Planning Time - History

History is easy. It's just a story.

OK, it's a really long story with multiple settings and countless characters. But still a story.

We use The Mystery of History. We are nearly done with Volume 3.

We will push hard to finish Volume 4 this year so that Emily (my senior) will be able to finish it with us.

When starting Mystery of History all those years ago, I had it in mind to do the whole thing TWICE before David graduated. Well, the books didn't come out fast enough for that. We made do and used other resources.

Suzy and James will get to do all 4 volumes twice. That's the plan.

So, for this year, we will work hard the first three weeks to finish the last few lessons of Volume 3. Then we will try to keep up the pace the rest of the year. We don't do tests or worksheets for history. It's a story and so that's how we study it.

I like to reinforce the topics with videos and hands-on projects. We also work on a timeline to put everything in order.

An Open Letter to Linda Lacour Hobar on the Authorship of Shakespeare's Works

Dear Linda Lacour Hobar,

I've committed to your history series, The Mystery of History for a number of years now. I've considered it to be strong and well-researched until this week. We have eagerly awaited each new volume and are in the last half of the third book now.

Imagine my distress when I was blithely reading Lesson 49 aloud to my kids when - lo and behold - I realize that you promote the delusional theory that William Shakespeare did not write the plays attributed to him. I was annoyed and shocked and inserted my own disclaimers to my children about your unproven views.

Instead of titling the lesson "William Shakespeare" or "William Shakespeare: The World's Greatest Playwright," you chose to give it the ambiguous title, "The Works of William Shakespeare." Other lessons are titled "Michelangelo," "Erasmus Writes In Praise of Folly," or "William Tyndale: Father of the English Bible." But your skepticism regarding poor maligned Shakespeare is already reflected in the title of the lesson.

You nominally give him credit at the beginning of the lesson by stating that he "is considered England's greatest poet and playwright [emphasis mine]," but then you go on to describe several theories as "worthy of our consideration." Just because there are people who believe that Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, or Edward de Vere was the actual author of Shakespeare's plays, this should not be the focus of your only lesson on Shakespeare. You call the evidence for de Vere "convincing" and blame "fans" of Shakespeare for not agreeing with the "ghostwriter" theory. And Marlowe? For heaven's sake, Marlowe was DEAD and could not have written the bulk of the Shakespearean canon. But you give credence to the fantastical theory that perhaps he was secretly kept alive in a "witness-protection plan" and therefore was able to publish his works and attribute them to Shakespeare. This is fiction, pure and simple, and does not belong in a history book.

In the five pages devoted to Shakespeare, just five short paragraphs describe his life, but a page and a half are given to detailing the various conspiracy theories about the authorship of his writings. The remainder of the lesson focuses, as it should, on the genius of the writing. However, you ruin it over and over with phrases such as:

• "I will use the name of William Shakespeare to refer to whoever it was that wrote his works."
• "the vast works attributed to William Shakespeare"
• "whoever it was was that wrote the works of William Shakespeare"

Linda, you must give up the delusion that anyone besides William Shakespeare authored his own plays. If you feel that you must address the controversy, I think a simple sentence stating that "some believe that Shakespeare was not educated enough, but..." would be adequate for the needs of elementary and middle school students. It is irresponsible to plant these seeds of doubt in such young children. I hope that truth will be reflected in future editions of The Mystery of History Volume 3.

The Guardian provides a helpful article about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.

A Day in the Life: In Which I Explain Our Hectic Schedule

Since reading a friend's recent “Day in the Life” post, I've wanted to write an updated one. I reposted our “Day in the Life” from 2006 a few weeks ago, but I've been waiting for a “normal” day around here for weeks! Blizzards, sickness, and a crazy schedule have interfered until now, but this Monday will be as normal as it gets around here, even if it is Saint Patrick's Day!

Warning! Extremely long post ahead!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Early Morning: In Which The Day Gets Underway

The night hasn't been very restful, as I awakened at 3 AM or so and then again at 5 AM or so for no good reason. But I woke up before the alarm, at 6:15. I did some stretching in bed, then laid back down until after my husband got up at 6:30. I finally roll out of bed at 6:50. The house feels toasty warm by now, but the temperature shows only about 6 degrees outside.

Between 7:00 and 8:00 AM, I spend some quiet time snuggled into my cozy robe in the recliner, my favorite coffee mug in one hand and my phone in the other, getting caught up on Facebook. I pray with Bob before he leaves for work and then sort the laundry from Saturday for the kids to fold when they get up. Next I power up the Kindle to do my devotional reading and also read a chapter of a book on e-book marketing.

Our fourteen-year-old son James gets up earlier than normal, probably around 7:15. Bob calls Emily down several times since she needs to catch up on her missed schoolwork from last week, but the seventeen-year-old does not emerge. Suzy, age 11, turns up MUCH earlier than normal, around 7:45. Finally Emily patters down the stairs. The kids make some headway on their chores and get their own breakfast, usually just cereal. Sun streams in the windows which makes it easier to be productive.

Around 8:00, I throw in a load of laundry, then I change into workout clothes. I hop on the treadmill at 8:20 and walk while watching Raising Hope on Netflix. I have been seeking shows that are 22 minutes long since that's how long I want to walk. I am attempting to get back to running someday soon. A quick shower follows the workout.

Morning: In Which We Begin Formal Learning

We are supposed to start lessons at 9, but no one is going to be ready right on the hour. We are close today though! So, I pour another cup of coffee with French vanilla creamer and gobble a bowl of yogurt and Kashi. Time to corral the kids for the beginning of lessons.

Only ten minutes late! We start our Bible lesson by singing two hymns a capella: Stand up Stand Up for Jesus and Rescue the Perishing. I read a devotional and short prayer from Powerful Prayers for Your Family by David and Heather Kopp, and then we move into our prayer time, round robin style. Next is a lesson from Character Building for Families (volume 1 by Lee Ann Rubsam). The topic is cheerfulness illustrated with examples of Joseph and Samuel. To round out the Bible time, I read aloud a short chapter from Don't Check Your Brain at the Door by Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler which refutes myths many believe about Jesus and the Bible.

A short aside here to note that, today, attitudes are bad. We have a card system for discipline and a couple children have already lost the bulk of their cards. I am determined to stick to it for the long haul, though, knowing the rewards will be worthwhile. (Note: both Tuesday and Wednesday's attitudes have been MUCH improved.)

While I have the kids all at the table, we cover the subjects that concern all of them. So, first we review some Korean karate terms and information for their written black belt test. Another subject we do all together is penmanship. This year we have focused on handwriting. Today's cursive page bothers them because, for the first time, there is no cursive model on the page for them to follow. They have to look at printed text, remember the cursive letters, and write them. This challenges them and there is some initial opposition. (Yes, I know that all my kids really should know cursive by now, but I recently realized that none of them know it well – too much typing, I guess! So this year's study is intended to rectify that.)

Next on the agenda is to check over last week's work to see if there are any incomplete assignments. Usually we do this on Thursday or Friday, but we neglected it last week. I don't like starting a week with last week's work, but sometimes it happens. Suzy knows what she needs to work on from last week. James has Logic lessons to finish and Emily has research and some reading journal entries to write.

Now is the time when Emily usually heads off for some independent work time. I review with her the manner in which she should be completing her reading journal and send her to the living room to finish it. While she is doing that, I read the next history lesson to James and Suzy from Mystery of History 3. The topic? John Knox and the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. While I do that, Suzy colors a page from her famous landmarks coloring book. She usually tries to find one with a corresponding location to our lesson, so today she colors the Highland mountains.

Doing independent work

After the history lesson, I tell Emily to stop journaling and get on with her research. She is writing a research paper on Michigan's role in the Underground Railroad, but she is clueless as to how to accomplish the research. This task requires a lot of abilities that she struggles with – time management, skimming and scanning, choosing information, higher level thinking skills. She is way behind on the research for this assignment, mostly because she really doesn't know how to manage it, or even how to know what information to locate. Something else she needs to learn is to ask for help when she doesn't understand. I can't help her right this minute though, so I tell her to find her thesis statement and review it.

James needs some help with his logic lesson from Introductory Logic from Mars Hill (Canon Press), so I sit with him and explain the concepts while he does his incomplete exercises. During this time, Suzy does her art lesson – watercolor on a wet outline design from The Usborne Book of Art Ideas.

After they are finished, I quiz first James then Suzy on their spelling words from Spelling Power. After the quiz, each one goes off to practice their words and write sentences.

Somewhere in there I ate a muffin with butter and raspberry jam and got the last half cup of coffee. Today might be a day where I wish I had more coffee.

Now I have a bit of time to work with Emily on her research question. We do a rough outline of her topics and I reiterate how she should take notes. Then I move her to the table with her materials and set her to taking notes.

While she is doing this, James is working on his German lesson. He is using the free service at Duolingo and he NEVER complains about doing it. He seems to be making satisfactory progress.

Suzy has disappeared upstairs. I wonder what she's doing up there. But I realize the kids might want clean uniforms for the karate promotion this afternoon so I move the wet load to the dryer and wash the doboks (Korean for uniform). I do my hair and makeup. Suzy comes back down and tells me my hair looks pretty. :-) Then she does 20 minutes of math on Khan Academy.

Afternoon: In Which We Work Independently

I get myself some leftovers for lunch and instruct the kids to feed themselves from Leftovers Only today. Usually they are allowed to make their own lunches, but the leftovers are taking over!

At 12:15 or so, I sit down to work on my paid work hours. We have to leave in a couple of hours, so I want to get as much done as I can before we leave. Suzy is doing the dishes. She knows it's her job and she whines about the amount of dishes (which truly is quite a lot) but she does them without any prompting.

After about half an hour, I think about the wet uniforms and go transfer them to the dryer, hoping it won't shut off unexpectedly as it has a tendency to do. When I sit back down, I have received an email about our possible roof loan, and so I look up some numbers to answer the email.

After a few minutes, I have to confiscate James' phone because he is playing a game instead of doing his schoolwork. He moves on to reading A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I set Emily another goal for her research note taking. Suzy is still doing dishes which seems like it's taking a long time though possibly she has done some other things in there too.

Suzy finishes the dishes at 1:13 and I hear her run upstairs. After a couple of minutes, I inquire as to her next activity and get her started on her Teaching Textbooks 6 math. I plug in headphones and attempt to do an hour of concentrated effort on my work. I am listening to Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

After about half an hour, James brings me his answers for the first chapter in A Study in Scarlet. We discuss them briefly and then I go over the instructions for the paragraph I want him to write as a response to the reading. He heads off but returns shortly, complaining loudly about the IEW requirements of the paragraph I have assigned. I am firm and send him off with many admonitions for silence.

At 2:00 Suzy reminds her brother and sister to get their uniforms on. I am still attempting to work.

Mid-Afternoon: In Which We Leave The House

At 2:25, we leave for our 3:00 karate class. We recently bought a “new” van with a CD player. After a more than a year without one in the car, we are appreciating having that convenience again. Sometimes we listen to educational CDs, but lately we have been listening to the soundtrack of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which everyone enjoys.

Red 2 Gold:
less than a year to Black Belt!

We arrive at karate a few minutes early and my oldest child is already there. YAY! I love to see him. David is 19 and in his first year of college about 45 minutes away. He lives on campus, so we mainly see him at karate class. Today all my kids are being promoted to Red 2 Gold level. I dropped out of karate 3 months ago, so this is the first promotion I have not participated in. I don't feel sad though.

While the kids are in class, I work for about 35 minutes. (Thankfully the karate studio, or dojang, has wi-fi.) David leaves a bit early, giving me a hug and a kiss before he goes. This is exam week for him – the last week of term 2 - so he will be home on Friday for a couple weeks of break.

After class, we run next door to the shoe store. Suzy is in need of some new athletic shoes since she has none that fit that are also suitable for volleyball. She finds some she likes very quickly which is a miracle, made even more miraculous by the fact that I can afford them.

We head out to meet my husband. He is off 1 hour early today to go to a 5:00 doctor appointment. The timing worked out well for him to take the older two kids home on his way. Otherwise they would have to stay in town with me because Suzy has her first volleyball practice tonight.

Evening: In Which One of Us Plays Volleyball

Sitting in McD

Suzy and I head back to town to sit at McDonald's to eat dinner and finish the last 90 minutes of my work hours. The internet is SO SLOW at McDonald's that it's driving me nuts and ruining my rate per hour. Some teenage girls giggle madly for a long time in the corner booth. V. distracting. (At home, James heats up some more leftovers for dinner.)

While I work, Suzy does a few of her assignments. She writes 6 sentences about the chapter she read in Stuart Little. She types them on my phone since she forgot to bring any paper. She also does 10 minutes on the DragonBox algebra app. Last she completes a speed reading exercise from an A Beka speed and comprehension book. (One of the few things I like from A Beka)

Suzy (pink shirt, NEW blue shoes)
with her gr 4-6 team

After my work hours are complete, we head over to the school where practice is being held. We are a few minutes early. Suzy has been here before, but I have not. This attractive middle school has a roomy pleasant gym with a glossy floor, currently occupied with lots of kids working on volleyball skills. Suzy's practice isn't until 7, so we go back out in the hall. She bounces the ball around while I play on my phone. After a while, Suzy's best friend and teammate arrives. Her mom is my good friend and she and I chat for a while before she heads out. I settle in to watch practice and to read on the Kindle app on my phone.

Practice ends at 8:00. A couple of my friends have arrived with their older girls for their 8:00 practice. I chat with them for a few minutes then head out with Suzy. On the drive home, with Joseph on the CD player, Suzy falls asleep. Long long day for her!

Volleyball drills

A quick stop at the post office is the last thing for us before we arrive home. We don't have mail delivery in our small village, so a stop at the post office is nearly a daily occurrence.

When we get home, I gently poke Suzy awake. Inside, Emily is working on her research and James is napping on my bed. They both have accomplished some of their lessons while they were home alone. The internet is out again, which is annoying. These outages have become more and more frequent over the last few days. I fiddle with the modem and after a while it comes on, but it is intermittent all evening. Hopefully when our new modem arrives, the problems will be resolved.

Nighttime: In Which We Begin to Fall Asleep

Suzy's bedtime is 9:30, so I send her off, then realize Emily is not accomplishing much in the way of research. I redirect her to do her free reading for 30 minutes and then journal writing for 5 minutes, so at least she can mark SOMETHING off her list.

Being Silly with James

At around 10:00, I tell Emily to shower and go to bed. James is supposed to go to bed too, but he bribes me by rubbing my neck, which has been bothering me all day. The internet has come back on so I watch Merlin on Netflix. The internet cuts out several times during the show. Annoying. After the show, I send James to bed and watch one more show by myself – Last Man Standing. By this time, it's 11:15 and I am exhausted, so I go to bed.

The Overview: In Which I Analyze the Day

Yes, this really is an average “good day” in our home education. We started fairly close to 'on time'. I spent the morning working with the kids and got my work hours done by early evening. We often have afternoon or evening activities, so that part is normal. The attitudes were a bit worse today than average. I know this can be solved with consistency.

One thing I really need to work on with these kids is QUIET WORK TIME. Each one feels perfectly entitled to talk aloud or make noise at any time of the day. James really has been loud since the day he was born. When he was a baby, I had to change my style of homeschooling because his noises were such an disruption. I could not read aloud. He continues to be a loud kid. Now that he's 14, I think we can reasonably expect him to know when it is okay to be loud and when it is unacceptable. I don't mean to single James out. All of us, including me, can work on this.

If you made it to the end of our very long day, I congratulate you! Any questions?

"History" Plans Complete

Unlike the LAST subject, I LOVE history!!

That said, I've put "history" in quotes in my post title, because we aren't doing actual "history" this year. This year we are doing GEOGRAPHY!

I wrote last summer about Mapping the World by Heart. But like most of my ambitious summer plans, it didn't happen. So this will be our social studies topic this year. The goal is for the kids to be able to draw detailed world and U.S. maps by heart. So, we'll give it a try!  All of the kids will do this.

If we complete that before the year is over, we will pick back up with Mystery of History 3, which we used last year and got partway through.

David (my senior) has completed his two history credits - American History and World History. The mapping class above will be the "geography" portion of his requirement. He did his Civics (Government) requirement last year. That just leaves Economics. So, we will be doing a book study on Economics using these three books - The Cartoon Introduction to Economics Volume 1: Microeconomics, A Bluestocking Guide to Economics, and Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?. These three books and the accompanying writing I will assign, along with the Financial Peace for Teens class (Dave Ramsey) that David took three years ago (or so) will complete his Economics credit.  I considered having Emily (10th grade) do this work along with David, but I don't think she's ready to master the content.

How We Do... History

Here is the third in a series of posts on how we do each of our academic subjects. (The first was on Bible study and the second was Math.)

I never liked history when I was in school. I didn't see the big picture until I was in college. Until I took a History of Civilization class, I didn't see any of it as connected. Because of this, I always wanted to teach my children history chronologically.

But for a long time, I couldn't really find a curriculum that did this, so we floundered around in Ancient Egypt and the American Revolution. I figured that at least if we had an interest in some part of history, that the love of learning about it would carry over to history in general. And I actually think that is a fine approach.

But, a few years ago, when a friend showed me her brand new copy of Mystery of History, I knew in a flash that was what I had been waiting for. Currrently there are 3 volumes in the series, with a fourth (and final) volume being finished

Why? Well, it's strengths are:

• Chronological
• Christian
• Conversational
• Creative

We have worked our way through Volumes 1 and 2. For those two volumes, I led the lessons, reading them aloud to my children, and then doing a project once a week or so to extend the learning. I don't really pay any attention to the tests. For those volumes, we did a timeline and we did the learning cards for volume 1 only.

As we progressed, I stripped the history lessons to exactly what we wanted. I don't want our history to be a bunch of memorization. I want it to be something that whets the children's appetites for learning more about history, as well as something that allows them to see each event in relation to a larger picture. It's learning a worldview and a context, rather than memorizing dates and names. (Note: I am not opposed to memorization. I just want more than that.)

For Volume 3, however, I needed to do something differently. As I have mentioned before, since I am working 20+ hours a week, I need to streamline our curriculum. So, David is "teaching" history this year by reading the lessons aloud to his siblings. He is gaining practice in reading aloud (which is something he needs to work on) and in teaching. Is it the most ideal way to teach history? Probably not. Are they continuing on toward my goal for them? Yes, they are.

What would I like to change or add? I would like to return to doing the projects. For MOH3, I would need the teacher book. The publisher changed the format for Volume 3. Instead of one volume with the info and the resources, the books were separated into a full color textbook and a separate teacher volume. I should probably order that and add that back into our history lessons. I think that adds a richness we have been missing.

Volume 4 (the final MOH) will probably not be ready in time for us to use it when we finish Volume 3. So, we will probably take the time in between to do an in-depth study of American History. Or maybe we will do a year of Geography since David already did a survey of American History. Our options are open.

Weekly Review - Week 27

This was quite an average week - lessons-wise - here at Cornerstone Academy. Five days of lessons, nothing unusual except Chess Club and a Friday afternoon visit with Michele to break the monotony of the days. The weather was rainy, really really rainy, for the first couple days and then COLD, quite quite cold for a couple more. Next week is supposed to warm up a bit! That'll be nice.

One thing that was different was the lack of any Bible study. I just couldn't muster the gumption to push everyone through it this week. Bible time often ends up being the time of the most complaining and unpleasant attitudes and I just wasn't interested in facing it. Isn't it odd that the time should be about praising the Lord and learning about his Word, but instead it ends up being CHARACTER BUILDING for all? :::chuckles, somewhat bitterly:::: Anyway, we'll do it next week. I promise.

Suzy is working on an art book. Several years ago, James did this art book at co-op. My friend Sarah is teaching it this year at co-op, but Suzy didn't end up taking the class for whatever reason. So, I decided to have her complete it here at home. She is enjoying it, perhaps just the attention from Mom and the opportunity to do "Art". Anyway, some of these pictures are of her mixing colors for one of the pages.

In History this week, the littles learned about St. Boniface, the Iconoclast Conspiracy, and Charles "Martel". I knew nothing about ANY of these before. One of the projects was to make crosses and decorate them, "icon" style. So I have some pictures for you of that.

David's been studying the Civil War this month and I found some DVD's at the library for him to watch. Emily sat and watched them all too, which surprised me, as I personally found them a tad dry - at least the parts I watched. They watched them in the afternoons while I worked on my writing.Civil War Journals: The Conflict Begins (from the History Channel) are the DVD's. I plan to have him watch some Civil War movies too - I had in mind Glory, Gods and Generals, and maybe Gettysburg. I'm not big on war movies, so anyone with suggestions there, please leave them in my comments.

Man, I DETEST working with pictures in blogger! Why don't they go where I want them? Argh!!!

Adaptation

I was recently given a mostly unused Spelling Power test booklet and Emily chose to use it for her spelling work. I have not used a booklet for SP for a couple years at least, preferring instead to use an alternate study sheet I found online and plain notebook paper.

While giving Emily her words today, I was reminded of all the reasons why I stopped using the booklet originally. This led me to think about all the ways I adapt our curriculum from its original design.

Some examples?

Mystery of History is a solid and informative curriculum with a Christian perspective. Many extras are included in each lesson. Do I use them all? No. One thing I no longer require is the memory cards, although we did them throughout the whole first volume. We painstakingly (and often painfully!) wrote them out, inserted them in the special binders purchased for that exact purpose, and then... never looked at them again! Why did I put us through this? Well, the book said to! I also don't assign most of the mapwork that's included in Volume 2. To my mind, it's overly complex for the elementary crowd and time-intensive. Another way we modify MOH is to do the pretests and review pages all together, usually as a "quiz" using the white board.

With Spelling Power, the most obvious change from the program is to not do the "activities" that are recommended. We test the previous day's five words, and then go on through the lists to identify the five words for the day. The students go through the 10 step study process and write sentences for each word. It's effective and takes just the right amount of time. I like the alternate sheet because it includes some modifications from the original study sheet.

Let's see. What else? Oh yes, Sonlight. David is doing Sonlight 100. I went to great pains in the summer to obtain most of the books and locate where the others could be found at short notice. Am I using them all? No. Some of them are clearly "girl" books - girls on the cover prejudice David against the book. I don't always take his opinions into consideration, but our goal is, after all, that he learn to ENJOY his reading. So, I'd prefer to offer him reading selections that will further that end. So, we skip some books. Some books he'd already read. Do I do the books in the order they are in the curriculum? Not necessarily. Do I follow the lesson plans exactly as written? No. I feel no compunction to do the program exactly as written, but rather what works best for us.

So, let me encourage you - feel free to alter, modify, fine-tune, convert, improve, vary, adapt, accomodate, realign, adjust or revamp your curriculum choices to better suit the children you are educating!

Eruption!

[NOTE - Michele asked where David was during this activity. He is doing a different history text this year, so he usually doesn't participate with the other kids on their history. If it strikes his fancy, he may do the activity. He's usually in the room listening to me read the MOH lesson aloud, so he does get the info. But, his Sonlight U.S. history keeps him plenty occupied!]

As part of our Mystery of History 2 studies, today we erupted volcanoes in the backyard. We were studying Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. The kids buried bottles containing baking soda, red food coloring, and dish soap. Then they poured in vinegar and WOW! An eruption!!!

I found a cool website to enhance our learning.

Pompeii: Unraveling Ancient Mysteries (Harcourt)

Also, just a warning - lots of extremely inappropriate pictures were painted on walls in Pompeii. If you just google image-search "Pompeii", you'll probably want to preview the results. A word to the wise!

Curriculum Collected!

I've ordered Mystery of History 2! YAY! I found it used! Even better, eh?

So, I have just about all the curriculum now. Still need to order that art software and some construction paper. (I buy a LOT when I buy it - and so I make a bulk order, usually from Miller Pads and Paper.)

Now, I have to SORT.

Finished Mystery of History Volume One - Wonderful!

Friday was our last day of Mystery of History Volume 1! I am so excited that we have finished! We took about a year and a half to complete the curriculum. It was an awesome experience and I recommend MOH to everyone.

We will take a break from World History and do some American history before going on to MOH2, mainly because I cannot afford to purchase it right now.

I already have The Light and the Glory for Children (by Peter Marshall and David Manuel), as well as the 2 continuing volumes, so we will read these and do some corresponding activities before going on to MOH2. This will give us a "quick" survey of American history.

(Note: I am doing all the planning, but my husband Bob is doing almost all of the actual teaching!)

Mystery of History

We have been using Mystery of History Volume 1 this year, taking it slowly through the text, doing 3 lessons a week or so. We are now on lesson 43 which is an introduction to the City of Rome, c. 753 BC.

This past week, the children took an oral quiz - 30 questions asking: Who is..Eve...the Sumerians....Hammurabi....King Wen...etc....? They got 26 of them right! Here are the 4 they missed. Do you know who these historical people are?
Who was King Minos?
Who was Khufu?
Who was Jeroboam? (They knew it was a Biblical king, so MORE than that is needed!)
Who were the Aryans?

I love the clearly written Christian perspective of the text and the choices of activities are varied and fun, yet bring home the point of the lesson.

The memory cards have been the main sticking point for us. We are keeping up with them, but it is the only thing the kids really complain about. We have enjoyed doing the map work and the timeline.

The activities really complement the lessons. We made a plumb line to go along with the lesson on the prophet Amos. The kids dyed cloth with stinky dye to remember the Phoenicians. They made Lego ziggurats to illustrate the Tower of Babel.

The thing I love about MOH is that Biblical history is integrated seamlessly with the rest of world history, putting it on the same level. I want my kids to see the events of the Bible as true beyond a shadow of a doubt, as well as know when the events occurred and in what order. This is something I never learned, but I am learning now and MOH is a great tool to help my kids to see the big picture.

Mystery of History

Thanks to my good friend Maryann, I found the perfect History curriculum. In my humble opinion, of course. :-)

HERE IT IS!! The Mystery of History: Volume 1 by Linda Lacour Hobar.

As soon as I picked it up and started paging through it, I knew it was perfect for us.
Short lessons written in a conversational manner
Starts at Creation and has a Biblical point of view
Includes Biblical events mixed in with other historical events
Can be done with all age students
Not a traditional "textbook" or a workbook
Has cool hands-on activities for each lesson
Organized chronologically and includes history from all over the world, not just western civilization
Includes timeline work
Includes map work

Hobar has written Volume 2 and is working on Volume 3. There will be 5 volumes when it is all completed. When I get to the end of Volume 5, I plan to start over again with Volume 1.

I planned my lessons out by writing down the pages we plan to cover each day and by choosing the activities we plan to do. I noted the items needed for each activity, so I am not surprised on the day that we need a white sheet cake and colored frosting.

Several of the homeschooling moms I know have also decided to use Mystery of History. I am excited that other people will be doing it alongside of us, because that only can mean more support!

If you are still looking for a history curriculum you can really enjoy, give this one a try! (Will post more later in the year, after I've had a chance to try it.)