Story of the World, Vol. 2: History for the Classical Child: The Middle Ages Paperback – April 16, 2007

Susan Wise Bauer has done it again. This book is a quick read for adults, but it is packed with information. The target audience is young children, after all it is "The Story of the World" and it doesn't bore young children. Our children often would rather hear the next chapter than go play. And sometimes I'll catch my oldest reading it on her own.The book does a good job of providing a balanced look at the major events during the Middle Ages. The book will focus on one area of the world, going over the major events, who was in charge, and who accomplished some of the important things, like discovering America. Then the book will move on to another part of the world for a couple chapters.Susan Wise Bauer did an excellent job of weaving in various parts of history. For example in talking about a culture the book might go into a major myth or story of the group. The variety in pacing flows nicely from history, to what it might have been like to live at the time in a given culture, to some of these myths, and then back again. This helps keep the children interested.The book is just right for young children. When they are young they don't need another 1000 pages of details most of us forget anyways. This book is written in such away that young children really want to listen, they want to know what happened, and then what will happen next. They can develop a love for history such that they'll go back and read in more detail about the parts of history they found interesting.If you are looking for a good book for young children covering the major events of world history during the Middle Ages, this is the best I've found.

While this book is designed for younger elementary children, I believe it is more concisely thorough than most high school students will ever retain. I am using it for late elementary and middle school students who are captivated by the stories which springboard their interest into deeper reading. We are, of course, supplementing every few sections with an appropriate grade level novel. I love that "whole world" approach which skips back and forth between the major cultures at each time frame. Most sources overfocus on European World History and eliminate the co-existing and critically, historically important Islamic and Eastern cultures. I would venture to say that most adults do not have the unified historical threads keenly integrated. My "kids" are learning the basic flow of history with a high degree of retention using this curriculum with historical literature supplementation.I would skip the activity book due to philosophical concerns (which I have posted under the activity book listing) if it were not true that the maps and question review are very important.We did add Sherri Payne's Around the World in 180 Days geography program to this. We hopscotched through the continental studies as we encountered them in SOTW, even breaking down the "Define" and "Term" sections into specific areas of SOTW study. When the year of history was done, 99% of the geography course was done, as well. It fit together well. I think the kids appreciated the variety of dividing the continent sections up a bit over the year, rather than an exhaustive study all in one length time frame.

We use this as our history curriculum in homeschool and the kids really enjoy it. It's written in a way that engages the reader and asks questions to involve them in the story telling. This book is part of a series and I would recommend them all. You can buy a corresponding course book to go along with it but it's not necessary. Highly recommend!!

We have really enjoyed using Stories of the World for our history curriculum. I home school our children and though they take an outside history class at a nearby learning center, I decided to supplement it with Stories of the World. They've had more fun and learned more in our short little sessions than any other class they have taken at the creative learning center they attend. They can turn around and teach what they learn to Dad when he gets home and are enthusiastic for the next lesson.Some reviewers think the coloring during the lessons are dull and not useful, but we've recently found a study that when people doodle/color during lectures they retain 20% more information. I love that they color quietly while I read the stories to them. And of course, I constantly ask them questions while reading to see if they are comprehending it all. Amazingly, they fully get it all and can't wait for me to get back to the story. We use this for our 9,7, and even 3 year old. She is right there coloring with them, and soaks up a lot. Later I'll catch them outside reenacting what they learned.We love the extra activities and the map work areas too. Our kids are every bit as excited to do the map work and then color the maps. We've learned a lot about geography because of those simple maps and when we talk about them our kids know exactly where we are in the world.Great resource, great curriculum. I'm so glad I found this awesome program!!

I am so glad I bought this series just before the corona period. Almost every day, I read the stories to my DD13 and DS11. They love them and I do too (notwithstanding the fact that these books were written for elementary school aged kids). We are in the middle of the second volume. As for the first volume, I read two chapters in one go. In the current, second volume, I read only one chapter each time as the information is much more dense. This is a great way of spending quality time together! The kids always have something to ask or add. I believe that these books add so much to their general education in a fun way. The series also leaves room for further inquiry. (The writer states that she chose not to discuss the Inquisition. Consequently, my children are intrigued and will be looking for books on the topic as soon as the library opens its doors again in the post-corona period (if there will be such thing at all.)