Review: The Mystery of History Volume 1 3rd Edition

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History is my absolute favorite subject.  Over the years we have used a lot of different types of history curricula  that we have really, really liked.  But, my absolute favorite history curriculum is  The Mystery of History: I love the author's conversational style and the passion that she puts into her work.  I have learned so much by going through these lessons with my children. I was very excited when I was asked to review the brand new 3rd Edition of The Mystery of History Volume 1!

First I want to share a few reasons why I love The Mystery of History:


It is creation based and chronological. I love studying history based on the Bible but very few history courses start here. The Mystery of History starts with the creation of the world and rather than focusing on one area of the world at a time, it focuses on what is going on all over the world during a particular time period.

It is complete.  Everything you need to teach the curriculum such as the reading lesson, activities, mapping and timeline assignments, tests and quizzes are included.  There are a lot of supplemental resources such as challenge cards, notebooking pages, and coloring pages that you can add if you want to (I especially like the notebooking pages,) but if your budget is tight or you do not want to add the extras you do not have to.  You can read this post that I wrote on the different types of worksheets.

It can be used with a wide range of age ranges from K-12th grade.  One of the biggest things that drew me to The Mystery of History was that I could use it with all of my children at once.  There are age appropriate  activities listed for the different groups: younger, middle, and high school grades. The lessons are written in a very conversational way and are fun and interesting for the teacher and all ages of students. For those with high schoolers, there is more than enough work at the high school level by completing the activities to earn a full credit.  For those with younger children the lessons are short enough to hold their interest.

There are plenty of activities to pick and choose from. The main parts of the course is to read the lesson, complete memory cards, do a mapping assignment, and make a timeline.  There are also hands on activities for each of the age levels that you can pick and choose from. You don't have to do any or all of them but it is a great way to make history come alive.

Volume 1 of The Mystery of History has 108 lessons beginning with The Creation and ending with Jesus' Death and Resurrection.  The 108 lessons are split up into 36 weeks giving you 3 lessons to complete each week.  The beginning of the book has a guideline telling you how to get the most out of the curriculum.  Each week contains a What Do Know? pretest, the reading, activities, Take Another Look Review,  What Did You Miss? Exercises or What Did You Learn? Quizzes.  There are also quarterly worksheets and semester tests, and lists of additional resources.

The length of the lessons vary but are usually 2-3 pages long.  The reading difficulty of the lessons for Volume 1 is at a 4-5th grade reading level.  This doesn't mean you can only use it with these ages.  As I mentioned above it can be used for K-12.  I read the lessons in the book aloud to my family and add in the additional activities and resources depending on the age of the child.  The curriculum is very flexible and you can use it however it works best for your family. We usually spend 2 days per week on history.


So why the 3rd Edition?  What has changed?

The new edition is hard cover and much slimmer.  The old edition was paperback and very bulky.  The 3rd Edition has right around 400 pages compared to the 640 page 2nd Edition.

How can the new edition be so much smaller? Did the content change?

Earlier editions included all of the activities and printables in the book making the book much larger.  The new edition contains only the lessons.  The Digital Companion Guide contains all your activities and is included with the purchase of the 3rd Edition (you are given a code to obtain access.) Once downloaded to your computer you can easily print whatever you need.

Some screen shots of the Digital Companion Guide

Also, the newest edition is full of color photos and artwork that the earlier editions did not have.

Here are some examples of lesson 32 on David in each edition.

2nd Edition

3rd Edition

2nd Edition

3rd Edition

3rd Edition

I absolutely love the new 3rd Edition of The Mystery of History Volume 1!  My poor 2nd Edition was very hard to lug around.  It is so beat up and the spine has been damaged from scanning all of the maps, quizzes, and tests to print for the children.  It is so much easier to print what I need from the computer. Navigating the Digital Companion Guide is very easy.  You can find which lesson you are working on and choose what you would like to print.  The activity pages do not have to be printed, you can read those directly from the screen.  The hard cover text is much easier to handle and much sturdier.  We love all of the new artwork and color photos that have been included.  It makes the book absolutely beautiful and gives new life to the lessons!

I highly recommend The Mystery of History!  The Third Edition of Volume 1 took an outstanding product and made it even better!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this product in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own and I received no other compensation.  I am disclosing this in accordance to the FTC regulations.  

*there are affiliate links in this review.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend!