Mystery of History I ??

[BlessedMom]

Can you please share what your experience has been with this curriculum? Pros & cons?

 

Is MOH more of a "spine" that I would need to use other materials with or is it a fairly stand alone approach?

 

Does it require a lot of prep work? What are the activities like?

 

At what age do you feel they would get the most benefit from this material?

 

I would appreciate any information you think might be helpful.

 

Thank you for your time.

[Miss Marple]

I've used MOH with 3 of the boys. It, IMO, is a wonderful program that is set up so that there is minimal prep for mom. Each lesson is short enough to be read aloud (or short enough for young kids to read themselves). There are activities at the end of every 3 lessons. These are divided up by age/ability. There is map work, quizzes, tests, review sheets, timelines, etc. It has just about everything one needs - but she suggests that you add in historical fiction for the time period. We did this through our co-op and our kids presented book reports several times a year. We also did a country report and a country fair in which the students dressed in costume and made a food dish native to the country. There are a lot of things you can add to history to make it fun - whether this program or another.

[JaneGrey]

Hi BlessedMom.

 

When I compared this program with others on Paula's Archives (at least as far as timelines went), I thought I'd love this for my 1st grader. Here's my review.

 

Pros:

• Covers lots of information -- unlike SOTW 1 (which seemed a bit dumbed down and omitted information that I thought was important)
  
• Good deal for the $, considering that you get craft ideas, suggestions for supplements, pretests/quizzes/quarterly tests, and text bundled in one book (plus, got mine used)
  
• You really could use this book alone
  
• Chronological order -- unlike SOTW 1 and VP, which jump around a bit
  
• Not limited to Egypt and Europe -- unlike VP
  
• Nice maps -- unlike VP (which has no map work)
  
• If you're religious: includes people from the Bible
  
• A craft/activity is listed for each lesson (we like crafts)

Cons:

 

• You only have one craft/activity option per age group (3 age groups) per lesson (like I said: we like crafts).
  
• The crafts/activities weren't always great (but I think I'm picky)
  
• If you're not religious (or even if you hold different Christian beliefs): very clearly a certain Christian bent
  
• lot of text. You get commentary throughout. I'm not big on reading commentary. It seems fake to me to say "Wow! To think that Solomon had enough wisdom to ask God for more wisdom!" I enjoy giving my own commentary when I read.
  
• mom has to do lots of copying in advance (or maps, tests, etc.) and have those all sorted
  
• you might not agree with the dates, even if you hold to a young earth.

I started with this material this year but found myself ditching it. Here's why:

 

• I think there was too much information without any mental "hooks" for my little ones. I now understand why VP organizes things the way they do. I ended up getting their cards (combining Egypt with Greece/Rome in a year). Even my youngest loved the cards.
  
• The commentary was too much. I would have preferred a list of things to cover per age group per lesson (like what TOG has). I guess this is why I worked better with the VP cards. We also have a fantastic library. Plus, I get nervous relying on just one thing.

I might go back to this later. At least 2 friends with older children (who already cycled through SOTW1-4) used MOH 1 this year and enjoyed it. I can imagine later appreciating the tests and review worksheets. Right now, we didn't need them. The book is presently just a reference for me.

 

Btw, one friend who used this just replaced the MOH 1 dates with dates she got from Ussher.

[6packofun]

to make an event/person more in-depth. Honestly, I wouldn't use any history text as a stand alone because history is just better with some fiction and other materials added in to round it out!

 

This year, I did MOH II alternating with Miller/Guerber's Story of the Middle Ages and adding in some historical fiction for my middle schoolers.

 

I think MOH, depending on what you add (not much is needed, IMO, and it doesn't have to be lots of work to add to it) is best suited for late elementary through middle school. Say, 5th-8th grade. My to-be 9th grader is actually going to do MOH III with quite a bit of extra reading and writing! I really enjoy this series.

[Miss Marple]

I agree with the "best suited for late elementary through middle school". We had previously gone through SOTW as well as the VP Cards. I think VP is much more ideal for younger elementary than MOH.

[Susie in MS]

We found MOH 1 not very meaty, but MOH 2 was way better. I think if my kids would have been younger we may have been happier with MOH 1. But there were a lot of *Bible stories* in there. Don't get me wrong, we love the Bible. But what we were reading in MOH 1 we were getting in our Bible lessons anyway. I used this as a supplement to Diana Waring (which really needs no supplementing). We prefer the way DW takes you to the surrounding history and archeology that proves the Bible's trustworthiness. It truly *digs deeper* in all of history as her guides suggest. So had my kids been younger, and if we would have used more of the projects (I agree with the above pp that most of the hands on didn't appeal to us) we may have enjoyed it better. Now MOH 2 had so much more content, and it made a better read in my opinion.

[Once]

I do not know much about it but they have it on sale on the Christianbooks.com.

 

:tongue_smilie:Maybe that is why your are asking. Never mind me I'll just stop typing now.:tongue_smilie:

[HollyDay]

Is MOH more of a "spine" that I would need to use other materials with or is it a fairly stand alone approach?

 

You could use it by itself. I added Trail Guides to Biblical Geography, Usborne Encyclopedia of Ancient History, USborne Ancient World History, various readers and other Usborne titles

 

Does it require a lot of prep work? No, if you are not adding anything, just open and go. I would look a lesson or 2 ahead and decide what if anything I wanted to add so I could either order it, borrow it, or get it from the library.

 

At what age do you feel they would get the most benefit from this material?

My dds were 5th and 2nd. They did fine with it.

 

I would appreciate any information you think might be helpful.

I did not like MOH vol 2 so we used it as a backup spine for SOTW vol 2 along with various readers.

 

Thank you for your time.