Is there a teacher's manual? Are there tests, required activities, assignments? Will I know the answers?

Happily, separate teacher manuals aren't needed; sample responses to our ThinkWrite exercises as well as resource lists are at the rear of each guide. Brief, conversational instructions are included as a preface. The one guide is all you need. In fact, one guide works for the entire family since these are not fill-in-the-blank disposable student workbooks.

So, what are the ThinkWrite exercises, and why do they make testing unnecessary? They are crucial writing assignments strategically placed throughout the guides to incrementally focus students on the deepest spiritual truths, moral issues, and national consequences. Depending on the age of the student and available time, some families do the ThinkWrites as oral discussions. To view samples, visit the specific guide of interest on our "Buy/Sample" page, and follow the "Sample" hyperlink. Most samples contain a ThinkWrite exercise. Remember, you will also be talking, talking, talking. In fact, the sample ThinkWrite answers in the appendix of each guide can be read by parents wanting to jumpstart pithy conversations. These are all very natural and relational means of learning! It is a lot like discipling! Walking together, talking together, eating together, learning together, working together…and no multiple-choice tests!

Most TruthQuest History guides contain seven to eleven ThinkWrite exercises. Of course, the guides for young students have fewer and simpler ThinkWrites which can be done orally or in simple writing. Some families break down into sections the larger ThinkWrite exercises in the upper guides, as needed by their children to tackle the assignment.

Conventional testing, then, is not necessary. TruthQuest History families are immersed in the material: talking, reading, playing, making notebooks and timelines, staging skits, etc. Artificial inducements are rarely needed. Some families may devise fun quizzes, but that is optional. You'll have no doubt that your children are learning, and neither will your in-laws! They'll be talking it and playing it all the time!

Daily supplemental activities are not included in TruthQuest History, though we do cite activity books, cookbooks, paper doll books, paper soldier books, and other such resources for families who enjoy them. Instead, we offer you a guided 'float trip' down the river of ancient and western history, and we help your children spend rich hours in the best living books. In fact, many families have found they prefer history without embedded activities: they enjoy an uninterrupted focus on the spiritual issues and don't feel they're 'behind' or 'not doing it all.'

(To see how others use TQH on a daily basis: TruthQuest History Families Share.)

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