Customer Reviews

Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor (The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Vol. 1) - Activity Book

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The Story of the World: Activity Book One: Ancient Times is an amazing resource. Perfectly matched with The Story of the World text, it is an invaluable resource. This book should be required for every elementary school child.
The book starts with a handy pronunciation guide, which is a great help with the many ancient names encountered. It ends with a huge section of student pages, which include maps of the ancient world, coloring pages (many taken from ancient art/architecture), and review cards. Found in between these 2 sections is the comprehensive teaching guide.

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.

I am disappointed to see many people posting negative reviews simply because the curriculum is not in line with their religious beliefs. The Well-Trained Mind specifically states it is the parent's job to insert religious history where appropriate, which is what I did with religious coloring book pages and activities inserted into where the Prophets would have fallen chronologically. However, I agree with some of the reviewers who have stated that the book suffers from other drawbacks:

1) The book is far too heavy on coloring pages, many of which are sloppily drawn. Some of them look like a child traced a photograph of a particular artifact in pencil, then drew over the pencil tracing sloppily in felt marker and that was given to us as a coloring page. I purchased some Bellerophon coloring books for better and more interesting examples and found that at least one of the coloring pages looked like it had been traced out of the coloring book! Aside from the quality of the coloring pages, my children got bored with coloring all the time. It was interesting in the beginning, but it quickly became tedious and un-interesting. My children prefer more involved and intellectual activities than just coloring something. Because of this reason alone I will probably not buy the second volume. I suspect this has something to do with the authors' belief that children in the "grammar stage" are only in need/want of rote memorization and imitation and need/want/are capable of little if any creative or analytical activity. I personally found this to be completely untrue and my children's dissatisfaction with the activity book is a case in point.

2) The activities are mostly "art projects" of one kind or another and often wasteful "busy-work" as others have mentioned. Not all of them are well-explained or well-thought-out. For example, building a pyramid out of sand bricks sounds great until you discover that the structure collapses as it dries. I'm also not a big fan of activites that involve buying supplies just to waste them or to turn them into "toys" or "props" that will be in the garbage can at the end of the day or week.

Good point:

The high point of this book is that there are extensive further reading and activity suggestions for each period in time that are not included in the sections in the Well-Trained Mind. The WTM book does list a small number of books and activities in the end of each chapter but this book lists a LOT more and this is the most valuable aspect of the book.

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!

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.

I can't believe the reviews that assume this book was written only for fundamentalist Christians and review it as such. That's so narrow-minded. One reviewer even seems to think that all homeschoolers are fundamentalist Christians! I assure you this is not the case.

I am a secular homeschooler, and I know and know of many, many others. I am culturally Jewish, but I am not religious. We are reading this book and expanding on it together with some other homeschoolers, some secular, some religious, but clearly not extreme in the way some of the reviewers below are. I like that the series is written in a very readable novel format and that the series presents a continuous view of history. I don't know of other history books for children that do this in such a nice way. My children look forward to my reading to them. In fact, they are always asking for more. I do have a few issues with the perspective of the books -- there are actually some points that seem too religious to me. I would not, however, expect any history book to reflect my perspective perfectly. I am able to explain my different views to my children and supplement them with other literature.

If you are looking for a history book from a biblical perspective, there are plenty out there. Please don't come here, to a secular bookstore, and lower the ratings for a book that was not intended to meet only your needs.

I bought the first edition of Books one and two last spring when I planned to homeschool my 7 year old. (Divorce judge vetoed that idea, but I did "homeschool" over the summer.) We now read a chapter/story from this book each night along with a story/chapter from a book, and then a Bible Chapter. I get very frustrated reading the "Christian" reviews. I'm an old-fashioned Missionary Baptist. I'm a lawyer. I take responsibility for teaching my child about God. That doesn't mean we don't learn about the non-Christian events of the world. I teach my child that the pagan gods were believed/worshipped, but that's not what we believe and why. Ignorant people are weak when they don't know why they believe one thing rather than another. These products are a great way to introduce a young child to world history. We color the maps (I don't expect them to be terribly elaborate and I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for basic maps.) We don't use the activity book much now since she's in public school but I will be pulling out maps etc. I don't expect her to be able to recite ancient history and write a detailed essay. I expect to lay a foundation that will be built upon as she gets older.

She enjoys it. She also remembers things we've covered when they cover the subject in Sunday School or hears it elsewhere. I reference where we live, Egypt and Mesopotamia to develop and sense of geography. She regularly checks the globe. I've very satisfied.

Did people complain to Susan Wise Bauer that "this classical homeschooling is too durn HARD" or does her press believe that other parents and kids are dumber than hers? I mean, that may be the case, but there's no excuse for this activity book, especially when the text it's bouncing off of is so good.

I like the "Story of the World" text. I love having the text on cd too, so the kids can listen to it again and again. I even like the "additional reading" recommendations this activity book suggests. But this is not a great deal more than a glorified coloring book, with activity ideas, maps, busy work like "word finds" and art taken from other sources. The oddest thing about this activity book is that it falls into the mold of other "forced creativity" books for kids. Now, after reading about shadufs in "Story of the World," my children (6 and 4.5) were very interested. So they went outside and made a canal and shaduf in the sandbox. They didn't know the activity book suggested making a shaduf, and gives a thorough outline of materials needed, etc. That's what I mean by dumbed-down. Give the kids some credit. Give them time to figure things out themselves and make up their own activities.

I should also point out that the "consumable" pages in the bound book are impossible to tear out, and are also somewhat different from the looseleaf ones Peace Hill Press sends out.

I really liked the "Story of the World" volume and eagerly ordered this activity book to go with it. There are good activity ideas in this volume but the coloring pages and other graphics could have been drawn by a 3 year old. For the price, which is more than I would have paid if I had seen it, I expected a quality product. I guess if you are using it for an older child and don't care about the graphics it is a good resource for someone who just wants quick ideas and doesn't want to research their own. However, I don't think the original volume "Story of the World" would be that great for an older child so you end up with activities for one age group and text for another. If I wouldn't be out shipping both ways I would return this book. I highly recommend that you view it somewhere before purchasing.

I used this guide last year for my children. In addition to activities that help make history interesting, there are supplemental reading lists (both fiction and non-fiction) and review questions provided. Mapwork is included for each chapter as well as coloring pages and games. All three of my school-age children enjoyed Story of the World-from the first grader up to the sixth!

We did not do all the activities, but mummifying a chicken was a highlight! My children decided that not many children in school were able to participate in such an activity.

I was very disappointed in this activity book accompaniment to Story of the World. The components of the book are as follows:

Review questions

Was it really necessary to devote half the book to these inane and very obvious questions to ask your child about when they read in Story of the World?

Additional Reading

This was probably the most useful part of the book but the same info could be obtained from a librarian or an amazon search

Craft and Activity Projects

I like many of the craft ideas but the instructions are vague and unclear so I mostly took the idea for the project they suggested and made up my own way to do it.

Activity Pages

Most of the activity pages included are coloring pages. THey are poorly drawn and very boring to color. My kids never wanted to do them. There are also many maps with the instruction to color river, etc. - also boring my children. The worst were the ridiculous Color Your Own Comic Books.

I recommend skipping this book. If you want history activities there are much better books out there with great activities centered around Egypt and other themes.