Mystery of History Volume 1: Week 12: The Phoenecians, The Kingdom of Israel Divides, and Elijah the Fiery Prophet

Lesson 34: The Phoenecians

Learning abbout the Phoenecians (or “the sea people”) is important for many more lessons in ancient history. I read the lesson aloud to my kids, and also assigned sections in Usborne World History books for the kids to read. The Usborne Book of World History is the younger version, and the Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History is for teens. I like them for the illustrations and details. (Read my post on all the Usborne history titles I recommend.)

Copywork for this lesson:

“The Phoenicians were originally Canaanites and lived on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea near Israel. Their capital was Sidon, a name that meant to ‘catch fish.'” (Linda Hobar)

The teenagers read Chapter 47 in The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer.

Lesson 35: The Kingdom of Israel Divides

As we began this lesson, I reviewed the books of the Bible with my students. Since some are my own children and some are not, there’s a mixed population of kids who have the books memorized and those who don’t. I think this is KEY to helping kids use the Bible.

We also began with our map work this time, since it’s heavy on geography. So the kids looked at their blank map of Israel for this lesson (Map 7, page 139), and marked where the division happened. This is the beginning of some very sad years for Israel.

Another great resources in the Companion Guide is the set of “kings and prophets” charts. As author Linda Hobar states in the guide, “Seeing them over and over again and identifying the ones we’ve studied with capital letters will help them become more and more familiar to you. And familiarty is good for understanding the Old Testament!” I agree. This portion of the Old Testament can get confusing because of the way the books are ordered, but seeing the connection in simple lists like this helps so much. These worksheets will be used for several upcoming lessons.

My youngest didn’t do copywork on this day, but instead did the notebooking page, noting the separation of the tribes of Israel.

We ended this lesson with Drive Thru History Holy Land Volume 2 Episode 3: “Tel Dan, Jezreel, and Megiddo.”

Lesson 36: Elijh, the Fiery Prophet

Along with the lesson in the book, we read 1 Kings 12, and discussed the miracles of Elijah, and his unique “ending.”

Drive Through History Holy Land Volume 2, Episode 2: Samaria, Shechem, & Shiloh is a great eipsode for this, if you didn’t watch it earlier (like we did) with lesons 20, 21, or 27. They’re so fun to watch that a second viewing would not be too much!

To finish up, we added these events to our timelines, did the mapwork in the Companion Guide, my 9 & 12 year olds added the corresponding sections to their labpooks (folder books), and everyone did the Week 12 review quiz.

Be sure to check out all the great book suggestions and activity ideas in the Mystery of History Companion Guide! Follow the entire course with us at the main Mystery of History Volume 1 page here.

Do you have some fun ideas for these lessons? Comment below!