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Homeschool World History CurriculumComparing Story of the World, History Odyssey and Mystery of History
These homeschool world history curriculum programs follow a four year chronological cycle. Learn the similarities and differences between three classical history programs
Since Peace Hill Press published The Well Trained Mind by Jesse Wise and Susan Wise Bauer in 1999, many homeschool families have embraced the idea of chronological history. Susan Wise Bauer published the first volume of Story of the World shortly after the publication of The Well Trained Mind and it quickly became a popular world history curriculum among classical homeschooling families. The Story of the World, however, wasn’t a perfect fit for every family, and other publishers came forward to create their own spin on the 4 year chronological history curriculum. Story of the World, Published by Peace Hill PressThe Story of the World books come in four volumes, each designed to be used in chronological order, over the course of four years. Accompanying the books are the Story of the World Activity Guides that serve to provide projects, black line maps, coloring pages and writing assignments for students from 1st grade through 12th grade. The publisher also sells audio versions of each book and additional tests and worksheets. Written from a Judeo-Christian perspective, the program recommends a few religious texts, but not many. History Odyssey, Published by Pandia PressHistory Odyssey is designed to be the secular alternative to the Story of the World Activity Books. Using the Story of the World as a main text, with several additional texts as reference, the History Odyssey program rearranges the 42 annual chapters of the Story of the World program to shorten up the school year. Additionally, History Odyssey offers, instead of one Activity Book to last from 1st-12th grade, three activity books with a wider variety of activities and resources for each level of the trivium. Mystery of History, Self-Published by Mystery of HistoryMystery of History follows a similar four-year chronological cycle, but offers families, instead, a bible based version of history. Whereas Story of the World and History Odyssey call year one “Ancient History” the Mystery of History call it “Creation to the Resurrection.” Subsequent years are also rearranged a bit, in comparison to the Story of the World and History Odyssey. Because of this; the Mystery of History program doesn’t use the Story of the World as a “spine” text, like History Odyssey does, but uses its own text, and also offers users a CD-Rom with printable worksheets. Classical World History CurriculumEach of the programs utilizes black line map activities, projects and timelines. Because Story of the World uses the same books for all levels of schooling, many parents choose it believing it to be the most economical choice. However, both History Odyssey and Story of the World rely heavily on other texts to present a balanced worldview and provide instructions for projects. In the older grades, both History Odyssey and Story of the World rely upon original document sources and increasing amounts of composition, characteristic of a classical education. Mystery of History is designed to stand alone. Author, Linda Hobar says that world history is “the story of God revealing Himself to mankind.” No matter what your religious perspectives are, if you’re planning to adopt the four year chronological history cycle recommended in The Well Trained Mind, then there’s a program for you.
The copyright of the article Homeschool World History Curriculum in Homeschool Curricula is owned by Lisa Russell. Permission to republish Homeschool World History Curriculum in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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