I’ve been using Mystery of History now for a couple of years, and I’m in the Yahoo group, and follow them on facebook, and on G+. You might say I’m a groupie. One of the most common questions I see is “What do I need to teach Mystery of History?”
To be honest?
Just the text book. You can teach it with just the textbook, but it’s easier if you have some add-ons. I’m gonna list them in order of what I’d buy, and I think is most important. Since I am using Mystery of History 1 all of these links are to the add-ons for Mystery of History 1.
So, here we go:
What do I need to teach Mystery of History? First buy:
There’s a lot of mapwork in Mystery of History. If you buy Wondermaps your life is easier. The maps area already set up for the lessons you’ll need them for. I bought this first because you can use it for ALL of the years you use Mystery of History AND All American History, and you can use it for your general geography needs.
The next two for me area toss-up depending on your budget. So you pick which one you’d put more important.
I’ve written about this a bunch. This is a scheduling program, and it’s designed for each year of Mystery of History. It’s got suggestions for read alouds, independent reading, and charts and so much more. It’s awesome.
OR
Mystery of History 1 Notebooking Pages
I bought this first but now that my I’ve got Illuminations I don’t know which I would have bought first.
The notebooking pages comes with several different versions: lined for younger writers, lined for older writers, editable PDF (unlined), and informational. I most often print out the informational pages, because it helps my kids to have some kind of framework for what to listen for. Watch for this and the Super Supplemental to be on sale around March or April. I bought mine on sale last spring, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that sale is repeated.
If you get this you don’t need to buy the Mystery of History Notebooking pages because they’re included in this.
Challenge cards are great for reviewing, there’s about 2-3 questions per lesson, and I just printed them off front and back, and you can pull a random question before your lesson for review.
Folder books are just lapbooks with a different name. If your kids don’t like writing this is the way to go because most of them there’s a printed summary to glue in. I use these every now and then if they look interesting or present really good information. There is NOT one for every lesson.
Coloring pages, there is one page per week of lessons, so 36 pages total. My kids don’t seem as excited by these coloring pages as they were by the All American history junior ones. I’m not sure why.
Other things I haven’t bought yet: I have since bought both of these
Printables download– all of the pre-quizzes, quizzes, tests, and the maps from the book in an easy to print format. Since my kids are young enough we do all of our tests orally I haven’t needed this yet. I have all the maps I need from Wondermaps, so I don’t need that part. My friend with junior high and high school kids swears by this.
Updated: I see why she swears by it because it has made using the quizzes SO much easier!
Audiobook of Mystery of History– it’s on my to-buy list, but it didn’t quite make my purchase list yet.
Also, everything available in the Super Supplemental Pack is available individually, but it’s a much better deal to buy all together.
Updated: These are awesome! They’re great when I don’t feel like reading the lesson out loud, and my son who loves audio books always wants to borrow the CDs. I will give you the warning her voice is rather soothing, so we couldn’t listen for long periods of time in the car.
I’m gonna link up at:
Great list!! I have a few of these things but I will certainly be adding to our collection as time goes by 🙂
It’s one thing I love about MOH, it’s cyclical so if I didn’t like using something last time around I can add it in another time.
Sounds like you’re pretty excited about this!
It’s probably my favorite curriculum that we use.
We are loving MOH also!! I really wanted to do the notebooking pages, but Conner doesn’t like to write very much, so I thought we would maybe do them the next time through! I have the audiobooks for volumes 1 & 2 and they are a lifesaver. Allows me to get things together for our projects!
Oh good point! I’d never really thought of how that could be so helpful. I might need to give in and add it to my list of things I need…
Are the costumes necessary, too? (Just kidding.) Thanks for linking up.
A good set of costumes never hurts 😀