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This is a product review of an annual subscription to Drive Thru History Adventures. There are three online History courses available from the Drive Thru History Adventures company. There is Bible History, Ancient History and American History. I reviewed the Ancient History videos for this review.

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Product Review of Drive Thru History Adventures

Each online course has weekly lessons with digital videos, some reading material and questions to answer. Dave Stotts is the narrator, actor and teacher. In these “Adventures” videos, he goes on field trips around the world and teaches geography, archaeology, classic art, and Christian worldview. He often uses humor to make it more entertaining.

How We Used It

Since there were going to be at least four of us watching the videos, we hooked our laptop (HP brand) up to our big screen television set so we could have a better visual experience and have the sound go through the speakers and relax in our living room.

You could also watch it directly on a laptop, a personal home computer, a tablet or other viewing device or a smartphone.

formats of Drive Thru History Adventures laptop pc mac tablet kindle smartphone cellphone app

Our family chose not to do the reading material or questions, but those are available right on the website to use and we may do that in the future.

This is what the Dashboard looks like when you start it up…

Drive Thru History Adventures dashboard screenshot menu

We hovered the cursor over the Curriculum section and the three online courses show up. Then clicked on Ancient History Adventures and twelve episodes and their titles came up, like this…

we clicked on the episode we wanted to watch and then we sat back and watched it.

We watched all of the twelve videos in the afternoons, usually after lunch. This is an annual subscription, but I feel there are two to three years of material here; so a family would benefit from purchasing it a second and third year at this point. As they add more videos and materials, you may need additional years.

There is also an Adventures TV section where there are additional videos to watch. Since our review period ran over these holidays: we watched The History of Groundhog Day, The History of Saint Valentine's Day (we were busy on that day so we watched it late), and The History of Presidents' Day. Also, because Dave was wearing a gas mask on the video pic, we just had to watch Dave's Adventures (2-9-17) out of curiosity and were not disappointed. These are all short little videos that are entertaining and educational.

The kids really enjoyed watching the videos and one day we received this nice package in the mail with an autographed photo of Dave Stotts and some patches and stickers. My kids were so thrilled to receive that. What a wonderful surprise!

Mercedes' Opinion (age 15, female)

I like the fact that I can watch it instead of having to read something. It's also nice to see footage of the roman ruins. I would recommend it.

Maris' Opinion (age 12, male)

It's really good, fun, and educational.

Miranda's Opinion (age 7, female)

There are parts of it that are really funny and makes me laugh.

An Example of a Video (Spoilers)

So you have an example of a video, I will talk about some of what was in Episode 12: The Best Of The Ancient World. It seems to be a round-up of all that we learned, like a summary. We learned about the Roman Colosseum and how brutal Emperor Claudius was and that there would be thumbs up or down whether someone would live or not.

In the Greek portion, we learned that they were polytheistic and believed in many gods, including an unknown god. We also learned about Greece's Mount Parnassus where the legendary Oracle at Delphi was located. According to legend, there was a fissure that went deep into the earth that emitted narcotic fumes that this woman or “pythia” would put her face over and breathe in and then go into a trance-like state and speak a kind of unintelligible babbling talk that no one but the priest could translate. It amazes me that we humans believed these lies back then. We touched on the Apostle Paul's speech in Athens as well.

Turkey was also talked about with Polycarp's death and the spread of Christianity and talked about Paul's teachings in that area. I myself enjoyed learning about Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and watching Dave Stotts in that “most visited city in Turkey”. It was interesting to see the endless marketplaces and watching Dave find Turkish Delight, a food our family has never tried and now may consider trying to make for our upcoming International Day in 4-H (if it turns out okay in our practice at home). I enjoyed seeing the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market. I especially love how Dave Stotts uses and describes all his senses: what he sees, smells, tastes, feels, and hears so we can feel like we are right there with him.

The expansion of Christianity in Western Civilization and the defining qualities of the Christian faith-based on the teachings of Jesus Christ that eventually helped some believers in the founding of America was also talked about.

My Opinion

It is definitely more interesting to learn in this way with breaking up the teaching parts with some comedy, artwork, photos and video footage of the sites in modern-day times. I really enjoyed seeing Dave Stotts get all excited about the vehicles he was driving like the Doblo and the Mini Cooper. It was so cute to see him get emotional over leaving them when it was time to move on.

In this day of GPS to get everywhere, it was nice to see some maps and that the maps used the Bible names for the places and that he also mentioned the modern-day name of the place and if there were any names in between. It was enjoyable to see the path drawn on the map of where some historical people or armies traveled.

I like that sometimes they cover some of the statues or paintings with swimming suits on some personal parts to make it more family friendly.

Oddly enough, my favorite part of the Ancient History videos was when they showed the modern-day ruins of ancient public toilets made of marble and how they may have sat on them with everyone in that room watching and how they may have washed their hands.

I found this Ancient History video series to be very entertaining and educational and am so glad we found this great learning tool! I want to watch every video and TV adventure that they produce, it is seriously that amazing! I also want to schedule into our days to go through the suggested reading and additional information.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”d9aS1″ via=”yes” ]Oddly enough, my favorite part of the Ancient History videos was when they showed the modern-day ruins of ancient public toilets made of marble and how they may have sat on them with everyone in that room watching and how they may have washed their hands.[/ctt]

I recommend that you purchase Drive Thru History Adventures for your homeschool. You will not be disappointed!