I'm starting a thread for anyone using The Mystery of History. I want to purchase this either this year or in a couple of years....here's my situation. I have a newly 5yo dd and a newly 8yo ds. I know the 8yo would love this curriculum, but I am concerned about how much the 5yo will pick up right now and can it be repeated in a few years and still be a good program for my then 11 or 12 year old boy? My other option is to do some American history with read-alouds instead and hold off on the ancient history if it will be more timely later. Also, does anyone now if the author will have the second edition ready for next year, and how many volumes will be included in the series? I want to do this soooo bad! I just want to make sure that my timing will be appropriate.
We had our conference today, and I sat through the author's workshop specifically. She was interesting! Volumn 1 is the Ancients; that's what I have. Volumn 2 is already out, but I don't see it listed in Rainbow Resources. I'll go through my stuff and see if I picked up anything. I think it goes through the Middle Ages. Now let me warn you! She DID say that if you start at the beginning now, you will probably be done HS'ing before she finished the final volumn (I think she's planning four or five). As far as levels, she says it says 4-8, but she has used it with her younger (first grade) kids and it has gone well. She has activities divided into "Younger", "Middle", and "Older" kids and that you can have your younger ones doing one thing and the older ones doing something else or "more". She says if you're on the "classical rotation" (as Tina would call it!), you can re-use the book at an older age by doing more of the supplemental readings and doing more difficult activities. She also says that there are days when things are falling apart. On those days she says you can just sit and do the reading aloud (about 5-10 minutes) and tell DH that you "did World History" that day. She's tried to really make it "user friendly". She said that you can go through it in one year, but that's really pushing it, and she'd probably allow a year and a half to two years for it.
I found it, Brooke! First of all, I KNEW I was spelling VOLUMN wrong! Volume! DUH!!! Well, I guess Iw as having what DH refers to as a "brain fart"! Anyway, I did find the ad I picked up from her. It lists the following: Volume I: History through the ages - Creation to Christ Volume II: The Early Church and the Middle Ages (coming summer 2004: she had this at the conference, so it IS out!) Volume III: The Renaissance and Growth of Empire (not yet available) Volume IV: Revolutions and Rising Nations (American history in the context of World History: not yet available) Volume V: The World at War and the Present Day (Not yet available). Her e-mail, if you're interested, is lindahobar@cinci.rr.com They also list a User Group (for tips, helps, ideas and questions) at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteryofHistory
Thank you so much, Jackie! I'll check out the user group. I woulda driven the lady nuts with all my questions!!! Do you know if she had projected release dates for the other books? I've been on her website, I think. I'll find it again and do some more reading. This makes me wish my kids were "stairsteps" as we call it here when there is little age difference. I keep trying to find things that can almost be set up like unit studies to accomidate both my kids....in the past we have "unschooled", but I think that my family might need more structure than that so I would love to have a great history overview on hand. I might even get it and test the waters this year.....we can always hold off a year if needed. And from the sound of it, it might not be too bad to work on one volume with my oldest and when the youngest is ready, work on it with her (doing two volumes in the home at one time????) I want to do some other thematic history things with her this year anyway. Thanks for the info, Jackie! I'll check into it further.
