The Mystery of History Volume I: Creation to the Resurrection

This book is wonderful. My 1st grader is using it now and he loves the lesson plans. There are different activities for different age groups. So far we feel like we are learning a lot. I plan on useing this book for the first part of the next school year. I will be teaching my daughter at the same time. We are not doing every lesson at this grade but when the time comes we will be using this book for 4th or 5th grade. At that time I will be doing the middle age activities that are provided in the book. I love that they take a time in history and let us know what was going on in different parts of the world. So we get a great idea of what was happening in China during the time Jesus was walking on earth. As a child I never even thought there was other people in other areas of the world during the time of the Bible. This line of thinking will not be shared with my children. Overall very happy with this book.

Orginally purchased this to read to my kids. However I am so hooked. Love Hobar's writting style. I explain it like she is writing a long letter to the reader. I actually bought volume 2 first and then went back and bought volume 1 after enjoying it so much. History was my worst subject and in high school I struggled with all the battles and wars we read about. There was a lot of peace in between all those wars. There is great world history that is told in story form. There are pretests, what do you know test, memory tests and even a set up in the begining of the book for grading. At the end of every lesson she has a project for kids to do. For younger readers, for middle students and for older students. Even when I am reading just for fun, I find I enjoy reading that too. Great book for homeschoolers or adding to homework from public schools at home.

we love this book of world history recorded in chronological order. It is not too much where it can overwhealm you and not to little where you can miss out important history. The best part is that if my kids find a historical event that intrests them, we can take a breake and find more info of that history at our local librery. No more jumping around and be confused of when it happend or why it happend or what led to that event. Because it is written in order of events, it makes it easy to understand our world and its history. also my kids love the true an false game it offers. I look foreward to make a time line with them as the book tells you how and when to do it. It also has pre tests to see if the kids know anything of the next history events. As I said we love this book. I also boaght the CDs of this book for our long trips. They do not offer the games, so in the end of each story, I press pause and play the true and false game inventing the questions that apply to that particular history. Dolores NY

I have used Mystery of History Volumes 1-3 with my eldest and am using MOH 1 again with my two younger children. This is the best history program I have found from a Christian perspective. It is not a Bible study curriculum, but does extensively include Bible history. It is not an in-depth program when used without doing any of the activities. Each lesson includes activities and there are lists of other resources that can be used to add further depth. The text covers major events and major trends in history, but doesn't go deeply into anything. This is where it is important to include assignments from the activities sections. The activities section is how the curriculum allows the teacher to delve more deeply into the areas of interest or that she thinks are important to cover more thoroughly. The curriculum is meant to include those not as extra activities, but as part of the curriculum. For older students, the activities are even more important than for the younger students. The main problem I have had in using Mystery of History 1 is in finding the information necessary to complete maps. Hobar does not appear to use a particular atlas that one can find all the information on. In the front of the book she suggests, "You'll also need to have on hand atlases from which to obtain information to record on your maps. I recommend both a Bible atlas and a historical atlas." I have several good historical atlases, but there is still information she asks for that I am unable to find without also searching an encyclopedia and sometimes even then I cannot find what I need without extensive searching on the internet. I hope once she finishes this series she will go back and correct that problem by revising this volume. This is the one real problem I have with this volume. It is time consuming to have to search for information that she should have taken the time to give information on where to find it or better yet, to include the completed maps in the curriculum. We had a much easier time with this in MOH 3, but I can't remember if it was a problem for MOH 2 or not.

First, must say I am very thankful to have this curriculum. I personally can not express how glad I am when something finally fits into our routine as well as curriculum choice. I am very selective as I would assume all parents that have a desire to see their children thrive, when selecting something to share with ouyr little ones. My kiddo looks forward to participating in history, the bonus is we can use the Bible which is wonderful for us, we truly enjoy having this as an option. My only regret is I didn't find this sooner. Lastly, the author's letters to the students and parents was very helpful as well as all the detailed instructions and visuals. I highly recommend this product and I don't usually write reviews just because. The packaging was in good condition upon arrival and shipping was timely.

I've heard about this series from homeschool moms but was happy with my old curriculum. Once we finished we tried a different series, but I find it dry. Mystery of History arrived and it only took a few pages for me to fall in love. The writer has a warm writing voice and introduces the book with a personal letter to several age groups, and the parent. It is clear the author is very passionate about her work and love of children. I am looking forward to History being a family activity again that we can read together, do projects together, and assign suggested independent work that she includes according to age group. I can't wait to start next year! This series teaches History chronologically, this book starting with Creation and working through the Old Testament to Jesus' story. Along with biblical stories, it includes what was going on in the world at the same time. I'm sure I will learn much along with my children!

Great product! Love this book! Taking longer than one year to get through it all. CDs go with this we highly recommend but I would suggest different narrator...my daughter and I finds her voice slightly annoying like she needs to swallow or drink some water and very monotone...We eventually got used to her voice but just our thought. The information is read to us but not with interesting stories weaved in as much as The Story of the World had. Great book full of great information and we love the way she put everything together. Love the timeline help. We used this book the same year (first grade/ancients) as The Story of the World by Wise-Bauer because my daughter likes Jim Weiss' CD voice and the stories Susan Wise-Bauer put together as well. We like the Mystery of History for coverage of even more of a Christian perspective on history than the Story of the World did and it's interesting to get two takes on most of the lessons/historical figures.

Unfortunately, the lessons are all very short with no reading comprehension questions included. I don't find that very homeschool friendly. It's difficult for me to think of comprehension questions myself when homeschooling multiple children. I switched to "Story of The World Vol.1" and we haven't looked back since. "Story of the World" focuses highly on building reading comprehension skills. Plus, you can buy the test book and activity book that's full of comprehension questions, map work, recipes, craft ideas, library book suggestions, and coloring pages to make learning fun. "Story of the World" has opened up a new world, now history is exciting to my son. "The Mystery of History Vol.1" is still on my book shelf in new condition. Sadly, I don't think I'll ever use it.

Good, however packaging was poor and the corner was a little damaged... So they need to take the extra effort to package better