Each of the four volumes of The Story of the World has the same components. Only the text is required, but we recommend that you add the products that best suit your needs to enrich your history studies.
Text:
- The core component of The Story of the World curriculum is the text. In four volumes, this series tells the world's history as a story. Most families complete one volume per year, but you can complete it at your own pace.
- The four volumes cover history in roughly these timeframes:
- Volume 1: Ancients, BC 5000-400 AD
- Volume 2: Medieval/Early Renaissance, 400-1600
- Volume 3: Late Renaissance/Early Modern, 1600-1850
- Volume 4: Modern Times, 1850-2001
Audiobook:
- Each Volume of The Story of the World has an Audiobook that brings history to life. These spirited and unabridged readings by renowned narrator Jim Weiss can be enjoyed independently, read along with the text, or used as a supplement to a traditional history curriculum.
Activity Book:
- The Activity Book offers parents and teachers the opportunity to bring history to life with curated reading lists, map work, coloring pages, review questions, exercises, and hands-on projects. The Activity Book, when used alongside the text, provides a complete history, geography, and literature program. Designed primarily for grades 1-4, the map exercises and many of the reading lists and activities are extendable to grades 5-8.
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The Story of the World Activity Books have two parts:
- the first part is the Instructor Guide. It includes vocabulary, review questions, directions for all of the suggested activities and assignments, and additional reading lists to help the Instructor/Parent.
- The second part is the Student Pages, which contain one set of consumable pages. They include coloring pages, maps, and other consumables like puzzles and gameboards, and are perforated for easy removal. You may copy/print the student pages as many times as you need to for students in your household only. We also sell the Student Pages as a separate product (paperback or PDF) as a convenient way to use the student pages for more than one member of your family.
Student Pages:
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- If you have multiple students in your family, simplify your life with an extra set of consumable Student Pages! They are available as a paperback with tear-out pages or as a PDF.
- The Student Pages do not include instructions or answers. Those are found in the Activity Book.
- Remember that this is an optional purchase for convenience! There is already one set of consumable Student Pages in the Activity Book.
Coloring Pages:
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- The Coloring Pages are a subset of the Student Pages and only sold as a PDF. This PDF consists of the 45 blackline coloring pages only.
- This is an optional purchase for your convenience, as it will save you time copying if you need multiples. Remember, if you have purchased either the Activity Book or the Student Pages, the Coloring Pages are already included within them.
Review Questions Worksheets:
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- The Review Question Worksheets feature the same review questions found in each chapter of the Activity Book, but they are transformed into worksheet format so that older students can give written responses to the review questions.
- This comes only in PDF format and does not include an answer key. Answers are found in the Activity Book.
Test Book:
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- Recommended for third grade and up, the test book has a test for each chapter of Story of the World, with an answer key included.
- These tests offer you an easy way to evaluate your child's retention and comprehension of key events with a combination of multiple choice questions, matching, fill-in-the-blanks, and short writing samples.
Supplements to The Story of the World:
Coloring the Story of the World:
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- Coloring The Story of the World contains sixty coloring pages that relate to the content in Volumes 1-4, about 15 pages for each volume.
- Each coloring page has a description of the historical event on the back, as well as a Story of the World Volume and Chapter reference so that you can read more about the person, place, or event.
- Thirty of the pages are newly created for this coloring book and can't be found in the Activity Book. The other thirty pages are selected from the Activity Books of all four volumes.
Famous Figures:
- Famous Figures are a great resource for hands-on history! Unlike regular paper dolls, these figures move! These sturdy figures can be cut, colored, and assembled, allowing children to act out the history they've been reading, or even create new stories using famous people.
- A brief biographical note on each figure is also included, along with a list of resources.
- Each book has 10-21 figures representing the time period that corresponds with The Story of the World Volumes.
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- Famous Figures of Ancient Times - The Story of the World Vol. 1
- Famous Figures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - The Story of the World Vol. 2
- Famous Figures of the Early Modern Era - The Story of the World Vol. 3
- Famous Figures of the American Revolution - The Story of the World Vol. 3
- Famous Figures of Modern Times - The Story of the World Vol. 4
- Famous Figures of the Civil War - The Story of the World Vol. 4
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*For suggestions to further enrich and supplement The Story of the World, take a look at this FAQ.
*Well-Trained Mind licenses the right to distribute student materials for classroom use. To learn about licensing right to distribute consumable student materials in a classroom setting, check out this Help Center FAQ.
...or to put it another way...
And one last graphic, to show the available formats for each component.