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The Mystery of History

The Mystery of History

[Note: this review is updated and expanded from the review in 100 Top Picks.]

Volumes I, II, and III of a projected four-volume series are a great history resource for homeschoolers. They are designed so that even inexperienced parents can break free from traditional textbooks. They combine read aloud information with age appropriate activities to create a multi-sensory curriculum for history and geography with a very strong biblical base. They are designed to be used with children in grades K through 8 for the first two volumes, although the reading level is about sixth grade. Volume III stretches into high school level.

Titles for the four volumes are:

Volume I: Creation to the Resurrection
Volume II: The Early Church and the Middle Ages (A.D. 30-1460)
Volume III: The Renaissance, Reformation, and the Growth of Nations (1455-1707)
Volume IV:not yet titled (1708-the present)

Volume I relies heavily on Scripture since the Bible is a source for much of what we know about ancient times. Other than that, the historical information is all presented within this book as it would be in a textbook. No other reference works are required for this study except for research activities older students might pursue. However, other books and videos that expand upon subjects are listed in the appendix, lesson by lesson.

Beginning with creation, the study follows biblical history, incorporating other sources as they fit into the chronological story. Thus, Stonehenge, early Egypt, and the Minoans are taught before Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. The little we know about world civilizations is represented by inclusion of lessons such as those on Chinese dynasties, India and Hinduism, and early Greek City States up to the point where the historical record broadens and we have more sources for learning about early civilizations. Although eastern civilizations are given some attention, the focus is much stronger on western civilizations.

Each volume is structured for a school year with four quarters divided into two semesters. Lessons are arranged in sets of three with the expectation that you will complete three per week. Each lesson begins with "Around the world" background and introductory information that you will want to read aloud with your children. A pretest follows. Pretests are meant to spark interest, so you want to present these in a light-hearted fashion (a la a Trivial Pursuit game) rather than as a test.

Three lessons follow, each with a similar format: read aloud information is presented from the book then you choose an activity for each child to complete. An activity is given for each of three levels. For example, the lesson on Noah suggests that young children play a Concentration card game. Middle grade to older students might use their Bibles to find answers to a list of questions regarding the account of the Flood. Older students might instead tackle the third option, which requires research about the supplies needed on the ark for Noah, his family, and all the animals.

At the end of every third lesson is a reminder for students to create "memory cards." These are 3" x 5" notecards with key information on each event. A color-coding system helps students group events by time periods. These are used for oral drill, games, or independent review.

Field trip suggestions are sometimes included at the end of the three lessons, but review activities are always included. This includes work on timelines, maps, and a review quiz. Ten reproducible map masters are at the back of the book. Author Linda Hobar recommends that you have both a Bible atlas and a historical atlas for reference for map work.

Linda also shares creative and inexpensive ideas for making timelines with detailed instructions for using folding sewing boards as the base for portable timelines.

You can see how all of this can break out easily into three days of lessons with their activities, a fourth day for timeline, mapwork, and quiz, and a fifth day for a field trip or focus on other subjects. Other possible scheduling suggestions for different levels are at the front of the book.

I appreciate Linda's explanation of the shift toward increasing student responsibility that should take place over the years. She has a simple diagram that shows high teacher involvement with minimal grading for young children that gradually reverses to low teacher involvement and thorough record keeping and grading at high school level. This approach to education is reflected in the activities suggested for the different levels. Younger children will work more one-on-one with the parent. They have more arts and crafts type activities that are not graded. Older students do more independent research and writing that is graded.

While this is essentially a study of history, it is also a Bible study of sorts with an apologetic flavor in spots. The appendix of Volume I includes an adaptation of Campus Crusade's booklet used for people to accept Christ. Letters to students at the beginning of the book direct students to that section of the appendix if they don't already have a relationship with God.

For Volume I, you can now purchase a set of 8 audio CDs with all the stories in this volume read by the author to the accompaniment of appropriate background music. This is a great time saver for busy parents, and especially for those children who like to hear the stories more than once.

Other extras for Volume I are a set of 36 Coloring Pages that correlate with lessons, a Craft Pak CD-Rom (with instructions and illustrations for creating 8 projects plus background information for art history and appreciation lessons), and a Reproducibles CD. This CD has reproducible files for all pre-tests, post-tests, quarterly worksheets, semester tests, individual maps, and Appendices A,B,C,D,E & F. It will run on Windows XP computers.

Volume II: The Early Church and the Middle Ages follows the same layout as the first volume, although it is no longer following a biblical chronology. There are fewer lessons, but each lesson has more content information than lessons in Volume I. You will want to have access to an atlas for this volume, and some recommended atlases are listed in the introduction. Lists of additional resources you might use are at the back of the book. Linda's selection and presentation of topics is fascinating. Given the huge time period she covers in Volume II, she does a great job of pulling out key people and events so students also get the big picture. For Volume II, you can also purchase a CD with all the reproducible pages (tests, worksheets, etc.) and/or a set of 12 audio CDs with the "stories" as for Volume I.

Volume III is formatted differently than the first two volumes. It is divided into a Student Reader and Companion Guide: Curriculum and Student Activities. The Reader is a colorful, 441-page, hardcover book, while the Companion Guide is a black-and-white, 600+ page, "book"--pages of the Guide come three-hole punched for insertion into your own binder. The Companion Guide is also available on CD-ROM.

The Volume III Student Reader has more text than Volume II and significantly more than Volume I. Author Linda Hobar says the target audience is primarily grades 4 through 8, but Volume III seems to me best for junior high and high school level simply because of the breadth and depth of information covered. Hobar suggests that younger students in grades K through 3 might listen in on parts of lessons and participate in age-appropriate activities--there are plenty of activities for all ages! I suspect that the quantity of material as well as the depth of the content might still be too much for even some fifth and sixth graders. The writing style is very engaging, and this certainly helps to offset difficulty in the level or amount of content. Occasionally, the author suggests that "younger" or "middle" students stop reading at a certain point, and that older students continue with material that is deeper or more detailed. This helps, but, ultimately, parents have to decide how much of the material to cover with children in elementary grades.

Even given the amount of material in the reader, Hobar says that high school students should be reading additional books from the 49-page "Supplemental Books and Resources" section of the Guide's appendix. Hobar says that the combination of reading and activities for Volume III's "core curriculum" should take about 1 to 3 hours per week to complete. For a high school credit, students should likely be spending 4 to 5 hours per week. To fulfill the hours requirement, students might also tackle a research paper or a number of shorter reports. For example: the Guide describes this activity for an older student:

"I mentioned in the lesson that grueling serfdom was a common way of life in Russia until 1861. Investigate what happened in that year that changed the system. Write a short report following a 'Who, What, When, and How' format. Fold a sheet of notebook paper into fourths. Use each quadrant to write a few sentences answering the questions Who? What? When? and How? Research Hint: Sift through the history of Russia in an encyclopedia with your focus on 1861. File your short report in your Student Notebook under 'Europe: Russia.'"

This type of assignment could be expanded beyond the single sheet of notebook paper into a longer report. So you can draw plenty of ideas for expanding assignments for older students directly from the Guide.

Alternatively, high school students might complete more than one volume of Mystery of History per year, but that might preclude the entire family working through volumes together since younger students would likely need a slower pace.

Note that those pursuing a classical form of education will likely want to select more of the primary resources and "Great Books" from the supplementary reading list, and this would certainly be another way to "fill the hours."

Map activities in Volume III require at least two Atlases: Rand McNally's Answer Atlas (ISBN 0-528-83872-5) and Rand McNally's Historical Atlas of the World (ISBN 0-528-83969-1). Both are available through www.themysteryofhistory.com or www.brightideaspress.com. You might want to purchase these atlases even if you are using one of the other volumes so that you'll have them when you get to Volume III.

Volume III covers the time period of the Reformation. Although Hobar does a better than average job of trying to present the Catholic side of issues (e.g., indulgences), the content is strongly Protestant.

History through the Ages timeline figures work well with all volumes of Mystery of History, so you might want to check these out.

This combination of self-contained history and multi-sensory activities should really appeal to many homeschooling families.