Boy with Astrolabe
Boy with Astrolabe

Because each volume of Discover Texas is self-contained, it is possible to study the eras of Texas history independently—and that’s a good thing for families like the Smiths. They use a packaged curriculum program (like Sonlight or ABeka) that does not specifically address state history. The Smiths would like to include Texas history, but where would they add it?

The individual volumes of Discover Texas allow Mrs. Smith to access each era of Texas history as they come to it in their study of World or American history. When her children studied European explorers, they spent a day or two reading about the exploration of Texas by some of those same men. When they studied the industrial revolution, they also studied how ranches, cotton, and oil tamed the western plains of Texas.

She noticed that some of the books on the Discover Texas reading lists were on her curriculum program’s list, too. And the Thinking More questions that delved into the significance of a certain period of Texas history often pertained to their larger study as well.

The thing she most regretted was that the pace of their packaged program did not allow time during the year for the wonderful unit studies and field trips described in the Discover Texas curriculum. She could see that they really are the meat of the program. It wasn’t long before she was planning ways to use holidays and breaks to work a few of those in.

By summer, her children were ready for a change of pace. They opened the volumes of Discover Texas they’d skimmed during the year, and after a brief review they dove in to the arts and crafts in the unit studies. Slower days gave them plenty of time for fieldtrips, and the Smiths were glad that the close proximity of so many sites was easy on the budget. We really do live in the middle of a fieldtrip waiting to happen!

It took three or four summers to make it through all ten volumes of Discover Texas, but Mrs. Smith would say that their study of Texas history enhanced their other studies because it brought history to where her family lives.

Learn how to Discover Texas in other settings.