The Story of the World - a review (part 2)

{This is a two part review of The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child series by Susan Wise Bauer.  This post will cover the final two books in the series, Vol. 3 – The Early Modern Times and Vol. 4 – The Modern World.}  The previous post covered the first two books in the series, Vol. 1 – Ancient Times and Vol. 2 – The Middle Ages. }

The first year of Story of the World, I was teaching only a 1st grader, the next year a 2nd grader and a Kindergartner. There wasn't too much adjusting for age differences because I was primarily just teaching one child, and the others would listen along, but not really be expected to be responsible for any real content or activities. It was just fun stories. For Year 3, we had both a 3rd grader and a 1st grader and for Year 4, I was teaching all three boys - 4th grade, 2nd grade and Kindergarten. So for the last two years of SOTW I really had to deal with making adjustments for teaching multiple ages. In addition, as SOTW progresses, the work required in the activity book advances and the subject matter (20th century especially) becomes more mature - slavery, holocaust, civil rights, 9/11. In this post, I thought I would share how we negotiated those challenges in our family.

Additionally, Year 3 and Year 4 cover the time periods of the development of the American nation, but since it is a World history program, the emphasis is not on American history. I wanted to make sure that we covered more in that subject area than was offered, so I will share some supplementary materials we used to make sure the boys knew enough about our country's history.

Adjusting for Different Ages

Year 3 of the SOTW was pretty easy to adjust for differences in ages.  All the boys like the coloring pages (it gives them something to do with their hands while I read aloud.)  After reading the chapter section, I would do the comprehension questions orally.  My 1st grader was better at remembering the details and the competition helped motivate the 3rd grader to try hard and remember the answers.  I didn't ask the 1st grader to narrate, at least not every time.  I did begin using the test book this year, but written responses were required only from the oldest, we used the questions in a game-show type review for the others.

Year 4 required the most adjustment for the ages.  Instead of narrating, the book begins to teach outlining and writing from an outline.  We all worked together on completing the outline, but not even the oldest was outlining on his own by the end of the year.  We worked on writing from an outline in our writing curriculum, so we didn't work on it here as well.  We used the tests for both the 4th grader and 2nd grader to do comprehension reviews (much more than the previous year.)  The 4th year of SOTW doesn't include coloring pages anymore, so I ordered a file of coloring pages from the publishers website.  This gave us at least one picture to color for the younger kids (2nd and K), and we also used a few Dover coloring books or online resources as well.
SOTW 4 Coloring pages
Dover Coloring Books (History)
American History Coloring Pages (free)
History Coloring Pages (free)

Adding More American History

The other thing I adjusted for in Year 3 and 4 of SOTW was to add more American history either by spending more time on the stories they did cover, or by adding stories that were left out that I wanted to include.  (How did I add more and still finish one book each year?)  We still read all the stories in the book, did comprehension questions and map exercises.  I didn't do nearly as many of the enrichment activities for these chapters.  I wouldn't say we "skimmed" those chapters, but we didn't linger long on them.  My pace was generally to read one chapter section each day (5 day schedule) and complete the coloring page and map activity for that chapter.  At the end of the chapter, we would spend one day to review the content and any additional reading or activity we had time for.  When we reached a chapter on the Jamestown colony or the Pilgrims we might spend an extra day or two on the sections - completing extra enrichment activities.  We would usually find a historical literature selection to spend even more time on those areas, even after we had moved on in the history text.  (Literature selections we used are at the end of this post.) 

Certain events were significant enough to spend two or three weeks camped out on them and completing a mini unit study. 

Year 3 Mini Unit Studies

13 Colonies (2 weeks)
(library books)

The Revolutionary War (4 weeks)
The American Revolution (Landmark Books) by Bruce Bliven, Jr.
The American Revolution by Alden R. Carter
Land Battles of the Revolutionary War by Diane Smolinski
History Pockets:  The American Revolution (Evan-Moor Publishing)

 (Toy soldiers are great for boys learning about wars - this is the Battle of Bunker Hill.)


Between year 3 and 4 we studied Colorado history by traveling to lots of historical sites for our summer camping trips and reading books on famous people from the time.

Year 4 Mini Unit Studies

Civil War (4 weeks)
Field of Fury by James M. McPherson
History Pockets:  The Civil War (Evan-Moor Publishing)

Westward Expansion  (1 week):
Library books and History Pockets:  Moving West (Evan-Moor publishing)

World War I (1 1/2 weeks):
Library books and
Truce by Jim Murphy
Coloring pages

World War II (3 weeks)
The Good Fight by Stephen E. Ambrose
Coloring pages, library videos, great grandparent interview

Several subjects didn't involve full unit studies, but we focused our project work or extra reading on those subjects:  the great depression, civil rights, space race, fall of communism, 9/11 and the war on terror.

We also wanted to make sure that we memorized all the Presidents of the United States and did a quick overview of what they were known for.  We put each president on our timeline, learned a song to memorize their order and watched a great series on the presidents that gave a quick but helpful overview of each president.  We watched these segments as we came to their time in history.  I recommend this series:   Disney's The American Presidents Video series (Vol. 1-4)

Whew!  That is how we worked in a little more time in American history and still maintained the context of overall world history from the Story of the World.  I hope that is helpful to you if you are using SOTW and wanted to emphasize American History to a greater extent.

Now for our literature lists:

Historical Literature We Enjoyed with Vol. 3

Pocahontas by Joseph Bruchac
Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Robert Bulla
Voyage to Freedom by David Gay  (About the Mayflower)
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes  (Revolutionary War)
Kanousky, the Indian Boy and David Brainerd The Indian's Missionary (www.graceandtruthbooks.com)
Stowaway by Karen Hesse (About the travels of Captain James Cook)
Duel!  Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words by Dennis Fradin
Seaman by Gail Langer Karwoski  (Lewis and Clark expedition)
Stolen Man:  Story of the Amistad by Barry Louis Polisar
Amos Fortune by Elizabeth Yates  (Slavery) Excellent!!!
Journey of Jesse Smoke by Joseph Bruchac  (Trail of Tears)
The Boy in the Alamo by Margaret Cousins
The Francis Tucket series (Books 1-5) by Gary Paulsen (Oregon Trail, westward adventures)
Zeb Pike, Boy Traveler by Augusta Stevenson
Kit Carson by Ralph Moody

 Historical Literature We Enjoyed with Vol. 4

(This list is my longest, it includes read alouds, independent reads for the two older boys and picture books...)
Hard Gold by Avi (Colorado Gold Rush)
Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (homesteading)
Courage to Run:  A Story Based on the Life of Harriet Tubman by Wendy Lawton
The Drinking Gourd by F.N. Monjo (Underground railroad)
Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine (slavery)
Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation by Patrice Sherman
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln (Illustrated by Michael McCurdy)
Abe Lincoln goes to Washington by Cheryl Harness
Abe Lincoln, the Boy Who Loved Books by Kay Winters
Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln by Jean Fritz
Iron Thunder by Avi (The Monitor and Merrimac)
The Story of the H.L. Hunley and Queenie's Coin by Fran Hawk (Civil War)
Abraham Lincoln by Ingri D'Aulaire
Escape by Night:  A Civil War Adventure by Laurie Myers
John Brown:  His Fight for Freedom by John Hendrix  (Harper's Ferry)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Journal of Sean Sullivan, a Transcontinental Railroad Worker by William Durbin
The Battle for Little Big Horn by Marty Gitlin
The Wild West by Henry Brooks
Sergeant York and the Great War by Tom Skeyhill (WWI)
War Horse by Michael Morpugo (WWI)
"In Flander's Fields" A poem by John McCray (WWI)  Great for memorizing!
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom  (We watched the video, also check out this great virtual tour of the Ten Boom home... http://tenboom.com/en/)
Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margo Theis Raven (Berlin airlift)
Balloon Sailors by Diane Swanson (Berlin wall)
Children of the Storm by Natasha Vins (persecution of Christians in USSR)

The Story of the World - a review (part one)

{This is a two part review of The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child series by Susan Wise Bauer. This post will cover the first two books in the series, Vol. 1 – Ancient Times and Vol. 2 – The Middle Ages. The next post will cover the final two books in the series, Vol. 3 – The Early Modern Times and Vol. 4 – The Modern World.}

Now that we have finished all four years of The Story of the World series (SOTW), I feel ready to give an assessment of how it has worked for us.  I have found in the past that I have been too quick to recommend a resource without sufficient time to evaluate it  and then either regretted would have tempered my recommendation after I had actually used the entire curriculum or had compared it with something else.  Having used the entire scope of this curriculum now, hopefully my thoughts will be more helpful, rather than just enthusiastic and hopeful. 

I will start off by saying that I do highly recommend this series.  It worked extremely well for us.  No curriculum is perfect, so if you are looking for a perfect curriculum, this is not it, but good luck on your quest!  I will explain what we liked about SOTW, what was challenging for us and also how we changed it to suit the things we either didn’t like or that didn’t work as well for us.

Introduction

First, an introduction… if you are not already familiar with SOTW, it is world history curriculum for elementary ages (1^st – 4^th grade) written by Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well Trained Mind – A Guide to Classical Education at Home.  The highlights of world history are taught in chronological order over 4 years starting with Ancient Times (beginnings to the last Roman emperor), then the Middle Ages (Fall of Rome to the Reformation), Early Modern Times (1600 -1850) and the Modern Age (British empire to turn of the 21st century).  Materials for each year include the story book, an activity book/teacher's guide (definitely recommended), and a test book (not necessary, especially in the younger grades).

What We Liked

The Stories – The boys loved history time, because it was basically read-aloud time.  They got to hear well written stories, that happened to be about real people in real places.  When it was time for history, the boys got out their history notebooks and would color a page from the activity book while I read a story to them.  They might also get out their Legos and build something to go along with the story.  Susan writes in an engaging manner with lots of drama and interest for elementary school age kids.  We also loved when we could get the SOTW audio book from the library.  These are recorded by storyteller Jim Weiss who is really fun to listen to.  This is a fun added resource and great for car-schooling!

The Maps and Activities -  After we heard the story, we would complete the map activity from the activity book.  This was a great way to learn geography because it was associated with a story.  It also helped us to review what we learned.  We also enjoyed completing the activities that were suggested in the Activity Book, but I have to admit that I wasn’t brave enough to try and mummify a chicken!  Sometimes the boys made up their own activities just from their interest in the subject – my oldest tried to make his own papyrus from cattail leaves (which didn’t work very well, but was definitely a learning experience!)  We finished the first year with a Roman feast, which everyone loved.

World History – I really liked that this history was truly world history and not just western history.  I have noticed that many homeschool history programs, especially classical history, limit their study to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, but this series includes civilizations all around the world – the Americas, India, Africa and China are all included, at least in the most significant events.

Literature Suggestions – The element of the program that cemented history the most for our boys was the historical literature that we read along with the time period that we were studying.  The Activity Book has lists of recommendations for each chapter of study – you could never possibly read them all, but we were able to find many options that the boys really enjoyed.  Occasionally the list will contain an out of print or hard to find book, so I would find other alternatives.  I will include the list of books that we read for the first two volumes at the end of this post.

Answering an Objection

Many people that I know have really enjoyed this series, but there is one objection that I have heard from some that may cause some to avoid this series.  I have heard people say that it isn’t “Christian” enough.  I think by this objection people may be comparing this book with those from Christian homeschool publishers where every chapter has an explicit reference to Christ, Christianity, the Bible or Christian morality integrated into each subject or chapter.  Admittedly, this book does not do that.  However, to say that a book isn’t explicitly Christian on every page is not to say that it is somehow compromised or anti-Christian. 

Susan Wise Bauer is a Christian author, and includes several important Christian stories in her books.  In Vol. 1, she recounts the stories of Abraham, Joseph, the birth and crucifixion of Christ and the destruction of the temple.  For Christians ,this is not near enough Christian history and they will want to supplement or integrate other biblical history into their study. 

I’m OK with it not being included in my history text – not because I don’t think that the Bible is history, but because I don’t always agree with how homeschool publishers explain this history – their theology may not be the theology that I teach my children. 

As a parent, I want to make sure that the way the biblical history is told matches up with the biblical theology that I believe and that my church teaches.  Without naming names, there are homeschool publishers from all over the theological spectrum and I want to guard the gospel in my children’s education! 

So I will willingly take on the extra task of integrating biblical history into our Ancient History study, early church history and biographies into our Middle Ages study, Reformation stories and missionary biographies into our Modern History curriculum.  (I will list some of our favorite resources along with the literature selections at the end of this post.) 

Finally, if you are interested in this series of books but are unsure about whether they contain enough “Christian” influence, I would suggest reading Ms. Bauer’s own reflections on why she wrote the way she did, in this article.

Historical Literature We Enjoyed with Vol. 1

The Golden Bull by Marjorie Cowley

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Mary Hoffman

D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus by Aliki

Alexander the Great by Jane Bingham

Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld  We loved these books  – a great look at the life of a young boy in Roman times, with a mystery to solve too!

Mystery of the Roman Ransom by Henry Winterfeld

See You Later, Gladiator by Jon Scieszka 

Peril and Peace:  Chronicles of the Ancient Church by Mindy and Brandon Withrow  
This is the first book in the History Lives series – an excellent set of resources.  Subject matter might be too advanced for 1^st graders and you may need to verbally edit any sensitive subjects (specifically martyrdoms) but definitely worth adding to your library for reading at a later age.

History Lives Box Set By Mindy Withrow and Brandon Withrow Let history come alive and learn about early Christianity with this 5 softcover boxed set! Featuring books that span Christianity from 3BC until 1860AD through tomorrow, these books will teach you about important people, events, and places---all the important events that have led to Christianity being what it is today. Books included are: Peril and Peace, Volume 1 Monks and Mystics, Volume 2 Courage and Conviction, Volume 3 Hearts and Hands, Volume 4 Rescue and Redeem, Volume 5

Historical Literature We Enjoyed with Vol. 2

One Thousand and One Arabian Nights by Geraldine McCaughrean
Monks and Mystics by Mindy and Brandon Withrow (Vol. 2 in the History Lives Series)

Son of Charlemagne by Barbara Willard

The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

Little Pilgrim’s Progress by Helen Taylor

Beorn the Proud by Madelieine Polland

The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzynski 
Knights of the Round Table by Gwen Gross

Joan of Arc by Shana Corey

Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire

The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli

Courage and Conviction by Mindy and Brandon Withrow (Vol. 3 in the History Lives series)

(Most of these selections were read alouds and a few were read independently, as my son’s reading level developed.)

In my next post (look for it next week!), I will review Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 of the series and address some of our difficulties and accommodations as the subject matter gets more difficult and we began to teach multiple ages, as well as how we integrated more American history into the world history curriculum.

(This post contains affiliate links.)