Story of the World

Story of the World Vol 2 Audio Book

Oh, how we love The Story of the World.   So much so, that we are working our way through the four volume set for the second time.   This year our focus is on Vol. 2 which consists of the Middle Ages from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance.   

There are so many things we like about Story of the World:

• It moves in chronological order, from the earliest nomads to the Cold War in four volumes.  
• It is told in story format and is never dry. The chapters are short and sweet, yet convey a lot of information.   You then decide how much you want to add on from the Activity Guide.
• The Activity Guides for each are awesome.   Mapwork, games, recipes, coloring pages, corresponding encyclopedia pages, and about 20 suggested titles of additional reading books in non-fiction, fiction, picture book and chapter book form for each chapter.   
• Each volume is now available in CD or MP3 format, which is fantastic.  I wish these were available the first time we worked through this curriculum.   The girls adore the narrator, Jim Weiss, and I get to assign them plenty of extra reading from the Activity Guide and Encyclopedia without them thinking they are getting too much history reading.

How we do it

Everyone I know does The Story of the World a bit differently to fit their needs.  We do History twice a week on Thursday and Friday.   On Thursday the girls listen to the first section of whatever chapter we are doing.   While they listen they color or do mapwork.    My girls love to color while they listen and sometimes end up listening to both sections of the chapter the first day.   Hermoine then reads several pages in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia that go with that days lesson.   Ramona often reads with her or picks up a picture book from the library I have ready for her.    

Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

On Friday they listen to the next section for the chapter if they didn't do it on Thursday.   Hermoine then writes a 1-2 page essay on the chapter.  Her coloring page, mapwork, and essay go into a three ring binder and at the end of the year she has a great History notebook, again in chronological order.

Fridays,  Ramona perhaps reads another book, then gives me a short narration of 2-5 sentences.   It's recommended that I write these down for her and they go in the notebook.   I've never done that , except the first year with Hermoine.  Ramona will start later this year with half page essays of 2-5 sentences on her own to prepare her to do full page essays next year.

We also often use that weeks lesson to find something on Netflix for our family documentary nights. 

Both of my girls thoroughly enjoy history and have a much better grasp on the major events of Ancient and Medieval History than I have ever had thanks to The Story of the World.    And that makes me very, very happy.