Curriculum Review: Conversations Worldview Kit by Brimwood Press

At what point in your life did you understand the concept of Worldview?  For me, it wasn’t until I was married that I even heard the phrase “worldview”.  My professors at Cedarville University started bringing it up in Bible class and Marriage and Family class.  I was fascinated with the concept and rushed home to talk to my husband about it.  Do you know where he had first heard about worldview? At a secular university Honors class where the professor spent a full semester with the sole intent of convincing the Christians to abandon their faith.  I really don’t want my kids to leave home without a solid understanding of what a worldview is and how the Christian worldview differs from others.  Brimwood Press has created a series of products which fill this need.  Enter the Conversations Worldview Kit ($125).

The first part of the Conversations Worldview Kit is called A Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview ($35.00).  This book is a very hands-on and well-written explanation of the four major worldviews and their origins.  Each of four lessons includes stories, hands-on activities, discussion questions for the dinner table, and definitions.  When I opened up the first lesson and started reading to Anna she was fascinated with the concept of lenses used to describe differing worldviews.

In fact, the first major story, called “The Artifact” so impressed her she started figuring out the analogy on her own between the various types of people/lenses in the story and the worldviews they represent.  After the first chapter, I had her read it to herself and she would read along for about half a page and then stop to tell me all about what was happening and what she thought it meant.  I love how engaged she was in the story!  Each of the four lessons is clearly presented and engaging like that.  Anna loves hands-on work, and she was so excited to create a set of four boxes representing each worldview in Lesson 3!

The second part of the Conversations Worldview Kit I reviewed is the book Secret of the Scribe which is part of Historical Novels for Engaging Thinkers (4 books, $49).  This fictional book is the basis for the text Christian Theology and Ancient Polytheism which is the third part of the Conversations Worldview Kit.  The recommendation (which we followed) is to read Secret of the Scribe first all the way through, and then read the specific chapters again as you work through the textbook.

Anna absolutely loved Secret of the Scribe! She started it at night, and got up the next morning and kept reading until it was finished (I had to make her take a break long enough to get a shower so I could take this picture)!  After finishing the book, she pretended to be Tabni (the main character) for the better part of a week complete with an “Ancient Sumerian” costume.  She also totally got the message of the book without any prompting from me.

When she was almost finished with the book the first time, she came to me and said, “I think if Tabni believed in the one true God, she wouldn’t be so worried about whether or not the “gods” hated her because she would know that God loved her no matter what.  He doesn’t ever change!  He would always love her and she would know that nothing that happened to her would be because he was mad at her.”  Wow!  The poor girl in the story was swayed by every wind whether good or ill, convinced that the gods were showing her favor or the gods hated her.  That’s a very sad way to live life, and my little ten-year-old totally got that concept.

Now that Anna has finished each lesson in The Young Historian’s Introduction to Worldview and finished her first reading of Secret of the Scribe, it is time for us to start working through Christian Theology and Ancient Polytheism ($32). With 25 lessons, this text should take us the rest of the year to complete.  I was pleased to come across this quote in the parent introduction of this text:

“Through examining polytheism closely we see more clearly what it looks like to worship one God.  In the same way that the dark deepens one’s appreciation for the light, the ramifications of falsehood make the truth that much more compelling.” (p.10)

Yes! This is exactly what we have already begun experiencing with this curriculum as we worked through the first two components.  I’m glad to know that we will cover this concept even more in depth.

I’m also excited that we get to keep a Secret of the Scribe journal notebook as we go through each lesson! Anna loves keeping a journal notebook and in fact has already drawn her cover to glue onto the front — she tried to match the cover of Secret of the Scribe except with shorter hair.  (I can’t explain why without a spoiler, so you will have to read the book for yourself.)  The pages for your notebook journal are included in the text, along with discussion questions, stories, Bible passages, and explanation.  The lessons include references to the old system under the law and the new system under the gospel.  You need to keep your copy of Secret of the Scribe on hand as well as a copy of the Bible which you read from in each lesson.  I’m really excited to dig into this and so is Anna.

My Bottom Line:    Four weeks into the curriculum, and Anna already has a better understanding of worldview then I had as a sophomore in college.  I am deeply impressed with this curriculum and look forward to using more materials from Brimwood Press! In fact, Conversations from the Garden ($12) — the last part of the Conversations Worldview Kit — was not included in my review package and I am already planning to purchase it once we finish up Christian Theology and Ancient Polytheism.