Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
What if I don't find my question/answer here?
How can I contact you with other questions or concerns?
Product Questions
The Mystery of History
How many volumes of The Mystery of History will there be?
When will MOH Volume III be available?
Help! I love MOH, but I’ve finished Volume II, what should I do?
I'm having trouble with Week 17 on the MOH I Reproducibles CD. How can I get it?
Christian Kids Explore...
How do I use Christian Kids Explore... with multiple ages?
The Christian Kids Explore... program seems simple, will it be enough for my older ones?
Is there a good resource list?
Can I use the material out of order?
All American History
How much teacher prep time is involved in All American History?
I purchased two Student Readers to be shared among four children...is this sufficient?
I purchased four Student Activity Books, one for each child. Is this correct?
Updates, Corrections, Clarifications
All American History, Volume 1
Christian Kids Explore Biology
Christian Kids Explore Chemistry
Christian Kids Explore Physics
he Mystery of History, Volume 1
The Mystery of History, Volume 2
The Mystery of History, Volume 3
General Questions
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The Mystery of History
How many volumes of The Mystery of History will there be?
The planned scope of the series is as follows:
Volume I: Creation to the Resurrection: Creation-AD 29
Volume II: The Early Church and the Middle Ages: AD 30-1460
Volume III: The Renaissance and Growth of Empires: 1461-1707
Volume IV: Revolutions and Rising Nations: 1708-1914
Volume V: The World at War and the Present Day: 1915-Present Day
When will MOH Volume III be available?
In order for Linda Hobar, the author, to maintain the excellent quality you see in the first two volumes,
it will take a minimum of two years for each volume to be published. Watch our website for details as upcoming
releases approach.
Help! I love MOH, but I’ve finished Volume II, what should I do?
We would suggest taking a couple of years off from world history and
switching to American History. Try our All-American
History. The feel is very similar to MOH—short lessons, map work and
hands-on projects. All from a Christian perspective.
I’ve heard of a lot of people who supplement MOH with other curricula.
This makes me nervous. Is MOH not enough?
MOH is plenty on its own, it is a complete curriculum. There are
several reasons people supplement. Some parents supplement to meet the
needs of their children’s extreme interest levels. Others are striving
to meet different learning styles of their children. Some homeschoolers
are simply “curriculum junkies” (we have some on our staff!) who have
trouble stopping at just one and not using “everything that’s out
there.”
I'm having trouble with Week 17 on the MOH 1 Reproducibles CD.
How can I get it?
You can download Week 17
here.
Christian Kids Explore...
Why do you say that Christian Kids Explore Biology can be scaled down
for younger users, but you don’t suggest that for Christian Kids Explore
Chemistry?
This is because of the subject matter. Biology can be simplified so
that it can be understandable for younger students. Chemistry does not
have this kind of flexibility. It is very difficult to simplify
chemistry so that it can be accessible to early elementary students. We
would suggest that you use Christian Kids
Explore Biology and Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space with
younger students, and saving Christian Kids
Explore Chemistry for upper elementary and middle school
students—when they will be able to understand it more fully.
How do I use Christian Kids Explore... with multiple ages?
Read it out loud and discuss it, while little ones busy their hands
with a coloring page, which we include in the book, plus more pictures
in the back that can be copied.
OR
You can let older ones read for themselves, write out the vocabulary and
complete a daily reading sheet, reviewing what they read. With the younger ones, you can read the
information first (to yourself) and explain the topic doing a hands on
activity.
The Christian Kids Explore... program seems simple, will it be enough for my older ones?
The material is there. It really depends on what you do with it. For
instance, if all you do is have them read the teaching lesson and then
later in the week complete a hands on activity, they won't retain as
much as they would if you spend more time on it. For example, if you go
over the teaching lesson (or have them read it), ask questions, have them complete the
vocabulary and the daily reading sheets (which are intended to get them
to focus and review the material), then follow through with the hands on
activity later that week and give a verbal review it would be quite a
good teaching.
In addition, you can add in some daily work (some people prefer this
method)...review vocabulary each day, memorize the scriptures that are
given, and/or the memory lists in the back of the book. If you still
want more, you can add in additional books on the topic. My kids did not
do the memory work, but they really liked the additional books. If they
read from other sources, I have them complete a daily reading sheet and
add it to their notebook. I try not to be overly strict on this,
however, because I don't want it to become drudgery. The main thing is,
you can make it as full as you desire, or keep it simple. I've tried to
give you the heart of the matter and plenty to build on. Additional
sources ARE NOT necessary, but they can be really interesting.
Especially when they have photographs!
Is there a good resource list?
There is an incredible resource list in the back of each book. It is
already organized according to the units of the book (not by age). The
ISBNs are even listed to make ordering a breeze. We did the best we
could to weed through all the books out there, but of course in science,
many of the books are secular in nature and refer to evolution. Each
family will have to decide for themselves how to deal with that issue.
One family may choose to skip it altogether; another family may choose
to read it and discuss the information from a Christian perspective. You
will also find a cross in front of the books that are specifically
Christian in nature.
Can I use the material out of order?
YES! Sometimes later units build upon earlier units, but with a little
reading, you can rearrange to make it work. It would make more sense to
do mammals before humans, since humans are mammals, but it would not be essential.
The activity shown in the
sample lesson of
Christian Kids Explore Biology is for young children?
Are they all this way?
No. Off and on throughout the book, I added in some extra activities for
younger children, but not always. Most of the suggestions are for 4th -
6th graders, but can easily be tailored for the younger grades.
We study according to the classical model. How does the Christian Kids Explore series fit in with that?
First of all, as recommended
in The Well Trained Mind,
Christian Kids Explore Biology
is a full year of just biology. We also offer a full year of earth
science in
Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space.
Biology and Earth & Space are best suited for grades 3 – 6 although
they are adaptable. For 6th – 8th graders we offer
Christian Kids Explore Chemistry
and
Christian Kids Explore Physics.
These two books were written by college professors and creation
scientists – Robert and Elizabeth Ridlon. These books are all set up to
be taught twice weekly. They are creative with a reasonable amount of
research and memory work provided. We worked to keep them usable for
classical families and still practical for busy families. One major goal
was to keep it creation based and God-centered.
All American History
How much teacher prep time is involved in All American History?
On a day-to-day basis, very little teacher prep time is involved.
You can sit down with them and read the lesson aloud as they are working
in their Activity Books answering questions as you read. However, you
would want to spend some time at the beginning of each of the four,
eight week quarters preparing. This kind of prep would include:
• Determining how much you expect to read aloud, or have them read, per day. The reading is broken down into weeks but not days.
• Making the Review Games (Simple, index-card "Memory" type games).
• Choosing any extra reading, if desired. There is a book list included but it is optional.
• For younger children you may wish to cut out the figures from their Student Activity Books ahead of time so all they need to do is paste them into the appropriate spaces.
• Looking over the “Family Activity Suggestions”, choosing which ones you will do and determining what, if any, supplies you will need. (For example, Lesson One is on the Vikings and the two “Family Activity” options are to: watch Veggie Tales Lyle the Kindly Viking and compare and contrast the movie with what you now know to be true about Vikings or to make "silver" jewelry (this ties in with the lesson as well).
• Lastly, I would suggest looking over the “For Further Study” questions
each week and determining which, if any, you will assign. The older the
student the more I would assign. (High school - 3 out of 4 of them.)
Remember, the synopsis of what info they should find for each question
is in the Teacher's Guide!
How do the daily lesson plans work? Do you teach a
lesson on one day, and then the students do independent work the rest of
the week, or do you teach more frequently than that?
This so much depends on your family and your preferences. The way I
taught was to:
1. Spend one day a week on any reading aloud and discussion.
2. Spend the second day doing maps/timeline and perhaps some written work.
3. Then my boys would have reading to do (either re-reading the lesson if I read it aloud or reading either historical fiction or non-fiction books with great pictures) on one of the other days. We generally spent no more than 3 days a week on history.
4. At the high school level, they also had research questions to answer – in the case of All American History; these would be the “For Further Study” questions at the end of each lesson in the Student Activity Book.
I purchased two Student Readers to be shared among four
children...is this sufficient?
It should be plenty. A large family might choose to have just one
Student Reader for reading aloud but if I had older students I would
want them to read or re-read the lessons on their own as well. In
addition, since they need the Student Reader in order to complete
the map work in their Student Activity Book I think that two
Student Readers with four students is a good ratio.
I purchased four Student Activity Books, one for
each child. Is this correct?
Yes. If you have one younger than 3rd/4th grade though, they might not
really need it. There are reproducible photos in the back of the
Teacher's Guide which could be copied and used to make a simplified
notebook for the younger children.
Last Thoughts - READ the Teacher's Guide! It is the Heart & Soul of this curriculum!!!
Updates, Corrections, Clarifications:
All American History, Volume 1
Corrections for page 17:
Ignore the odd partial sentence at the very top of the page.
The bottom paragraph, last sentence should read:
"One of these fellow prisoners was a man named Rustichello. An Italian
romance writer of some distinction, Rustichello suggested to Marco that
his stories should be written down."
Correction for page 121 -
Student Reader
The date for Massachusetts Bay on that page is wrong - it should be
1630. The answer is right in the answer key for the student
activities book page 75 related to the Massachusetts Colony (Teachers
Guide, pg. 129).
Christian Kids Explore Biology
Clarification for Lesson 8 – page 38:
This diagram looks like a slight misprint. The line for the ovary should go all the way to the center of the plant to the bulbish shape that contains the ovule.
See this page for a visual on this.
Addition to page 134:
Add */exoskeleton/* to vocabulary list
Change for page 138:
First paragraph, change to:
“In addition to the above, insect skeletons are located on the outside of their bodies. This is called the *exoskeleton*. It provides protection and support, but doesn’t grow with them, so they must shed it, or molt, periodically as they grow. When they mature, they no longer molt. Also, insects do not have lungs. Instead, air is passed through the exoskeleton. And lastly, nearly all insects go through some type of metamorphosis.”
Correction to Lesson 3, Page 12 - Flashcards: Christian Kids Explore
Chemistry
"Echinodermata"
The lesson says: Echinodermata: "symmetrical marine _vertebrates_
that have a water vascular system. Ex: Starfish, sea urchins, sea
cucumbers"
Vertebrates should read INvertebrates.
Table of Contents and Page 145:
The Title of Lesson 18 should read “Dissolving Calcium Carbonate
with Acid”, not “Dissolving Calcium Chloride with Acid”.
Page 31:
The illustration at the top says "chlorine + chlorine + sodium = H2O";
the 3 balls on the left should be labeled, "Hydrogen Atom + Hydrogen
Atom + Oxygen Atom".
From an Astute Reader:
Unit Three Wrap-Up, page 149
The answer to # 3 is C—five.
(Found in the Answer Key on page 327.)
I can only find two chemical bonds - ionic and covalent. Only other
possibility I found through research is hydrogen bond. What are the
others?
From the Author:
This is a great question! It might have been a good idea for us to at
least list the five types of chemical bonds, even though we only
discussed two -- ionic and covalent (in general) in the book.
Covalent bonds are actually of two types: a non-polar covalent bond
exists when the electron sharing is equal between bonded atoms. A polar
covalent is formed when the electrons are not shared equally between
bonded atoms and the molecule then has a positive and negative end. You
are correct; another type of bond is the hydrogen bond. The fifth is the
metallic bond. So to summarize the five types of chemical bonds are:
-
Non-polar Covalent
-
Polar Covalent
-
Ionic
-
Hydrogen
-
Metallic
Page 216:
An
incorrect chemical formula is listed for butane, the correct formula is
C4H10.
Page 222:
On the 5th line, the first word should be ethene rather than ethane.
Page 234:
The alcohol diagram is mislabeled. The left side of the
diagram is correct, but the right side of the diagram should be labeled
“Methanol CH3OH”.
Page 242:
The diagram on this page is of alcohol, not esters.
Where can I find the corrected diagram on Page 242?
Click here to download the corrected page in pdf format. Adobe
Reader required.
Correction for Unit 5 Wrap Up (Page 344):
On question #17, the book says B is the correct answer. The
correct answer should be C.
Where can I get the additional resource list for this book?
You may
download it here, in pdf format. Adobe Reader required.
Christian Kids Explore Physics
Page 77:
The picture is incorrect. The 2nd balloon should be 1 litre.
Page 78:
The picture is incorrect. The 2nd balloon should be 4 litres.
Page 167:
In the 3rd paragraph the 5th line says that 4 times 125 equals 600.
That should be 500. 2 lines further down it uses 600 again when it
should be 500.
The Mystery of History, Volume 1
If you have a second or third printing, these changes have already been made in your edition. You can find the printing on the copyright page.
p. 9 paragraph 5
Do you wonder when Adam and Eve lived? No one but God knows for sure but some believe it was sometime between 6,000 and 4,000 years before Christ. The amazing thing is that God in His great wisdom kept a running list in the Bible of all the fathers and their sons from Adam until Christ. (See Luke 3:23-38) Using this information, we can estimate when Adam might have lived. It’s just a matter of counting backward.
Bible scholars…
Today, we cannot imagine. . . This means that the stories of Creation and God could easily have been passed down to Noah and preserved after the Great Flood. We’ll be learning more about the Great Flood in a few lessons.
As for the rest of the story of Adam and Eve, the Bible tells us of their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren and so on. It is an amazing account of early man. Unfortunately we know both good and bad stories of Adam’s children. Genesis chapter 4 says that Cain, Adam’s first son, murdered his brother Abel! For committing this crime, Cain is cursed by God and driven to the land of Nod, east of Eden.
And thus the story of God and mankind began. From Creation until present time, the story still goes on – and to think it all started by the hand of God with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden!
p. 25
Question 8 needs to be eliminated. The lesson about Shem was cut
from the book .
p. 44
Typo, the last entry, “l” need the word “marks” capitalized.
p. 58
Paragraph 2 and 3 Change to :
The pharaoh over Egypt was so wicked that he asked the Hebrew midwives – ladies who help with childbirth - to kill every Hebrew boy as he was being born. (Hebrew is another term for Israelite. *) The pharaoh thought he could stop the growth of the Hebrews through this cruel command.
Here’s what the midwives did though. Exodus 1:17 tells us, “but the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.” When asked by the pharaoh why this was happening, the midwives said the Hebrew women were strong and gave birth before they could get there! The Bible goes on to say, “God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.” (Ex. 1: 20-21) It’s a touching story of the faith of these women.
But, the pharaoh was so upset over the strong population of the Hebrews that he ordered all male babies to be thrown into the river……
p.67
To clarify the proper text, I want to add a reference.
First paragraph:
From heaven to feed the people as they needed. The Israelites were also
sent an abundance of quail (a kind of bird) for food. To provide water,
the Lord instructed Moses to strike a rock with his rod. And water
miraculously poured forth! (Ex. 16,17:1-7)
p. 71
Paragraph 3
Change to:
And what about Rahab and her family? Did they get safely out of Jericho?
Yes, they did. As instructed, Rahab dangled a red cord out of her window
during the attack on Jericho to signal which was her home. As promised,
she and her family were spared. Apparently, it was God’s plan all along
for the Bible indicates that Rahab was in the lineage of Christ! Matthew
1:5 says, “Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed
begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king.” And later Jesus was born
of the house of David. But I’m getting way ahead of myself here.
The point of the genealogies is simply. . .
p. 76
typo and a need to change over date discrepancies
Of all the fascinating pharaohs who once ruled over Egypt, probably none is more well-known than King Tut. King Tut’s real name was Tutankhamen. He lived from about 1342 to 1360 B.C. (though historians don’t agree on the exact date). Several years ago a singer named Steve Martin wrote a funny song about this pharaoh….
p. 87
Paragraph 6.
Change to
By what appears to be divine appointment, Ruth goes to the fields owned by Boaz. . .
p. 111
change the caption to read
Michelangelo, a famous Italian artist, created this beautiful statue of David out of solid marble. It stands 12 feet high in a museum in Florence, Italy.
p. 132
Lesson 37
Activity 37 A The scripture should read 2 Kings 4:1-7 instead of I Kings 17:8-16.
p. 151
Because of a complaint regarding the phrase “assumption” I will
change paragraph 3.
I find it particularly fascinating to know that the format of Isaiah’s writings are similar to the format of the Bible. For example, just as there are 66 books of the Bible, there are 66 chapters of Isaiah. As there are 39 books of the Old Testament so there are 39 chapters of Isaiah that are about the Law and the Covenant. The likeness gets even better! Just as there are 27 books of the New Testament, there are 27 remaining chapters of Isaiah that tell mainly of the coming of Jesus Christ.
p. 226
Question number 18 should read
“Daniel’s Babylonian name was…
APPENDIX
Book list
Entry on lesson 98 Cleopatra
Insert this caution The Mystery of History, Volume 2
*Video: Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor. This is an excellent
re-enactment of the time period and one of my personal favorites. But,
discretion is advised as the film does contain scenes of scantily
dressed dancers.
Map #19
Download Map #19 here (in .pdf format).
Map #25
Download Map #25 here (in .pdf format).
The Mystery of History, Volume 2
Page 82 is missing on the Companion Guide CD-Rom
Download missing page 82 (in .pdf format).