How to use
The Mystery of History with All Ages
While the whole family can read or listen to the same history lesson together, what students can do with the lesson will vary by interest, skill level, and learning style. So, after every lesson in The Mystery of History, students are given optional activities for Younger, Middle, and Older Students that range from fun, hands-on crafts and games—to stimulating research projects.
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It's Easy to Get Started with The Mystery of History
Purchase any one of our beautiful hardback volumes (reflecting the time period of your choice); and download the included Companion Guide (full of curriculum for all ages!) You have a year’s worth of world history—ready to explore!
Look
Look ahead at what the week holds. (Our Planning Pages will help!
Book
Turn to our beautiful books to read your lessons. (Or listen by audiobook.)
Choose
Choose age-appropriate activities. (We offer choices for different learning styles!)
Review
Review at the end of the week. (Use any of our retention tools.)
Scope and Sequence
There’s no right or wrong path for completing The Mystery of History series. But if you’d like tracks to run on to finish all four volumes, no matter what age you start, we have Scope & Sequence possibilities (based on the age of your oldest student.)
Scope & Sequence Possibilities
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Methods of Education and Learning Styles
The Mystery of History does not reflect any one method of education—because it is adaptable to all! Nor does it serve only one learning style—because it offers hundreds of varied activities. Just think of each volume as a tool that can be added to any toolbox.
Adaptable to numerous methods of education
Customizable for multiple ages
Flexible for numerous learning styles
Students Grow with the Series
Each volume increases in difficulty through content, length, and reading level so students will grow with the series naturally.
Grow with reading levels:
- Volume I starts at a 3rd – 4th grade reading level
- Volume II moves to a 5th – 6th grade reading level
- Volume III advances to a 7th – 8th grade reading level
- Volume IV peaks at a 9th grade and up reading level
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Most students will be able to grasp the contents of Volumes I—III with only a little extra guidance and screening for Younger and Middle Students. However, the lessons in Volume IV, which are longer in length and heavier in theme, will be too advanced for some children and will require some screening and skipping.
Some families may in fact choose to reserve Volume IV for high school as a world history credit. And for those who will have younger ones sitting in with older siblings (as is common in homeschooling), there are Younger and Middle Activities to keep students involved on an age-appropriate level.
Some families may in fact choose to reserve Volume IV for high school as a world history credit. And for those who will have younger ones sitting in with older siblings (as is common in homeschooling), there are Younger and Middle Activities to keep students involved on an age-appropriate level.
Grow with activity choices:
Not only do the activities cover a wide variety of learning styles to engage students, but age-appropriate activities allow families to re-use volumes by choosing higher level activities a second or third time through.
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Imagine a child learning the exciting story of Hannibal (crossing the Alps with war elephants in 218 B.C.) and engaging in the following activities first as a 2nd grader, second as a 6th grade, and third as a 10th grader (counting history as a high school credit):
- As a Younger Student, the child tells a story about having a pet elephant using a few facts about real elephants. (Fun!)
- As a Middle Student, this pre-teen writes a diary page as if he or she were a soldier in Hannibal’s army and an eyewitness of the elephants slipping and sliding over the icy Alps! (Writing practice!)
- As an Older Student, this teen is asked to write a synopsis of the three Punic Wars or a short paper on the Battle of Zama. (Research!)
Teaching all ages
The Mystery of History was designed for all ages! Naturally, there are unique features to consider for each level of learning. Choose a tab to read more about Younger, Middle, and Older Students.
Younger students (in the Grammar Stage of the Trivium) might not be ready for the full content offered in our series, but they may enjoy listening to the stories—and using their senses to learn and remember! Optional age-appropriate choices may include:
- Acting out charades—from our activities section
- Filling in a coloring page—made by our publisher
- Finding places on a globe—described in our mapping exercises
- Reading a “Picture-Book Favorite”—suggested in the Companion Guide
If you have any questions regarding your little ones, feel free to read the specific FAQ questions here:
FAQ
Middle Students (in the Logic Stage of the Trivium) are ideal candidates for enjoying all the features offered in The Mystery of History.
Beyond the lessons, preteens may enjoy:
- Playing a game—from our activities section
- Competing with Challenge Cards—made by my publisher
- Building a timeline—from our review section
- Enjoying a “Read-Aloud Favorite”—suggested in the Companion Guide
If you have any questions regarding your little ones, feel free to read the specific FAQ questions here:
FAQ
Older Students (in the Rhetoric Stage of the Trivium) can earn a high school credit using any of our volumes to its fullest.
Beyond the lessons, teens may benefit from:
- Research projects—from our activities section
- Building a Folderbook—made by my publisher
- Reading classics—suggested in the Companion Guide
- Taking a self-paced class with lectures by the author
If you have any questions regarding your little ones, feel free to read the specific FAQ questions here:
FAQ
Co-ops & Classrooms
If you are a co-op leader, classroom teacher, or the principal of a private school, we realize that you want to find the best curriculum prices available for your school or co-op.
With this in mind, we want to direct you to Bright Ideas Press, the publisher of The Mystery of History. They handle all group sales and product licensing. The following is a video and a policy page from their website explaining group rates and rules of licensing. Thank you for being sensitive to applicable copyright laws! (We all benefit.)
With this in mind, we want to direct you to Bright Ideas Press, the publisher of The Mystery of History. They handle all group sales and product licensing. The following is a video and a policy page from their website explaining group rates and rules of licensing. Thank you for being sensitive to applicable copyright laws! (We all benefit.)
A letter from Tyler Hogan
We get many calls in the office asking if we allow customers to copy pages from our books for a whole co-op or classroom. First, I’d like to say that we really appreciate the fact that y’all are trying to work within copyright law and that if you have questions, you ASK us. That’s really encouraging! A lot of our material would probably be pretty easy to pirate if you wanted to, and it speaks well of your character that you don’t.