Our family loves the Story of the World series! These books are written by Susan Wise Bauer. They are world history books written to be understood by 5-12 year olds. There are four volumes to this series.
The books are written in story form so they are fun to listen/read. The author highlights the major events in history. She also covers often forgotten places and times in history such as India and China. The world religions are also covered. Mrs. Bauer does not give her opinions, she only gives the history. The book would not serve as a review of Christianity, although Old Testament prophets are discussed. Your child will learn things like who settled Asia Minor, how Alexander the Great died, who made the pyramids, who brought Christianity to the Celts, how the Roman empire collapsed, who was Mohammed and much more. I love reading these books to them.
In addition to the books you are also able to buy study guides. These study guides are filled with activities that correspond with each chapter. For example there are maps to learn from and pictures to color. There are also study questions, narration helps (for you Charlotte Mason people) and references for additional books. We have found that our family doesn't use the activity books. They are certainly fun and I do recommend them-we just haven't used ours much. (That could be due to the fact that I'm a reader and not a doer. I don't believe it's any reflection on the activity books. They really are great workbooks!)
You are also able to purchase the audio CD's of the book. We have found that this is a must-have investment for our home. Our kids have listened to the CD's over and over. They listen to them in the car, at night or when they are playing legos. Because the books are so interesting they will keep listening to them. This has solidified their retention and comprehension of the history.
We find this a perfect overview for the elementary years of world history. From there you can branch off with the great literature she recommends in her activity books that give more insight into that time period. She has also starting writting the series in the same format at an adult level. I have not read those yet, but I will!
We highly recommend!
3 comments:
Great review! I love them too! I really didn't like history much in school and this series has got me hooked! I love it~ I need to get the audio!
We, too, are reading this series and love it. We tried doing the CD but the kids kept wanting to make comments so much that we just opted out of the CD(borrowed from a friend) and just read.
Just to clarify, I read the book first to them and we talk about it. Later on (days/months later) the kids listen to the cd's (over and over). : )
I'm glad everyone else likes them. See they are great!
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