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When We Used Story of the World as our History Spine

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When we used The Story of the World as our history spine in the younger years, it was one right choice I made for us.

Although loving history, my knowledge included only the history of the United States and it was pretty lame at that.

Because the The Story of the World came out around the time my oldest son was in the early grades and because I had read numerous good reviews, I used it. 

It ended up being a perfect fit for all of my sons.  We did begin with Volume 1 and worked our way through Volume 4, which is the whole series.

When we used The Story of the World as our History Spine

It is hard to find history programs for very young children that are presented in a story format and that make teaching history to young children easy. That is one thing I appreciated about the format.

I think it’s a must to have not only the story book, but the Teacher’s Manual which has the activity pages in them or purchase the activity pages separately for each kid.

STORY OF THE WORLD AS A HISTORY SPINE

The teacher’s manual not only has questions that help you to review the story but it has the answers right there too.  No flipping to another section to find the answers  That is a huge tiny pet peeve of mine about teacher’s manual.

Also, there are plenty of resources listed and choices for extra reading for a variety of ages.

It is a multi-age resource, which is a great find too if you are teaching more than one child.

If you are new to homeschooling or if you don’t have a huge background in history, The Story of the World  makes teaching history painless. It would make a great addition to your curriculum too even if your kids are a bit older. 

If your oldest kid is beginning middle school, I think this curriculum is still doable to teach all your kids if you have that circumstance.

Volume 4 is targeted for grades 4 to 8.  So if you have children in that age range and want to use this, just remember that Volume 1 was written for 1st to 4th grade.  I don’t see any harm in using it for your kids if they are older and can tolerate a bit of the language written in the earlier volumes for younger children.  It sure helps the teacher mom along.

The Story of the World is just an introduction to history and I think it does a fantastic job of hooking your children on history along with the maps and activities laid out in the program.  It helped us to form in our minds some major pivotal history points that the boys still refer to today.

It has slight Christian content, but we always added more.  I have said before I appreciate that fact about curriculum sometimes because we can cover Bible subjects at our pace.

Overall, The Story of the World is a keeper for us because of the ease of use, story format, use for multiple ages, teacher helps and having everything laid out.

On to more history spines we used through the years in my upcoming posts.

Hugs and love ya,

Want to read more?

Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press.

How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History

When we used Notgrass World History as our History Spine

8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically

Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?

When we used Notgrass World History as our History Spine

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When we used Notgrass World History as our history spine in 9th grade for Mr. Senior 2013, I thought I knew what I wanted at the high school level.

Sharing what worked and what didn’t work for us about some of the history spines we have used so far will hopefully help you to make a better choice for your crew.

Too, I try very hard to be objective about the pros and cons about curriculum when telling you about them.  It is of more benefit to tell you about what worked and didn’t work for us and why instead of telling you what I think is a con.

Everybody has different needs at certain times and what may be a con one year may be a blessing the next year.

When we started using Notgrass Exploring World History it was our first official year of high school.  Because I knew that Mr. Senior 2013 and I share a common love of history, I thought the integrated written assignments in the history curriculum was a plus feature.

I liked the fact too that it was written in a story format, similar to what we liked about living books and how we had been covering history before.  Too, the history spine valued Bible history which is another plus for us.

Notgrass History Spine

When Mr. Senior 2013 started using it, he found it very student friendly.  It had a pick up and go style that he liked and he really needed very little input from me.  This was a good thing for me because as you know when teaching younger children, you want curriculum that requires less teacher prep for your older kids.

The other thing that was a draw, for me anyway, was that it included excerpts from primary sources in a book available by Notgrass called In their Words.  It contains original documents, poetry, stories and hymns, which are an important element to studying world history.

However, as with some curriculum you find that after starting it, it requires more work than you want to put into it.

I really didn’t feel like we could cover Bible at a pace that suited me because the whole curriculum felt like a Bible study, which I really didn’t need.  Maybe too because I have been so use to adding our own Bible content for many years, I just felt like it was a bit forced.

In addition, at that time I didn’t know what extra reading was required of him because there really wasn’t a list anywhere.  The reading was folded into each lesson so unless you used the hunt and peck method, it was hard to look ahead and prepare.

Before I posted this today though, I did take a quick glance at the new edition for 2014 and it looks like they updated their curriculum.  A literature list for each unit is now listed in the curriculum.

Something else I realized after getting into was that we wanted a more comprehensive language arts program or at least writing program.

Although Mr. Senior 2013 enjoyed some of the ideas for the topics for writing, he felt like he needed something that was a bit more comprehensive in explaining the mechanics of writing.

It was hard to go from unit studies and living books that we loved in our Beautiful Feet literature to a textbook too.

I could see this program working for a student that maybe didn’t mind a textbook approach and wanted a good overview of history along with Bible study.

Though it wasn’t a keeper for us, I could see that it has real benefits if you use it the way it was intended to be used.  Adding in all the quizzes, writing and reading, it was a rigorous and challenging course.

I hope this gives you a glimpse into our year of using Notgrass because there really is no one program that fits everybody.

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Ocean Currents Minibook

Did you miss these posts?

Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press.

History Makers Notebooking Pages – Famous Persons from Ancient to Modern – Set 2

How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History

8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically

Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?

 

How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If asked about 15 years ago if I would still be using the same history curriculum today that I started off with undoubtedly I would have answered yes.  Laughable uh?  Truth of it is, I had no idea what a history spine was {it sounded kind of painful to be honest} let alone how to use a history spine to build my study of history.

Having a passion for keeping history an action packed story in my home, I have used many history spines and am excited about giving you a comparison between them coming up in some summer posts. 

{Heads Up: I plan to blog as long as I can before I have to stop to move.  Realizing that moving overseas may interrupt my summer, I will share my posts about comparing history spines at my first opportunity.  I’m giving you the heads up now.}

How to Use History Spine To Build Your Study Of History

What I want to focus on today is to explain what is a history spine and how to use one to create a study for your homeschool

.Too, I want to share a few resources that I use and are timeless spanning any number of years that you homeschool.

What is a history spine? 

A simple definition would be that it would be an outline of a topic. 

The flexible thing about any type of outline is that it can be comprehensive with very specific details and cover a broad scope. 

On the other hand, they also can be very narrow with limited details and more in line like a scope and sequence. 

Beyond being an outline about history, a spine can be about any event in history or even about a person. 

Other than that, you have a whole host of options to choose from.

Look at my list of what a history spine can be:

  • History curriculum {an easy one}
  • Living Book
  • Biography
  • A primary resource
  • Textbook {you know not my favorite, but sometimes you need laid out}
  • Reference book
  • A unit study either providing just information or one laid out day by day
  • A history movie
  • Magazines

Right away you can see that some resources will be easier to use than others.  Something like The Story of the World which has a very helpful question and answer format along with activities makes learning about history fun. 

  Whereas something like a history magazine will only have information presented and then you have to decide how to divide that up into manageable teaching lessons each day.

One of my very favorite resources to use over the years by far other than reference books has been a  Guide to History Plus.

History Spine 1

I put a picture here above so that you can see some of the information it contains.  Though it has not been updated in a while, the references to the topics are timeless. 

For example, under American History: Westward Expansion 1750-1860 it gives ideas for artists, authors, expansion, frontiersmen, immigration, inventors, preachers and unorthodox religious movements. 

Ideas and topics for studying about a time period do not go out of date. You can see that Guides to History Plus is more like an outline than it is laying out each lesson day by day.

Then there is much more to consider too.  Some history curriculum like The Story of the World is light on Bible content. 

Some may see that as a negative because they may want Bible history folded in for them as they go along.  For others, it is a positive because they prefer to tie in their own Bible resources. 

Just me personally, I always preferred to tie in my own Bible studies and pick/choose which activities I wanted to study deeper on too instead of having it done for me.  So, I enjoyed The Story of the World when the boys were little.

Then at the very tip top of the list for history spines when using living books and ones we have read over again and still keep are all the books by Genevieve Foster.



Having history come alive through a story, Genevieve Foster folds in other key events and key characters about a time period. 

Fleshing out your history curriculum to study about those other topics makes history like the story it is and not a dry presentation of events.

History Spine Selections

Some years, I have used only reference books like The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, 3rd edition which was just updated in 2012.  I have the previous version and it is just fine too.

  Below is the picture for the newer version.

Too, when looking for reference books after you have added a general reference book about world history like The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, 3rd edition or even the The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History, then there are an abundance of other wonderful helps that help you to hone in on certain time periods too.

For Mr. Senior 2013 to feed his love of history and because I needed something about the history of Britain, I found a wonderful help by DK called History of Britain & Ireland that honed in on the different eras.

Some simple tips to building your own study of history is to think about these things,

  • How much hand holding do I want? Do I want my lesson plans laid out daily or do I want more of a scope and sequence?
  • Is it a must to cover Bible history?  If it is then the next question is do I want Bible history laid out in my curriculum or do I want to lay out my own Bible study course?
  • Do I feel comfortable adding in my hands-on activities or do I need some presented? Do my kids even care about hands on activities?
  • Does the history spine cover multiple ages of children?  In choosing a history spine, aim to satisfy the needs of the oldest or more advanced learner because it is easier to simplify information for your youngest child at times than it is to find meatier reference for your middle or high school children.

As I mentioned coming up during the summer, I will be sharing different history spines I have used and comparing them to each other.  Hopefully, they will help to narrow down some of what you want to use for this next year.

Other Resources and Books for History

Hugs and love ya,

Look at some of these other posts:

South America Unit Study Resources

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my Lapbook ideas, and on my Best Homeschool Unit Studies pages.

My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. 

Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch.

First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”.

South America Unit Study Resources

Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook or if we will just do some minibooks and keep it notebooking style. 

Besides, a lot of our units we do both a lapbook and some notebooking pages.

Also, I decide if our unit study will be just enrichment to what we are doing day to day or if it’s all we focus on for a while.

SOUTH AMERICA UNIT STUDY

My objectives affect how long we stay  on a unit.

Next, here is my short list for my objectives in this unit and a few goals.

  • Comprehensive overview of the physical geography
  • Focus on landforms like Andes, Machu Picchu and some reminders on the Amazon Rain Forest
  • Understanding the influence of the Spanish Colonial Empire and the key influence Simon Bolivar had in Latin America’s struggle for freedom

  • Build appreciation from our prior study of the Amazon that it is a life line for many and essential to our planet
  • Appreciate a unique design has a Designer by introducing the Galapagos
  • Allow time to immerse in the culture of people living in South America and the similarities and differences of each country though they are all considered Latin America.

We will be doing a lapbook and notebooking pages. I guess you could say for the first unit of the year, we are going all out.

South America Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Basically, South America has 12 countries and 2 dependent territories so we have more than enough to keep us learning for quite a while.

You'll love these South America Free Resources Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

After all, we will spend time looking at what we have covered up to this time, so I can build my unit study on that foundation.

My South America Unit Study Resources

South America and Rainforest Free Notebooking Pages @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I have a total of 12 notebooking pages right now on my page on the Amazon Rain Forest which I could use in this study.

I have free Rainforest lapbooks too on my site.

However, because I want to focus on the other parts of South America and because the boys are a bit older, I already see that I will need some more printables. So I will be sharing those with you soon too.

You'll love these South America Free Resources Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
After I gathered the books I had on South America which happen to be mostly atlases, I know I need a trip to the library.

You'll love these South America Free Resources Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

However, the library didn’t have as many as I would have wanted in the adult section.

Besides, they had some and that is more than enough to start a good thorough unit study.

SOUTH AMERICA UNITY STUDY ACTIVITIES

In addition, look at the resources and activities I have on my page.

South America Unit Study Ideas to Borrow

Additionally, there are so many talented teachers in the homeschool world, we can see what else we find. I have linked some of my favorite resources here.

1. Heather over at Blog She Wrote starts with a Geography Quest on Brazil. It starts with a treasure hunt and ends in Brazil. Then they did a map of the watershed of the Amazon River.
Geography Quest on Brazil Answers and a video.

2. Jolanthe over at Homeschool Creations has some great stuff too. She has some printables for a country study on Argentina, Chili, Peru and Venezuela.

3.  Then of course I always love Amy’s stuff over at Homeschool Share.

4. Heidi over at Homeschool Room has a nice collection of geography resources on studying Brazil. Geography Resources for Studying Brazil

South America Unit Study Resources. I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages. My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch. First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”. Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook,
South America Unit Study Resources. I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages. My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch. First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”. Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook,
South America Unit Study Resources. I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages. My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch. First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”. Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook,
South America Unit Study Resources. I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages. My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch. First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”. Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook,
South America Unit Study Resources. I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages. My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch. First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”. Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook,
South America Unit Study Resources. I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages. My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch. First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”. Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook,
Ocean Currents and The Galapagos1
South America Unit Study Resources. I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages. My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch. First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”. Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook,
South America Unit Study Resources. I have many South America Unit Study resources. Grab more ideas on my lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages. My first step as far as planning is to determine what I have in my home and what I can find online. Planning my unit studies is a lot like cooking from scratch. First, I like to dig out what is in my pantry, then take a look at what others have too in their “pantry”. Too, at the beginning I decide whether we will do a lapbook,
South America Unit Study resources

HOW TO GET THE FREE SOUTH AMERICA LAPBOOK

Finally, look at how to grab the free lapbook. This is a subscriber freebie.

Also, look at these minibooks which come in the free South America lapbook 27 page download.

  • Vocabulary Pocket and Vocabulary Words
  • Animals of the Galapagos fan book which includes the Giant Tortoise, Lava Lizard, Marine Iguana, Green Turtle, Galapagos Penguins, Magnificent Frigate Bird, Blue-Footed Booby, and Blue-Banded Goby.
  • Comparing Mountain Climate Zones
  • Simon Bolivar Copywork
  • Map of South America to label and one labeled
  • Machu Picchu – Lost City of the Inca
  • Negrinho – A dessert from Brazil
  • How to Memorize the Countries of South America and Dependent
  • Map Flags to put on your salt dough map
  • 2 – The Galapagos Island layered book. One prefilled with facts and one blank to add your own information.

 1) Sign up on my list and get this freebie at the same time.
 2) You’ll instantly be directed to download the printable.
3) Last, look for my emails in your inbox as a follower. Glad to have you following me!

Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I loved doing a review of what every child needs to know about Western Civilization.

My obsession with wanting to teach history creatively stems from a quote I read by H.G. Wells.

“Narrow history teaching of our school days was mainly an uninspiring and partially forgotten list of national kings or presidents.“

Avoiding uninspiring lists and meeting the challenge of dodging inside-the-box history curriculum has not always been easy.

So I was happy to review What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press.

I will just tell you now that I won’t hide my obvious preference for this curriculum.

It fills a much needed niche in the homeschooling community, but it is so much more than a history curriculum. More on that in a minute.

What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press

I glanced through all the fascinating and detailed pictures.

The BrimWood press bundle I received included:

  • 1 Guide: What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization.
  • 1 Calendar Quest which is a historical narrative.
  • 1 Color the Western World.

I am especially giddy about this curriculum.

It is the first one that I have used that covers history in broad strokes.

How broad? Well, in just 12 – 14 lessons you cover 5,000 years of history.

Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press

I had to read that twice. I might add there are 2 more lessons, but one is an introduction and one is a review.

Details can be fascinating, but they can get in the way too.

Not all details are necessary to understanding and grasping the full picture. Sometimes it just does not matter. I think kids know that too.

Middle School Homeschool History

I have covered history through unit studies, through a four year cycle and through the eyes of individuals that lived in each time period, I couldn’t wait to get started using it.

This teaches a story of how the calendar came to us which is how What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization teaches. Clever.

As the fictional characters, Lindsie and Evan travel through time in a refrigerator box, Tiny eagerly tuned in,

Strangely enough Father Time always seems to be around to explain about how a seven day week came to us or how the constellations were located in the sky.

It didn’t hurt either that Mr. Awesome joined us for this review and read aloud to us. I highly recommend using your highschooler for a read aloud if you have one.

I am happy that my high school teen joined us for this review .

It allowed me to evaluate how extensive it was for him a high school teen.

Homeschool History

With the additional activities listed in the manual that include research, questions concerning worldview, introduction to the traits of each civilization and the contributions made by each civilization, I certainly think that a novice or highschooler could use the manual to discover them.

Too, if you have highschooler who is burned out on history, then using the manual can breathe life back into your day.

The wide scope that it covers keeps it so not intimidating.

As for the reader or Calendar Quest, it is written to an elementary age child. 

However, there were some characters along Lindsie and Evan’s trek that Mr. Awesome and I had obscurely heard of. Discovering those vague history characters was an unexpected benefit of Mr. Awesome reading to Tiny. 

Mr. Awesome claimed the reader was too young for him and it was, but then again, it is right on grade level like the publisher claims for using with a younger child. Tiny enjoyed the humor in the reader and I found a way for my older child to join us.

What I love about What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization.

Like I mentioned before, it is so much more than a history program. Listing both the history features that I loved and the other things, I don’t want to miss giving you any nifty detail.

  • I find the lesson plan layout very useful. You know my obsession with expecting a lot from a teacher’s manual and how some manuals are nothing more than an answer sheet. This is an excellent and well organized manual or guide with practical tips. You see exactly how to cover each lesson.
  • One more significant point about this manual is that it is BOTH teacher and student guide. You use it with ALL of your children. Thank you BrimWood Press for understanding that we are teaching multiple ages of children and that we try to avoid insanity by not using 3 or 4 different teacher’s manuals.
  • Use this one manual for multiple ages of children. By the way when I find a curriculum like this that I can use with multiple ages of children, I try to divide the price by the number of children using it so I can see what I am actually paying for each child per year. Then divide it again into half because it is both teacher manual and student manual to get a true cost. That is how I arrive at the value of a curriculum that I use with multiple children.

Teacher Manual Features

Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press
  • I’m not done yet with the manual because it is so comprehensive and I have to tell you about the layout. The first page of the lesson has a box called Teacher Preview and another one called Objectives. Oh YES – I am in organization bliss! Give me a purpose for the lesson and I have a direction for the day.
  • Here is another sweet bite on this program because you know I said it was so much more than a history program.  It has geography and a snip of language arts too. This especially feeds my desire to teach out of the box because I can include any subject I want to and apply those subjects when I teach about a topic. It’s more meaningful to include details when they are wanted.

Teaching Helps

  • The next part of the lesson is called History in a Nutshell. It includes information on the significant contributions of that time period along with instructions on coloring the stickers for the younger kids that are included in this curriculum. Information on filling out the 14 Hats of History which are the 14 periods you are striving to memorize is included in this section. Several lessons include helpful background information of that time period. You do not have to research extra information if you do not want to because it is included. This part appeals to me so that I can determine if those foundational pegs or key events are covered when teaching that time period. This part is the reason I see this manual being practical too for the first time history teacher or student who finds history boring and wants just the general sweeping ideas.
  • Between the stickers and Color the Western World coloring book there is plenty to choose from for both your younger and older children.

History in Broad Strokes

  • Key events that you add on the back of the cards and details that you fill in on the front of each card as you go along help to solidify the timeline of history. We followed along in each lesson plan as you are encouraged by the curriculum to try to put your hats in chronological order. By using both the front and back of the card, your kids come away with a fresh, unique and overall picture of history. Certainly, a doable goal to memorize all 14 time periods. This is a refreshing change from all the details that you may be teaching when using a four year history cycle curriculum.

I won’t be giving up my copy of What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization any time soon as I plan on using this for years to come.

It is a keeper in my home, and I plan on going over it again both as a standalone history curriculum and to use as a review tool.

My boys still need to see the flow of history and a way to tie it all together.

I tend to be organized overboard when it comes to details because we love history, but I restrained myself from delving into them like the curriculum suggested because it defeats the purpose of what I am trying to do.

Don’t pitch your slow moving curriculum, just use What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization when you want to take it up a notch.

Thank you BrimWood Press as I confess my absolute love and bias for a one of kind history program.

Where to Buy What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization and Product Facts at a Glance.

Product Name: What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization, Calendar Quest and Color the Western World.

Ages: 5th – 8th grade, but I see a practical use for highschoolers who struggle with history.

Type of Product:  Physical product.

What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization is an awesome homeschool history program covering history in broad strokes. You’ll love how quickly you can cover 5000 years of history in a few weeks. Check it out at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

You’ll love these other history helps: