'd never even heard of it until I asked a friend what history she used this spring.

We had been using the ABeka series, which is kid friendly with colorful pictures, and has all the supporting materials available. It was also nice that there were lots of stories of Protestant missionaries, but we're Catholic, and there were no stories about Catholic missionaries, which I think is important for our religious formation and for the sake of completeness of the American story (especially in Louisiana). Unfortunately, there's not a lot available in the way of newer Catholic history books. Although well written, my kiddoes are used to a bit more in the way of graphics and kid friendliness. We tried History Links, which is a great Catholic unit studies program, with lots of thought provoking questions and references to our catechism, but unit studies were not quite right for our family. Finally, we heard about the books published by the Catholic Textbook Project. You can read all about their goals, etc. at CatholicTextbookProject.com

This is why I love this history book, and the companion world history book, All Ye Lands:

• the writing is clear and reflects current information
• the graphics are nice, and in color
• there is a teacher's manual, although it's listed as a beta version
• it's loaded with stories about the role of Catholicism in exploration and of the work of missionaries along the way, without disparaging the good works of other Christians along the way.

For instance, did you know that Jacques Marquette, of Marquette and Joliet, was a priest, and became an expert in Native American languages because of his missionary work? After ten years in Catholic schools I didn't know that. I didn't learn that Christopher Columbus was passionate about spreading his faith either until we visited a replica of one of his ships and picked up a book on him, but that's in here too. Have you heard of the legendary (this is presented as a legend in the book, that is as a story of unknown veracity) voyages of St. Brendan? It's fun to read about, but it was a story that all the explorers of the "age of discovery" would have heard, and probably inspired many.

Anyway, if you're interested in learning a bit more about these books, you can check them out at the above site, and they are available on Amazon.com as well