Ruth Nicholas
- Reviewed on Monday, May 24, 2010
- Grades Used: K, 1 & middle school
- Dates used: 2009 - current
We have been thrilled with this program.
The children love hearing / reading the lessons.
They are interested in the assignments.
The younger children retain a lot because of the constant quizing.
The time line is immensly helpful!
My oldest 'hates' writing. But is OKAY with most of the researches so far, and usually hands in decent work. She always remembers what she's learned!
MOST IMPORTANTLY!! The way the message of the gospel is brought out throughout the curriculum is awesome. Our ultimate goal as parents is to see that our children develop a strong relationship with Christ. This book really, really helps tie His - Story into history!!
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MommaApril
- Reviewed on Friday, May 07, 2010
- Grades Used: 3rd and 6th
- Dates used: 2008 / 2009
Mystery of History is a fantastic history curriculum that my kids and I love! One of the best parts of this curriculum is that it combines biblical history and secular history in one time line. It's a great way to learn our entire history as a whole. I love the fact that I only need this one curriculum to teach both my kids history. There are several activities based on different age ranges. My kids have just recently finished Vol. 2. Now that my daughter is in junior high I just have her do the more advanced activities. They usually include more reading/research on the current lesson. My son is a very kinesthetic learner so the activities for his level really help him to understand and remember what was taught in each lesson.
We attend a homeschool co-op one day a week so the way the weekly lesson plans are set up are perfect for us. There is a pre-test, 3 lessons and a review test each week. We do the pre-test and 1 lesson and activities on Monday, another lesson and activities on Tuesday, same on Wednesday, we have our co-op on Thursday, then we do the test for the week on Friday.
When we first started this curriculum I told my kids to write their test answers on a separate piece of paper so we could sell the book when we were done with it. They threw such a fit and told me that we could never sell these books because even after they had finished them they wanted to keep them to read them again. It a child wants to read a textbook on their own, outside of school you know you have a good curriculum!
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actgrum
- Reviewed on Friday, May 07, 2010
- Grades Used: 3rd
- Dates used: April, 2010
I bought MOH because of all the rave-reviews I found online. And because I had been searching everywhere for a history curriculum that I could sit down and 'just read' to my kiddos. MOH is NOT IT! I am appalled at the writing which includes many phrases such as "really neat" and "isn't that cool?" I'm assuming it's an attempt to make the text "conversational" for the children, but it doesn't. The writing is boring and watered-down. We try to follow a Charlotte Mason approach in that I read to my kids a lot - often books that are far above their own reading level - books that are "living" - not "twaddle". Books that ignite their interest in a subject - not textbooks that are like "chewing sawdust". And when I do, they listen and they narrate back to me and it's wonderful to see them learning. MOH did not do that for us. I was hoping to use this as a "spine" book and then add in some living books when appropriate, but my kids often lost interest as I was trying to read the lessons to them because it was just a bunch of facts. If you're looking for a well-organized history textbook, then MOH may work for you. If you're looking for a well-written read-aloud, this is not it.
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Jophia2
- Reviewed on Monday, April 05, 2010
- Grades Used: 2nd-9th grade
- Dates used: 2009 +
Your feelings about this book depend on your goals for History.
We started with a Abeka history curriculum, but my kids (2nd, 6th, and 9th) had no recall after years of use, and there was a chorus of groans as soon as I mentioned history. I also was frustrated trying to juggle reading, reviews, quizzes and tests for 3 different grades.
So, we tried Mystery of History. I decided it was better to love learning and to remember *all* of an 'easier' curriculum than to remember *none* of a 'tough' one.
Our History lessons look like this:
1. For 3 days, we read the story aloud together, sitting near our computer. As it mentions the location of Crete, I google & pull up a map of Crete. As she mentions Minoan frescoes, I pause, search images, and pull up lots of them to look at. (Of course you could plan ahead and have these ready like a slideshow.)
When we finish the reading, we're often curious about something we read so we do a little group research online or in books we have around the house.
2. Generally, we do all of the activities in order from youngest to oldest.
Everyone has fun with the lightweight stuff, and while they may not 'learn' from it, the little games and activities make the lesson memorable..."remember when we played leapfrog (er...leapbull!) for the Minoan bull-jumping?".
The middle lessons are usually for my 6th grader, and often involve light-weight research or art. If it's a lot of fun, everyone will join in on this too.
The oldest activities are informal research/reporting for my 9th grader. She does most of her research online, with my supervision, of course. You could easily change the topic or make it formal paper.
3. We use our digital camera to take pix of the non-paper activities, print them, and then file everything we learned in our notebook.
4. Finally, we make a memory card for the day's topic.
5. On the 4th day, there's no reading; we do all of the mapwork and timeline work. My older 2 especially enjoy drawing in the timeline book.
Pros and Cons:
*The author does a great job of merging Christian history with world history.
*It can be adapted for all ages and/or used as a guide with other materials.
*No daily preparation unless you want to add something.
*So fun that even Mom can enjoy it.
*I believe that students learn better when they willingly pursue knowledge, rather than being (forcefully) spoon-fed. This curriculum allows them room to ask questions and to seek the knowledge they want the most.
*The author gives children a love of history, emphasizing understanding how events and people fit together, rather than memorizing names, dates and places that could simply be looked up later.
*I wish there were multiple activities for each level and an organized list of free online resources/visuals.
*If you're child is a history major in the making, this program will be more useful at a younger age, and you will have to do more footwork to supplement with other books. If your goal is to *memorize* history, This isn't for you.
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