The Mystery of History: The Early Church and the Middle Ages

by Linda Lacour Hobar

Book Overview

No more racing to the copy shop, calling around town for the lowest copy prices or slicing the binding off your book Our new CD-ROM saves time, money and headaches. Now you can print out all MOH 2... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1892427060
• ISBN13: 9781892427069
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Bright Ideas Press
• Length: 715 Pages
• Weight: 4.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 8.3" x 11.4"

Customer Reviews

Takes The Mystery Out of Homeschooling

I just have one complaint about this curriculum - I didn't write it! As a two-decade home educator, I've been trying to write a needed missing link in home education. But this book is the link I've been looking for!!! There seems to be two basic types of history books out there: 1. Textbooks that give trite summaries that fail to inspire our kids to interact with historical periods and that tend to instill a sense of boredom. 2. Exciting "idea book" type hands-on programs that give timelines, maps, ideas, crafts, etc. that you are told to integrate with historical instruction. The problem is, most of us don't have the time, knowledge, or money to buy or research these historical periods to teach the "meat" of information we don't know ourselves. Plus, there are those days as a homeschooler where we need the kids to be more autonomous than others. If the curriculum depends on us 100% of the time, we're going to fail. If the curriculum depends on handing a kid a big book or computer and hoping they discern what the key points to isolate, they will often become distracted and fail. With this self-directed approach, assessment becomes a big issue - either by neglecting to test or by exhausting the home educator who is required to create these constant assessments. Mystery of History gives the beginner to advanced home educator the best of both worlds. A great, easy-to-read segment of history is covered each day. The student is able to read it themselves and then, is asked to write a summary card of the key point and dates. A timeline is recommended with the choice of format. The teacher can be as involved or uninvolved in the process as life dictates that day and then, can assess student comprehension based on the cards and regular testing provided in the manual. Additional ideas, crafts, reading etc. are given for varying grade levels that allow the teacher to amplify and expand the info given when desired. It's chronological (very helpful with learning challenged kids) and a perfect balance between self-directed and teacher supervised. Ample opportunities for creativity abound, but consistent no-frills flow is also insured. It works well with multi-grade teaching since the text is supplemented with advanced work suggestions. I love this and will just have to file away my efforts at writing the same concept.

Wonderful! Even better than Volume 1!!

We used Volume 1 last year and loved it. We have just started Volume 2 and have the same opinion. This volume has a little more "meat" to the reading---with more details and insight into various places/events. It also has highlighted words within the text and this helps my son (and me) find important information. We do not do all the activities listed as this would be too overwhelming. We also do our own version of the memory cards in addition to a timeline book. It is a very flexible curriculum and gives you a good starting point for digging deeper into various topics.

Great resource!

This is an impressive history book! It is a tome to be sure, even a bit intimidating for the younger grades, but it is easily adaptable to a wide range of age and ability levels. My 8-year-old son enjoys history, so he loves it, but I think the activities are interesting enough to engage less enthusiastic students, as well. It is also appropriate for much older students; the author, in fact, recommends going through the book in its entirety at different stages of a student's development. If you're looking for a great history series (this volume covers A.D. 29 through the Middle Ages)written from a Biblical worldview, you'd be hard-pressed to do better than this!

The most interesting and easy to use history program

When I was looking for a history program to use with my son, I asked several families what program they used. Nine out of ten told me Mystery of History. When I asked why, I received a number of answers, but all said because it was so enjoyable and had such easy but interesting activities for elementary, middle school and high school students. My son never complains about history now. He looks forward to our daily reading and the easy activity that we do with it. We decided on making history cards rather than a timeline, which he can do on his own. He even looks forward to the tests and pretests at the end and beginning of each section. Everything that we need in one text, including maps.

Engaging History for every age

I went through Volume I with my 7th & 4th graders and found it to be interesting, thorough enough without being overwhelming, and offering the opportunity to do as much or as little as you want on a daily basis with the addition of extra activities and projects. This volume surpasses the first volume, which was great. My favorite aspect of her history courses are the pre- and post- tests scattered throughout the book. Never before have I seen a subject reviewed so constantly in such a fun way. My girls love to do the tests together as a form of competition to see who can remember the answer first in the post-tests and who can guess what the answer might be in the pre-tests. She whets their appetites for what is to come and keeps what has been fresh on their minds. In fact, the post-tests keep the subjects so fresh that by the end of the last topic in the book they still remember the first topic they studied. They are short and fun but require them to remember past lessons. What a joy! My own complaint is that Volume 3 is not ready yet!! I will need it next year!!!