Our family has been learning chronological, worldwide history with a biblical worldview for the last six years using a fabulous curriculum called The Mystery of History. If you were able to study world history back in your school days, especially if you learned world history in relation to the Bible, then you were very blessed! I wasn't blessed in this way. I attended four schools in three different states during my thirteen years of schooling before college, and I know with certainty that I only studied worldwide cultures and historical events a few times: two months' study of ancient Egypt while in the 2nd grade (mainly because a large Egyptian display was coming to our town), and a smattering of chapters read in a very boring history text in the 6th grade. Other than that, all I received was American history, year after year, and only reached WWI one time! Needless to say, history was not my favorite subject in school. Reading dry texts with no additional activities or projects was not my cup of tea, even though I loved to read. My husband attended the same school district for all 13 years of his schooling, and he didn't have much of world history at all, either. Many of my friends never learned any European history whatsoever. How can we even begin to understand our own nation's history and where we are headed if we don't know the historical record from the past? After spending months looking online (with dial-up back then) at samples of history programs, I chose The Mystery of History for our family. We would begin "at the very beginning" with Creation, and continue through the Life of Christ using volume I of MOH. We chose to spend two years working through the wonderful material and activities in this book so that we could spend 2-4 weeks doing more in-depth studies of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the life of Christ. It was fabulous! Of course, when we were already three-fourths of the way through volume I, the author, Linda Hobar, developed some audio CDs of her retelling the lessons in volume 1. The girls wanted me to buy them for our family, but since we were almost finished with volume I, I decided to wait. And then, of course, when we were about halfway through volume II of The Mystery of History, studying the Middle Ages, Linda finished recording the audio files for volume II. Again, I decided to wait. Now that we are using The Mystery of History, volume III (Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations), and we aren't very far into the book, I have learned that the audio files for Quarter 1 for volume III are now completed and ready for MP3 download. We are actually able to use this as we read through the remainder of Quarter 1 in volume III! I am SO excited! (Jumping up and down here...can you see me?) Linda is a natural writer who has been greatly gifted by God, and she was also blessed with a beautiful reading voice as well. In my experiences, it isn't always the case that the author has a pleasing sounding voice to be used on her own audio CDs and MP3's. So she has been doubly blessed! We have had no problem listening to Linda's voice as she enthusiastically but gently reads through the lessons. We are beginning to feel like Linda comes and visits as we sit and enjoy listening to her read through our history lessons with us. How nice is that???!!! Audio files for Quarter 1 of The Mystery of History, Volume III are available HERE. They have just recently been made available to the public. Whether you own The Mystery of History, Volume III or not, the retellings of the beginnings of the Reformation and the history of the Renaissance will come to life as you listen to Linda share HIS story of the world, from a biblical perspective. The audio files were easy to download and save to my computer. It's nice to see that even the technical aspect of using these MP3 files have been well thought out. Thank you! Working through the volumes of The Mystery of History has changed my life. I feel like so many missing gaps and pieces of the puzzle of world history have been filled. I may not remember everything I've read and learned, but I have a much better general view of our world's past historical record. Thank you, Linda, for helping me to gain confidence in teaching world history to my children, and for guiding me down the path to actually loving history now! Disclosure: The author of The Mystery of History, volumes 1-3 provided me with an MP3 download of Volume 3, Quarter 1 for the purpose of my use and review on this website. No other compensation was provided.
5 Comments
I stopped by to quickly let you know that I use Snipping Tool to take the screen shots on my TenMarks review, and to say thank you for the kind words (that was such a hard review for me to write).
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1/31/2011 01:23:01 am
Excellent review! We too are using MOH Volume III & started using the audio files last week. Linda's voice is so soothing and interesting. My kids listen while doing other activities & even though it may seem like they aren't picking up on what she is saying, they are!
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Hi, Marie! Thank you for letting me know that you used Snipping Tool to get your fabulous screenshots! I'll give that a try next time.
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Christie, Thanks for your kind comments! I'm glad to hear that your children are also enjoying Linda's voice on her audio CD's or MP3 recordings. I think they are GREAT compared to a few others I've heard over the years that were designed to go along with history recordings!
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Linda Hobar
2/20/2011 06:57:35 am
Dear Julieanne,
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