Review: Veritas Press

"Mom?"  goes my son as we figure out how to plan our day.  I'm mentioning what I think we should accomplish.   After I list off my thoughts he asks.  "Can I do Veritas Press instead of science and math today?   Can I mom?"
As I hesitate saying "Well... I don't know, you need to do your science and math too."
My boy beseechingly adds "BUT MOM.. I LIKE Veritas Press.  It's funny and I like it mom.  PLEASE.....".
What can I say, doing this review for Veritas Press has been a huge hit!  :)

Over the past few weeks we've been reviewingSelf-paced history from Veritas Press.   It has turned into one of our favourite programs to use.  :)    Come with me as I waslk you through using the program.

When your student is logged into the history program, you'll see this screen.   Most of the time we just clicked the blue button which opened up a whole new screen.  It took us a bit of time to figure out that we needed to approve pop ups from Veritas Press for this to work.    Our other option, when we wanted to see where we would be going next was to click the assignments button which is under the VP logo.

Doing so would lead us to this page.   Here you can see how you are earning the grades you are earning, what course you are on and what assignments are coming up.   Because it is self-paced history it means that you can take your time going through it.  Each lesson is covered in five lessons (with a test at the end).   Lessons can be done again, but grades don't change.

During the lessons (we did Middle Ages) you will meet your instructors (one of ours was a gargoyle) and various ways to test your knowledge.   The gargoyle  frequently makes us laugh.   At the end of the lesson you have to option of completing additional work, using books found in the library, we did not exercise our option to do this.   We did read through some of the materials, but the lad was totally uninterested in it.

In the mix of the lessons there are a variety of games for the children to enjoy.  To do well in the games you would need to answer questions in order to give yourself a boost over the computer, or to give yourself more time to complete the game and so forth.   Most of the games my son enjoyed, there was one that he disliked.   The sea monsters and boat game he enjoyed immensely.

And every five lessons there is a test!     The lad gets rather anxious about taking tests so I'm glad these are fairly low key and come after lots of quizzing throughout the lessons.   It's nice to have the option to save and print off for records if needed.

Included in Veritas Press are Flashcards.  It took a while for them to get here and I thought by the time they got here the lad would not be interested in them since the cards are shown during the video lesson time as well.     I was wrong.  My son was quite interested in them and refers back to them especially since I told him all the information you are tested on is on the back of the cards.

The cards are well made and informative.   They came with an orange piece of paper which pointed out all the unique things about them.   That paper seems to have completely vanished from my house, so bear with me as I go through some of our highlights with the cards.  I should mention as well that on the back of the cards they list a number of resources.   These are things my son likes about the cards.

Veritas Press is a hit in our household.  Our intentions are to continue using this program.   What we will study next I don't know, but we'll study something and enjoy ourselves doing it.  But first we have a whole year to finish the Middle Ages.    So glad that we had a chance to review this program.   Why don't you check it out for yourself?  They have samples available.   Justcheck them out here.    To see what the program requires check out this page.   I found it worked just fine for me and I have sometimes wonky internet and an older computer but it worked well!  :)

We have covered thus far:

• St Augustine Coverts to Christianity
• Barbarian Invasion and Vikings
• St. Jerome completes the Vulgate

The positives of using self-paced history from Veritas Press.

1. My son loves it
2. Short, easy to understand segments.
3. Frequent testing of knowledge.
4. Funny
5. Easy repeatable.
6. Self-paced
7. No teacher planning required (unless you want to go out and get books from the library)
8. Review throughout the lessons.

The concerns I have

1. Starting off with a test that my son basically failed almost put us off the program all together.  "MOM!   I don't know any of this stuff!  Mom!  It thinks I'm stupid now!!!  Mom.  I can't do this. I can't".  (complete with tears).
   
2. My son cannot, as of yet, do Veritas Press independently.  Some of this is focus-related, and some of it is, he simply can't read well enough yet.  This is not completely a bad thing... as now I am learning a lot of history that I didn't know. :)
   
3. The song is very long.  I personally don't have an issue with this as I like singing along with it, but my lad is getting tired of it's length.   I just tell him it's great review of what he's learned and of what is coming up and keep singing along and before long he's trying to sing with me.   
4. MAPS.  I want maps on flashcards (so does my son).  He wants to be able to look them up and see where these places are instead of having to try to memorize them after one or two views during the lesson.  Too many places to remember he says.  Having a map would be an aid to his memory (and mine).
5. The word scrambles... making them so they weren't timed would be a huge benefit.  They caused too much struggle and I found them difficult (much less an eight year old).
   

Would I recommend Veritas Press for your students?   For sure.   For weaker readers,. or students needing help to focus, I would suggest you stay with your student as an assist to them.   For everyone else, just let them go to it.  You can easily monitor what they are doing and you can listen to the lessons again and again if you want to learn it as well without affecting their grade.  :)   T'is a good thing that.  :)

Product Details:

Vendor: Veritas Press
Product: One year of the Veritas Press: Self Paced History.   
My son chose to do Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation
With these we received: Middle Ages, Ren & Ref Flashcards
Price: $199.00 for the course, flashcards are $19.95
Age Range: Grades 2nd-6th.  They recommend minimum age of 7 on the first day of class.

There are a number of other programs being reviewed as well, other self-paced history courses, which include 

• Old Testament and Ancient Egypt
• New Testament, Greece, and Rome
• Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation
• Explorers to 1815
• 1815 to Present

The omnibus program has been reviewed as well.     This is an all-encompassing program.    So click on the banner below to learn more.  :)

Social Media Links.
Veritas Press can be found in a variety of mediums.

Facebook.    Twitter.  Pinterest.  and Google+.
They would be delighted if you would check them out!  :)