Story of the world users???

[tempus vernum]

What ages is this book appropriate for? I had a good link on this and can't find it :doh

Is it cronological or topical?

[Booklover]

It's a chronological, "4 year" study of world history. We are (finally) almost done with Volume 3 (ok we're late), but the Activity guide for 4 isn't going to be in stock at Amazon until next week. I put four year in quotes because there are 42 chapters per book, and I'm not disciplined enough to keep on track. :giggle We like it; ds says history is his favorite subject. My only reservation is I'm not sure he is getting American history in a coherent enough fashion because it covers topics in between world history sections. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that yet.

[Booklover]

Sorry, I forgot to address the age question. Volume 1 was written for 1-4th and Vol 2 for 2-5th. It was designed to go from 1st to 4th, but we will probably use it with my older ds again as well as the younger kids. My #2 ds will allegedly be in 1st grade next year (I say allegedly because he is so not academic, and we have done nothing for K, but that's a different topic).

[SueQ]

I had the books and started out using them this year. Like the previous poster said they are chronological and written for grade level 1-4. I ended up selling mine and going for Mystery of History because I wanted something that ties the Bible into History more than Story of the World did. But the books where writen to hold the students attention and my son would request me to read them to him as bedtime stories. :lol

[Mamatoto]

SueQ, just wondering what age you started at with them? Did both your older boys like them at bedtime?

[PurpleButterfly]

We recently started SOTW, and 5 yo Nemo looooves it! :tu I leafed through my friends copy of the book and found it pretty dry :yawn, so we only bought the CD and workbook, which I'm very happy with. :yes

I bought the workbook in looseleaf so I could easily photocopy pages if desired, and store it in my own three-ring binder, which I'm also very happy with. I like being able to flip thru pages more easily and also create my own tab system for projects, as well as store some of Nemo's work at the end of each section for easy tracking/viewing.

I got the workbook from SOTW's publisher (http://www.peacehillpress.com/) directly and the CD off Amazon (best pricing I could find). We do not do tests at all, so I did not purchase those. Seeing my five yo's creative interpretation of Messopotamia and homemade shadduf structure is enough evidence for me. :wink

One nice feature for you is that for ten dollars, you can buy an extra set of student pages from the publisher, which is well worth the price for paper and convenience so you have sets for both children.

I wouldn't recommend it as a bedtime feature, because it's somewhat stimulating and also quite easy to segue right into the project or activity that is designed to go with each lesson. We will often listen to it in the car while running morning errands and then come home and jump into a project.

We love it! :grin

[SueQ]

SueQ, just wondering what age you started at with them? Did both your older boys like them at bedtime?
DTwas 5 3/4 and JT was 3 1/2. They both listened to them but DT seemed to enjoy it more and get the most out of it.

I also wanted to clarify this Quote from me:
I ended up selling mine and going for Mystery of History because I wanted something that ties the Bible into History more than Story of the World did.
While I like MoH and DT liked it at first, it seemed to be a bit over his head (SOTW was more for his age range) so we stopped it and are just reading living History books right now. Actually this month we are studying Christmas around the world. But I think that maybe next year, we will try MoH again. I know alot of people use SOTW and just do a more indepth study of the Biblical sections when they get to them. Others also combine them with Children's History of the World, Mystery of History or other History curriculums. If I had it to do over again, I would probably keep SOTW and use it as a go along with MoH but since I sold it, I'll do without. ;)

I wouldn't recommend it as a bedtime feature, because it's somewhat stimulating and also quite easy to segue right into the project or activity that is designed to go with each lesson. We will often listen to it in the car while running morning errands and then come home and jump into a project.

We just had the books and didn't have the workbooks or the CD. We just read it like a book and didn't do any of the activities that went along with it since we didn't have the workbooks. ;)