crl
- Reviewed on Tuesday, September 29, 2009
- Grades Used: 1st
- Dates used: 2009
I personally feel that though this author may claim to be Christian, she caters too much to the secular crowd for our family to feel comfortable using SOTW. I tried very hard to be ok with using this series since others in our church use it. But after having to read an Egyptian myth where one brother tried to kill another, I just couldn't read anymore to my DD (age 6). I also didn't like the way the story of Moses and Abraham read. It felt like she did a bad job plagiarizing the Bible. Many others don't have these problems and friends of ours don't really understand our position, but they are not the ones needing to answer the questions our DD had, nor do they have to give an account for what we teach our DD. So we have elected to use another very Christ centered curriculum instead which feeds her spirit as well as her mind.
I would suggest trying to find a copy to read through before making a final decision. Or at the very least, pick up a used copy or a cheap copy from Amazon before committing to buying the whole set.
Again, this is just my opinion and other Christians have found this series to be exactly what their family needs.
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jet
- Reviewed on Monday, August 24, 2009
- Grades Used: 6-7
- Dates used: fall 2007 - fall 2009
We enjoyed the first two books quite a bit, but our enjoyment went down as we moved through the end of book 3 and into book 4. We never finished book 4 due to inaccuracies in the text. I was using this in conjunction as part of the Sonlight History. The Sonlight teacher notes helped, but I was disappointed with the book.
Jeanette
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goldenapples
- Reviewed on Friday, August 21, 2009
- Grades Used: 3rd-5th
- Dates used: 2009
The text is simple to read and the chapters are short. Keep that in mind if you plan on using this with a student above the 3rd grade. I cannot say I was impressed with the book. My kids learned more from a one hour episode on the history channel on ancient China then in the book. However, it is an easy read and you can get through it quickly. The book benefits from supplemental reading and the activity book...which dare I say both are essential and not just beneficial. The activity book was enough to keep us going! The activites are wonderful and we did almost all of them. This is a good curriculum for multiple ages. If you are searching for younger elementary then search no further. If you need something for older students you will either have to supplement much more or choose something else. There were a few times when the event presented in the chapters did not express the timeline correctly...as far as explaining how much time had passed between events. Again..this wouldn't be that big of a deal for younger students. There are also too many major historical figures just glossed over for this to stand alone unless again for younger students.
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kalphs
- Reviewed on Tuesday, April 21, 2009
- Grades Used: 1st Grade
- Dates used: 2006-2007
"Story of the World" is a four volume set of "storybooks" which tell the story of the world from the time of the nomads through events in the 20th century. Susan Wise Bauer writes in a narrative tone, reminiscent of the late V.M. Hillyer, headmaster of the Calvert School. In addition to the four volume set there is an audio recording by actor Jim Weiss and a set of four activity books to enhance your study of world history. The grade level list for this series is Grades 1-8. However based on our experience I would recommend the following scope and sequence: Volume 1 Grade 5, Volume 2 Grade 6, Volume 3 Grade 7 and Volume 4 Grade 8. If you would like to introduce your younger child to world history, I would highly recommend V.M. Hillyer's classic "A Child's History of the World."
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