Changing my mind about our history selection

Last week I scrapped our history book for the rest of the year.

When I began homeschooling Ella in 2007, I was drawn to the Charlotte Mason method, specifically: living books, habits, picture study, narration, nature study, and the Book of Centuries.

As we proceeded through that first school year, I was trying to edit the Hillyer text and incorporate biblical history into our readings, and I became frustrated with all the work that required of me.

We switched to Mystery of History (Vol. 1) , and it suited us well. I really liked the simplicity of having one book to read from and I appreciated biblical history weaved into the text.

I purchased Volume 2 for this year and we plowed ahead. We have two months left and we'll be finished with that book.

The readings this year are waaay longer than they were in Volume 1. There is a lot of information packed into each lesson, and while it is very thorough and I appreciate that, it has been drudgery at times. I try to edit it down as we go, but that's difficult to do as I'm reading. I recognized this at the beginning of the year, and I went through the Mystery of History book and noted where I could replace a particular lesson and read from other sources, and we have done that from time to time.

Last week I pulled out our Mystery of History book and turned to the lesson. On the top of the page I had handwritten a note about reading from Our Island Story for that particular lesson, which was about William the Conqueror. I began reading.

This is what I noticed: my kids gathered around me and were captivated by the story. They were wide-eyed, curious and engaged. I kept reading into the next chapter. They actually *thanked* me. I read the next chapter, too. They were so full of the story and we talked about all we'd read and they all had things they wanted to say and by the days end, Mark and I had drawn up a whole new plan to finish out our year, using Ambleside's recommendations.

I had all of the books already, because I'd started down that path. But somewhere in there I had forgotten the power of a story to engage their minds. In a season of babies and very little time for planning, I opted for ease. (And honestly, I can't say I wouldn't make the same choice again.)

But I'm freezing that moment in my brain: those three eager faces, hanging upon my every word as I read the story of William the Conqueror~ and I know it would be a disservice to go back to more of a textbook-format. That day we read twenty pages, because they were asking for more. They narrated it very well to Mark at lunch. Their retelling of it was so much more than I'd been hearing from our Mystery of History readings.

I am so grateful to know my children well: to know how they learn best and to be able to make changes based on that knowledge.

I don't want to be down on Mystery of History. It is a very thorough text and I am truly grateful for what we have learned from it, but we're all excited to be digging into our new (old) history picks, and I plan to stay the course.