What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization

In fourteen lessons, What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization (WECN) builds a mental timeline of 5,000 years of history and an understanding of the historical contributions that shaped Western Civilization. This guide and its literature companion Calendar Quest will revolutionize the way children learn history. 

This guide uses the story of the calendar as a springboard for telling the story of Western Civilization. As the Western calendar is the result of the contributions of many different cultures over a great span of time, so is Western Civilization. Following the same historical path as the calendar, children can see how today’s Western Civilization is the result of the unique contributions and beliefs that have shaped the culture in which we live.

By learning the story of the calendar, children develop a mental scope and sequence of 5,000 years of Western history to which all subsequent learning can be related. Calendar Quest and What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization cover twelve historical periods. The WECN guide and its memory retention aids enable children to memorize the flow of these cultures and the contributions each made to shaping Western Civilization. Through the use of beautifully illustrated historical hats and portraits, twelve historical periods are captured on history cards which children learn to arrange chronologically.

The guide is made up of three parts, a 150 page workbook, twelve Hats of History cards with a portrait of each person that contributed to the calendar, and history stickers containing forty-six illustrations that students apply to their workbook and forty-six smaller companion stickers that are applied the back of the Hats of History cards.