Monday, April 15, 2013

Mystery of History Volume 1....

Creation to the Resurrection, Volume 1, Second Editon: The Mystery of History Series  -     
        By: Linda Lacour Hobar

I was recently asked how I would use Mystery of History Volume 1 with a 4th grader.  I must first disclose, we did not use all of MOH Volume 1 because when I found it, I was already in the middle of something else.   Also, our younger kids were in kindergarten and 1st grade at that time and I was bent on reading The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos as the base of our history study.  In addition, I pulled things together from Lessons from History and Simply Charlotte Mason, but ended the year with misc. readings from MOH Volume 1.  Last year, we did complete MOH Volume 2 and this year we are nearly done with MOH Volume 3. 

After reviewing Volume 1, my suggestion for a 4th grade student is as follows.   First, I recommend looking through the book lists in the back.   As I'm skimming my copy, some recommendations I would make either as readers if your student is proficient in reading or read alouds if they're not are...

Lesson #
5 Life in the Great Ice Age
6 What Really Happened to Dinosaurs -or- The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible
11 Pyramid by Macaulay
11 Golden Goblet **
23 Tut's Mummy Lost and Found
24 Mara, Daughter of the Nile **
60 The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter
85 Alexander the Great by Robert Green
88 Count Your Way Through India
91 You Tube video on Hannibal's Elephants **- you should view this first and/or read Hannibal by Robert Green
98 The Royal Diaries: Cleopatra VII, Daughter of the Nile or Cleopatra by Diane Stanley
103 The Bronze Bow **
104 Ben-Hur - our kids LOVED this movie!! **
107 The Robe - again, our kids LOVED this movie!! **

** You may want to pre read or read together the starred books, or wait and use for that 6th grade level as I have not yet personally read 11, 24, or 103. 

I would do all of the suggested Bible readings together.

Other resources that might be helpful are....

Then and Now Bible Atlas or some kind of ancient history Bible maps
The Book of Virtues by William Bennett
When reading about Egypt, I read aloud Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones and our kids still talk about it...it's an excellent living book for that time period - we definitely recommend it! 
We watched Prince of Egypt when learning about Moses, but I'm not sure if that would be too young of a movie for 4th grade.  Although, I think RileyAnn would still like it. 
If you care to study mythology, you might consider The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum or D'Aulaire's book on Greek Mythology or Bulfinch's Mythology (I have this picture book for sale). 

Some additional good living books for this time period are....

Archimedes and the Door of Science or Archimedes Takes a Bath
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth
City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction
by Macaulay
Galen and the Gateway to Medicine
Pompeii: Buried Alive


We haven't done any of the MOH activities, but if I were using at a 4th grade level or higher, I would consider some of them.  I like the Sonlight Book of Time for a timeline.  It's a spiral bound book that's easy to store.  In addition, we used History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations.  We were able to get it from the library.  If your kids like arts and crafts, it makes a great keepsake book when you are done.

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