Intro to Economics : Money, History & Fiscal Faith (Curriculum Pack)

Both kids have thoroughly enjoyed it. I've received a lot of voluntary discussions and have enjoyed the opportunities it has given for the kids to gain world perspective.

My daughter is enjoying this course and has learned so much! She has been so intrigued by economics and the bible.

My 10th, 9th, and 8th grader completed this course together. We watched the DVD and read the book. This course is appealing to visual and auditory learners. The book was very informative. The kids can have intelligent conversations with people about money and the current state of our country. They understand fiat currency, commodities, the petrodollar, and the current quantitative easing leading to inflation and hyper inflation. The DVD Moneywise was quirky and funny. Teens loved it and learned.

My daughter used this for her Economics high school credit. She really enjoyed the first part with the DVD. She would constantly bring up ideas and thoughts that she was learning from the class. I would recommend this class.

We used this for our high school Economics credit. The video was a bit cheesy at times, and the ads within it for itself were annoying, but the discussions it started really helped my daughter get why it was important for her personally. The half covered by the book wasn't as enjoyable for her, but it's economics and she's an art focused girl, so it never would be her favorite class. There is a lot of information in the book so we tackled it together and both learned a lot. Overall would recommend this course but suggest that it be done with a parent around and not really independently.

Seems like this will do well to fulfill an econ credit. Kids need to learn this info and im glad to have someone help me teach it!

This course is broken into two segments. The first portion is 100% related to the DVD, while the second related to the book. The DVD was unfortunately very light and somewhat silly, in my opinion. I felt like it was well below grade level. Probably would have been better for my 7th grader, maybe. Very little economics was tackled in the video sessions. The book, however, was excellent. Well worth reading and informative. The quizzes and tests were mediocre and my academically-driven son was frustrated by them. He excelled at other on-line courses and felt there was too much room for improvement with this course. I hesitate to recommend it, but the book was worth reading.

We purchased this curriculum to fulfill a graduation requirement. When it arrived, I was impressed. The lessons are carefully laid out so the student knows exactly what is expected each day. My daughter started the course immediately because it looked interesting and wasn't intimidating. It is user-friendly and requires little to no teacher preparation.

The course is planned so the student completes two lessons per week for the entire school year. (We are doing this at an accelerated pace as a summer class.) The course begins with the Money Wise DVD. We watched the first several videos together as a family. I have no complaints about the content, which we thought was very good. The videos are entertaining and educational. However, I found the "Godonomics" commercials during the sessions extremely distracting and thought some of the video editing was poorly done. We are also frustrated that even with three or four people watching the video and trying to fill in a worksheet, we can't get the right answers. We back up the video several times (with me following along with the answer key!) and hang on his every word until we conclude that he never said what the worksheet answer should be. The answers are not "unique" words; LOTS of words could fill the blank, which means as a parent-teacher correcting the homework, I have to make subjective decisions about the answer key. It also negates the independent learning aspect if I have to sit next to my daughter while she watches the video.

I read the book (Bankruptcy of our Nation) before giving it to my daughter. I did not read the book with the intent of writing a review here, but I remember thinking, "I will probably sell this course at the next homeschool convention and find something else for our next child." The book provided some interesting information, but toward the end it reads like an infomercial for buying gold and becoming one of the author's "FTM Insiders". A quote from the book: "I do not believe that precious metals are in a bubble yet. But when I believe that a bubble is forming, I will begin slowly exiting the market. I will alert our FTM Insiders when I begin selling" (p. 296). In the chapter titled "21 Income Streams You Can Create Now...and in Retirement" his #1 income stream is (not kidding) Social Security Income. Others are worse such as #12 Reverse Mortgage Income (p. 251) and #14 Covered Call Option Income, which means "rent[ing] out [your] stocks every month to generate an additional stream of income" (p. 253). The section ends with, "To learn more about the powerful option trading strategies that I personally use, go to" [his website]. Most sections end by directing the reader to his website.

The curriculum is straight-forward and easy-to-use. It fulfills a .5 credit high school economics requirement. Your student will learn about economics while using this curriculum: capitalism, fiat currencies, inflation, the Federal Reserve, national debt, the gold standard, etc. For that I give it a 3-star rating.

We have absolutely loved everything from Master Books so when this course came we expected the same. Unfortunately the DVD isn't our favorite. To be fair we have only watched about 3 sessions so far but my daughter and I were both put off by the pastor teaching it. In the very first session he seemed to be making fun of the original Puritan families that came to settle in America, saying that they were whining and complaining and not taking care of themselves because they all expected someone else to take care of them and that is why so many of them died. In all the stories I've read about these incredibly brave and God honoring families I've never heard it put in such a negative way. We may have both misread what he was saying and I do understand the point that he was trying to make (we all need to work hard to do well in this life) but I felt he could have said things in a way that didn't discredit their bravery or sacrifices. There were some other comments that he has made that's had us scratching our heads a bit but we are hoping that it will get better with time. It is making for some very good discussions on discretion and others interpretations on history and God's Word and for that I am thankful.

My husband and I often teach on finance at our church. We have been to many seminars and are very passionate about our doing things God's way. I have loved Master Books from the start but this one surprised me. I was not expecting it to feel so much like the seminars we attend. The real world stuff they need to know is in there!