The Truth about TruthQuest History

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a favorite homeschooling curriculum from Rainbowresource.com

When my homeschool days are boxed up and beautifully archived in family scrapbooks and digital iMovies, I know there will be certain bits and pieces of these years that stand out more than others…moments that are permanently etched in my mind…memories of learning and laughing together that not only molded the minds of my kids but also shaped the content of their character and helped to forge our relationship. 


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I know this because I can already look back on the brief nine years of homeschooling that we’ve shared and can pick out a few of these very moments. Not surprising, so many of them are woven with one common thread…one curriculum guide, to be exact. It is a book list, of sorts, that a homeschooling mentor casually mentioned to me and a few other mommas over coffee and brownies one day. She had no idea that I had tucked the name TruthQuest from Rainbowresource.com away in my mind and would revisit it over and over again for about a year before finally ordering a copy of TruthQuest’s American History for Young Students for my very own. 

It’s been eight years since that conversation, and I can honestly say, if I had to choose one curriculum that has most shaped the way my children have learned to view the story of the world and God’s plan in it all, I would have to say it has been TruthQuest. 

"I’ve read your 2015-2016 curriculum list and you aren’t currently using TruthQuest history guides. So it must not be too meaningful," you might be saying to yourself.

Well, yes. And no. 

While I am currently putting together my own Medieval history unit, I began all of my plans by consulting TruthQuest. Why re-invent the wheel? It’s true, I don’t stick as closely to the guides as I did in those first few years, but I would credit that to the mentorship I gained through reading the guides. 

But, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. 

Let me first unpack a few truths about using TruthQuest and in doing so, hopefully, explain why I’ve begun to spread my own planning wings. 

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a wonderful living literature resource from Rainbowresource.com}


What is TruthQuest History?

Essentially, each guide is just a really well-developed book list. Michelle Miller, the author of TruthQuest, has broken history down into eleven sections. Because she knows a thing or two about how to properly teach history to young kids, her arrangements are not necessarily chronological. (Which is great, in my opinion!) She, then, breaks each main historical section into dozens and dozens of sub-sections. Subsections are usually, but not always, divided by short paragraphs of information that help to link one event to the next and/or give a Biblical perspective to the historical account. 

The bulk of each subsection is really nothing more than a lengthy bibliography of titles and authors that is broken down by age. Miller lists dozens of twaddle-free living literature books and organizes them by reading/comprehension ability. Titles include a wide range of fiction, non-fiction, activity/craft books, videos, and even audio compilations. The guides also include several optional “Think & Write” essay activities for older students which encourage them to write their responses to BIG issues of history. 

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a wonderful living literature resource from Rainbowresource.com}

In addition to the guides, there are also several companion notebooking and lapbooking resources available from Rainbowresource.com that could be used for a more Charlotte Mason approach to learning. (We are currently using the Middle Ages notebooking collection.)

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a favorite homeschooling curriculum from Rainbowresource.com


The BEST of TruthQuest

Without a doubt, TruthQuest History Guides are the very best living literature resources I've ever come across! (It's not surprising that they are all featured in Cathy Duffy's 102 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculums.) The children and I have enjoyed hours and hours of reading the most lovely books together thanks to Miller's exhaustive lists. We've discovered so many superior titles that we never would have come across otherwise...older books that are no longer in print (like one of our current faves, Page Boy for King Arthur), contemporary works that I've never noticed on the library shelves before (like this oh-so-fascinating look at George Washington's Teeth, a book that really helped to fill in some of the gaps of Washington's military and presidential decisions), and a few books that I've added with others to create this list of fantastic titles that we continue to enjoy each Thanksgiving. (In true super nerd style, I think I talked about Washington's dental hygiene for days following our reading of that book...even at the dinner table. My husband was afraid I might need some kind of intervention.)

Through TruthQuest, we've discovered quality book series (like the Landmark Books, the Cornerstone of Freedom series, and the fantastic emergent readers series called Cowboy Sam) and exceptional authors whose entire collections continue to be educational gold mines for us (like David Adler, Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire, and Holling C. Holling.)

These guides have been like literary mentors and have helped me navigate through the twaddle of most library shelves.

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a favorite homeschooling curriculum from Rainbowresource.com

Some things to consider

TruthQuest History is definitely not for the faint of heart. But, like most things in life, something worthwhile often requires a bit of sacrifice. Before diving head-long into TruthQuest, here are some things you should know...

Books are not included.

When buying TruthQuest, you are buying a guide and nothing more. This is not your run-of-the-mill boxed curriculum. If you wish to purchase the books listed in each section of the guides, you have to shop for those separately. 

You cannot possibly own all the titles. 

Each guide contains the title and author of hundreds of different books. It would be impossible for most of us, homeschoolers, to ever buy all of them. There are a few "spine" type suggestions that continue to be referenced throughout each guide. I'd recommend buying these and using your local library for all the others. 

Many of the titles are out of print and hard to find.

While there is a wide mix of contemporary titles, many of the books listed are older and harder to find. The average public library may not have even a small supply of all the books listed. I live in a state with an exceptional interlibrary loan system that allows me to use an online database to request books from ANY publicly-funded library within our state...that includes college libraries, public school libraries, and even mobile collections. If I did not have this online catalog at my disposal, I don't think it would be doable for my budget.

You probably won't be able to tackle every sub-section.

The TruthQuest guides are so exceptionally detailed that there are a lot of subsections listed that you just might have to pass over or skim. (While it's great to read a biography or two of Jesse Owens, famed African American track star who won a gold medal in the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, 15 biographies might be overkill.) But, the silver lining to skimming is that you get to choose! You can gloss over some sections and dive deep into others. During our Civil War era unit five years ago, the children and I read so many books about the underground railroad Civil War quilt codes that we are still able to "decode" most of the quilts at the local quilt shop today. TruthQuest guides provide plenty of room to roam and meander through each historical era. It's delight-directed learning at its best!

A schedule is not included.

Again, all you are buying is a book guide. The curriculum does not come with a suggested schedule. So, it is up to you to determine how quickly or slowly you pace your learning. 


The Truth about TruthQuest History {a favorite homeschooling curriculum from Rainbowresource.com

How I USED TruthQuest

As I mentioned, I am not currently using TruthQuest exclusively. But, before I tell you how I use it now, let me first explain how I used to schedule it back when we were cycling through American History for Young Students.

Pre-year planning

There were (and still are) three different guides for American history, all of which included tons of book suggestions for K-12th-grade students. (In theory, these guides could allow a wide range of learners to read about the exact same historical event at the same time but at their own level. I say "in theory" because when I went through the American history guides, I only had really young kids from second grade on down. So, I cannot vouch for its ability to reach multiple ages.) I determined that I wanted to get through American history in two years even though there were three guides (Exploration to 1800, 1800-1865, and 1865-2000). Ambitious, I know! 

In order to create a doable schedule, I added up the total number of pages in each guide and divided that number by the total number of school days I expected to complete over two years. That gave me a rough scope and sequence for the 2-year plan. I can't quite remember exactly how many TruthQuest book list pages we needed to complete each day, but it was something like 2 1/2. Now that might seem like a lot considering the fact that each book list page contained dozens of book titles. But, there were many pages worth of books that didn't apply to my kids because the books listed on them were for older children. On the flip side, sometimes there were pages and pages of books specifically geared to the third-grade and under crowd. In the end, we cruised through entire subsections and meandered through others. The 2 1/2 page estimate was just a helpful measuring stick to keep us moving forward. 

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a favorite homeschooling curriculum from Rainbowresource.com

Once a month, I took out my homeschool planner and wrote down the general section titles and page numbers I wished to tackle for the entire month. (For instance, on Monday the 5th the line for history in my planner might have read "Pioneers pp. 28-30a" and Tuesday the 6th it might have read "Pioneers pp. 30b-32") Although I had a basic outline of the whole year, I only wrote out my plans month-by-month so that they could be tweaked as needed. 

Ordering books

(Here's where using TruthQuest takes a little ingenuity.) Since I was ordering the books through my state interlibrary loan system which usually took a couple of weeks to ship the books to my local library branch, I would have to order the books I needed several weeks in advance. Each week, I would look three weeks ahead in my planner to determine what page numbers we would be working through in the TruthQuest guide. I would use the guide to request a full week's worth of books through the online catalog. In two to three weeks, the books would arrive and be ready for when we got to those particular sections. In other words, I was ordering library books every week but only for books that I needed three weeks down the road.

Organizing the books

Once a week, I would pick up the books that arrived at my local library branch from all around the state. (We only live a few blocks from the library, so this was an easy "yes" for me or a "Honey, would you mind stopping in at the library on your way home from work?" kinda plan.) I would refer to the guide to organize the books in chronological order and stash them all along with our history timeline in a big crate.

Enjoying the books together

Each day during snack time (That's my preferred time to read lengthy portions of history and scientific literature. Little hands and mouths are occupied...'nough said!), I would pull one or two books from the basket and read them aloud. 

Often, these readings would ignite our curiosity and we'd end up searching for a video on youtube or we'd get the notion to create an elaborate reproduction or historically accurate meal. (The craft/activity books listed in the guides provided lots of great hands-on ideas.) And more often than not, our history readings would be reenacted over and over again after school with Legos, costumes, and even Barbie dolls. (It was not unusual to catch my three-year-old recreating the Boston Tea Party incident with a toy boat during bath time. At that tender age, he wasn't necessarily a part of the school day, but he just couldn't resist listening to a good story.)

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a favorite homeschooling curriculum from Rainbowresource.com

How I USE TruthQuest

Once we graduated from American History into Ancient History, it became obvious that I'd have to begin supplementing titles for my younger kids. There just weren't very many books listed in the guides for the third-grade and under crowd. In truth, that is the big conundrum of almost all living literature-style history curriculums. It's not their fault, really! Truthfully, there is just a great absence of quality ancient-themed literature for young children. (That's why I don't teach history in chronological order. But, I digress...)

The surprising revelation in all of this struggle was that although I still wanted to use TruthQuest for a general escort into each era, I no longer needed the guides to hold my hand. I had learned so much about choosing a quality living literature and exceptional authors from my first few years with TruthQuest, that I could now compile my own book lists with ease.

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a favorite homeschooling curriculum from Rainbowresource.com

Pre-year planning

Before the school year begins, I dedicate one Saturday morning for history planning. I gather the TruthQuest guide that coincides with the era of history we plan to study, any books I currently own or have purchased with that era in mind, and my computer. I consult the guide for general subsection break-ups and create a basic timeline of the era. Using a simple spiral notebook, I begin to write down books chronologically. I write down titles that look interesting from the guide, titles I own, and titles I find in my library's online catalog. By the end of the morning, I have a detailed list of books that I plan to read aloud to all of my kids and a shorter list of titles I intend to assign my daughter to read on her own. 

While I no longer use the guides exclusively, they are invaluable to my planning. Like most folks, my history experience growing up was limited to a textbook style of learning. While I made straight As, I struggled to really permanently grasp even a basic timeline in history. (This proves the point that good test takers can make an A on an exam and still not have the foggiest clue about the material. But, that's for a different post altogether. Moving on...) The TruthQuest guides have given me a skeletal plan for ordering our year while still allowing for plenty of organic exploration.

Ordering and organizing the books

For the most part, I still order and organize my books in much the same way as when I was using TruthQuest exclusively. I must be diligent to request the books from the library in advance so that they arrive when needed. But, instead of referring to page numbers in a guide to tell me which and how many books to solicit, I usually just order the next five books on my list. 

Enjoying the books together

Since my daughter began middle school last year, her history time has not only included our group history time but also an additional independent history reading time each day. I have put together a short list of six or so chapter book titles that she must complete by the end of the year. She reads one chapter from her current book each school day. Once she completes that title, she immediately begins the next one. Admittedly, this usually means that she is ahead or behind the rest of us in chronological order, but she doesn't seem to mind. (In other words, it's not ideal, but it works.)

Lapbooking, Notebooking, and projects

The Lapbooking and Notebooking resources from Notebooking Pages have been great ready-made additions to our home-spun history units. We usually do a printable page or mini-book once a week and compile it into our history notebooks. In addition, I have purchased a few of the craft project titles suggested in the TruthQuest guides and use those and Pinterest to sprinkle in some hands-on learning to our days. 

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a wonderful resource from Rainbowresource.com}
Visiting a colonial reenactment and Tall Ships after reading about them together.

The Truth about TruthQuest History {a wonderful resource from Rainbowresource.com}

A final word...

Every time I think of those first few years of our homeschooling, my mind immediately travels back to our times gathered around a great American history book and the hours we spent snuggled up reading together. With the deepest sincerity, I can say that those have been our best homeschooling moments thus far. (I'm wiping away mommy mist from my eyes just sittin' here thinking about it. A tissue, please. Anybody?) I know those years would not have been nearly as memorable without the lovely mentor-guides I had in TruthQuest. Undoubtedly, it was (and is) a large time commitment to create such an exhaustive living literature study. But, the long-lasting memories have certainly outweighed the momentary cost. 

For more information

To snag your own copies of these or other TruthQuest guides, be sure to visit Rainbowresouce.com or check them out on
Better yet, follow them to receive great gift giving suggestions for the upcoming holiday season! 

30 comments:

  1. I have never commented but I want you to know I've gone back and read your blog from start to finish. It is the best I've found for what I hope our homeschooling experience is like. I have 3 girls, the oldest just turned 5 so we're starting out and I am always excited when I get an email that you've made a new post. I have learned so much from you so thank you for taking the time to share with us!

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    1. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such an encouraging reply, Lauraa. What a treat to my heart. I'm glad my blog has been helpful. Thanks for reading!

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  2. This is great! Thank you for such an in depth look! I have started brainstorming how I want to tackle History starting next year when my daughter will be doing first grade. I've noticed that a lot of History curricula are not available or created to use until 3rd grade.
    So TruthQuest is definitely worth a look. I love the living literature idea and I completely agree that starting at the "beginning" with young children just creates a disconnect from what they know and understand.
    Teaching History has just become a lot less daunting, thank you.

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    1. TruthQuest really is such a wonderful resources for those early years. It takes careful planning, but is well worth it!

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  3. Thank you for this post. Great information! Jamie what do you plan for high school? Are y'all required to do certain history topics in your state?

    All through the Ages is another great book list resource. And it is a one time purchase. http://www.nothingnewpress.com/books/all-through-the-ages-2/

    We just finished up a freebie unit from Layers of Learning http://www.layers-of-learning.com and was a nice fit for us as well. I love history. : )

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    1. I don't currently have high schoolers, so I haven't crossed that bridge yet. Yes, my state does require certain history credits for graduation. My hope is to continue teaching with living literature all the way through high school.

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  4. This is a great review! I'm going to share this with the readers at my blog, TheUnpluggedFamily.com :) Thanks.

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  5. Thank you for the thorough review! I ran across TruthQuest History several months ago, and am seriously thinking of buying some of the guides in a couple of years. We've been using Sonlight for 11 years now, but I'm getting a bit tired of reading the same things over and over, and wanting more flexibility. We're in part one of two of world history, so will finish that, then I'm considering doing something different for my younger children.

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    1. It's definitely a bit more prep work than Sonlight because it takes time to request all the books. But, so very worth it.

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  6. I read your post (Umm...more than once :) and I was wondering when did you branch away from American History and where did you go first? Also, am I correct in that you order the TruthQuest manuals one at a time and not a set? We have used My Father's World since my oldest was in Kindergarten and LOVED every minute of it. But next year she will be in 4th Grade plus I will add in her 1st grade sister and I am not sure about their recommendation of Creation to the Greeks.

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    1. We finished up American History when my oldest was in second. So, in her third grade year, we started with Creation to Ancient Egypt. I had intended to go through the Greeks, but we didn't get that far. I used Truth Quest but had to supplement quite a lot.

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  7. When your kids were young and you were studying American History, how much time did you spend on it each day/week? Did you read the commentary in the Truthquest guide to them or did you only read the books you had chosen?

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    1. I rarely read the commentary to them, but I usually paraphrased the content to them so that one historical moment could be connected to the next. We did history everyday for about 15 minutes when they were all really young. Now, we only do it every other day, spend 30-40 minutes on it each time.

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  8. It sounds like you have the perfect ages for the TruthQuest American History series. I'd suggest you read picture books aloud to both your kids and then occasionally assign a chapter book biography to your third grader to read on his own.

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  10. I've been looking for a social studies curriculum for a while now and each one has it's good and bad points but none stick out. After reading your blog last year before starting homeschool, I realized I'm a living literature person all the way and that's what we've done all year while teaching my kindergartener. This TruthQuest is the only social studies "curriculum" that keeps coming back to my mind when I'm trying to plan out the future of our homeschool. I have 2 questions for you...
    1. How does this work out for you as you teach several kids in your family? I have 5 kids 5 and under. We'd like to study the same time period as a family only differentiating the level of books read when needed. Eventually we'd revisit historical time frames just as most social studies curricula seem to do (4 year rotation period). Does TruthQuest work this way also?
    2. I have a large library system available to me as well. I was wondering if you'd be able to copy one page out of a Truthquest book for me to check and see if a majority of the books are available to me. If they are, I'm going to be purchasing it for the fall. If not, it would obviously be of no use when the books aren't available.

    Thanks you!

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    1. I'm sorry, I can not legally copy a page for you. But, I think the company offers downloadable samples on their website.

      Regarding the 4-year-rotation, TQ doesn't offer any time frame for their materials, but YOU could make that rotation by dividing the number of books by 4 to see how many guides you'll need to do each year in order to get them all in by the end of one 4-year-cycle.

      The books are listed by age range, so when doing the program with a wide age range, I read the lower level books aloud and then assign my older kids some of the chapter books to read on their own in tandem to what we have read together as a family.

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  11. We have young children, so I was interested in the "fantastic emergent readers series called Cowboy Dan" that you mentioned. A bit of internet searching isn't turning up results for anything that matches your description, so I wondered if you could give a bit more information? Thanks!

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    1. My apologies. That's a typo. It should read Cowboy Sam. They are a series of books by Edna Walker Chandler.

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  12. This has been incredibly insightful and helpful as I consider purchasing for my kids! What grade or time period did you start assigning books to your children to be read? My oldest is in fourth grade and wasn’t sure if I should start having her read on her own immediately or wait.

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    1. When my daughter was in 4th, I assigned her a few biographies throughout the year, but we mostly read everything together. I've kept this same pattern all throughout.

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  13. Hi! I am interested in using Truthquest starting in 4th grade. I love this approach of using good literature to teach history. We live in South America, however, so using a library is not an option. Would you say I could reasonably purchase the amount of books I would need, either hard copy or Kindle? Or is the amount of books too many and too expensive and I should just look at another history program? Thank you for any thoughts or advice on this!

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  14. I can vouch that TQ works great for a large family. (I have ten, so I have all levels all the time). Granted, when we began, I wanted my oldest three to get a solid grasp of American history, since we had been a little light on that when they were younger.So I did not have the conundrum of figuring out if my younger kids should do American history while the rest of us did something else. This year, we are studying the ancients all together. I anticipate no problems. When the book lists are light for the little ones, they just get a free ride that week or we fill in with projects.

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    1. Thanks for weighing in. It's always great to learn how others use it for their families.

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  15. What do you "call" History on your high school transcript? We've used Truthquest for 7 years since the start of our homeschool experience. Now I'm feeling concerned that I can't just slap "World History" and "American History" neatly on the transcript. We've done Age of Revolution I and II so far in my son's high school career...Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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    1. World History 1, 2 and 3, US History 1, 2 , 3 or some currriculum publishers might have names that one could use.

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  16. Jamie,
    I'd love to see an updated blog post for history (especially how you do history through middle school & high school). I have 4 kids ages 3-8 and I've really struggled building a routine. I SO VERY MUCH admire your organization & leadership in your homeschool. I've also struggled finding a good history curriculum that fits our literature loving family. So I've been cobbling mine together for the past two years (first and second grade) without a spine or guide. We've just done two years on Pilgrim to Revolutionary War.... Wondering when to start ancients. Do you mind me asking when your homeschool starts ancients-Roman/medieval?

    Love love love your blog. So encouraging.
    Jenna

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  17. I am very interested in Truth Quest. Can you tell me which spine you used? Did you do the spine as a read aloud and just have books for the kids to read at their grade level? I'm just trying to figure out what this will look like.

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    1. I don't always use a spine. I read aloud books that would appeal to my youngest child but read them aloud to everyone. My oldest boys are then assigned individual reading on top of that.

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