I never liked history when I was in school but homeschooling has given me a whole new appreciation and love for history. It started with the first curriculum I purchased for my oldest daughter years ago. That curriculum taught history through a biblical worldview. My daughter and I began to see God’s hand throughout history and we both got excited to see the unfolding of God’s plan to redeem His people.
Since then I’ve been on the hunt for a curriculum that is not only grounded in a biblical worldview but enjoyable for all my children to use. I can’t even tell you how excited I was to discover The Mystery of History curriculum. It’s chronological, Christian and a whole lot of fun.
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What We Love About The Mystery of History
My kids and I jumped into The Mystery of History Volume 2 a few years ago, not knowing what to expect. I was surprised by how much we all enjoyed the stories that I read aloud to everyone. The supplemental coloring pages were a hit with all my kids and kept their hands busy while their ears were listening to the lesson. You can read more about how I used The Mystery of History with four different grade levels in this blog post.
Here are some reasons my kids and I love using The Mystery of History.
Christian
The Mystery of History is not only written by a Christian but it also written from a Christian worldview. As my kids and I read the lessons aloud, we are continually reminded of whose history we are reading about (God’s history!). I love that my children and I can learn about difficult and often terrifying events in history through the lens of redemptive history (how God is working to save his people). This curriculum does an excellent job of telling the story of history from a Christ-centered perspective.
Chronological
I have found it helpful to study history chronologically, especially for me and my older children. It has allowed us to see the cause and effects of different events throughout history. We have seen how events, ideas and beliefs have shaped the men, women and events that have come later. The Mystery of History follows this chronological approach to history and has made it easier for me and my older children to understand God’s marvelous story.
Engaging Stories
The stories in The Mystery of History are very engaging. It’s like the author, Linda Hobar, is sitting right there with you telling you the amazing stories of history. While the lessons are packed with information, children of all ages can usually enjoy the lessons being read aloud to them. I do want to note that each volume gets increasingly more difficult as it is meant to grow with your child. That means that the first two volumes are better suited for younger children. Volumes 3 and 4 might need to be summarized for younger students.
Geography Included
With The Mystery of History, you don’t just learn about history but where all the history is taking place. Map work is included in Volumes 1 and 2 and in the Companion Guide for volumes 3 and 4. (I’ll explain the difference in formatting between Volumes 1 and 2 versus Volumes 3 and 4 below.) This means that you can tackle history and geography with one curriculum. And what better way to learn geography than in the context of history.
Fun Activities
The Mystery of History is packed full of fun ideas and related activities for all ages and abilities. You can do as many or as little as you like. Some weeks my kids and I just enjoyed the stories and other weeks we dug deeper with fun activities, projects, reports and crafts.
Great Supplemental Resources Available
There are also additional supplemental resources available to purchase such as audio CD’s, lapbooks, notebook pages, timeline figures, coloring pages and challenge cards (for memory work). My older children really enjoyed the notebooking pages, the younger ones loved the coloring pages and I had one child who loved creating lapbooks for each lesson. There is something for everyone!
Four Volumes, Two Formats
At this time, the four different volumes come in two different formats. Volume 1 and 2 are a paperback textbook that includes the lessons along with pretests, review work, activities, quizzes and tests, and exercises. Volumes 1 and 2 are printed in black and white and the pages are hole punched and bound in paperback.
Volume 3 and 4 have been divided into two different components. The first is a beautiful, hardback, colorful student reader that contains the stories. The second part is the Companion Guide which includes pretests, review work, activities, quizzes and tests, and exercises.
Both versions have their pros and cons. When I used Volume 2, I enjoyed having everything in one book. I’d grab our Mystery of History paperback textbook and read the lesson, ask my kids questions, look through the activities and guide my kids in the map work all with one book. Volume 3 didn’t have everything in one place but the hardback book held up much better to frequent use and the colorful pictures were much more engaging than black and white photos. I also found the Companion Guide easy to use.
While the formats are different, the content remains the same. All the volumes contain detailed lessons that engaged my children and provided us with an excellent education in His story.
Want To Know More
Watch this video for more information about The Mystery of History. See if it might be a good fit for your family.
Why didn’t you start with volume 1? Was there a specific reason?
I had previously been using My Father’s World for history and we had already covered ancient times (which is the time period in MOH volume 1). We started with volume 2 because that is where we were in chronological history. 🙂
Hi Janelle,
Could you share your pros and cons of Mystery of History versus MFW? We are doing exploring countries and cultures this year… I like it very much but we’re starting to use less and less of the actual curriculum. At this point we’d only be buying it for the history component. What are your thoughts on MFW Creation to Greeks?.. I’m kind of liking the idea of having one book for history (Mystery of History) and the fact that it’s written by a Christian.. sometimes I find myself not agreeing with some of things in MFW. I know there’s no perfect curriculum but your review is compelling me to do more research on this one!
Hi Jamika,
We enjoyed using MFW but I found the same thing to be true as you are…I was really only using the history component and I couldn’t justify buying it again for only history. That is when I decided to switch to The Mystery of History. One thing to keep in mind is that MFW is easier to use with younger kids. The Mystery of History (especially the 3rd and 4th volume) are more geared toward middle school and high school in terms of the reading level and amount of material covered/details. There are a lot of options for making The Mystery of History work for younger children like the coloring pages and choosing easier activities to do but the text itself often needs to be summarized for younger ones. I am still glad we switched to it when we did and found it worked well for my wide age range of kids.
Ok thank you! It sounds like you have children close together as well 🙂 Did you split up your history curriculum at that point or did all your children (around the grade range) join in for the Mystery of History lessons? I have a 3,5,6,7 and 9 year old, and I would love something that would allow us to continue to do history together again next year, but if not then I’m thinking of giving the older 2 something more independent and just doing MFW with the little ones 🤷🏻♀️. I will certainly miss our family discussions on history however. Any advice from experience? I know you’re a busy mom as well so thanks in advance Janelle!
We did The Mystery of History together. Here is how I used it with multiple ages ranging from preschool to 5th grade. https://www.janelleknutson.com/2015/12/07/the-mystery-of-history-with-multiple-ages/