MOH vs truthquest vs Lightning literature

Hi Paula!

I have some experience with Truthquest and MOH. I’ve also looked at Lightning Lit quite a bit.

Truthquest actually does include writing assignments. However, it doesn’t include writing instruction. I think SCM includes directions to have older students complete written narrations, but again, no writing instruction. Are you looking for included writing assignments or instruction?

Mystery of History is just short daily readings. It includes suggested additional activities, which may include writing assignments (no instruction). There are multiple choice review exercises as well. MOH does have lists of additional books in the back of the book but they are not scheduled, nor are they great book lists IMO. MOH always fell flat in my home. The writing just can’t compare with living books. It is a nice textbook, but it is still a textbook. Narrations took a nose dive when we tried it out. We quickly went back to living books.

Lightning Literature looks really good to me. I prefer to choose my own literature assignments and use a separate writing program but LL does look really good for someone who wants it all planned out. I can never stick with someone else’s prewritten plan. I am an incurable tweaker. 🙂 LL does not offer much writing instruction either, but it does give a bit.

We used Truthquest history for 8th grade, along with written narrations for writing. For lit, I had my daughter choose a classic and read from it every day for 30 minutes. We did one Shakespeare play that year and one lit guide as well. We used the Famous Men series for written narrations more than any other book. My daughter prefers to write complete narrations that tell a whole story so the short biographies in these books worked well for her. She wrote 2, 1-2 page papers a week. At the end of her 8th grade year, I ran her through a quick essay writing program called Hands On Essays. We also had a writing intensive month where we took off from a few other subjects and she wrote an essay every day. I was very pleased with the results so I plan on having an essay intensive month each year from now on.

We’re using BiblioPlan for history and literature and it’s been a good fit for us.

What I like: It includes history, geography, literature and Bible.  There are suggested writing assignments, but no writing instruction. It covers K-12th grade with different options for a history spine to read.  You can choose between SOTW, MOH or read the Companion, which is the spine written for BiblioPlan.  You have the option of adding mapwork and crafts.  There are numerous literature suggestions.  You also have the option of adding ‘Cool Histories’, which include fill-in-the-blanks, short answer questions, longer answer questions and a research essay for each week.  You can pick and choose which of those you want your kids to do.

There are four years and it may seem pricey up front, but you can use the same resources (at different levels) for all years of school.

For writing instruction, we’re using Wordsmith for middle school and The Power in Your Hands for high school.  I’ve used a gazillion (!) different writing programs, and for us, these are the ones that get done.

I should probably have mentioned that I used TQ for years since you did ask for a review of that!  There were many things that I liked about it, but it did require quite a bit of planning on my part. Also, you either need to buy the extra books or hope to find them at the library.  Our libraries had several, but to have them available at the right time was a headache.

Mostly I liked the author’s commentary, but sometimes it felt disjointed and confusing.  Sometimes she would refer to an event, and if we hadn’t found a book to read about the event, we had no idea what she was talking about.  Also, I found her buddy/buddy overly chatty tone somewhat grating at times.  Just my opinion….

I’ve looked at MFW.  It didn’t seem as if it would work well with the age span of my kiddos.