Sunday, July 02, 2006

Praiseworthy Review: The Mystery of History



Part of the reason I homeschool is to be able to teach my children about our faith. I really wanted to blend chronological biblical history with our history studies. I looked at several ways to do this. I previewed some other biblical history curriculums, but found that they included a lot of extra-biblical information passed off as fact. Then I found this curriculum and my search was over.

The Mystery of History is a history curriculum written by Linda Lacour Hobar for all ages really. It's published by Bright Ideas Press. The book is 472 pages and jam packed with information, projects and teaching helpers.

Linda Hobar has done a fantastic job of reintroducing biblical details into the history our children learn. This book contains clear instructions for how to use it as well as activities for different age levels at the end of each lesson. There are pretests and quizzes, maps, book and video lists, and an answer key in the back. It's so easy to just pick up the book with a little bit of materials gathering and use this curriculum. My children love it and I love it. One of the perks of homeschooling is filling in the gaps of my own learning and this book has taught me so much. I find that I better understand the big picture of God working in our world after using this book. I used Volume one with my 7 year old and now she is eight and we have moved on to Volume Two. I will be cycling back through these when we repeat our history rotation and using the projects for older children at that time.

I highly recommend this book and Volume II which our family is now using. It's easy to use and highly readable. You won't be sorry. If you do decide on this curriculum, then consider joining one of the yahoo support groups for The Mystery of History. Linda Hobar is frequently writing on the list answering questions and giving updates on what is happening with the other books in the series. It has been a good place for me to glean ideas and learn from others.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteryofHistory1
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteryofHistory2

Or check out the website at here where you will find sample pages as well.