Rating: 
Summary: Author should be Red Faced
Review: Not only is this book dumbed down it is full of historical and Bible errors. Greek myths are treated as truth and the little thrown in Bible (as an after thought or marketing stragity) is in great error. Obviously written from a misinformed secular focused Catholic. This book is an embarrassment to homeschoolers- anyone praised it should also be ashamed.
Rating: 
Summary: AWESOME!!! I can't imagine doing histroy without it!!
Review: The Activity Guide compliments SOTW beautifully!! My first graders can't wait to do history. And I love the review questions and the example narrations. They love the coloring pages and the map work. Mostly they look forward to the projects. Most of the projects are easy, and do not take much prep time. Being in the grammar stage, it is a great way to do hands-on work while introducing them to new material. They truly understand what a 'cuneiform tablets' is after making their own. I am so thankful for this book. I believe this book is a start of a life-long interest in history. Thank you Susan Wise Bauer.
Rating:
Summary: Worth its weight in gold.
Review: The Story of the World: Activity Book One: Ancient Times is an amazing resource. Perfectly matched with The Story of the World text, it is an invaluable resource. This book should be required for every elementary school child.
The book starts with a handy pronunciation guide, which is a great help with the many ancient names encountered. It ends with a huge section of student pages, which include maps of the ancient world, coloring pages (many taken from ancient art/architecture), and review cards. Found in between these 2 sections is the comprehensive teaching guide. The teaching guide has a wealth of information, for every section. The reading is cross-referenced with Usborne and Kingfisher history encyclopedias. Review questions and sample narrations are provided. Lists of optional, supplemental, age-appropriate reading materials are included, as well. In many sections, there are recipes appropriate to the geographical area and/or time period being studied. Even with all of the above, Ms. Bauer did not stop. Every chapter has a wealth of hands-on activities and projects, correlated to the subject matter. These activities are designed to be done with materials that most people already have in their homes. There are always several activies included, ranging from the simple to the complex. For example, the chapter on The Old Kingdom in Egypt includes a project to make a Lego step pyramid, and instructions on how to mummify a chicken. This is by far the most comprehensive and well-written history activity guide that I have ever used. Everything that I needed was included. After using this in kindergarten, my son has a deeper understanding of ancient history than many of the adults that I know. I used several of the projects with my teenage daughter as well, and she thoroughly enjoyed them. I would highly recommend this book for every family with children.
Rating:
Summary: Great Resource for Grammar Stage History!
Review: This activity guide has many resources which make it a worthwhile purchase. The book lists for each chapter of Story of the World made it easy for me to go online with my library and reserve books ahead of time which would enrich our lessons. The blackline maps for each chapter helped my kids to identify the geographical regions where the historical events took place. The guide includes numerous suggestions for hands-on projects that help to bring history alive for young children. If one project didn't appeal to me or fit with my schedule, another one would. My 5 year old and 7 year old boys enjoyed making a model of the Nile River and flooding its banks, causing the grass seed we planted to sprout: a fun simulation of the real yearly event. The Roman aqueduct model we made recently was a hit! I appreciated not having to come up with project ideas on my own. My boys began to come up with some project ideas of their own after doing several of the guide projects. The guide offers a coloring page for each chapter, some of which we used. Others we skipped because my kids preferred to draw their own pictures. Some I skipped, because as a Christian, I didn't particularly want to dwell on depictions of other gods. Some of the coloring pages were well-drawn; others seemed amateurish. I did like having the option of a coloring page. This activity guide greatly ehanced our enjoyment of the book The Story of the World and our study of the ancients this past year. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: The Activity Book has been invaluable to us!
Review: This Activity Guide made my children history lovers, no doubt! As I read the history lesson for the day, the kids colored the coloring pages and referred to the maps provided in the Guide. We then jumped into a project...some of our favorites were making our own coats of many colors (when we learned about Joseph), building sand pyramids, and making a living model of the Nile River. We included pictures of the children working on their projects in their history notebooks and they really love to look back over the many subjects we have studied this year. We are now busily and happily enjoying Volume II!! I recommend this book to anyone looking to add more depth and excitement to their history studies!
Rating:
Summary: Next time hire a proofreader...
Review: This book has:
(1) review questions--a great way to be sure your child understood the chapter in SOTW
(2) additional book suggestions--what a wonderful way to enrich your history curriculum. Our library has most of these and they are great!
(3) activities--the best part of these is that they can be as simple or complicated as you want. For example, for the 'build a pyramid' project, you could make it our of legos (simple) or out of homemade sand-covered blocks
(4) coloring pages and maps--these are wonderful I can't think of a better way to enrich your study of history!
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the money!
Review: This book has:
(1) review questions--a great way to be sure your child understood the chapter in SOTW
(2) additional book suggestions--what a wonderful way to enrich your history curriculum. Our library has most of these and they are great!
(3) activities--the best part of these is that they can be as simple or complicated as you want. For example, for the 'build a pyramid' project, you could make it our of legos (simple) or out of homemade sand-covered blocks
(4) coloring pages and maps--these are wonderful I can't think of a better way to enrich your study of history!
Rating:
Summary: Next time hire a proofreader...
Review: This book is full of spelling errors which makes me really wonder about the authors. I mean, they're telling us what to use and what to do to educate our children and they can't spell! The projects are nothing more than busy-work and half the time, if you follow the instructions word-for-word, the project does not come out correctly. About the only good thing in the book is the narration questions and the supplemental reading, but SOTW barely scratches the surface of history and if you do all the supplemental stuff and the activities there is absolutely no way you'll get through the book in the time that you're supposed to (one school year). All in all, save your money and go to the library. Look in the reference section or ask your librarian for both fiction and non-fiction books on whatever period of history you're doing and then read, read, read. The kids learn more by reading and discussing than by trying to mummify a chicken which does nothing more than stink up the house for weeks and the chicken does not end up mummified. I will NOT be buying any further volumes in the SOTW series (either the text or the Activity Books) and I very quickly sold my copies of both.
| 
