Teaching American History Through a Biblical Lens: Homeschool Insights with Angela O'Dell

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Hey, guys, before we get started, I just wanted to let you know we are doing a giveaway for a digital copy of America Story two, and that giveaway is happening in the Moms of Master Books Facebook group and in the Master Books app. When you're in there, just look for the post that points to this podcast. All links are below that like button all right, so to learn a little bit more about America's story, stay tuned.

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Here at Master Books, we are dedicated to help you disciple your children and develop a strong faith as a family with pro Bible, homeschool curriculum, and beautiful books that honor God as creator. We offer online courses to help your family worship and serve God. You will also find morning baskets and devotionals for the whole family. Our mission is ink on paper to touch eternity, and we have been publishing Christian books for this purpose since 1975.

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Find your pro Bible Homeschool curriculum at Master books.com. Hello everyone! Welcome back to the Master Books podcast. I'm Jennifer White and I have Angela O'Dell with me here today. We are talking about America's Story master books, American History curriculum series. We've talked to Angela a lot about math lessons for a living education, but we realized we really haven't talked about history very much.

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So obviously Angela is a prolific curriculum writer, and we are so grateful that she's partnering with us to partner with you to make sure your children get a biblical education. And so thank you, Angela. Thanks for everything. You're doing. Thanks for America story. You're welcome. It's been so much fun. It's you're going to find that history is my passion.

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I love math, I do I really do love math, but history is just it lights my fire. So I'm excited about it. Yeah, well we are we are grateful. And you have lit that fire for many students because the narrative that you use within your series, America's Story series. So let's talk about how is America's story different from any other homeschool American history curriculum?

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Well, I think the biggest difference is the fact that we actually take three years to cover the entire scope. And of course, you know, we can study history until we're blue in the face and we're not going to learn at all. But it is more fun to take a little bit more leisurely stroll down through those stories and and be able to flesh out the real life stories of the people who made up our history.

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So I really I really like the fact that, I can allow that time and that care to those characters. Yes, I'd say that's probably the biggest difference is actually being able to to get to know the people in history a little bit better, make make friends in history. Absolutely. So you have three volumes. Let's go back and talk about what age group you wrote this for.

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Well, I originally, wrote it for, pretty much anybody who liked history, but, with Matchbox, it's, it's marketed, towards third grade through like six, I think. And, it is, it's very appropriate for children that age and for families, of children that age. So that's, that's very accurate. I've also had, parents ask me is it okay if I use it with my junior high student?

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Is it, you know, I'm like, go for it. It can definitely be a base for, you know, where you where you learned the just kind of the basics and then you could add on to it where there's a low point of interest, and if you want to do a couple books in a year, you can I mean, it's it's extremely flexible.

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It's very flexible tool. And a lot of parents are using it with multiple ages. Right. Exactly. Yes. That's a big thing because, when I, when I actually, started that series, that American Story one was my first book I ever, I ever wrote, and I had absolutely no intention of ever having it published. Okay. Period. It was like, not even on the radar yet.

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Yeah. It's a funny story. But God had other plans, and, I wrote that with, my my daughter, my youngest daughter at the time she was six. I had her in mind. And so that's that's where that all started. I can't remember your original question before I got distracted by my story now. Well, we were just talking about what age it's for, what grade level four, and that it can be used across many ages.

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If you are a large homeschool family and you want to use America Story as an American history subject, most ages. Everybody together. Definitely. Most definitely. Right. So let's then talk about the segments that you've written. And then we've got three books that volume one, two and three and then teacher guides to go with each one. Yes. So the first one is the explorers through,

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It's kind of like right before the Civil War upheaval began. So I really don't focus that much on on that specific topic in, first volume. So it's more focused on but like the Alamo and, you know, the War of 1812 and, you know, those kind of early events of the, the early 1800s, like so leading up to the Civil War.

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And I think I actually cover, the gold rush on that one, too. Yes, I do. So that's, that's kind of that content in that one. And then, book two starts for volume two starts, kind of and, and just in that whole upheaval time of, the country heading up to the Civil War, I really focus on Abraham Lincoln for a couple of weeks.

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I focus on what he stood for and how he changed and how his perspective evolved through the years. And, just a lot of different things. So the Missouri Compromise, the whole, all of the things that led up to the Civil War now, obviously I'm not going to go into massive, detail on on all of the political things that were involved in that in that whole time period.

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But I want the children to understand that really, underneath it all, the Civil War was about two major issues state rights and slavery, mostly slavery and the states rights to have slavery. But I really just want them to understand that foundational understanding of why our nation actually thought that horrible of a war within our own borders, brother against brother and, I just it that is a difficult, difficult topic to to cover for children so that that whole thing was bathed in prayer, that God was writing, that it was very difficult to bring down to their level without it being too sketchy, without there being too much information.

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Very difficult. So. Right. And you're known for writing an edited history. So yes, you you helped it be palatable for the age group that you've written it for. But there's some, there's a lot of that editing history to be what we want it to be, when it really just is what it is. So let's talk about that a minute.

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Yes, history is history. You cannot change it. Our responsibility is to learn from it. And you cannot learn from history when you whitewash it or remove things from it that you find objectionable. If you don't learn from it, history does tend to, not just take repeated self, but it does follow that same type of cycle of behaviors.

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We're seeing it in big time and, the forgetting of what happens when one person or one group of people are given the right to, to, determine the value of another group of people of their lives. You know, we're seeing this massive, you know, this this, really a cultural crisis over just the abortion and all of the things that are happening in our world that are really stem from that.

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If they if somebody would just go and study the Holocaust and how Hitler had that much say over a whole group of people's lives, it's very it's chilling. But when we remove those things from our history, we don't learn from them. So I that's one of the big reasons why I have such a burden for children. And the America story series is written for more children.

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And I just my whole goal is to introduce them to some of the heroes in our history, to tell them about some of those really horrible human blunders and, and things that are very much a mark on our own history. They're there. But to also put it in a setting of, you know what? What can we learn from this?

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And how can we see God's hand throughout all of this, and how he has used everything that has happened in our history as a furthering of his plan? And, well, how can we see that? Well, one of the things that we hear a lot about all of the your work, but especially America story is how well the students retain the information because of the way you present it.

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So let's talk a little bit about that, how you've designed that so that there is retention. There is at the end of the, of the whole thing. They like are glad they studied. Well, when I, when I started writing these, I was very much using several major factors from the Charlotte Mason, method and I, I always whenever I say that, I always say right off the bat just I, I have never been a Charlotte Mason purist, but I do appreciate quite a few of her major.

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The major elements of her, her method. And one of them is oral narration. So, my goal when I designed this, this program was to create something that. Worked with the students, attention span. And it's very similar to the short lessons in the math lessons for a living education, so that, you know, they're short lessons and they get progressively longer as the student gets older.

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But I'm a very firm believer in, that we are always teaching our children. We are always teaching them something. It is never there's never a time in our interactions with our children that we aren't teaching them something. So most, available curriculum that that was available when my kids were younger, I had to, either. Like remove half of it because it was just too much, or I had to, pretty much rewrite it so that it was aligned with my world, my worldview.

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So my goal was to create something that I didn't have to edit because I wrote, because I knew it was going to have everything that it needed. Right. And that it worked with their attention span. So when we when we give our, our, children to too much, when we're expecting them to sit and listen to hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of us reading or, big, thick textbooks with all these, you know, fill in the blanks.

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And there's nothing wrong, per se, with that type of learning. But when it's too much, when it goes way beyond their attention span, it literally teaches them to turn their brains off. And so over and over and over, you're telling them this is what learning looks like, and they're getting discouraged and just shutting down. So when you work with their attention span and then gradually grow that attention span, it keeps their brain on.

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It's like Randy says, keeps them in good brain. You know, it doesn't turn the brain off or go into bad brain and get a bad attitude about it. It stays in the good. And when you focus on real stories and you tell them the real human stories of the people who made up history, it it's a much more likely that they're going to connect with that.

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They're not just getting a blip in a paragraph. And here again, I was able to do that because I had the three volumes that I wrote. And so I was able to spend two weeks talking about Abraham Lincoln and all of the things happening all around him. So he was the focal point. But they're also learning all of these things that were happening in our country during that time period.

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So it that information, they remember that information because the setting of the story. So that's really one of the big reasons why children usually like learning my history is because it's not boring. It's not just a dry fact with a date and something that they have to remember that has no meaning for them at all. They've not made any type of relationship with it.

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So to read, to remember anything, we all, all of us, it's a human thing. We have to make a relationship with it. You're never going to remember anything if you don't have something to hook it to that you you care about. I agree and I love that that's what you've done for the students because we don't want to I mean yes they have to have that credit but we don't want to waste anybody's time.

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Right. And how beautiful it is that they're going to learn the story that they can retell. They will have the unedited history that they can retell and learn from, and they will come out of it having been really taught in a way that makes them love learning. So I love that. And I keep thinking about how Jesus taught with stories and so you're using that same method that he used to help make sure this is relevant to them or meaningful to them.

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Right? I mean, you think about how much we would remember from Jesus's teachings if we took away all the stories and just had bullet points instead. And let's better let's add some dates and some abstract numbers to it. And then when we enjoy it and remember, right, you know how to apply it to our lives, right? We need so, yeah.

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So that was really the whole goal is to, to create, real history that kids could love, that they could relate to. That wasn't just, wasting their time. I am very much, and I think people know this about me by now, I am quite literally religiously against wasting our children's time. Because if you think about it, only God knows how much time each person has and what gives us the right to go.

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Wasting the moments of our child's life to do something just to fill the fill the time. Just to fill the time. Because some somebody said somewhere that we need to write. And I really do believe that again, we teach our kids everything we do teaches our children, and we literally teach them to waste their own time because we don't value their time.

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We don't value our own time. How much time do we spend scrolling right now? They see us doing that and it it reiterates it over and over. My life is a waste. I can waste my time. While that will preach, sister. Yeah, it's it's convicting. It is wasting. It is. But I'm glad you're bringing it up. It's something that we can all aspire to do better and for our own selves, but also those that we're modeling live to how to live and how to respect your time and steward your life for the Lord's, actually.

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So at the end of the third book, what are you hoping a student walks away with? If you had a student finish that and meet another homeschool student, or go into the next grade, or what are you hoping at the end of it? How are they different? I want to hear them say, I love history, I'm good, I love history.

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Let's be honest, these books, they lay a foundation. They open eyes to something bigger than our own lives. They give us some type of connection to the history of our own country. Hopefully it's the first step in creating a love of learning. An interest in wanting to know more, a respect for the people who worked and died in and just gave everything right for this country.

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And I hope they come away with the the knowledge, the firm knowledge that God created them to be alive at this time in history, that he could have put them any other time. But he looked up now, and he has a plan for them now, and I hope moms come away with that, too. Yeah, I hope moms and parents who read it with their kids, I hope they come away with the firm knowledge that God has had his hand on our country.

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He's not done with us and that we are. Yes, we are Americans, but we are his people more than anything. We are. We are living here on this earth. But our hopefully our residency is not here forever. Hopefully it's heaven, you know? And that's that's my biggest thing. I want them to love it. I want them to see their connection to it.

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So. Well, that just makes me want to sell more of them for both. More,

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Because that I want that I, I hated history, I didn't hate it, but, I mean, I didn't I couldn't enjoy it. I could have done anything else. And my friends enjoy making fun of me about how little I know about history and geography. That's terrible, I know, but it's just the truth. We just all laughed together when I was in high school.

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The history teacher, when he he thought we were being poor students misbehaving, he would send us out into the hall and we would have to back up to the cinder block wall and, and sit on the third line, which, you know, basically like a squat. Yeah. No bench, you know, like herbal. Yeah. Sounds like love history talk in history.

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Sit on the third line, you know, no little fun. No. So thank you for investing in this generation with history, people really will absorb and retain and learn from. And I love the fact that you value that. You're teaching them to value their place in history, their place in time in this country, and to say, yes, you may be one individual, but here's one individual who did all of these things.

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Yes. And what it looks like for a country to do God's things and not do them. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's an unfortunate thing. But yes, it's it's true. And I, I don't know if I should mention or not, but I am going to mention it. I am I'm in the middle of writing, a high school American history course, and and this one, it's I am having so much fun.

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The editing team is like, you've got to stop being so prolific here. We've got we've got to keep the page down. And so I'm like, okay, but, it's so much fun to be able to go more into depth of the reasons why. And, and the really nitty gritty of God's hand and how he guided and, and protected and, it gives me the goosebumps.

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It is so good. I'm just like, oh my goodness, I am I'm so excited for this. All right. New. Yeah. So so so excited. But yeah she's over there giggling at me. Well I'm glad you're excited. And everybody can see how excited you are. And you. Now the cat's out of the bag. We're having American history by Angela Odell coming soon to a home school near you.

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So while we're still talking about America's story, I want to talk about the extra resources that we have. Oh, yeah. To help supplement the the learning. So let's talk about we've got timelines and then we've also got audio books. How do you envision that for a family? Well, the audio books are really, they were very highly requested, probably because a lot of the children who use it also listen to my podcasts.

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So there, we want you to read it to us. You know, this kind of thing. So, that's really kind of that where that came in. But it's really, honestly just a tool. Another part of the tool, I remember being that mom with the kids who we got our math and our reading and our writing done today, and I just would be like, it's like the 10th day in a row.

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We haven't gotten anything else done. I mean, the house is not burned down, so that's good, you know? But nobody's dead. But, it really was, a really huge gift when we found audiobooks for the things that we wanted to learn. So I was like, you know, an audiobook for this series would be really a perfect companion for those auditory learners and just those tired moms who just are in that stage of life.

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You know, we're always saying about the stages of life, ones with newborn babies or crazy toddlers or, you know, a young adult children's that need their attention more than a toddler does sometimes. And it's like, for whatever stage and whatever need. It's just great to have to be able to put that in and say, hey, here's your history today.

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Get your book out and read along. Right. It's your reading today. And, it just is a nice, a just a nice goal on for it. As far as the timeline goes, I love timelines. I am so very thankful that Master Books has produced that color. Option, because in the back of each of the, teachers guides, there's a black and white edition, at least a book.

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I think at the first volume there is. So I'm speaking of a line here. Maybe I can't remember anyway, but those color ones are really super nice to be able to add to whatever type of timeline you have. Whether you have enough space to have it on the wall, which is great, or if you have to put in work, which is fine too.

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That's what I have to do. But being able to see the, sequence and how things go together and what happened in each time period is it's just really helpful, to understand that. So I always recommend timelines, right? So this helps the student visualize what they're reading or listening to and put it within in a timeline of history so they can see the big picture.

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Right. And and if they do that enough, it's really interesting the connections you can make, when you visually see, oh, that person lived during that time period and this was happening. I never connected those two, you know, that kind of thing. So. Well that's wonderful. Thank you so much for what you've done for all of us with America's story.

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And thank you all who are listening for what you've done for your family by using America's Story and sharing it with other homeschool families. Angela, I didn't prepare you for this, but if you, could share maybe a few ideas of how you would encourage the parents who are listening and their students how to pray for America. Absolutely.

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Well, there's always the first thing is that we're told to do is pray for our leaders. And, I know you sometimes you feel like praying the fire of God on them. Maybe we should, But praying for our leaders. Also praying for our Christian brothers and sisters across the country. Let me preface this a little bit.

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It is so easy. It is so easy to get stuck in the negative of what's going on, because bad news sells better than good news. So the bad news is what you hear, and that can be what we focus on. So my encouragement is to lift your eyes. Lift your eyes to the God of the universe. Who knows everything about everyone at all times.

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He knows what's going on. So if we keep our eyes looking at what's going on around us, most of the time we end up fighting fear and anxiety. The way to turn that off is to pray. Psalm 23 come over yourself first in your family, and I'm talking to the parents here. Pray that over yourself. It turns off that anxiety.

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There is a song and I don't remember who. Liana Liana Crawford. She sings a song about Psalm 23 getting rid of anxiety, which is amazing. I love that song. I do too, and it's like I was like, oh my goodness, she's got my thing here because that's what I do, and I'll just write over myself when I'm feeling anxious about the thought of my grandchildren being raised in this world, I start going, you know?

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And so I'm like, no. Psalm 23 over myself, over my grandkids, over my country. And I just keep getting my circle bigger and I go, I just keep praying. I keep your eyes on Jesus because he never, ever changes. But also on the practical side of that, get together with your kids and literally pray for things that they are seeing and that they are concerned about because our children notice things, they see things they are not oblivious to our, crazy angsty things that are going on in our world and in our country.

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They're not blind and they are not dumb. They know what's going on. They know something is not right. So pray, pray for and use your wisdom. Ask God when is the right time. But gather your children. Are children are the future warriors of the Christian warriors of our world and our country. So there is no time like the present to start training for that prayer.

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And, you know, you can they can pray for, that God will, convict and guide people who, you know, and like I said, use your own wisdom on this, on God's wisdom, but you know, your own children. But even even kids that are you may think are too young. They are aware if they are aware of the abortion industry, if they're aware of it, they're old enough to pray for it.

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Their parent? Yeah. If they're old enough to know about it, they're old enough to pray about it. And teach them to pray. Pray that God will will, save those babies, that will save those mothers that will intervene in the law makers that that say that this is okay. Pray, pray. So there are so many I this is a big passion.

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So thank you for asking me about it. Sure. There are so many ways that we can be frontline warriors, prayer warriors for the cultural issues of our country and our world. I am on, prayer list a for a, the pregnancy center, cities and, Minneapolis Saint Paul area. And so I get multiple multiple texts the day pray for this girl.

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They change names. Pray for this girl that she's she's having an ultrasound. She's, abortion determined. Pray that this, ultrasound will change her heart. I stop, I pray for that girl and I text back p when I've prayed. So I have been on that for three years, and I get dozens a week. Dozens. Every time that that pregnancy center is open, I get flooded with those.

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But I it doesn't matter what I'm doing. I could be talking to you. If I see it's come up, I will breathe a prayer over that girl and right now I'd say that child's life. Yes, but unless we take these things seriously. Our kids are never going to take it seriously. And if we don't take it seriously, if we don't pray about things, if we don't pull them into the prayers with us.

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Then they have the culture and, and the enemy constantly saying then it must not be that big of a deal. Right. If we're not praying, if we're not battling, we're not doing the things that we are called to do as Christians, shining the light in that darkness. Then over and over and over, we're teaching our kids yet again, this really isn't as big a deal as I'm making it out to be.

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Or as I say it is on social media. So it is up to us. It is up to us to be that light, not just say we are, but to be in that light, in and not hide it under a bushel like he talks about. Exactly. Yeah. Well, thank you for all of those ideas on how to pray, how to get together with your children and pray about anything that they're aware of.

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If they're aware of it, they're able to pray about it. That's brilliant wisdom. Thank you for teaching this generation American history, the true history, and in a way that will cause them to in like history, love history, engage in it. It's a wonderful thank you so much for that. We appreciate all of you being here on the podcast today with me and Angela.

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Angela is such a great guest. We have had so many chats like this and I feel like I know we're even though we've never met in person, but we've also met. That's right, one day. So thank you all for being here. We would love to give away a copy of a digital copy of America's Story, 1 to 1 person in the Master Books app, and one person in the minds of Master Books Facebook group.

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All you need to do is check in at those places after this podcast comes out, and they will instruct you how to comment in order to possibly be the winner of the one copy in each place. So thank you Angela. Thank you everyone for being here. God bless you and we'll see you on the next podcast. Hey, thanks for joining us today for the master Books podcast.

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