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I love shopping curriculum. When we started homeschooling years ago, I had so much fun perusing and selecting. I was especially excited about history curriculum. My boys had both told me that they ‘hated social studies’. The reason why was that they had studied essentially the same material from kindergarten through 5th grade. Communities, maps, Native Americans, the colonies, and settlers. Every year.
Because of that, I chose to start our homeschool adventure with a chronological study of history, starting with the ancient world. I was so excited about the curriculum I had chosen. It had positive reviews, lots of activities, and audio discs to accompany each lesson that were said to engage and delight students.
And it ended up being a perfect example of what has become my favorite thing about homeschooling: If something doesn’t work you get to try something else. (We learned this with our math curriculum, too!)
Was This a Mistake?
The first lesson was ok, until I put the audio disc in. Then the eye rolling and giggling began. During the second lesson, the giggling turned to mocking. The third day brought complaining and by the fourth day we were done. I packaged it up, sent it back, and ordered what had been my second choice.
The boys still laugh today if I bring up that curriculum. Their complaint was primarily that they felt the audio discs talked down to them (they were in 4th and 6th grades at the time). They described it as ‘babyish’.
The curriculum we settled on ended up being such a good fit that we used it for a number of years, and we couldn’t have been happier with it.
The Mystery of History
Enter The Mystery of History!
In a nutshell, what I loved about Mystery of History were the options. With each lesson/topic, the book provides accompanying activities for all ages. All ages!
For example, when students study Napoleon (in Volume IV), a chapter is read and discussed. Then:
- Younger students make a hat that looks like Napoleon.
- Middle aged students use the information they’ve learned about him to write a descriptive acrostic of Napoleon’s name.
- Older students compare/debate quotes by Napoleon and George Washington.
- Many times, more than one activity option is listed, as well, so you have a choice.
We enjoyed the variety of activities, and especially the many that were very hands on.
Here’s a pyramid the boys made, and a cake map of Egypt.
Something else I really appreciated about this history curriculum is that it covers what is going on all over the world so students get a clear picture of the time period, instead of studying events or people in isolation.
Using timelines really helped with this. We had a large wall timeline and used these timeline figures, adding them with each lesson. It was a visual way to track what we were learning.
The boys also kept binders in which they stored projects they’d done, maps created, and assignments completed. (I still have these!)
I would recommend The Mystery of History to anyone starting homeschooling, or looking for a change. It is top notch! (As a note: this is a decidedly Christian curriculum, with a definite Biblical worldview).
We worked through the first three volumes, spanning from ancient history through around 1700. At that time, volume four (1700 through the present) had not been completed. I’ve since looked through it and was legitimately saddened that we didn’t get to use it. It’s amazing!
Other History Curriculum
In middle school, we worked through Notgrass America the Beautiful (United States history) and liked it. We didn’t read all of the novels that went along with it, but did do several. It’s a solid curriculum and I liked the format.
In high school, both of the boys studied world civilizations and American History more in depth. Our focus in high school has been on preparing for exams that offer college credit, so we’ve used a variety of resources.
Do your kids like studying history?
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First of all, I love your blog. It’s a nice little pick-me-up to get in my work email everyday- it helps keep my head in a good space. 🙂
Second- I might have to look into this curriculum for our little weekend preschool we’re working on at home! Scarlett would love a little more history!
Thank you for the kind words…you’ve made my day! Regarding the curriculum, I haven’t thought about this in the light of preschool. Not sure how it would translate. But considering that your child is a genius, she’d be a good one to test it on! 🙂 If you do start, I’d love to hear how you use it and how it goes!
Interesting hearing of the different channels you looked into – great job mixing it up! Cool projects.
How incredible!!! I love this! A little pricey for one subject but it seems worth it. And when I honestly consider all the time, supplies, and effort that goes into creating daily curriculums, this definitely is worth the value!
It is an investment. But considering that the book is essentially a student book, teacher’s guide, and includes maps, patterns, etc. to copy…it’s full of value. I would say you could look for a used copy at a curriculum fair, but I marked mine up so much, and I’m guessing most people do the same, that you don’t see them much at sales.
My son is grown so I would like to share this story of my public school education. I always oved social studies; I was briefly a history major in college. So: When I was in 5th grade (1963) I was in a social studies class that had such a ridiculous textbook that my friends and I would mock it during recess. We probably rolled our eyes, too. But, we were stuck with that textbook because – well, that’s how public school education goes. It didn’t destroy my love of history but anyone who didn’t love history before that book certainly didn’t love it by the end of the year.
I love history, too. But I developed the enjoyment more from museums and documentaries more than any class I ever took. Thanks for sharing your story…I would bet it’s one a lot of people might share. If not a great learning experience, at least it made memories!
Great article Susan. We homeschooled our boys (now grown) and I love history, so I was the history teacher. I also love the fact that you can start again with a new curriculum if you don’t like the one you’re using. It’s so freeing! I never really found a favorite curriculum so I made up a lot of stuff on my own. We live right between NYC and Philly so we took a lot of field trips. We visited sites and talked about the history. We were blessed to live so close to amazing historical sites. Thanks for sharing your story about history.
Completely agree, Ed! I’m confident that my kids remember far more of what they learned when we visited places (museums, historical sites, etc.) than anything from a book. Guarantee it! You sure do live near a lot of interesting places to visit! We took a family trip to D.C. a few years ago and didn’t even come close to soaking it all in!
Have to say we have never tried Mystery of History…at least not yet. We have used Story of the World which from what I understand takes a similar approach to history. We loved using it. We stopped when it got to modern times to wait a bit to cover WW2 when the kids were a bit older. Maybe you might not want to say, but I am curious as to what curriculum it was that you ended up returning. I am always on the look out for new curriculum to check out and even though it didn’t seem to work for your kiddos, it just might for mine. Thanks!
Catherine, I did intentionally leave out the name of the curriculum from the post. Even though I totally agree with you, that it might very well work for others (it clearly does, I read loads of positive reviews before buying it) I didn’t want to present a negative view publicly. I’m ok sharing it here, though, I figure that anyone who reads this far is thinking the same thing as you. 🙂 It was Diana Waring’s History Revealed Ancient Civilizations.
I’ve heard lots of positive things about Story of the World, too. A number of people I know have used it successfully.
Thanks for stopping by — Best of luck finding the best fit for your family!