The Story of the World, Activity Book 1: Ancient Times - From the Earliest Nomad to the Last Roman Emperor

The teaching guide has a wealth of information, for every section. The reading is cross-referenced with Usborne and Kingfisher history encyclopedias. Review questions and sample narrations are provided. Lists of optional, supplemental, age-appropriate reading materials are included, as well. In many sections, there are recipes appropriate to the geographical area and/or time period being studied.

Even with all of the above, Ms. Bauer did not stop. Every chapter has a wealth of hands-on activities and projects, correlated to the subject matter. These activities are designed to be done with materials that most people already have in their homes. There are always several activies included, ranging from the simple to the complex. For example, the chapter on The Old Kingdom in Egypt includes a project to make a Lego step pyramid, and instructions on how to mummify a chicken.

This is by far the most comprehensive and well-written history activity guide that I have ever used. Everything that I needed was included. After using this in kindergarten, my son has a deeper understanding of ancient history than many of the adults that I know. I used several of the projects with my teenage daughter as well, and she thoroughly enjoyed them. I would highly recommend this book for every family with children.


Great Resource for Grammar Stage History!   July 31, 2003
Melkhi (Denver, CO USA)
72 out of 78 found this review helpful

This activity guide has many resources which make it a worthwhile purchase. The book lists for each chapter of Story of the World made it easy for me to go online with my library and reserve books ahead of time which would enrich our lessons. The blackline maps for each chapter helped my kids to identify the geographical regions where the historical events took place. The guide includes numerous suggestions for hands-on projects that help to bring history alive for young children. If one project didn't appeal to me or fit with my schedule, another one would. My 5 year old and 7 year old boys enjoyed making a model of the Nile River and flooding its banks, causing the grass seed we planted to sprout: a fun simulation of the real yearly event. The Roman aqueduct model we made recently was a hit! I appreciated not having to come up with project ideas on my own. My boys began to come up with some project ideas of their own after doing several of the guide projects.

The guide offers a coloring page for each chapter, some of which we used. Others we skipped because my kids preferred to draw their own pictures. Some I skipped, because as a Christian, I didn't particularly want to dwell on depictions of other gods. Some of the coloring pages were well-drawn; others seemed amateurish. I did like having the option of a coloring page.

This activity guide greatly ehanced our enjoyment of the book The Story of the World and our study of the ancients this past year. I highly recommend it!


We love this book!   July 30, 2003
26 out of 27 found this review helpful

I've been using the Activity Guide for the Story of the World for five weeks now, with a 7yo girl and a 5yo boy.
This is not a stand-alone book, but this book plus the Story of the World (plus access to a library) gives you everything you need for a very complete history curriculum. I think it would be suitable for most children in grades K-3.
Here's what you get in the Story of the World Activity Guide (basically everything!)...
Review Questions - my kids compete to answer these. They are fun, not too hard, and cover all the main points in the chapter. Which makes it very easy to follow up with...
Narration Exercises - OK, we're still trying to get the hang of these. Neither of my guys knows how to summarize, really. But I'm sure we'll get it, and it'll be a valuable skill later on.
***Additional History Reading and Corresponding Literature Suggestions*** - I LOVE these books! So far my library has had almost all of them. They are mostly simple fact books and gorgeous picture books. This is the most valuable part of the guide, for me.
Map Work - I like this. My kids are getting a real sense of the geography of Egypt and the Middle East. It helps to have a globe handy, so we can match the maps with the "real" world.
Coloring Pages - Well, to be honest, I find the pictures really vary in quality, but my kids don't seem to have noticed. And it's nice to have them right there.
Projects - Once I got over the idea that I wanted to do them all, I found myself really enjoying these. We've made cave paintings, and a model of the Nile. We're planning on doing the sand cube step pyramid some time next week and I haven't totally ruled out cuneiform tablets (if I get around to picking up the clay).
The projects are fun and easy, and don't require anything you can't find at your local hardware store or grocery store.
There are several projects suggested for each chapter, so you can always pick the ones that suit your family best. Do as many or as few as you like.
Review Cards - We cut them out and colored them, but to be honest, I'm not quite sure what to do with them. Maybe I'll pick up a box of paperclips and let the kids hang them off of a piece of yarn, like a timeline.
As well as all this, there are page referances at the beginning of each chapter to corresponding pages in four different history encyclopedias. They are: The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World, The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, The Usborne Book of World History, and The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History. This is a nice extra if you already have one of these books on hand, but you won't miss it if you don't. All the information in the encyclopedias is covered in the library books you'll be borrowing to read aloud.
So, in summary - I love this curriculum and would recommend it to anyone. Even non-homeschoolers could use it for summer enrichment activities. My kids have been playing at being archaeologists for weeks now, building tombs and pyramids and temples out of blocks and digging up the backyard in search of artifacts.


Well worth the money!   July 31, 2003
J. Smith (Austin, TX United States)
19 out of 22 found this review helpful

This book has:
(1) review questions--a great way to be sure your child understood the chapter in SOTW
(2) additional book suggestions--what a wonderful way to enrich your history curriculum. Our library has most of these and they are great!
(3) activities--the best part of these is that they can be as simple or complicated as you want. For example, for the 'build a pyramid' project, you could make it our of legos (simple) or out of homemade sand-covered blocks
(4) coloring pages and maps--these are wonderful

I can't think of a better way to enrich your study of history!


Homeschool History Made FUN!   January 19, 2008
Erica Webel (Cincinnati, Ohio)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I spent a lot of time reseraching History programs, and having been a homeschooler myself ... I knew what I did NOT want. I was homeschooled for religious reasons, but I homeschool my daughter for other reasons (namely poor school systems). This book, while availing itself to Christians by recognizing that Christianity had a large part in history... it does NOT exclude teaching that doesn't base itself in the Christian beliefs.

That being said... my second grader and I started in on this program with Volume 1 this year... and we're both in love. We're simply overwhelmed with the fun activities and ideas! We've been able to incorporate her grandparents into the fun activities.. and every day of school, history is the first subject she wants to do. It's so interactive and fun, she doesn't want to skip a thing, and each chapter, we end up using the reference resources listed, and finding our own. This program keeps a VERY distractable and active youngster interested in her studies, and still offers the structured support through the tests booklet (available separately) .. I'm learning as much as she is through the whole thing. This program by FAR exceeds expectations, and We plan to go through the whole series, even if each book may take us longer than a year to complete... we even plan to continue history lessons over summer vacation, because they're too much fun to stop!

I highly recommend this program.. it lends itself to virtually any learning style, and is hands-on and fun ... explores everything from arts and crafts to science, geography, writing... NOT just history!