From Victoria's Empire to the End of the USSR - History for the Classical Child

We use this series in our charter school. The students love it so much that many of them have asked their parents to purchase them a personal copy to keep at home so they can read beyond what class time allowed.

Engaging and fun to listed to. We are a Homeschool family that use this in the car. I have a 9 and 6 year old and they both beg to listen to this! We read the book first and then follow up by listening to the same chapter in the car. I think it helps to cement the information :) I would highly recommend this product!

I spent the summer reading all for volumes of Story of the World. Even though I taught a humanities course at the college level, I found reading Susan Wise Bauer's series really enjoyable. It filled in a number of gaps for me and was a very engaging read. When I was reading this book, I had other parents come up to me and tell me how much their kids also had enjoyed reading this series. I definitely recommend this.

I learned lots from it. It's interesting. My 12 year old likes the storys (those were her words) and my husband and I like them as well. We all learned something. Listening to history like this gives a great overview and perspective of why things are the way they are. It's excellent opportunity to learn from mistakes and teach my child to learn from them as well.

This is a great series. We have worked through the first 3 books and are looking forward to reading this one also. This is a children's history so it doesn't get into every little detail, but it gives you a great summary of history. My kids are your 8,10 but this book could be used to catch up older kids that need a quick "cliff notes" version of history if they are behind.

In previous school years, I would read The Story of the World aloud, then have my children verbally answer the review questions and write a chapter summary. Since my children are 11 and 13 and are capable of reading the text independently, I use the test sheets as reading comprehension checks. The test book includes the right to make copies for the children in one family, so I only had to buy one book. It took about an hour to make all the copies I needed.

Currently, there is one test for each chapter, plus the answer key - that's it. One thing I would have liked is three or four cumulative tests to check retention of material after 10 to 12 chapters have been covered. I will most likely write these myself or create some other method to review several chapters at a time.

These are pretty much our favorite history resources! We have the audio books read by Jim Weiss and the actual books. I love to read these aloud to our children. They are engaging and interesting even for elementary school students (and adults). I have learned so much from these great resources.

Our family uses Classical Conversations and these make a very nice supplement to what we are learning through CC.

Book is well written, but....Shocking Illustrations. Dreadful, (how could she!?) I mean unless the illustrator was a homeless mother working for food, or a demented distant relative of the author or something...The kind of thing you feel you MUST add to, alter or just remove...worse than cartoons. NOT comical. WEIRD! Maybe drawings from a behavioral health clinic art workshop for the mentally disabled, eh, what happened? We thought 'Wise" was the authors middle name. Just have your children doodle and color them up for fun.

My eight-year-old son loved these books, has reread them many times and has given them to friends. The style is a model of writing serious content for children who want to learn about the world. Many kids gravitate more to non-fiction than fiction, but it is difficult to find books at their reading level that satisfy their interests. These are among the few. Wish there were more.

There is no doubt that this series is well written. My son read each of the four books in the span of less than a week. They really piqued his interest. These books will let you know what really turns on your child, but you'll need to go on for further, more in-depth review.

Can't recommend this series enough for the pre-teen set!

My family has greatly enjoyed the first three volumes of "The Story of the World" series. Our daughters have listened to the "Story of the World" CDs again and again. My oldest daughter on her own will pick up the first three books to read. So when Peace Hill Press sent out an email saying a few advanced copies were available, I quickly ordered a copy. When it arrived I had to take turns with my oldest daughter as we both wanted to read it.

In many ways this is a good conclusion to the series. It is a bigger book than the previous ones. Susan Wise Bauer says in the forward that Story of the World Volume 1 was written for children in grades 1 to 4, volume 2 was written for children in grades 2 to 5, volume 3 was written for children in grades 3 to 6, and volume 4 was targeted at children in grades 4 to 8. So this last book is written for a much higher level than the first book.

Be warned, in many ways this is a sad book, it focuses mainly on the wars, revolutions, and civil strife over the last 150 years. This is probably its biggest weakness. The book makes little mention of positive things that have happened over the last 150 years. Most of the discussions of changes in technology, business, or other areas of life have to do with how the changes affected war.

It was sad to see some basic patterns. Again and again some leader, or group of leaders, would try to gain power or expand power, there would be a lot of fighting, many people would die, and often things wouldn't fundamentally change.

The book is very comprehensive. It covers every part of the world. I learned a lot about South America and Africa. I had not realized that it was only in the 1870s that Europe carved up Africa.

This is a good conclusion to the series. It is well written. It was hard to put down. If you have read the first three volumes then you should buy this book. If not, you might want to start with the first volume.

Susan Wise Bauer's material has always been a favorite in our home. For the past three years I've always read aloud the books to my children. But for a change this year I wanted to try the audio CDs. We're really enjoying them. Bauer's ability to communicate history in an exciting way and the audio's narrator and character voices really grab their interest. This is the best material for grades 1 thru 8 that we've found! I highly recommend!

We are a homeschooling family. I Love this whole series! I have all of them on CD which is great because we take them in the van with us. You can listen to them over and over and really remember it that way. They are Told kind of like a story so it holds your interest. I have 5 kiddos and I find they all enjoy and learn from these. I am learning alot too :)

Susan Wise Bauer's material has always been a favorite in our home. For the past three years I've always read aloud the books to my children. But for a change this year I wanted to try the audio CDs. We're really enjoying them. Bauer's ability to communicate history in an exciting way and the audio's narrator and character voices really grab their interest. This is the best material for grades 1 thru 8 that we've found! I highly recommend!

We are a homeschooling family. I Love this whole series! I have all of them on CD which is great because we take them in the van with us. You can listen to them over and over and really remember it that way. They are Told kind of like a story so it holds your interest. I have 5 kiddos and I find they all enjoy and learn from these. I am learning alot too :)

The Story Of The World shows both history and adventure combined into a book,packed full of information about our worlds past.When I read it,I feel exited.Moving on to the next page.Who wins the battle?What happens next?It's all in The Story Of The World .

This history book is amazing. It has rich words, very well written and it make history fun and exciting.Don't listen to those people who gave a small amount of stars, this book is great and I srongly recomend it.

Although i have not used volume 4, I am finishing up year 3 of Story of the World only because i have been unable to find anything else. I recently stumbled on the history curriculum from abeka and i will switch to them and leave the Story of the World series behind with a huge sigh of relief. No year 4 for me! i have found Story of the World lessons to be tedious, tedious--and did i mention tedious? The hopscotching all over the world from chapter to chapter is very confusing and disjointed. there is too much material to cover in a school year and too little for 2 years. i have felt bogged down with this series since day one and leave it behind only regretting i did not find another option sooner!