BrimWood Press Worldview Curriculum Review
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Worldview is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but what is it? What does it mean to our families, in our homeschool, or in our society?
Everything that we do is affected by our worldview. As I once commented to someone who took exception to something I said on my blog, from my Christian worldview,
…if the things we say and do aren’t born out of our personal belief system — whether we be Christian, atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, or whatever — what good is claiming a belief system at all?
Your personal belief system, whatever it may be, forms the basis of your worldview and BrimWood Press has a wonderful series of resources to help explain this concept to kids in the 10-13 year-olds (though Brianna and I thoroughly enjoyed it, too).
Because my younger two are both in middle school this year, I thought they were at the perfect ages to enjoy the resources from BrimWood, so I was delighted to receive the following for review: A Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview, Secret of the Scribe, and Christian Theology and Ancient Polytheism.
Overview of the BrimWood Press Worldview Curriculum
Now, I’ll admit to being a bit confused about how all the books went together, so we ended up spending a bit more time in the beginning than we had to – not that we minded because we’ve really enjoyed all of it. Christian Theology and Ancient Polytheism (CTAP) is the study guide to Secret of the Scribe. Secret of the Scribe was written as a historical fiction book to give an overview of the belief systems prevalent in ancient times. Because CTAP skips around in it, it’s best to read Secret of the Scribe in its entirety before starting CTAP.
A Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview could be a stand-alone text for explaining the concept of worldview. We should have worked our way through it as we were reading Secret of the Scribe so that we’d have been ready to jump into CTAP as soon as we finished it and Secret of the Scribe.
The Worldview text only contains four lessons, but some of them are long, so we worked on one lesson per week, taking a bit longer on Lesson 4 due to several longer reading assignments.
Teaching Worldview to Kids
BrimWood Press teaches worldview just the way I like things to be taught – through engaging stories and hands-on activities. With A Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview, students are taught that worldview is “the lens through which people see and understand the world in which they live.”
What in the world does that mean?
Rather than use a lot of words to explain the concept, the worldview guide uses stories – one fiction and four non-fiction – and hands-on activities. First, kids see how different lenses affect the way they see the geodesic picture on the BrimWood Press site. The image takes on several different views depending upon which “lens” you use to view it.
After gaining a basic understand of what worldview means, students learn the basic belief characteristics of each worldview family through a series of hands-on activities. A Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview comes with everything you need to complete each of the hands-on activities with the exception of a couple of basic household items.
Though the curriculum is written from a Christian perspective with the Bible used as a source text, all worldviews are treated with respect. The facts are simply stated without any sort of judgment or commentary on each worldview family:
- Polytheism
- Monotheism
- Pantheism
- Naturalism
Specific belief systems are discussed only to the extent of understanding the basic tenets of their faith and placing them in the correct worldview family.
The worldview guide also contains review and discussion questions. Each lesson ends with a “Table Talk” section, a guided family discussion opportunity with conversation starters to walk families through an overview of what they’ve learned.
Understanding Worldview
In addition to the worldview text, there is a series of historical fiction books that take place in a world “virtually devoid of Christ, and main characters whose encounters with life struggles cause them to think deeply about their existence and beliefs.” This series allows kids to evaluate the main character’s worldview in light of their own and to gain deeper insights into their own faith.
The series includes:
- Secret of the Scribe (Ancient)
- The Jeweled Astrolabe (Medieval)
- Beneath the Cat’s Claw (Early Modern)
- Rebel on the Path (Modern)
We found Secret of the Scribe to be engaging and well-written – one of those books that we all enjoyed. We all agree that it gave each of us a better understanding of ancient polytheism. We look forward to reading the next three books once we finish the study guide that accompanies Secret of the Scribe.
We’ve really just started working our way through CTAP. Designed as a nine month program, it contains 25 lessons and I fully expect it to take us the rest of the school year to work through it. (We may have to go ahead and read the other three books!)
CTAP uses Secret of the Scribe as the talking point for comparing and contrasting Near Eastern myths with Old Testament stories in order to discuss and understand Christian theology. Some topics include:
- A comparison of creation accounts
- Flood stories
- Pagan sacrifices versus Biblical sacrifices
- Prayer
- Modern worship
- Idolatry
- Law: Babylonian, Hebrew, Hammurabi, and Moses
I really enjoy the text and looking at Near Eastern myths in comparison with the Old Testament. It helps kids to understand Christian theology and gives them a deeper understanding of their faith. However, as you can see, the topics are not light ones. That’s why this curriculum is intended for older students. As I mentioned, even though the target age range is 10-13, Brianna and I have really enjoyed it ourselves.
If you and your family are ready for a deeper understanding of worldview and Christian theology, I highly recommend the products from BrimWood Press. They are well-written and easy to implement and fill a much-needed void for Christian families.
In my opinion, the texts are neither evangelical or apologetic, but rather written to give students (including parents) a better understanding of basic Christian theology so that their faith is more fully grounded when it’s called into question.
Visit BrimWood Press to find out more. You can also follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+.
I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it. I received no other compensation for this review, which contains affiliate links. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary. Please read my full disclosure policy for more details.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.