The Story of the World History Curriculum Review

[@mollietenpenny4093]

I have fond memories of my mom reading this history book series to my sister and me when we were little. My mom would sometimes take us to Sonic drive-in in the morning so we could have half priced drinks to go with our history lesson. 😊🥤

[@melaniew2096]

There are also really great literature suggestions in the activity guide that help expand the kiddos knowledge of each time period.

[@katielarsen2630]

Since people are asking whether this is a secular curriculum, I wanted to add my 2 cents after paging through (vol 1, ancients only). There are maybe 3-4 pages out of 325 that mention Christian prophets, primarily in a historical context. It mentions the birth of Jesus (peace be with him) in a very Christian way but you could easily skip that paragraph if you want to, without losing any content. As a Muslim I feel comfortable using it because we have the same prophets, but if you wanted to omit prophets completely you could do that without missing much at all. I hope this helps!

[@hanae1774]

Thanks. I’m so picky when it comes to history because often we only know history from one perspective (which is the perspective of the author and how he sees it) I would like to know if the author was neutral. Also my son in grade 3, is it suitable for younger readers ?

[@laylaenscoe521]

We love this curriculum! We are often driving, so we listen to the cds. The projects are fun. We are on the 4 th set.

[@stellaharb9411]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful video! It really helped me to understand how this curriculum works, I loved that you opened the book and really showed us how the lessons are and how we can use it

[@Family4RealVlogs]

We are doing that for the first time this year too and enjoying it so far! I suggest the Cd's! They are great when you don't have time to read the chapter to your kids or your voice is hurting from all the reading :). I also love the Cd's because I have 5 little ones and it gets loud through the whole house. It is hard to hear my voice when reading, but I can put the Cd's in the DVD player and turn up the TV really loud so they can really hear and they like to replay certain parts. I would buy the CD again in the next voiume.

[@erica_arndt]

LOL! I'm glad to know someone elses voice starts hurting when school starts :) So much reading aloud!

[@milanalinskiy]

Omg I was homeschooled for 7th and 8th grade and i used those books. And they were great! They are really good for younger kids...my opinion but still really good.

[@kylieevanz]

Did you find them more biblical or secular? Just curious.

[@KDAlaska]

We have been using this and The History of Medicine and both my kids have just loved it! It has been a really good choice for my family

[@priscillashaw5715]

i felt like the activities and craft ideas in the book were for fit for older kids. my daughter is grade 2 and the activity pages are perfect for her. My above average Kinder can do them but his attention span isnt always there. i find i would be doing most of the work for projects..like making a nile river etc. i do love how there seems to be SOMETHING for most age groups. :)

[@kellieheadley8]

Hi! My 1st grader started this curriculum this year in school. Some of the other parents & myself would love to be able to touch on things they learned in school & were wondering if the text book had a summary of each chapter and/or key vocabulary words to touch on after each reading? Example: The Nile Delta is ...

[@ninilovenana]

Is there a curriculum schedule for this book, or is that something that we need to build on our own? Would I need two books for two students?

[@erica_arndt]

Yes, the activity book comes with a schedule in it.

[@erica_arndt]

That depends on if you want them to share or not. :) For the activity pages you'll want two sets, for the actual TM and text we only used one. No need for two. Even if you want them to read independently you can probably just take turns.

[@flipthecoin888]

That activity book is expensive :/ I'm looking into supplementing my son's History curriculum because our non-sec course isn't extensive on world history. Thank you for the review! I will be doing this this year.

[@popehj]

Hi, Do you feel that doing the HiTW and supplement with SOTW would be a better option then trying to do the activities from SOTW and PP?

[@erica_arndt]

I think you could do it either way, whatever fit your families needs :)

[@kylieevanz]

I have a 3rd and 5th grader. Would that work for both levels? Also this is secular correct?

[@erica_arndt]

Yes, you can use it with both and I think there is a debate as to if it's truly secular, but I believe it has a more secular viewpoint than a Biblical viewpoint.

[@kylieevanz]

@@erica_arndt Ok, thank you!!! I appreciate you getting back to me!

[@Alaska_Aviation]

I really do not like the story of the world, it has way too many inaccuracies, for example, in the chapter called The Second World War, in the part about the attacks on Pearl Harbor, it says, "Almost three thousand American Soilders were killed." The total deaths of American soilders on pearl harbor was 2,335, that's closer to 2,000 than 3,000.

[@Family4RealVlogs]

What Homeschool in the woods do you use? Project passport or Time travelers? and what lapbook are you doing, curious? I was wanting to incorporate that in my year as well. I heard a few people that did that and loved it

[@erica_arndt]

We've used both, but this year we're doing Project Passport with the Story of the World. I swap out between lessons and fit in the PP activities where they fit. If the Story of the World is moving faster then somedays we'll skip a SOTW lesson and do the PP lesson instead. I'm kind of winging it this year :)

[@sarahollar6493]

Awesome thank you! So are the student activity pages the same no matter how old your student is? There's no option to buy student sheets for different ages? Thank you! I love seeing inside curriculum before committing! 😊

[@erica_arndt]

Yes I believe they only have one level of those pages. I double checked their website and don't see any activity pages for different ages unfortunately.

[@DebBeePlus3]

We are finishing the first volume this year with my second grader, did you enjoy all the volumes?

[@logosrhemalego]

Does this book go in depth for a middle schooler to use? If it doesn't, do you think I would need to supplement with something or is there another history book you recommend? Thank you.

[@erica_arndt]

Hi, we liked it, though I will say the worksheets were mostly coloring pages which seemed like they were for younger kids and we didn't do them very often.

[@robinriggs4194]

Would this be okay for a first grader and would you wait and do more social studies?

[@erica_arndt]

I don't think I would add more social studies, it's a pretty full curriculum.

[@heartfulmom]

Did you decide to do volume 2 the following year with all three kids?

[@erica_arndt]

I didn't do it with all three of them. And we kind of switch out our history, so we do Abeka or BJU Press as well.

[@timvandermey4792]

how many days a week do you read from SOtW? chapter a week? how many chapters/weeks? thanks

[@erica_arndt]

Right now we're doing it 4 times per week. I've been doing 1 chapter per day so we're ahead of their schedule. But I also add in the Project Passport activities here and there so we're making up our own schedule :)

[@Jlk6532]

Do you do a lesson a day?

[@Family4RealVlogs]

We don't, but maybe she does. It has about 42 chapters. We do 1 chapter a week, but some weeks we will have to do 2 chapters to finish it for the year. We read the chapter in one day.. very easy read. We do half the activities in the same days as well - map work, coloring page. We do extra activites or other book reading that pertains to the chapter another day. We do it 2 days a week.

[@Family4RealVlogs]

I have a personal channel called Jule4Real and plan to do more homeschool stuff too that you can take a look at soon.

[@erica_arndt]

We actually read a chapter per day, but we skip days here and there because I'm trying to fit in the Project Passport Activities as well and so I'm kind of making up my own schedule :) It's pretty flexible, but they suggest a chapter a week typically.

[@jenniexfuller]

Do you think dyslexic students could do this independently with the audio books? My 10 yo can read but doesn’t have the best comprehension - she can probably handle directions and questions without a text to speech. But I’m not certain if my 7yo can. I need something that’s independent while I teach the other their ELA (dyslexia remediation) curriculum. We will do math and science all together. Please advise.

[@erica_arndt]

Yes, I think you could do the audio books with them, then just do the activities together after maybe?

[@lauraknauff6857]

What grades would you suggest for this, is kindergarten too young?

[@gremlingrove1130]

Laura Knauff I think that's too young but some kids can grasp that kind of talk. It started to stick better around 3rd grade for us. It goes inbetween stories and factual information.

[@erica_arndt]

They say ages 6 and up, but I think it would be too much info for a kinder and even probably first grade. I wouldn't start it until 2nd or 3rd.

[@lauraknauff6857]

Gremlin Grove thank you!!

[@lauraknauff6857]

Erica Arndt Thank you, Erica!! Love your videos!

[@EmilyMFauss]

Would this program be ok for a first grader?

[@erica_arndt]

Yes

[@OurDaysTogether]

Is this based on a Christian perspective?

[@erica_arndt]

No, it is a secular curriculum, see my comment above where I answer this question in more detail :)

[@OurDaysTogether]

Erica Arndt - Thanks!!!

[@katielarsen2630]

Yes it is, but there are only a couple pages directly mentioning the prophets in mostly a historical context. I'm Muslim, so we believe in the same prophets but the details of their stories vary slightly. After skimming through it (volume 1) I think you would easily be able to omit the religous aspects if you wanted to.

[@Happyscmm]

I've been reading reviews that this is a non Christian history and have even seen atheists praising it because it doesn't contain any Christian teaching. I've even seen people say it was similar to paganism. What is your take on this?

[@erica_arndt]

The Story of the World is a secular curriculum and so if you're looking for something that is Christian you might look at trying something else :) I don't find it offensive to Christians in any way, it simply states information and you can do with it what you will. While I don't view this as a pagan curriculum or anti-Christian, it also does not promote a biblical worldview. We simply discuss anything that comes into question and so far haven't had any issues. If you're looking for something Christian you might look into BJU Press, Abeka, Mystery of History, or Homeschool in the Woods products :)

[@Happyscmm]

Thank you for the input. I've seen so many mixed reviews.