The Mystery of History Volume 2 Resources: Third Quarter

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The Mystery of History

My 6th grader and 9th grader are both reading The Mystery of History Volume II this year. I absolutely love The Mystery of History curriculum and am trying to add in more extracurricular resources this time around since these two kiddos are older now. In this particular book in the series, there are only 28 weeks of scheduled lessons. That means we have 2 weeks per quarter to focus on extras. We choose to spend the last 2 weeks of each quarter on the extra stuff.

Resources

Because I no longer have children in elementary grades, these resources are targeted toward middle and high schoolers. My goal for extras is to find fun and interesting resources that are somewhat enjoyable, not ones that conjure up total mental drudgery. 🙂 I encourage my children to research topics of interest on their own, but since that doesn't always happen, I try to provide some resources that I either assign or let them choose from.

Books (Non-Fiction)

 You Wouldn't Want to Be a Samurai!: A Deadly Career You'd Rather Not Pursue




Samurai (Warriors of History)




Technology in Ancient China (Technology in the Ancient World (Gareth Stevens))



Iceland (Enchantment of the World, Second)



New Zealand (Countries of the World)



 My daughter enjoyed chapter 3 of this book which talked about the animals of New Zealand.

  Leif Eriksson: Viking Explorer of the New World (Great Explorers of the World)



Understanding Norse Myths (Myths Understood)



Norse Mythology A to Z

This book is really neat to peruse. It contains entries listed in alphabetical order of everything related to Norse mythology. Contains 51 illustrations. It was fun learning that the dwarf names, and Gandalf, in Lord of the Rings come from Norse poems. The actual part of the norse poem from where the dwarves' names originate can be found here.

Books (Fiction)

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood



My 9th grader chose to read Robin Hood, but he's reading this version by Paul Creswick: The Adventures of Robin Hood: An English Legend (The World's Best Reading).  We already own many of the classics from the Reader's Digest series, so that's why. I've read, though, that Howard Pyle's version is preferred over Creswick's version.

 Icefall



 I read this book aloud to all three of my kids a few years ago. We all really liked it! The main character is a Viking princess named Solveig. She and her siblings have been sent to a hidden fortress in the middle of winter for protection against a man who wants to marry her older sister and steal her father's land. Amidst warriors and others who are supposed to be protecting the children, a traitor lurks. As Solveig tries to find the traitor, she really ends up finding out who she is. If my memory serves me right, there are references to Norse gods - the characters are Vikings. One wonderful character, Hake, is even a berserker who literally goes berserk in one scene. It's a fun read for those who like Viking lore and Norse mythology. :)

*Except for our Robin Hood book, I found all books at my local library.

YouTube Videos

Leif the Lucky - my 6th grade daughter listened to this 20-min. story on YouTube since it wasn't available at our library.




Iceland Vacation Travel Guide - I'm not a big traveler, and I've never been out of the country, but after watching this 14-min video with my daughter, I think I may want to visit Iceland! Looks so beautiful and peaceful. :) (FYI - at about 4:23, there's a clip of people in swimwear in the thermal waters.)

Other

My daughter did pursue a couple of things on her own this time. Yay! She loves animals and chose to research:

• the Japanese serow on Wikipedia
• dogs used during the Viking age

We also had fun researching Icelandic desserts but ended up not making any.

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Wow, only one quarter left! Enjoy these resources and the rest of your time in The Mystery of History. :)



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