4.5 stars - The Mystery of History is my preferred history spine for homeschooling. I like that it is in chronological order and that it includes Biblical and church history interwoven into the world's history. The length of the lessons in Volume II are a bigger jump from Volume I. There's a lot of information packed into each one. It's perfect for high schooler's. It's a little long for 5th-8th graders, in my opinion. That said, I still prefer the content for that age group over Story of the World which I feel is not quite as chronological.
My second grader and I read through this together as her world history spine. There were some places where I felt the author downplayed distinctions between biblical Protestant vs. Roman Catholic theology, but overall we both loved the book and would highly recommend it. As usual, we skipped the suggested activities in favor of Charlotte Mason-style narration and did most of the tests just because my daughter loves them so much. We are both excited to move on to Volume 3 as we continue our history education (as a homeschooling mother, I’m loving the chance to reclaim my own education, and an accessible, chronological Christian world history book like Mystery of History is a steppingstone toward that end).
3.5 stars. We didn’t read all of it because our main spine was Story of the World, and my 8th grader had additional assignments in A Picturesque Tale of Progress, but we really enjoyed supplementing church history or our SOTW readings with it.