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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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.
The Tuttle Twins - use code Cheryl40 for 40% off ages 5-11 book series
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my Curriculum, a series where we talk all about curriculum. I've been interviewing homeschooling families for over a year now on my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To, but I really wanted to zero in on curriculum. There's so much out there. How do I know what would work best for me and my child? How do I know what works for one child would work for the other? I might like the curriculum I'm using now, but how do I know there's not a better one out there, especially if I don't know all the curriculums? And what about supplemental curriculum? Should I be using that too? This series is to help you decide just that. I'm going to interview parents who are using all the curriculums so that you can decide the absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. The absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. Welcome. And with us today we have Kara Perry. Hi, kara, thank you so much for being here, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:
You are going to tell us about Story of the World. Is that right? That's right. So I am not familiar with this one at all. I think I've heard of it, but have no inkling as to what story of the world is, what subjects or ages or anything. So I'm really excited. Okay, I will just let you kind of go into what, even like, led you to picking this curriculum.
Speaker 2:
Well, I've always been interested in the Well-Trained Mind by Susan Weisbbauer, I think is her name, and she's got a book called the well-trained mind and just about her homeschooling style and her philosophy. So I've always been drawn to that and she um published the story of the world and so I just immediately was like led to that. I have looked at other ones, but I just always came back to this one.
Speaker 2:
So so she wrote the like the book or a book, and then wrote this curriculum yeah, just this little book, okay, and there's 42 chapters in here, and so this starts from the earliest people all the way to the end of the roman empire, so that's volume one and then so there's four volumes, and so she wrote this book for, I think, this one's first to fourth graders, so it's just the history written as a story for them to understand easily.
Speaker 1:
So so is that kind of like the Charlotte Mason way of like no, no, not really Okay.
Speaker 2:
It's kind of.
Speaker 1:
I mean, I guess they overlap in some ways, Because it's a story that the students are kind of learning about the story and probably, like it sounds to me like maybe putting you in that time with the story around Just here's, rather than in school, when it's like here's what happened. Here were the Aztecs, the Incas and the Mayans. This is what they did. This is the time period. End of story.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, it's not really like that, although they do suggest doing a timeline with your like making one, but it's not really like memorizing the dates or anything like that, but it's just like it's just written like a story and um, and she makes it. I think it comes to life for my kids. My son loves it, so he's always like, can we do history? 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:
but so then, that brings me to the next question what subject is this for?
Speaker 2:
and I'm I'm gathering it's history yes, it is yep history and I would say there's some geography in there, because they do map work okay, great.
Speaker 1:
Is this like what they would consider open and go, or do you have to do any prep?
Speaker 2:
yeah, I would say it's open and go. There's an activity book that comes with it and and that's here too. So what's inside here is coloring pages and um review questions, narration exercises and it kinds of it guides you as a teacher on how to do the narration exercise, and then there's additional history reading and then the map work and coloring pages if you have younger kiddos, and then there's projects in here too. So there's art projects, science projects.
Speaker 2:
There's that go with the chapter that you read. Okay so, and sometimes there's cooking, sometimes there's recipes in there that go with it.
Speaker 1:
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 me like what ages this would be for? And I know like some histories are cyclical, so you can do it. You do it multiple times throughout the child's, like learning years with homeschooling years. Can you just kind of give me an overview on like what ages you're doing with your kids and how that works?
Speaker 2:
yeah, so this is written for, uh, first to fourth graders, I think, and then the next one they say is like second to fifth, and so I don't, I don't know exactly, but it goes up each year and then, um, so I'm using this with my first well, I used this with my first Well, I used it with my first grader, and now he's in second grade and we're using it still as a second grader, so so will it cycle back.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so Story of the World. Once you go through all four volumes, they have a set for middle schoolers and maybe high school too. But that goes through the same information but more in depth. So, yeah, yeah, I don't know if we'll get there, but so, like, how does this fit into your other curriculums?
Speaker 1:
I mean, I know we'll talk in a different episode about what other curriculums you're using but like how, how many hours a day overall do you spend homeschooling generally, and how does this fit into that portion?
Speaker 2:
It probably we usually do about four hours a day with between my second grader and kindergartner, the two of them together. It takes about four hours for me, not for them, but this only takes like an hour a week is what we do.
Speaker 1:
Oh, okay, I was going to say, I mean, you could probably that's heavy.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, no, no no no, we just do a chapter a week. You could do more or less, but we do just a chapter a week and so we just read one of the chapters from the textbook and then we do the map work. And then also they have like suggested reading. They have like cross-referencing with um encyclopedias. So they have four encyclopedias that they suggest to use and we use the one from us born encyclopedia of world history, um, so we do that.
Speaker 2:
So then it's got pages from there with pictures and makes it bring it to life a little bit more, like visually, so, um, so yeah, we do those three things and we usually I'd love to do the projects. I don't ever get to them, so but we have done a couple, we've done some. They do have like game boards in there and so we've done that a few times because he loves games, so, oh, that's awesome. But yeah, there's tons of options that you could do. You could do. You know you could spend more time on it if you wanted to, but you don't have to, and that's kind of the nice part.
Speaker 2:
Like yeah there.
Speaker 1:
if you want to do more, you don't have to, though you don't have to.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Like right, you know, what I really like about this too is it's it sounds like you know, when you said it starts from the early civilizations you know and goes through. I don't feel like that's how we learned it in school, like like being public schooled. I maybe there was some overlying like rhythm that they had going on, but it didn't make sense to me at the time as I was learning it. So now I find it really interesting as an adult trying to like just learn things in general and learn about stuff to teach my kids, and I'm like, oh, like, for instance, when you hear about the Babylonians, you know they were one of the first like recorded civilizations and where that is on the timeline, I think it's like 6,000 BC and really relating that to where we are today, like, oh, that was 8,000 years ago and gee, that really wasn't that long ago when you think of how long?
Speaker 1:
they say the earth has been here, if it's been here for 13 billion years, like really 8,000 is just so I feel like we were ever given those like concepts in school and it kind of sounds like this might lay it out a little bit nicer for for the kids. I don't know, I don't know that's, if you have a response to that yeah, um, yeah, I think it does.
Speaker 2:
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 all new information to me. I'm learning alongside my son here, so, um, but yeah, it's interesting to see, like the timeline here and we haven't personally made a timeline but, um, I think that would be super useful and I'll probably, let's probably do that next year, uh, when we go into volume two. Yeah, I think it's really useful. He's kind of learning like, oh, like we just watched this civil war reenactment yesterday and they were like what? You know, the north is trying to take over the south, and I'm like this has been going on since early times, like that's pretty much all this is is people taking over, you know, empire after empire, and so anyway, it was kind of fun.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, oh, that is so true when you think about it, wow, yeah, it's, yeah, like this is. It's the same thing over and over and over again, just different people playing the games wow or well, I guess some would tell you it's the same people, they're just changing, like what they go by.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so okay. So you kind of told us what this curriculum does look like from the bird's eye view, as in going from early civilizations and up the timeline, does it run like through… say like 9-11? Does it go up that closely to where we are today?
Speaker 2:
I'm not sure what. The fourth volume. I know it's called Modern Times. I'm not sure how recent she wrote that and what's in there. But, I'd have to look that up, because we haven't gotten that far.
Speaker 1:
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 uses this for the older kids. That would be a good episode too, um yeah yeah, so yeah, you had told me that you spend approximately an hour a week. Do you do that all in one day or do you do like 20 minutes a day?
Speaker 2:
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 few different sections, we'll maybe break up the reading into two days and then do the extra, you know, with the encyclopedia and the map work on the second day.
Speaker 1:
And then give it a break and open it the next week. Yeah, okay, do you have other things that you supplement in? Or just kind of like Monday and Tuesday are our long days?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, he's got like a lot of his language arts and stuff only take three days a week. So kind of on our easy day where there's just writing and math, we try to do science and history on those days just so it's not bogged down on the other days.
Speaker 1:
And that, as like homeschooling parents as we're thinking about, like how to lay out. I, my oldest, is in kindergarten, so for me this is homeschooling is brand new. I started the podcast because I have no idea how to homeschool and I decided to interview the people who do so. For the last year, or over a year now, I've been interviewing homeschooling families and then just the question of curriculum keeps coming up. So I wanted to do a series just like short, quick episodes about different curriculums out there so parents can just kind of listen, because you know you can read all the websites but it doesn't really tell you like what a day to day looks like. So that's why I started.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:
How like as having a kindergartner, I mean. I go back and forth every week. It's different. It's like, ok, we're really doing like reading and math and stuff, and then the next week I'm like you should just play.
Speaker 2:
Just life is about playing right now, but since you're a second grader.
Speaker 1:
You're kind of like, well, you really do have to do stuff. What state are you in? We're in Florida.
Speaker 2:
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 end of the year, or you can meet with a Florida certified teacher and they don't have any subject requirements here. So you just have to show that there's progress being made. So they'll look at work from the beginning, middle and end to make sure that there's progress. So I guess, technically I don't have to do history, I just I love history and it turns out my son 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 sit there and do it with me and I'm, like, I don't think, a kindergartner I mean we have other books.
Speaker 2:
I mean he looks at, you know historical book, like books. But I don't make him listen to this 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:
As we're thinking of when to incorporate this into our school days or homeschool days, home education days.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Would you suggest first grade, or do you think even starting a little bit later would be better?
Speaker 2:
yeah, I think, even like um, I was planning on using this for my first grader last year and he just wasn't really interested in it. So, and we actually started with a different curriculum that I thought was more tailored for younger kids and we ended up not really liking that um, so I just kind of put it on the back burner and we take a break and then, uh, like the last 12 weeks of first grade, we picked up story the world again and he has been really liking it so isn't it funny yeah, so I think one year yeah, and he's just the difference, yeah, just
Speaker 2:
it makes a huge difference and he likes it a lot. So I'm like so we have the next book for next year. But I'm like he's an older um, so he's november baby, so he was six when we started kindergarten. So he's kind of an older, I mean compared to my kindergarten. Now who's gonna be six after kindergarten? Because he's summer. So I'm like you know, when they're older or younger, that makes a huge difference too, because with him I'm probably not gonna start till second grade for history and um, because he's so young and do you remember how much these books cost?
Speaker 2:
yeah, so you can get the whole set, 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, the student pages, which are, you know, the coloring pages and the map. Or, yeah, the map work and the game boards. Oh, I think it's got tests, test and answer key, which I don't do, but the four of those are $50. Oh, and then, if you just wanted, you can actually just read the chapters. You don't even have to do any of the other stuff, you could just read the chapters and this book. Even have to do any of the other stuff, you could just read the chapters and this book's only $12 to $15, depending on if it's paperback or hardback.
Speaker 1:
Oh, wow so it's really affordable. Yeah, did you say the four volumes including all that other stuff is $50?
Speaker 2:
Or like when you go to volume two, will that?
Speaker 1:
be additional.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah. So $50 for all the volume, one books, but you can actually buy all four volumes together and I think 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:
Yeah, that's another reason I like the Well-Trained Mind is they have really affordable curriculums to choose from Okay, so the Well-Trained mind is like the overarching, and then story of the world is just one of their like subjects.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so, yeah. So I think she it's just her philosophy, and she wrote a book on homeschooling called the well-trained mind, and now they publish stuff. So you know, if they has their sticker on it, their sticker of approval for math curriculum or science or whatever, ok, then you know, oh they, they think this is good, so so I might use that I have heard of the well-trained mind, so maybe if I can find it on audio, because I just fall asleep when I read myself, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:
They. Yeah, they actually do. Yeah, I think you can get that on audio. You can also get the story of the world on audio book too, which I think I actually bought that for next year because I get tired reading out loud. There's so much of it that I'm like and some of the words, the names from back then are like hard to pronounce. There is a pronunciation guide in there, but yeah, but that's a great option too.
Speaker 1:
I'm glad that you said that, because that is really nice, like if you can fold laundry at well, you know, your son sits there and maybe he'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 wonderful to sit and read together but like it. But like it's fun to read together the books that, like you know, have the colorful pages and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:
Like you can still do that stuff before 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:
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to use it because, like I said, I get tired of reading all of it out loud.
Speaker 1:
So this does sound like this is a curriculum that you can do with more than one child, right Like how will you cycle in?
Speaker 2:
your younger one. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Like are you going to do this? Yeah, so I'm not going to worry about starting him?
Speaker 2:
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 for me, 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 wherever we're at, that's where he's gonna be at, and then we'll probably since he's let's see, he's so he's two grades below. Yeah, I guess, when my second grader's in middle school and they're kind of doing but he's still doing elementary, I might have them do different things.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you know cycle back with the kindergartner.
Speaker 1:
but you can always have one. Yeah, I'm just going to have him jump in Cycle back on audio in the morning in his bedroom. Yes, catch up on that audio.
Speaker 2:
That's true. Yeah, I'll just have him jump in wherever we're at.
Speaker 1:
I'm not even worried too worried about, like you know, starting from volume one and I love that and I think that is stuff that people need to hear too. Like it doesn't you just do what works?
Speaker 2:
yeah, it doesn't have to be in order yeah, yeah um, all right, and they're whatever they miss. They're going to go over it again in later years too oh perfect.
Speaker 1:
Perfect, all right. So is this a secular? I mean it's hard because it's history, so obviously there's religion in there.
Speaker 2:
Yes, there's definitely religion. Some people yeah, there's actually on YouTube like people arguing about this Interesting, I would say it's secular. They don't it's. They do talk about all religions in there. They don't talk about any religion as if that's the right one, and I think that's where some people get upset. Some Christians want it to be like. They don't like it. I don't know. No, that's cool.
Speaker 1:
I like to hear this perspective. Yeah, yeah, no, that's cool. I like to hear this perspective.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, they don't talk about Christianity like that's the religion to follow. They kind of talk about all of them, just unbiasedly, and yeah, I would say it's secular, but they definitely talk about religion, right, because how can you talk about history without talking about religion, right? Yeah, they're all important, yeah, yeah about religion, right?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, they're all important. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, and I think that that's great because then you can add in whatever you want to teach your kids about.
Speaker 2:
Exactly, that's what I like. Yeah, you can do whatever you want to do with that and they, you know they talk about mythology and she covers it all. It's really good that's cool.
Speaker 1:
Was there anything about this curriculum that you didn't like?
Speaker 2:
I haven't run into anything I don't like yet. All right, we're sticking with it.
Speaker 1:
Story of the world. Two thumbs up, all right. Well, kara, thank you for talking to us today about story of the world. I'm excited to kind of delve into this one a little bit more. This is a you've sold me, I think.
Speaker 2:
That's good. Yeah, I like talking about it. I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1:
I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Please consider sharing this podcast or my main podcast, the Homeschool how To with friends, family, on Instagram or in your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it going and the more hope we have for the future. Thank you for your love of the next generation.