Linda Hobar, the author of this world history series, states in the beginning of this book, “I believe history is the story of God revealing Himself to mankind and that He did it most perfectly through the person of Jesus Christ…the “mystery” is the gospel of Jesus Christ.” What a refreshing and different view from most world history curriculums! Those looking for a world history program that aligns the stories of mankind with the living story of God will truly appreciate this Bible-centered approach to the history of the world. Picking up where Volume 1 leaves off, this volume begins with the Pentecost and the first followers of Jesus (including Paul) around 29 A.D and chronologically continues through the early church and moves into the Middle Ages, covering the years through about 1456 A.D. The format of this book is very similar to that of the first volume; however, there are some small differences. Firstly, there are fewer lessons (84 as opposed to 108), but these lessons are slightly longer, offering more information on a given topic. Lessons generally take the form of real-life biographies, sharing the stories of men and women who changed the world while simultaneously showing the relationship between God and the world during that period. Another new feature is the bolding of key words to aid students in finding the information again later for activity or vocabulary purposes. As in the first book, this volume includes pretests to be given at the beginning of each week, end of the week reviews, memory card suggestions, bi-weekly quizzes, quarterly worksheets, and two semester tests. Memory cards are fact cards that students create for each lesson, capturing the main points and dates on an easy to review flashcard. The end of the week reviews continue to hold timeline and mapping exercises, providing students with helpful visuals of when important figures lived and where places studied are located. This volume also contains even more activities following each lesson than the first volume. This is simply to provide you with more choices, not to overwhelm you with feeling like you should do them all! These activities are generally categorized into younger, middle, and older student activities in order to accommodate the curriculum to a wider spread of grade levels, with the youngest comprised of many hands-on activities to help them experience history, middle activities a combination of hands-on exercises with research, and the older ideas centering on research, encouraging students to learn more and dig deeper into the people and lessons from history. The activities and memory cards, as well as the weekly and quarterly reviews and tests, are meant to ensure long-term retention of the key events and people throughout history, as opposed to the short term memory capacity we often hold history (and other subjects!) lessons in. The back of this hefty 700-page book contains the outline maps for the lessons, additional fun supplemental activities, suggestions of books and resources for further study of many of the topics, a chart of materials needed for the activities found in each lesson, and a full answer key. The fascinating journey across the continents continues as students discover who lived when and the way God worked His plan throughout this period of history. ~ Steph

Customer Reviews

 
Cheryl B. from Florida wrote the following on 06/27/2007:
This was a great history study. I love the way it integrated Biblical history with world history. My girls (12 and 17) learned a lot (and so did I). Why couldn't they teach history this way when I was in school? I love the fact that you can use it with multi age levels. The timelines really put it together in a visual way. The exercises and quizzes helped them to see if they were catching the material or not. I'm ordering #2 for next year and hoping she will have #3 completed for the following year. If not...HELP!

 
Ann-Marie M. from Ocala, Fl wrote the following on 06/29/2007:
I researched this book on line and was quite impressed so I ordered Volume 1 & 2. I love them! This is not some boring history book that your kids will moan and groan about reading. Each lesson is packed full of interesting activities to help your child absorb what they are learning in a fun way. You can make these activities as simple or complex as you like. The flexibility is wonderful. And it is such an easy program to follow. I also like the fact that you can use MOH with multiple grade levels. I am using it for my 6th grader this year, but plan to keep it for my preschooler to use in the years to come. What I love most is how the author incorporated bible history with world history. I plan on using every volume published!

 
Lisa P. from Weatherford, OK wrote the following on 07/19/2007:
This is absolutely the best history program around! I am ashamed to say that although I was at the top of my high school class, I never learned alot of this, and I never liked history. Now, I love history!!! I have just as much fun learning as my kids do. I have an 11th grader and a 5th grader, so there isn't a lot of things they can study together, but this is one of them. Our favorite thing about MOH 1 & 2 is the way you learn history around the world, chronologically. I may have learned what happened in different parts of the world or in Biblical times, but had no idea how it tied in to the rest of the world until we found this! Our other favorite part is the many, many choices of activities to reinforce what you learn, especially the timeline, books to read, crafts, recipes, and especially the great movies we've found to watch and be able to count as history! We are anxiously awaiting Vol. 3! My daughter now realizes she will graduate before all 5 volumes are completed and has said she will still come back and do history with us! This is one curriculum we will never resell, we'll just reuse it, even for fun, and especially for reference. If only there was a curriculum like this for all subjects!!!! Then we would love them all and beg to always be 'in school'.

 
Rebecca S. from Tennessee wrote the following on 02/04/2009:
I have used MOH Vol 1 with my 3rd, 1st, & Preschooler. We absolutely love it. It is such an interesting approach to World History. You learn not only about the Bible in chronological order but also what is going on in other parts of the world at the same time. Even my preschooler is getting a lot out of it. She saw a picture and said "Look MOM! It's Stonehenge!" and it was. Linda Hobar writes in such a way that it is easy to keep straight what is going on when. You can do as much or as little with the extra things like timelines, maps, activities and memory cards as you like. We are going to do Vol 2 next year.

 
Heather C. from United States wrote the following on 04/13/2009:
TRULY WORLD HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS! I have learned so much from this program and my boys ages 8, 10 & 16 beg for more! The activities add just enough hands on to keep it in their heads and not too intense for me. The supplies needed so far have been easy to get and well laid out. For the reading assignment, we choose to do it orally (I read to kids) while they draw. Then we discuss the information, dig deeper, or just go right to the activity. We do a timeline on the wall - our own creation - the instructions to build one are great and if you have no desire to reinvent the wheel she gives you everything you need to know. We each have a 3 ring binder and place the items we work on and pictures we color and take with a camera into our binders. We enjoy this so much we plan our field trips around the studies and intend on using EACH and EVERY volume! I have even purchased the enrichment CD so that we can enrich our studies of this great program. Great for all ages and learning styles. Linda has done a WONDERFUL job and Rainbow Resource Center provides an excellent price.

 
Christine J. from North Carolina wrote the following on 05/22/2009:
Where was paper first made? What is the only man-made, physical structure that can be seen from space? This book contains these answers, and so much more fascinating trivia. In my 14 plus years of education, I have never found history to be so captivating, as in The Mystery of History. The greatest aspect that I enjoy about this curriculum is that it is Christ-centered. Linda Hobar looks to Christ in every event and shows how Christ truly is the Mystery of History.My 6 year old and 4 year old enjoyed listening to their history lesson, each day. The corresponding activities were so much fun and really helped us to bond, as a family.From hosting a mini-olympics to acting out the story of Cleopatra sneaking into Caesar's palace, this book makes learning history a memorable delight.

 
R K. O. from Alabama wrote the following on 08/17/2009:
This is my third year to use The Mystery of History series. I absolutely love it. My daughters and I have learned so much. It is so easy to use and the time line really helps them to remember the events. They love individually creating each figure and then placing it on the correct date. Even my son who is 7 loves to participate. This is very well thought out program and it is a pleasure to use it.

 
Sheila P. from ohio wrote the following on 08/23/2009:
We love Mystery of History Volume 1. Our children were in grades 5th, 2nd, 1st, and Preschool at the time we went through this volume although we did review it again the following school year. Our three older children learned so much. What was the best is the Christian background and where people and events fall as well as "order" of history in sequence. Even I the homeschool mom learned and understand so much more of history due to this program. The light comes on. We found volume one so easy to learn. We created the timeline similar to how Linda suggested but, we created our own timeline figures from images off the internet which helped all of us understand even more completely. I didn't feel there was much teacher preparation at all and the next time the kids and I go through volume one we decided to do some of the lessons as reenactments and we created our MOH game for volume one. This program was very easy to use with multiple age children. We used MOH maps plus a few of our own which helped the children much with geography. Either I read the lesson or the kids took turns reading the lesson out loud and then we would choose an activity or two to do. The kids always seemed to enjoy history. We have found since using volume 2 that we do like creating our own timeline figures. We also are looking forward to creating our own projects as we enter volume 3. It's a great curriculum to learn history in order and bring it to a understanding and life. When doing MOH I like to review the lesson before I go through it with the children in case there are things I would like to add such as an activity, project, cooking or something to bring out the lesson more. We search for timeline images together and then add to them if needed. We like MOH so much that we don't wish to use anything else. Volume one was worth the price so was volume two for we own both as for volume 3 I will have to let you know.

 
Erin D. from Indiana wrote the following on 09/18/2009:
Our family absolutely loves Mystery of History. It is the one class that all three of my children (in grades 3-8) look forward to every week. There are a variety of suggested activities to go along with each lesson that are easily adapted to different grade levels with very little prep time, only requiring common household items. The timeline is easy to make and is an excellent way to review previous lessons. My kids are all retaining what they have learned by using this method. A world atlas and/or globe are very helpful tools to easily add a geography lesson into the weekly lessons. We will definitely be purchasing the rest of this series.