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This curriculum by Susan Wise Bauer (from the Well-Trained Mind) is told in an engaging, story format to make it interesting for children of all ages. It is designed to be read aloud by the parent in the elementary grades, while older students may choose to read the material on their own.
This curriculum will take you from Ancient times right through to Modern history in four volumes.
- Volume 1: Ancient Times
- Volume 2: The Middle Ages
- Volume 3: Early Modern Times
- Volume 4: The Modern Age
This curriculum offers activity pages, student worktexts, and tests for a complete elementary curriculum. Each volume increases in difficulty but can be used in any order if the parent is reading aloud.
It is available in various formats including hardback, paperback, PDF, Kindle, and audiobook.
- Print / Digital / Audio Textbook
- Story Format Lessons w/ Additional Activities, Books, and Review
- Complete History from Ancient to Modern Times
- Grades 1 - 6
- Designed for Classical Education / Charlotte Mason
- Neutral / Faith-Based (especially in Ancient Times Volume)
Want to check out other history curriculum options? Start Here.
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STORY OF THE WORLD REVIEWS:
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History anyone can teach!
We used this along with Classical Conversations to add some content to the timeline events. I am not a history expert and I learned a lot alongside my kids the past couple years of using SOTW. We used it primarily as an awareness B’s hard testing on each lesson, but you can tailor that to your student and goals. My girls 9 & 11 enjoyed the map work to help them have an idea of what/where the story was taking place then listen to the read aloud or audio book. We put all of their maps and pages in page protectors as part of their portfolio and it shows their progress along the way.
This was a subject my daughter would ask to do… I plan to use again next year.
Pros
Cons
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History in Story Format
Story of the World is truly, history in story format. SOTW tells history (for the most part) in chronological order rather than focusing on one area of the world at a time. Each chapter flows so nicely into the next, that your child will have no problem as you bounce around the globe.
I started the first book, Ancients with my sensitive 8 year old, and I was a little worried about how all the war and fighting would be handled. Susan Wise Bauer does an excellent job telling the story without getting too gruesome or gory. There has been some debate over whether SOTW can be classified as a secular curriculum. Ancients does talk about “the god of Abraham”, as well as Jesus, but there is also mention of the Buddha, Anansi, Roman and Greek Gods, and more. I cannot speak on the other volumes, but I have heard that Ancients is the only “debated” one when it comes to being truly secular. For us, it is important to me that my son be aware of certain Christian/religious topics and ideas since references do come up a lot in daily life, and I would like him to understand the reference.
The main text/novel is available for purchase through Amazon, as well as corresponding Activity Book, Tests, and Audiobooks. This is a great option for us Canadians who usually have to think about the high cost of shipping curriculum in from the USA. What you will find in the Activity Book: each section of the text has corresponding review questions, narration exercise, additional history AND literature reading suggestions. Each chapter also comes with map work, a colouring page, and projects (combinations of crafts, recipes, experiments). I purchased the Activity Book with intention of doing most of it. Turns out, my son is not crafty and only has the attention span to read the main text, map work, and some additional literature. I did use the narration exercise as copy work when he was practicing his cursive writing. The Review questions were much too easy and I got a lot of eye-rolling in return.
I was able to borrow the Audiobook from my local library (CD). It was nice because I got to save my vocal cords a bit, however being on CD, there is no way to slow down the playback speed. Also, having to constantly pause the CD to field comments and questions was a bit rough. If you can get the audiobook on MP3, it may be better.
Pros
Cons
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