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 The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition (Story ... History for the Classical Child (Paperback)) :: 1933339004
Description
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What terrible secret was buried in Shi Huangdi's tomb? Did nomads like lizard stew? What happened to Anansi the Spider in the Village of the Plantains? And how did a six-year-old become the last emperor of Rome?
Told in a straightforward, engaging style that has become Susan Wise Bauer's trademark, The Story of the World series covers the sweep of human history from ancient times until the present. Africa, China, Europe, the Americas—find out what happened all around the world in long-ago times. This first revised volume begins with the earliest nomads and ends with the last Roman emperor. Newly revised and updated, The Story of the World, Volume 1 includes maps, a new timeline, more illustrations, and additional parental aids.
This read-aloud series is designed for parents to share with elementary-school children. Enjoy it together and introduce your child to the marvelous story of the world's civilizations.Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
Reviews
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Author: Guest
My homeschooled 3 1/2 yr old son loves history so I thought I would give this a try. Even though he's bright, I was worried he was going to be too young for it. He LOVES it and is retaining a lot of information. He cheered when I picked the book up last night. We are going slow and having fun with it. I like how it ties a story in along with factual information. There are a few pictures along the way which help build a visual connection as well.
I highly recommend this and look forward to using the other books in the series.
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Author: Guest
We homeschool, and were looking for a readable text that would get my daughter (10) interested in different time periods from which we'd head to the library for more information. This is the perfect text for that scenario. She read the book in a week. She really enjoyed the easier reading level and the stories - all from different cultures, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Africa, India, China...- really got her going at the library. She had a frame of reference. She did not like the workbook. She said the projects weren't worth the time. Make your own decision...
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Author: Guest
I am giving this book five stars because this book, in combination with the other three, is a spectacularly good course in elementary history. I can't think of another course for homeschooling or afterschooling that comes close to this one. I was the teacher, and I learned as much or more than the kids did.
That being said, a note has to be made with the first book. There were some points in the first book that did not jive with my particular religious beliefs. Much of the early history of the world comes from myths and legends instead of written records, so there is a lot of emotional disagreement on what is accurate, especially when you start dealing with creationism and evolution, etc. So what's a poor parent to do?
Read the lesson beforehand, and make sure you explain to your children what it is that you believe to be true, and let them know that other people feel differently on some points.
Much of early history also concerns the history of the different religions of the world. Inescapable...we are not public school, we are homeschoolers...facing the fact that our religion isn't the only one in the world. Let the children know there are others. Tell them why you worship the way you do, and why other people worship in their way.
I found this book, and the others in the series, to be invaluable. Don't try to do everything in the activity books - just what you can - and the kids love it!
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Author: Guest
I've read only about a third of this book so far. It is only a quick gloss-over of history but as an introduction to the periods covered it's okay. My son loves it and would much rather read this than other history texts. I rate it high as far as an enjoyable read but low in trustworthiness in the accuracy of the history set forth by the author.
I base my accuracy concern on the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. However, even if readers of this book are not interested in the Bible history presented this should still be of concern to them. I have discovered several blatant discrepancies between the author's version of this story and what appears in the King James version of the Bible. Is it fair to base my trust of this book's accuracy just on this one Bible story? I believe it is as the stories of the Bible are so easily researchable. I am now unsure whether or not to trust the rest of the information the author sets forth as fact. If you use these books, supplement them with more meat.
Also, the exclamation points really are as annoying as the other reviewers have mentioned! My son even commented on it! Really!! In the book "A Well-trained Mind," author Susan Wise Bauer highly recommends (and I agree) the "Writing Strands" series as a writing curriculum for homeschoolers. The creator of this series, Dave Marks, lists the following as his #1 "strong suggestion" for writing well - "Don't use exclamation points! This makes any writing look amateurish and fuzzy. If you're saying something that's important, the way you say it should be strong enough so that you don't have to tell your reader that it's important by using exclamation points at the end of your sentences." Maybe Bauer missed this point!
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Author: Guest
This is a very good survey for World History for the elementary set. That, in itself, makes it problematic. I am very familiar with the sequence for history recommended in The Well Trained Mind and the idea that "history must start at the beginning." This is all well and good when you're an adult or an older child beginning a survey of world history. When you are six years old - the age at which this volume is aimed - this concept will be totally irrelevant, as is reading about 95% of the subjects found in this book.
About 2 years ago, when starting first grade for my then 6 1/2 yo son, I bought SOTW 1 and the corresponding activity book. Yes, he liked some of the stories - as stories, fairytales, etc - and he enjoyed doing the activities often, though it was a bit of a cognitive leap to connect what he was doing with "this was important 5000 years ago and here's why."
For the most part, however, the subject matter of this book is entirely without context for even the most sophisticated 6yo. All the parents I have talked to who started out on this program abandoned it halfway through for the same reasons. The kids might be persuaded to listen to its chapters as part of a curious ongoing story, but none of them could get into it as an actual history lesson. They didn't care about Ur, didn't have an interest in Sargon or ancient Mesopotamia or *whatever*, etc. If you were six, would you?
Another caveat, which I feel is an important one: if your child has auditory processing delays of any kind (as is common with kids with ADHD, Asperger's, etc.) or if she or he simply doesn't enjoy being read to, then this curriculum will absolutely bomb, as it requires you read it all yourself to the child and ask him to regurgitate it and apply its minutiae to the activity. But unless your child is a very advanced reader and enjoys reading, it's too difficult for 6/7yos to read themselves, and again, there is nothing that really makes it accessible to them as history. That the book starts out with a fake story about a fake little kid in the Stone Age is, I suppose, a good start (though not a very good foundation for a history book, since my son asked me if that child was a real person) but that's quickly abandoned and within a dozen pages the child is being expected to remember the names and dates of barely pronounceable millenia-old emperors.
My son is a very strong reader who also has auditory processing delays, and it took sometimes two or three readings or more of a text from me before he could answer the questions in the activity books. Even when he was making concerted efforts to "pay attention" it was difficult for him. I started letting him read the passages himself toward the end of our use of this program, and that certainly helped, but by then, he was totally dreading "doing history" and we ended up going with another curriculum halfway through the year.
I do think the principles set forth in this book are admirable and I love the idea of giving a child a well-rounded history and social studies education that isn't just about "our community helpers" and 6 years of American history before one year of World History. However, this year, we did do American History for the first semester ("Our American Heritage" from A Beka books) which not only taught my child a lot about the historical context for a lot of our cultural traditions, but also slowly introduced him to the idea that history is, indeed, relevant to one's every day life.
Now that this has happened, and now that my son and I have been to Renaissance fairs, which lead to a period where he really wanted to read all about knights and the Renaissance era, and we also spent the last year and a half reading about Greek and Roman myths, and he knows all about the Reformation and how it lead to the founding of the US, etc. - NOW I think we may give SOTW Volume 2 a crack, with him reading the text on his own. But he's nearly 9 now - nearing the "logic" stage that Susan Wise Bauer talks about in WTM. Now he is starting to be able to put the things he memorizes into larger context. I can't help but think that there is a real danger of totally inculcating a child against the thrills of history study, and that to the average first grader, doing ancient history as set out in this book would seem like much ado about nothing.
I know that this will get me a ton of negative "not helpful" votes from all the WTM devotees. I'm not saying it doesn't work for anyone, and I'm not saying that only bad parents (or whatever) would use this. It definitely is a good ancient history survey (though I agree with the reviewer that says that a bit more distinguishing fact from legend or allegory would've been helpful) and if this curriculum went really well for you and your kids, that's great, but that wasn't the case for us, and it hasn't been the case for a lot of HSing families we know. Hopefully this review can serve as a helpful alternative view for some families, if not all.
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