History

Christianity is a faith rooted in history, and history plays an important role in our curriculum from the earliest grades. Through the study of Bible stories, Lower School students gain an appreciation of God’s providential rule over the events of history, while the study of world history gives them a sense of God’s common grace seen in “the good, the true, and the beautiful” found throughout time in other cultures and civilizations. As part of their studies, students create Egyptian hieroglyphics, decorate Greek vases, host a Roman festival, paint life-sized figures dressed in the traditional garb of medieval African kingdoms, and create replicas of an American colonial village. They visit historical sites and take field trips to our national museums. Our annual History Night further celebrates the students’ historical studies.

 

 

Geography

Geography is also a feature of our history program, giving our students a sense of their place in the world, the relationships between environment and culture, and of the variety and richness of God’s world. Based on E.D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge sequence, our Lower School history curriculum provides a coherent progression of units from grade to grade, with topics encountered in earlier grades revisited in later grades at a more sophisticated level as the students grow in knowledge and critical thinking skills.