"By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches." ~Proverbs 24:3-4
Philosophy Adventure™
NOTE: I received a preview copy of Philosophy Adventure: Pre-Socratics in exchange for my honest review.
DO YOU NEED to teach advanced writing and speaking skills to your homeschool teen?
DO YOU WANT to be equipped to discern the truth about the ungodly messages and false philosophies that bombard us every day?
DO YOU WONDER how you can possibly cover all of this academically as well as practically?
Philosophy Adventure is the perfect solution!
Philosophy Adventure is a program designed to help 6th-12th grade students cultivate and defend a biblical worldview by teaching them how to writeskillfully, think critically, and speak articulately as they explore the history of philosophy and the impact of ideas. Philosophy Adventure is engaging, easy to use, and empowering!
Philosophy Adventure is designed to be flexible. You can use it as a primary curriculum, as a supplement, and it’s interesting enough to make for enjoyable leisure reading! I always wanted to learn about the history of philosophy, but most philosophy books I found to be either dry and boring, or incompatible with my Christian beliefs. Philosophy Adventure is like a breath of fresh air! Homeschool mom Stacy Farrell has created an educational product that makes philosophy fun AND is written from a Christian worldview!
Much More Than Philosophy...
Philosophy Adventure is really unique in that it is not just a philosophy course. Using the lives of the philosophers as a starting point, Philosophy Adventure covers a wide range of subjects: History & Geography, Vocabulary & Composition, Logic & Critical Thinking, Presentation & Persuasion, Apologetics & Worldview. This comprehensive curriculum would be a great humanities elective for homeschool students!
The author provides a guideline of what is needed to use Philosophy Adventure for high school credit in English Composition, World History/Geography, Speech/Communications, and Logic/Critical Thinking. She even incorporates a bit of art appreciation with close-up images of philosophers taken from “School of Athens,” a masterpiece painted between 1510 and 1511 by the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael.
Philosophy Adventure is the most interactive curriculum I’ve seen that isn’t a DVD or computer program. The user-friendly layout, visually appealing pages, conversational text, colorful images, interesting stories, and challenging exercises are engaging and easy to follow. You and your student both will be fascinated by these lessons on the philosophers as you enjoy studying them from a Christian worldview and then writing and speaking about their ideas.
Meet the philosophers and read interesting anecdotes from the life of each philosopher, the time and place in which he lived (with references to biblical figures and others who were alive at that same time), the School of Thought identified with each philosopher, how his ideas played out in his own life, and how his ideas ultimately impacted the world. The ancient Greek philosophers featured in Philosophy Adventure: Pre-Socratics include: Thales, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Protagoras, and Democritus. (Additional titles featuring other famous philosophers are currently in progress.)
“Write Think Speak” sidebars are intentionally woven throughout the lessons with writing and discussion prompts to complement the concepts presented, while reinforcing the critical importance of developing communication skills and getting students thinking so they can proactively combat false theologies. Each lesson concludes with a “Contrast” section, the first part of which presents a snippet of actual source material, and a second part which explores whether the ideas presented by the philosopher align with a biblical worldview.
The Philosophy Adventure curriculum consists of three volumes:
The Reader is a spiral bound, 8.5 x 11?, colorful text filled with relevant images, philosopher stories, writing lessons, critical thinking lessons, public speaking lessons, historical geography, primary sources, and a biblical worldview analysis. Significant persons, places, works, and dates are set in bold type throughout the lessons, often accompanied by phonetic pronunciations or other helpful information. The Reader also contains detailed writing checklists designed to help students move through the writing process with clarity and confidence - while equipping you to effectively evaluate the writing that your students produce.
The Student Workbook includes philosopher notebook pages, journaling pages, timelines, mapping assignments, quizzes, tests, glossary chart, and more.
The Teacher’s Resources contain answer keys to the quizzes, tests, and mapping assignments, memory cards, timeline resources, a glossary of terms and definitions, and “at-a-glance” instructions designed to simplify teaching.
Philosophy Adventure is completely self-contained and ready to use, although the author does recommend a few resources (Philippians in 28 Weeks, The Wise Woman with Literary Analysis Journal Questions, and Mere Christianity) to complement her philosophy curriculum. The Reader also includes lists of Recommended Resources (she draws upon some of the finest resources available from such great Christian thinkers as C.S. Lewis, R.C. Sproul, and Ravi Zacharias) and Works Consulted (books and websites) for anyone who wants to delve deeper into one or more topics.
Hal and Melanie Young, authors of Raising Real Men, had this to say about Philosophy Adventure:
“When Paul urges us not to be blown about by every wind of doctrine, a knowledge of what drives those winds will blunt their impact. Philosophy Adventure™ will give students a grasp of the foundations of Western philosophical thought and do it in an accessible and engaging way, but even more, its integrated approach will give your students the rhetorical skills to communicate the important differences between that which is "falsely-called wisdom" and a truly Biblical worldview. Philosophy Adventure™ is more than a course on thinkers, it's a course in how to think for yourself and how to effectively share those thoughts with others. And it's a course you and your students won't be able to put down!”
About the Author: Stacy Farrell is a homeschool mom, conference speaker, and workshop leader. She has taught a variety of classes including world history, philosophy, creative writing, essay writing, critical thinking, and speech communication. As both a writer and a teacher, she has a passion for empowering teens to recover territory lost to fuzzy thinking and low expectations.
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