April 25, 2024 • 20 mins
Unlock the secrets of a vibrant history education as we sit down with Kara Perry, a homeschooling parent who brings the pages of the past to life for her children using the Story of the World curriculum. Together, we delve into how this innovative program transforms history into a riveting narrative, complete with activity books that are not just about facts but about experiencing the times through narration exercises, art, and even science projects. Today, we talk about the first to fourth grade volume, but this curriculum evolves with your child, laying a foundation that can be built upon through middle and high school, ensuring a rich and engaging historical tapestry that sticks with them for a lifetime.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my
Curriculum, a series where wetalk all about curriculum.
I've been interviewinghomeschooling families for over
a year now on my main podcast,the Homeschool How-To, but I
really wanted to zero in oncurriculum.
There's so much out there.
How do I know what would workbest for me and my child?
How do I know what works forone child would work for the
other?
I might like the curriculum I'musing now, but how do I know
(00:25):
there's not a better one outthere, especially if I don't
know all the curriculums?
And what about supplementalcurriculum?
Should I be using that too?
This series is to help youdecide just that.
I'm going to interview parentswho are using all the
curriculums so that you candecide the absolute best way to
unfold your homeschoolingjourney.
The absolute best way to unfoldyour homeschooling journey.
(00:48):
Welcome.
And with us today we have KaraPerry.
Hi, kara, thank you so much forbeing here, thanks for having
me.
You are going to tell us aboutStory of the World.
Is that right?
That's right.
So I am not familiar with thisone at all.
I think I've heard of it, buthave no inkling as to what story
of the world is, what subjectsor ages or anything.
(01:09):
So I'm really excited.
Okay, I will just let you kindof go into what, even like, led
you to picking this curriculum.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I've always been interested in the
Well-Trained Mind by SusanWeisbbauer, I think is her name,
and she's got a book called thewell-trained mind and just
about her homeschooling styleand her philosophy.
So I've always been drawn tothat and she um published the
story of the world and so I justimmediately was like led to
that.
I have looked at other ones,but I just always came back to
this one.
So so she wrote the like thebook or a book, and then wrote
(01:48):
this curriculum yeah, just thislittle book, okay, and there's
42 chapters in here, and so thisstarts from the earliest people
all the way to the end of theroman empire, so that's volume
one and then so there's fourvolumes, and so she wrote this
book for, I think, this one'sfirst to fourth graders, so it's
(02:12):
just the history written as astory for them to understand
easily.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So so is that kind of like the Charlotte Mason way of
like no, no, not really Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's kind of.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I mean, I guess they overlap in some ways, Because
it's a story that the studentsare kind of learning about the
story and probably, like itsounds to me like maybe putting
you in that time with the storyaround Just here's, rather than
in school, when it's like here'swhat happened.
Here were the Aztecs, the Incasand the Mayans.
(02:47):
This is what they did.
This is the time period.
End of story.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's yeah , it's not really like that,
although they do suggest doing atimeline with your like making
one, but it's not really likememorizing the dates or anything
like that, but it's just likeit's just written like a story
and um, and she makes it.
I think it comes to life for mykids.
My son loves it, so he's alwayslike, can we do history?
(03:12):
So he just really loves history.
But yeah, for charlotte mason,I guess, I guess it is kind of
like that, because they read,they read the stories and then
they do the narration exercises,and so I guess it is actually.
Is it close to that?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
but so then, that brings me to the next question
what subject is this for?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
and I'm I'm gathering it's history yes, it is yep
history and I would say there'ssome geography in there, because
they do map work okay, great.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Is this like what they would consider open and go,
or do you have to do any prep?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
yeah, I would say it's open and go.
There's an activity book thatcomes with it and and that's
here too.
So what's inside here iscoloring pages and um review
questions, narration exercisesand it kinds of it guides you as
a teacher on how to do thenarration exercise, and then
there's additional historyreading and then the map work
(04:11):
and coloring pages if you haveyounger kiddos, and then there's
projects in here too.
So there's art projects,science projects.
There's that go with the chapterthat you read.
Okay so, and sometimes there'scooking, sometimes there's
recipes in there that go with it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh, that's cool, Kind of like for what was during
that time period.
Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
So, okay, the bird's eye view.
Can you just outline for melike what ages this would be for
?
And I know like some historiesare cyclical, so you can do it.
You do it multiple timesthroughout the child's, like
learning years withhomeschooling years.
(04:44):
Can you just kind of give me anoverview on like what ages
you're doing with your kids andhow that works?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
yeah, so this is written for, uh, first to fourth
graders, I think, and then thenext one they say is like second
to fifth, and so I don't, Idon't know exactly, but it goes
up each year and then, um, soI'm using this with my first
well, I used this with my firstWell, I used it with my first
(05:10):
grader, and now he's in secondgrade and we're using it still
as a second grader, so so willit cycle back.
Yeah, so Story of the World.
Once you go through all fourvolumes, they have a set for
middle schoolers and maybe highschool too.
But that goes through the sameinformation but more in depth.
So, yeah, yeah, I don't know ifwe'll get there, but so, like,
(05:31):
how does this fit into yourother curriculums?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I mean, I know we'll talk in a different episode
about what other curriculumsyou're using but like how, how
many hours a day overall do youspend homeschooling generally,
and how does this fit into thatportion?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It probably we usually do about four hours a
day with between my secondgrader and kindergartner, the
two of them together.
It takes about four hours forme, not for them, but this only
takes like an hour a week iswhat we do.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Oh, okay, I was going to say, I mean, you could
probably that's heavy.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, no, no, no no no, we just do a chapter a week.
You could do more or less, butwe do just a chapter a week and
so we just read one of thechapters from the textbook and
then we do the map work.
And then also they have likesuggested reading.
They have likecross-referencing with um
encyclopedias.
(06:26):
So they have four encyclopediasthat they suggest to use and we
use the one from us bornencyclopedia of world history,
um, so we do that.
So then it's got pages fromthere with pictures and makes it
bring it to life a little bitmore, like visually, so, um, so
yeah, we do those three thingsand we usually I'd love to do
(06:50):
the projects.
I don't ever get to them, sobut we have done a couple, we've
done some.
They do have like game boardsin there and so we've done that
a few times because he lovesgames, so, oh, that's awesome.
But yeah, there's tons ofoptions that you could do.
You could do.
You know you could spend moretime on it if you wanted to, but
you don't have to, and that'skind of the nice part.
Like yeah there.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
if you want to do more, you don't have to, though
you don't have to.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Like right, you know, what I really like about this
too is it's it sounds like youknow, when you said it starts
from the early civilizations youknow and goes through.
I don't feel like that's how welearned it in school, like like
being public schooled.
I maybe there was someoverlying like rhythm that they
(07:36):
had going on, but it didn't makesense to me at the time as I
was learning it.
So now I find it reallyinteresting as an adult trying
to like just learn things ingeneral and learn about stuff to
teach my kids, and I'm like, oh, like, for instance, when you
hear about the Babylonians, youknow they were one of the first
(07:57):
like recorded civilizations andwhere that is on the timeline, I
think it's like 6,000 BC andreally relating that to where we
are today, like, oh, that was8,000 years ago and gee, that
really wasn't that long ago whenyou think of how long?
they say the earth has been here, if it's been here for 13
billion years, like really 8,000is just so I feel like we were
(08:22):
ever given those like conceptsin school and it kind of sounds
like this might lay it out alittle bit nicer for for the
kids.
I don't know, I don't knowthat's, if you have a response
to that yeah, um, yeah, I thinkit does.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I don't really remember learning any history in
school besides like modern, uh,you know, early 1900s, maybe
mid-1800s is all I remember.
So, right, this is kind of allnew information to me.
I'm learning alongside my sonhere, so, um, but yeah, it's
interesting to see, like thetimeline here and we haven't
(09:00):
personally made a timeline but,um, I think that would be super
useful and I'll probably, let'sprobably do that next year, uh,
when we go into volume two.
Yeah, I think it's reallyuseful.
He's kind of learning like, oh,like we just watched this civil
war reenactment yesterday andthey were like what?
You know, the north is tryingto take over the south, and I'm
like this has been going onsince early times, like that's
(09:22):
pretty much all this is ispeople taking over, you know,
empire after empire, and soanyway, it was kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, oh, that is so true when you think about it,
wow, yeah, it's, yeah, like thisis.
It's the same thing over andover and over again, just
different people playing thegames wow or well, I guess some
would tell you it's the samepeople, they're just changing,
like what they go by.
Yeah, so okay.
So you kind of told us whatthis curriculum does look like
(09:52):
from the bird's eye view, as ingoing from early civilizations
and up the timeline, does it runlike through… say like 9-11?
Does it go up that closely towhere we are today?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I'm not sure what.
The fourth volume.
I know it's called Modern Times.
I'm not sure how recent shewrote that and what's in there.
But, I'd have to look that up,because we haven't gotten that
far.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, and when I label this it'll be, for you
know, kindergarten second grade,so I can always look into
talking to someone that usesthis for the older kids.
That would be a good episodetoo, um yeah yeah, so yeah, you
had told me that you spendapproximately an hour a week.
Do you do that all in one dayor do you do like 20 minutes a
day?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
if the chapter so the chapters have like different
sections and so if it's short,we'll do it all in one day.
If it's, if it's got a fewdifferent sections, we'll maybe
break up the reading into twodays and then do the extra, you
know, with the encyclopedia andthe map work on the second day.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
And then give it a break and open it the next week.
Yeah, okay, do you have otherthings that you supplement in?
Or just kind of like Monday andTuesday are our long days?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, well, he's got like a lot of his language arts
and stuff only take three days aweek.
So kind of on our easy daywhere there's just writing and
math, we try to do science andhistory on those days just so
it's not bogged down on theother days.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And that, as like homeschooling parents as we're
thinking about, like how to layout.
I, my oldest, is inkindergarten, so for me this is
homeschooling is brand new.
I started the podcast because Ihave no idea how to homeschool
and I decided to interview thepeople who do so.
For the last year, or over ayear now, I've been interviewing
homeschooling families and thenjust the question of curriculum
(11:35):
keeps coming up.
So I wanted to do a series justlike short, quick episodes
about different curriculums outthere so parents can just kind
of listen, because you know youcan read all the websites but it
doesn't really tell you likewhat a day to day looks like.
So that's why I started.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
How like as having a kindergartner, I mean.
I go back and forth every week.
It's different.
It's like, ok, we're reallydoing like reading and math and
stuff, and then the next weekI'm like you should just play.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Just life is about playing right now, but since
you're a second grader.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
You're kind of like, well, you really do have to do
stuff.
What state are you in?
We're in Florida.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So, you don't have to report.
They actually don't have any.
We do have to.
So they have options.
We could do a test at the endof the year, or you can meet
with a Florida certified teacherand they don't have any subject
requirements here.
So you just have to show thatthere's progress being made.
So they'll look at work fromthe beginning, middle and end to
(12:38):
make sure that there's progress.
So I guess, technically I don'thave to do history, I just I
love history and it turns out myson son does too, which is
great.
So, um, but my kindergartner,he's not interested in this at
all, so I don't make him sitthere and do it with me and I'm,
like, I don't think, akindergartner I mean we have
(13:00):
other books.
I mean he looks at, you knowhistorical book, like books.
But I don't make him listen tothis if he's not interested,
because I'm like in kindergarten, he's got time, he doesn't have
to do it right now.
Absolutely yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
As we're thinking of when to incorporate this into
our school days or homeschooldays, home education days.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Would you suggest first grade, or do you think
even starting a little bit laterwould be better?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
yeah, I think, even like um, I was planning on using
this for my first grader lastyear and he just wasn't really
interested in it.
So, and we actually startedwith a different curriculum that
I thought was more tailored foryounger kids and we ended up
not really liking that um, so Ijust kind of put it on the back
burner and we take a break andthen, uh, like the last 12 weeks
(13:51):
of first grade, we picked upstory the world again and he has
been really liking it so isn'tit funny yeah, so I think one
year yeah, and he's just thedifference, yeah, just
it makes a huge difference andhe likes it a lot.
So I'm like so we have the nextbook for next year.
But I'm like he's an older um,so he's november baby, so he was
(14:16):
six when we startedkindergarten.
So he's kind of an older, Imean compared to my kindergarten
.
Now who's gonna be six afterkindergarten?
Because he's summer.
So I'm like you know, whenthey're older or younger, that
makes a huge difference too,because with him I'm probably
not gonna start till secondgrade for history and um,
because he's so young and do youremember how much these books
(14:38):
cost?
yeah, so you can get the wholeset, which is the text, uh, the
activity book, the student pages, which are, you know, the
coloring pages and the map.
Or, um, the activity book, thestudent pages, which are, you
know, the coloring pages and themap.
Or, yeah, the map work and thegame boards.
Oh, I think it's got tests,test and answer key, which I
don't do, but the four of thoseare $50.
Oh, and then, if you justwanted, you can actually just
(15:01):
read the chapters.
You don't even have to do anyof the other stuff, you could
just read the chapters and thisbook.
Even have to do any of theother stuff, you could just read
the chapters and this book'sonly $12 to $15, depending on if
it's paperback or hardback.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, wow so it's really affordable.
Yeah, did you say the fourvolumes including all that other
stuff is $50?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Or like when you go to volume two, will that?
Speaker 1 (15:21):
be additional.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, yeah.
So $50 for all the volume, onebooks, but you can actually buy
all four volumes together and Ithink it's like about the same
50 or $60 for all of them.
It might even be less, but yeah, it's really affordable.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, that's another reason I like the Well-Trained
Mind is they have reallyaffordable curriculums to choose
from Okay, so the Well-Trainedmind is like the overarching,
and then story of the world isjust one of their like subjects.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, so, yeah.
So I think she it's just herphilosophy, and she wrote a book
on homeschooling called thewell-trained mind, and now they
publish stuff.
So you know, if they has theirsticker on it, their sticker of
approval for math curriculum orscience or whatever, ok, then
you know, oh they, they thinkthis is good, so so I might use
(16:12):
that I have heard of thewell-trained mind, so maybe if I
can find it on audio, because Ijust fall asleep when I read
myself, oh yeah.
They.
Yeah, they actually do.
Yeah, I think you can get thaton audio.
You can also get the story ofthe world on audio book too,
which I think I actually boughtthat for next year because I get
tired reading out loud.
There's so much of it that I'mlike and some of the words, the
(16:34):
names from back then are likehard to pronounce.
There is a pronunciation guidein there, but yeah, but that's a
great option too.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I'm glad that you said that, because that is
really nice, like if you canfold laundry at well, you know,
your son sits there and maybehe's drawing and you're, you
know, but you're still together,you're listening to this and
getting.
That would help a lot of people, I'm sure, and yes, it's
(17:01):
wonderful to sit and readtogether but like it.
But like it's fun to readtogether the books that, like
you know, have the colorfulpages and stuff like that.
Like you can still do that stuffbefore bed or wake up in the
morning reading time or whatever, but it is nice to have the
option of the audio.
I'm glad that you said that.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to use it because, like
I said, I get tired of readingall of it out loud.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So this does sound like this is a curriculum that
you can do with more than onechild, right Like how will you
cycle in?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
your younger one.
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Like are you going to do this?
Yeah, so I'm not going to worryabout starting him?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I might, because I have three kids, three boys, so
the younger two might.
I don't know, I don't know.
That's taking too far ahead forme, but for um, when my second
grader is, I'm just gonna yeah,my kindergartner now is just
gonna hop in.
When he hops in and whereverwe're at, that's where he's
(17:59):
gonna be at, and then we'llprobably since he's let's see,
he's so he's two grades below.
Yeah, I guess, when my secondgrader's in middle school and
they're kind of doing but he'sstill doing elementary, I might
have them do different things.
Yeah, you know cycle back withthe kindergartner.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
but you can always have one.
Yeah, I'm just going to havehim jump in Cycle back on audio
in the morning in his bedroom.
Yes, catch up on that audio.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's true.
Yeah, I'll just have him jumpin wherever we're at.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I'm not even worried too worried about, like you know
, starting from volume one and Ilove that and I think that is
stuff that people need to heartoo.
Like it doesn't you just dowhat works?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
yeah, it doesn't have to be in order yeah, yeah um,
all right, and they're whateverthey miss.
They're going to go over itagain in later years too oh
perfect.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Perfect, all right.
So is this a secular?
I mean it's hard because it'shistory, so obviously there's
religion in there.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yes, there's definitely religion.
Some people yeah, there'sactually on YouTube like people
arguing about this Interesting,I would say it's secular.
They don't it's.
They do talk about allreligions in there.
They don't talk about anyreligion as if that's the right
one, and I think that's wheresome people get upset.
(19:15):
Some Christians want it to belike.
They don't like it.
I don't know.
No, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I like to hear this perspective.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's cool.
I like to hear this perspective.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah, yeah, they don't talk about Christianity
like that's the religion tofollow.
They kind of talk about all ofthem, just unbiasedly, and yeah,
I would say it's secular, butthey definitely talk about
religion, right, because how canyou talk about history without
talking about religion, right?
Yeah, they're all important,yeah, yeah about religion, right
(19:47):
?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, they're all important.
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, and Ithink that that's great because
then you can add in whatever youwant to teach your kids about.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Exactly, that's what I like.
Yeah, you can do whatever youwant to do with that and they,
you know they talk aboutmythology and she covers it all.
It's really good that's cool.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Was there anything about this curriculum that you
didn't like?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I haven't run into anything I don't like yet.
All right, we're sticking withit.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Story of the world.
Two thumbs up, all right.
Well, kara, thank you fortalking to us today about story
of the world.
I'm excited to kind of delveinto this one a little bit more.
This is a you've sold me, Ithink.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That's good.
Yeah, I like talking about it.
I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
Please consider sharing thispodcast or my main podcast, the
Homeschool how To with friends,family, on Instagram or in your
favorite homeschool groupFacebook page.
The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it
going and the more hope we havefor the future.
Thank you for your love of thenext generation.
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my
Curriculum, a series where wetalk all about curriculum.
I've been interviewinghomeschooling families for over
a year now on my main podcast,the Homeschool How-To, but I
really wanted to zero in oncurriculum.
There's so much out there.
How do I know what would workbest for me and my child?
How do I know what works forone child would work for the
other?
I might like the curriculum I'musing now, but how do I know
(00:25):
there's not a better one outthere, especially if I don't
know all the curriculums?
And what about supplementalcurriculum?
Should I be using that too?
This series is to help youdecide just that.
I'm going to interview parentswho are using all the
curriculums so that you candecide the absolute best way to
unfold your homeschoolingjourney.
The absolute best way to unfoldyour homeschooling journey.
(00:48):
Welcome.
And with us today we have KaraPerry.
Hi, kara, thank you so much forbeing here, thanks for having
me.
You are going to tell us aboutStory of the World.
Is that right?
That's right.
So I am not familiar with thisone at all.
I think I've heard of it, buthave no inkling as to what story
of the world is, what subjectsor ages or anything.
(01:09):
So I'm really excited.
Okay, I will just let you kindof go into what, even like, led
you to picking this curriculum.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I've always been interested in the
Well-Trained Mind by SusanWeisbbauer, I think is her name,
and she's got a book called thewell-trained mind and just
about her homeschooling styleand her philosophy.
So I've always been drawn tothat and she um published the
story of the world and so I justimmediately was like led to
that.
I have looked at other ones,but I just always came back to
this one.
So so she wrote the like thebook or a book, and then wrote
(01:48):
this curriculum yeah, just thislittle book, okay, and there's
42 chapters in here, and so thisstarts from the earliest people
all the way to the end of theroman empire, so that's volume
one and then so there's fourvolumes, and so she wrote this
book for, I think, this one'sfirst to fourth graders, so it's
(02:12):
just the history written as astory for them to understand
easily.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So so is that kind of like the Charlotte Mason way of
like no, no, not really Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's kind of.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I mean, I guess they overlap in some ways, Because
it's a story that the studentsare kind of learning about the
story and probably, like itsounds to me like maybe putting
you in that time with the storyaround Just here's, rather than
in school, when it's like here'swhat happened.
Here were the Aztecs, the Incasand the Mayans.
(02:47):
This is what they did.
This is the time period.
End of story.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's yeah , it's not really like that,
although they do suggest doing atimeline with your like making
one, but it's not really likememorizing the dates or anything
like that, but it's just likeit's just written like a story
and um, and she makes it.
I think it comes to life for mykids.
My son loves it, so he's alwayslike, can we do history?
(03:12):
So he just really loves history.
But yeah, for charlotte mason,I guess, I guess it is kind of
like that, because they read,they read the stories and then
they do the narration exercises,and so I guess it is actually.
Is it close to that?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
but so then, that brings me to the next question
what subject is this for?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
and I'm I'm gathering it's history yes, it is yep
history and I would say there'ssome geography in there, because
they do map work okay, great.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Is this like what they would consider open and go,
or do you have to do any prep?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
yeah, I would say it's open and go.
There's an activity book thatcomes with it and and that's
here too.
So what's inside here iscoloring pages and um review
questions, narration exercisesand it kinds of it guides you as
a teacher on how to do thenarration exercise, and then
there's additional historyreading and then the map work
(04:11):
and coloring pages if you haveyounger kiddos, and then there's
projects in here too.
So there's art projects,science projects.
There's that go with the chapterthat you read.
Okay so, and sometimes there'scooking, sometimes there's
recipes in there that go with it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh, that's cool, Kind of like for what was during
that time period.
Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
So, okay, the bird's eye view.
Can you just outline for melike what ages this would be for
?
And I know like some historiesare cyclical, so you can do it.
You do it multiple timesthroughout the child's, like
learning years withhomeschooling years.
(04:44):
Can you just kind of give me anoverview on like what ages
you're doing with your kids andhow that works?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
yeah, so this is written for, uh, first to fourth
graders, I think, and then thenext one they say is like second
to fifth, and so I don't, Idon't know exactly, but it goes
up each year and then, um, soI'm using this with my first
well, I used this with my firstWell, I used it with my first
(05:10):
grader, and now he's in secondgrade and we're using it still
as a second grader, so so willit cycle back.
Yeah, so Story of the World.
Once you go through all fourvolumes, they have a set for
middle schoolers and maybe highschool too.
But that goes through the sameinformation but more in depth.
So, yeah, yeah, I don't know ifwe'll get there, but so, like,
(05:31):
how does this fit into yourother curriculums?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I mean, I know we'll talk in a different episode
about what other curriculumsyou're using but like how, how
many hours a day overall do youspend homeschooling generally,
and how does this fit into thatportion?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It probably we usually do about four hours a
day with between my secondgrader and kindergartner, the
two of them together.
It takes about four hours forme, not for them, but this only
takes like an hour a week iswhat we do.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Oh, okay, I was going to say, I mean, you could
probably that's heavy.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, no, no, no no no, we just do a chapter a week.
You could do more or less, butwe do just a chapter a week and
so we just read one of thechapters from the textbook and
then we do the map work.
And then also they have likesuggested reading.
They have likecross-referencing with um
encyclopedias.
(06:26):
So they have four encyclopediasthat they suggest to use and we
use the one from us bornencyclopedia of world history,
um, so we do that.
So then it's got pages fromthere with pictures and makes it
bring it to life a little bitmore, like visually, so, um, so
yeah, we do those three thingsand we usually I'd love to do
(06:50):
the projects.
I don't ever get to them, sobut we have done a couple, we've
done some.
They do have like game boardsin there and so we've done that
a few times because he lovesgames, so, oh, that's awesome.
But yeah, there's tons ofoptions that you could do.
You could do.
You know you could spend moretime on it if you wanted to, but
you don't have to, and that'skind of the nice part.
Like yeah there.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
if you want to do more, you don't have to, though
you don't have to.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Like right, you know, what I really like about this
too is it's it sounds like youknow, when you said it starts
from the early civilizations youknow and goes through.
I don't feel like that's how welearned it in school, like like
being public schooled.
I maybe there was someoverlying like rhythm that they
(07:36):
had going on, but it didn't makesense to me at the time as I
was learning it.
So now I find it reallyinteresting as an adult trying
to like just learn things ingeneral and learn about stuff to
teach my kids, and I'm like, oh, like, for instance, when you
hear about the Babylonians, youknow they were one of the first
(07:57):
like recorded civilizations andwhere that is on the timeline, I
think it's like 6,000 BC andreally relating that to where we
are today, like, oh, that was8,000 years ago and gee, that
really wasn't that long ago whenyou think of how long?
they say the earth has been here, if it's been here for 13
billion years, like really 8,000is just so I feel like we were
(08:22):
ever given those like conceptsin school and it kind of sounds
like this might lay it out alittle bit nicer for for the
kids.
I don't know, I don't knowthat's, if you have a response
to that yeah, um, yeah, I thinkit does.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I don't really remember learning any history in
school besides like modern, uh,you know, early 1900s, maybe
mid-1800s is all I remember.
So, right, this is kind of allnew information to me.
I'm learning alongside my sonhere, so, um, but yeah, it's
interesting to see, like thetimeline here and we haven't
(09:00):
personally made a timeline but,um, I think that would be super
useful and I'll probably, let'sprobably do that next year, uh,
when we go into volume two.
Yeah, I think it's reallyuseful.
He's kind of learning like, oh,like we just watched this civil
war reenactment yesterday andthey were like what?
You know, the north is tryingto take over the south, and I'm
like this has been going onsince early times, like that's
(09:22):
pretty much all this is ispeople taking over, you know,
empire after empire, and soanyway, it was kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, oh, that is so true when you think about it,
wow, yeah, it's, yeah, like thisis.
It's the same thing over andover and over again, just
different people playing thegames wow or well, I guess some
would tell you it's the samepeople, they're just changing,
like what they go by.
Yeah, so okay.
So you kind of told us whatthis curriculum does look like
(09:52):
from the bird's eye view, as ingoing from early civilizations
and up the timeline, does it runlike through… say like 9-11?
Does it go up that closely towhere we are today?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I'm not sure what.
The fourth volume.
I know it's called Modern Times.
I'm not sure how recent shewrote that and what's in there.
But, I'd have to look that up,because we haven't gotten that
far.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, and when I label this it'll be, for you
know, kindergarten second grade,so I can always look into
talking to someone that usesthis for the older kids.
That would be a good episodetoo, um yeah yeah, so yeah, you
had told me that you spendapproximately an hour a week.
Do you do that all in one dayor do you do like 20 minutes a
day?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
if the chapter so the chapters have like different
sections and so if it's short,we'll do it all in one day.
If it's, if it's got a fewdifferent sections, we'll maybe
break up the reading into twodays and then do the extra, you
know, with the encyclopedia andthe map work on the second day.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
And then give it a break and open it the next week.
Yeah, okay, do you have otherthings that you supplement in?
Or just kind of like Monday andTuesday are our long days?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, well, he's got like a lot of his language arts
and stuff only take three days aweek.
So kind of on our easy daywhere there's just writing and
math, we try to do science andhistory on those days just so
it's not bogged down on theother days.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And that, as like homeschooling parents as we're
thinking about, like how to layout.
I, my oldest, is inkindergarten, so for me this is
homeschooling is brand new.
I started the podcast because Ihave no idea how to homeschool
and I decided to interview thepeople who do so.
For the last year, or over ayear now, I've been interviewing
homeschooling families and thenjust the question of curriculum
(11:35):
keeps coming up.
So I wanted to do a series justlike short, quick episodes
about different curriculums outthere so parents can just kind
of listen, because you know youcan read all the websites but it
doesn't really tell you likewhat a day to day looks like.
So that's why I started.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
How like as having a kindergartner, I mean.
I go back and forth every week.
It's different.
It's like, ok, we're reallydoing like reading and math and
stuff, and then the next weekI'm like you should just play.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Just life is about playing right now, but since
you're a second grader.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
You're kind of like, well, you really do have to do
stuff.
What state are you in?
We're in Florida.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So, you don't have to report.
They actually don't have any.
We do have to.
So they have options.
We could do a test at the endof the year, or you can meet
with a Florida certified teacherand they don't have any subject
requirements here.
So you just have to show thatthere's progress being made.
So they'll look at work fromthe beginning, middle and end to
(12:38):
make sure that there's progress.
So I guess, technically I don'thave to do history, I just I
love history and it turns out myson son does too, which is
great.
So, um, but my kindergartner,he's not interested in this at
all, so I don't make him sitthere and do it with me and I'm,
like, I don't think, akindergartner I mean we have
(13:00):
other books.
I mean he looks at, you knowhistorical book, like books.
But I don't make him listen tothis if he's not interested,
because I'm like in kindergarten, he's got time, he doesn't have
to do it right now.
Absolutely yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
As we're thinking of when to incorporate this into
our school days or homeschooldays, home education days.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Would you suggest first grade, or do you think
even starting a little bit laterwould be better?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
yeah, I think, even like um, I was planning on using
this for my first grader lastyear and he just wasn't really
interested in it.
So, and we actually startedwith a different curriculum that
I thought was more tailored foryounger kids and we ended up
not really liking that um, so Ijust kind of put it on the back
burner and we take a break andthen, uh, like the last 12 weeks
(13:51):
of first grade, we picked upstory the world again and he has
been really liking it so isn'tit funny yeah, so I think one
year yeah, and he's just thedifference, yeah, just
it makes a huge difference andhe likes it a lot.
So I'm like so we have the nextbook for next year.
But I'm like he's an older um,so he's november baby, so he was
(14:16):
six when we startedkindergarten.
So he's kind of an older, Imean compared to my kindergarten
.
Now who's gonna be six afterkindergarten?
Because he's summer.
So I'm like you know, whenthey're older or younger, that
makes a huge difference too,because with him I'm probably
not gonna start till secondgrade for history and um,
because he's so young and do youremember how much these books
(14:38):
cost?
yeah, so you can get the wholeset, which is the text, uh, the
activity book, the student pages, which are, you know, the
coloring pages and the map.
Or, um, the activity book, thestudent pages, which are, you
know, the coloring pages and themap.
Or, yeah, the map work and thegame boards.
Oh, I think it's got tests,test and answer key, which I
don't do, but the four of thoseare $50.
Oh, and then, if you justwanted, you can actually just
(15:01):
read the chapters.
You don't even have to do anyof the other stuff, you could
just read the chapters and thisbook.
Even have to do any of theother stuff, you could just read
the chapters and this book'sonly $12 to $15, depending on if
it's paperback or hardback.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, wow so it's really affordable.
Yeah, did you say the fourvolumes including all that other
stuff is $50?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Or like when you go to volume two, will that?
Speaker 1 (15:21):
be additional.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, yeah.
So $50 for all the volume, onebooks, but you can actually buy
all four volumes together and Ithink it's like about the same
50 or $60 for all of them.
It might even be less, but yeah, it's really affordable.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, that's another reason I like the Well-Trained
Mind is they have reallyaffordable curriculums to choose
from Okay, so the Well-Trainedmind is like the overarching,
and then story of the world isjust one of their like subjects.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, so, yeah.
So I think she it's just herphilosophy, and she wrote a book
on homeschooling called thewell-trained mind, and now they
publish stuff.
So you know, if they has theirsticker on it, their sticker of
approval for math curriculum orscience or whatever, ok, then
you know, oh they, they thinkthis is good, so so I might use
(16:12):
that I have heard of thewell-trained mind, so maybe if I
can find it on audio, because Ijust fall asleep when I read
myself, oh yeah.
They.
Yeah, they actually do.
Yeah, I think you can get thaton audio.
You can also get the story ofthe world on audio book too,
which I think I actually boughtthat for next year because I get
tired reading out loud.
There's so much of it that I'mlike and some of the words, the
(16:34):
names from back then are likehard to pronounce.
There is a pronunciation guidein there, but yeah, but that's a
great option too.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I'm glad that you said that, because that is
really nice, like if you canfold laundry at well, you know,
your son sits there and maybehe's drawing and you're, you
know, but you're still together,you're listening to this and
getting.
That would help a lot of people, I'm sure, and yes, it's
(17:01):
wonderful to sit and readtogether but like it.
But like it's fun to readtogether the books that, like
you know, have the colorfulpages and stuff like that.
Like you can still do that stuffbefore bed or wake up in the
morning reading time or whatever, but it is nice to have the
option of the audio.
I'm glad that you said that.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to use it because, like
I said, I get tired of readingall of it out loud.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So this does sound like this is a curriculum that
you can do with more than onechild, right Like how will you
cycle in?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
your younger one.
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Like are you going to do this?
Yeah, so I'm not going to worryabout starting him?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I might, because I have three kids, three boys, so
the younger two might.
I don't know, I don't know.
That's taking too far ahead forme, but for um, when my second
grader is, I'm just gonna yeah,my kindergartner now is just
gonna hop in.
When he hops in and whereverwe're at, that's where he's
(17:59):
gonna be at, and then we'llprobably since he's let's see,
he's so he's two grades below.
Yeah, I guess, when my secondgrader's in middle school and
they're kind of doing but he'sstill doing elementary, I might
have them do different things.
Yeah, you know cycle back withthe kindergartner.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
but you can always have one.
Yeah, I'm just going to havehim jump in Cycle back on audio
in the morning in his bedroom.
Yes, catch up on that audio.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's true.
Yeah, I'll just have him jumpin wherever we're at.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I'm not even worried too worried about, like you know
, starting from volume one and Ilove that and I think that is
stuff that people need to heartoo.
Like it doesn't you just dowhat works?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
yeah, it doesn't have to be in order yeah, yeah um,
all right, and they're whateverthey miss.
They're going to go over itagain in later years too oh
perfect.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Perfect, all right.
So is this a secular?
I mean it's hard because it'shistory, so obviously there's
religion in there.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yes, there's definitely religion.
Some people yeah, there'sactually on YouTube like people
arguing about this Interesting,I would say it's secular.
They don't it's.
They do talk about allreligions in there.
They don't talk about anyreligion as if that's the right
one, and I think that's wheresome people get upset.
(19:15):
Some Christians want it to belike.
They don't like it.
I don't know.
No, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I like to hear this perspective.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's cool.
I like to hear this perspective.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Yeah, yeah, they don't talk about Christianity
like that's the religion tofollow.
They kind of talk about all ofthem, just unbiasedly, and yeah,
I would say it's secular, butthey definitely talk about
religion, right, because how canyou talk about history without
talking about religion, right?
Yeah, they're all important,yeah, yeah about religion, right
(19:47):
?
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, they're all important.
Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, and Ithink that that's great because
then you can add in whatever youwant to teach your kids about.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Exactly, that's what I like.
Yeah, you can do whatever youwant to do with that and they,
you know they talk aboutmythology and she covers it all.
It's really good that's cool.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Was there anything about this curriculum that you
didn't like?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I haven't run into anything I don't like yet.
All right, we're sticking withit.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Story of the world.
Two thumbs up, all right.
Well, kara, thank you fortalking to us today about story
of the world.
I'm excited to kind of delveinto this one a little bit more.
This is a you've sold me, Ithink.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That's good.
Yeah, I like talking about it.
I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
Please consider sharing thispodcast or my main podcast, the
Homeschool how To with friends,family, on Instagram or in your
favorite homeschool groupFacebook page.
The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it
going and the more hope we havefor the future.
Thank you for your love of thenext generation.
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