If we're not enjoying All American History, will we like Mystery of History?

[3lilreds in NC]

I've been trying to use All American History with my girls this year. They hate it. It's really the first time we've tried to use a textbook, and it's been an uphill battle. I really wanted the 2-year American history overview, but with the way AAH 1 is going, I don't think we're going to try AAH 2.

 

I need something for world history, and MOH looks really good. I like the way the TOC is laid out week by week. Is it going to be the same feel as AAH, though?

 

*Nothing* is going well in school this year. I know it's that time of year for the homeschool blahs, but I don't think we will be re-using a single thing next year. I would really like to find something that will make history fun for a change.

[HiddenJewel]

MoH has better activity choices. All American History is drier than MoH.

[3lilreds in NC]

Do you think MOH along with Living History of Our World I would be too much? I think that was part of the problem this year - I wanted to do AAH and the first half of CHOW, and it has not gone well. I think it has a lot to do with my lack of organization, too, but they REALLY don't like it when I get out AAH.

[HiddenJewel]

Do you think MOH along with Living History of Our World I would be too much? I think that was part of the problem this year - I wanted to do AAH and the first half of CHOW, and it has not gone well. I think it has a lot to do with my lack of organization, too, but they REALLY don't like it when I get out AAH.

 

I am not familiar with Living History so can't help you there. Hopefully someone else will though.

[Chris in VA]

Did you use SOTW with the AG before? Forgive me for forgetting.

I find the activities are quite good, and there's enough American history for me, if I supplement slightly with fiction and maybe a few nonfic books.

Do they like activities? Do they like historical fiction? That's where the fun comes in, for us.

 

Sorry--in rereading your post, I see you are specifically asking about MOH. I like the first and second years, but thought they were a bit too detailed for elementary and planned on using them for middle school Ancient/Medieval/Ren years.

[siloam]

Beth,

 

I see a lot of people with younger kids who find AAH dry and boring. I purposely did not use AAH this history cycle for that fact, but plan to use it our next cycle.

 

MOH has 3 lessons a week, on different topics, not broken into different aspects.

 

MOH also has easy activities like an ice holding contest (Ice Age), stuffed animals made into mummies (or a sibling) using TP (one of the Egypt lessons), and those sort of things that the kids can do on their own. The SOTW activities are more like the mid level of MOH, but I haven't dived into the AAH activities yet to see what they are like.

 

The tone of AAH is more formal and the tone of MOH is like Linda is sitting there talking to the student, and her excitement comes through in the text.

 

My guess is you could easily finish the year with just CHOW, and then start MOH 1 next year. It would probably be a lot more enjoyable. Also realize that you don't have to use the quizzes and such, unless you have some sort of oversight that requires it. I am going to, for the first time, require it of my oldest two when we start our next history round. They will be 8th and 6th grade.

 

Heather

[HiddenJewel]

I did a review of Mystery of History last year if anyone needs a breakdown on what it includes.

[sandra in va]

Definitely think you should give MOH a try. AAH was very dry for my kids (although they learned lots - they still talk about "that program" where they studied explorers for what felt like forever...) - we used it when they were in 3rd and 5th. They enjoyed MOH 1 a lot more. There are no worksheets like in AAH, but there are quizzes, timeline card work, and projects. MOH is organized very differently, too. It is more biography based and chronological - it has three short lessons on different people each week. AAH had a more cohesive theme for each quarter (explorers, colonies, etc.)

 

I like AAH b/c it of its organization and thoroughness - but I would definitely use it with older kids- junior high probably.

 

After one semester of AAH, we switched to Winter Promise American Story 1 which was great b/c I could include my 1st grader in. We used American Story 2 the next year. Sonlight 4 is also a great program.

 

ETA: Forgot to say....sorry that this year isn't going well. I know all too well how that feels. Would you be open to a literature-based program like SL or WP? I think your kids might really enjoy it. :)

Edited March 10, 2011 by sandra in va

[DarlaS]

We are doing AAH this year too and just finished chapter 13 today. I've ditched the notebooking pages and we just read and discuss so we can finish it already. I have a bunch of documentaries on my Netflix queue and Professor Linwood Thompson's DVD course (Teaching Company). By itself, it would have been ditched already. Explorers forever! Gah! :lol:

 

I'm on the fence about AAH2. It is dry, but there are a lot of great movies for the second half of US history.

[3lilreds in NC]

Explorers forever - that's exactly it! Good grief! Also, I find it a little odd that first we read about the explorer's life/world as it was then, then someone else's life, then someone else's, and THEN we read about the explorations. I find that somewhat confusing. We've been reading about one explorer, both parts, then moving on.

 

It's not as bad when we read it out loud together, but trying to have them read it to themselves was a bust. Emma read about Marco Polo, I thought, but then when she filled out the notebook page she put that he made 15 expeditions! :confused: :lol:

 

AAH is actually the first thing we've disliked enough to stop using it all together. I finally decided if it was going to make the kids make me miserable it was NOT WORTH IT. I've actually pulled out by LBC Year 3, of which we did very little with our move last year, and that's going better. I think we will try either LBC or MFW next year. I'm not sure. I looked at Sonlight again because I love their spreadsheets, but I don't know. Or maybe MOH... it's that time of year again. :D

[Trish]

Yeah, we own BOTH volumes of AAH, and boy, my son suffered Explorer Burnout! By the end of October he was begging for ANYTHING else. I also didn't like the way they structured the chapters. We're now doing unit studies on Ancient China, India and Japan.

[atozmom]

We have loved MOH here!!! My dd was very disappointed that she could not finish the world history cycle with it. We had planned to use AAH after MOH, but we just couldn't get into it. I can't wait to dive into MOH again with my son in a few years!

 

I just started A Living History of Our World by Queen with my son and love it! If you are wanting to do American History, I would recommend it. You can see samples here on the authors blog. To me, it reads a lot like MOH. I did have to add in my own activities/crafts, but it was an easy do.

[DarlaS]

Well, I'm going to be a mean mom and make my kids finish AAH1. It's just going to be a smaller part of our studies from now on. What appealed to me about it was it's relatively short chapters divided into four sections of eight. How bad could it be? :glare:

 

Well, we're going to have to double up to finish it on time now. We're almost to the middle of the book, and this is where it gets easier to find good documentaries and movies to go along with it. I think it will work out okay enough and I sure don't want to start anything new now. With only 18 chapters left, I don't think anything out there is awesome enough to quit this one now.

 

I've decided to do my own thing for the rest of US history using the Hakim books, literature & and movies. I thought I wanted everything laid out for me, now I'm kid of excited to be planning it myself. Go figure. :001_rolleyes:

 

I just wanted to point out also, that MOH has a different author.