The Story of the World series is well-loved by many homeschooling families. We’ve used the complete series from first grade through fourth grade and it’s one of our favorite homeschooling resources.
A Look at The Story of the World
The Story of the World is a series of 4 books that cover the span of human history from nomads to modern times. Each book, with 42 chapters, takes about a year to complete and includes many additional resources you can use to make a full program.
Each level includes:
- The Story of the World Text
- Activity Guide
- Audio Book
- Student Pages
- Tests
- Written Comprehension Responses
The series can be used with children from first grade through eighth grade, making it ideal for families who want their children studying the same time period. The major focus of the series is for grades 1-4, but it could be easily adapted to include older students with their younger siblings.
The basic components for each year are the text and activity guide (which includes one set of student pages that you can photocopy for personal use). While nice additions, the other products aren’t absolutely necessary.
The Textbook
The text covers a specific time-period in 42 chapters and includes illustrations and maps throughout the book. Each chapter is divided into two sections, making it easy to read one chapter a week.
The Activity Guide
The activity guide provides all the additional material needed to really ‘flesh-out’ the program.
In the Activity Guide you will find:
- comprehension questions
- recommended reading
- coloring pages
- activity ideas
- map pages
- and many other resources tucked into its pages.
While the text alone would make a nice read aloud, with the activity guide it’s a full & complete year of history.
A Week with Story of the World
Using this series is easy, even for the newest of homeschoolers. It’s not overwhelming and everything is clearly marked for easy use. Once we found what worked for us, we followed the same basic weekly format.
- Monday: I would read aloud from the text while my daughter colored the corresponding student page. We would discuss the chapter, using the questions in the activity guide, then we would look at the location on our globe and she would complete the map (also included with the student pages).
- Wednesday: I would read aloud the second half of the chapter while my daughter drew a picture of the story. Then we’d discuss that section and she would complete a narration before choosing a corresponding library book from our book basket to read or look at.
- Friday: We would work on a project or read more books.
Why I Love The Story of the World
The Story of the World really made history come alive for me – I learned just as much as my daughter did while we explored the world with this series! The text is engaging and the narrative thread of history is easy to follow. The program is simple to use and doesn’t feel overwhelming. With two books and a library card you can create a full & complete history study each year.
I cherish those first few homeschooling years and the memories we formed – our time spent reading through The Story of the World and working on history projects just makes those years even better.
Where to Purchase SOTW Materials
Want More? Check out all The Story of the World Reviews here at The Curriculum Choice
~ Originally published September 2005, written by Tonia
Tonia is a homeschooling mom to one daughter, married to her college sweetheart, and owner of one crazy beagle. You can find her reading a book when she isn't busy homeschooling or writing.
Tonia – thanks for such a great review! We started our homeschooling journey about 15 years ago and one of the resources that we loved was Story of the World. We still pull it out because it is classic! (And welcome to our review team!)
It’s still one of our favorites as well, Tricia! My daughter is re-reading the series again, just because we like them so much!