The story of the world

[maciascl]

Anyone use this & what do you think? DS1 is in Kindy right now & probably wouldn't use this til 1st grade. Is that an appropriate age? I like the way it is laid out & it was recommended to me by another homeschooling mom who has a PhD in history, so that speaks highly of it. I am just worried that it might be overwhelming for me & over DS's head.

[Geerbabe]

I bought the first year, but found that it contained WAY more history than we were wanting to cover at that age. I am much more inclined to follow the classical idea of covering different time periods in chronological order, but relying on the library for a variety of resources instead. If you search Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome in the children's section of your library catalogue I'm sure you will find a ton of resources, both stories and hands-on activities. This year we did the same for our medieval studies.

[caelia]

I bought Volume 1 do do this year with my 2nd grader and Kindergartner together. It was not a good fit for us, so we've pretty much dropped it completely. I had heard rave reviews about it, and I like the idea of teaching history chronologically. However, my son (7 yrs) is a very sensitive little guy and he hated learning about mummies and battles, he just doesn't handle death well. We scrapped it early on in favor of a more lighthearted approach to history. So, I would say it depends on your child/ren and what they are ready for. Mine just aren't ready to hear all that stuff yet.

[moominmamma]

We're pretty much unschoolers, but I have been reading SOTW1 & 2 with my first-grader and we actually really like it. SOTW1 is intended for 6-year-olds, so I think the material is reasonable. I do think it works best if your child is a fairly sophisticated listener; the vocabulary and the complexity of the content might be beyond what some 6-year-olds are ready for.

The content is Christian, but as a non-Christian I've found it easy enough to add "here is a story from the Christian Bible" before biblical bits; myths and storytelling from other cultures are part of the text too, so it doesn't seem incongruent to have bible stories -- as stories -- in there.

I don't think 6-year-olds necessarily need to learn world history at all. But if yours is inclined to do so, and has a reasonable attention span and aural comprehension, I think SOTW is a good resource.

Miranda

[mntnmom]

We're using it as a spine for my 1st grader. It'll probably take a couple years to get through it that way though. The tone is rather Christian focused, but I can skip chapters, or make a point of presenting Christian and other stories equally. I think it's a really nice to start to a solid history education.

[aran]

SOTW1 has been accessible vocabulary-wise, and interesting in 15-minute chunks for my 5 yo.

[ocelotmom]

My first grader likes SOTW 1. It certainly isn't over his head.

I do agree that it covers more material than they can really take in and remember, and I'm not sure that covering it in that much breadth is better than focusing in more and covering some of the highlights in depth. However, I admit I'm not doing a whole lot of extra activities for reinforcement. I don't find the Christian content to be a problem, but we're still in the Jewish history era. I do feel that non-western civilizations are covered in a somewhat token manner, but that's more than many of the similar resources manage.

[SamuraiMom]

I am reading SOTW to my 5 and 7 year olds who are enjoying it. Though we are taking it very slowly, as it is not the most important part of their education as of right now, I'm using it as a primer for further learning in History. As Jewish/Secular HSers, we will probably skip some chapters as well, or use them to teach about other religious perspectives.

[Needle in the Hay]

I read the first two volumes to my DS, last year when he was 7. He was really into them, but his interest waned a little bit into the 3rd volume. I expect he'll want to pick it up again at some point. He did the same thing with Harry Potter books.

[pinky]

Has anyone heard the audiobooks? They're read by Jim Wise. I've had them on hold at the library forever....

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by pinky

Has anyone heard the audiobooks? They're read by Jim Wise. I've had them on hold at the library forever....

No, but I have heard other productions of his and they were excellent. Lots of terrific myths and legends. I am thinking of buying the SOTW audiobook, just setting aside the $$$$. Wish my library offered them.

[maciascl]

Yeah, I think I am going to skip it for now in favor of more 'light' history. I think we may even start picking people to study & learn the history around their time period. We can do the more intense history when he is older.

[Stugroupie]

My 1st grader really likes it. He will stop me and ask if he doesn't understand a word or phrase. We do the review and narration plus some of the activities as well. We get through one chapter per week and have skipped a few here and there that just didn't sound interesting to me. I don't expect him to remember everything, but it is fun and interesting.

[Mary-Beth]

We are really enjoying SOTW.
My kids are K and 2nd grade (just turned 6yo and 7.5) and it is easy for them to grasp. In fact, we add in a lot of library books and the activity guide.

Actually, this is what they ask to do!

[AngelBee]

We have it and really enjoy it

[ReadingMama]

Originally Posted by pinky

Has anyone heard the audiobooks? They're read by Jim Wise. I've had them on hold at the library forever....

Yes! We love them! I put them on my son's ipod and he listens to them while he's building legos, etc... He loves ancient history, so that's his favorite volume. I had the first book and the activity guide a couple years ago, but I got overwhelmed with all the projects, so we dropped it. Audio books were the answer for us.

[elizawill]

we tried reading SOTW when my dd was 6. for whatever reason though, it was a flop. you could always try it with your ds, and if it's not a success, simply hang onto it or resell it.

for history, we are currently enjoying william j. bennett books (children's book of america and children's book of heroes). they also love "my first book of biographies" by jean marzollo & "50 american heroes" by dennis denenberg. my daughter also enjoys "around the world in 100 years" by jean fritz. hth.

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by pinky

Has anyone heard the audiobooks? They're read by Jim Wise. I've had them on hold at the library forever....

we have volume 1 on CD. it is much better than the book imho. if your library has it, i would definitely go that route.