The Story of the World
The Story of the World is a four-volume narrative world history, from ancient times to the modern age, written to be read aloud to elementary children or read alone by older ones. Each volume becomes a year of history and geography with its Activity Book: parent pages with review questions, narration exercises, reading lists and project directions, and consumable student pages with maps, puzzles and coloring pages. Volume 1 has a new edition that splits this into an Instructor Guide and a Student Workbook; tests and audiobooks are sold separately.
- Subjects
- History and geography
- Grades
- About 1st to 8th grade: Volume 1 is mainly for 1st to 4th grade and Volume 4 for 4th to 8th source ↗
- Method
- Classical source ↗
- Format
- Books and workbooks source ↗
- Faith label
- Not labelled
- Cost a year
- $53.47 a year. Volume 2, The Middle Ages, in paperback: text $16.96 (list $19.95) and Activity Book $36.51 (list $42.95), $53.47 together on sale today. PDFs cost less. Read on October 29, 2026; prices change. source ↗
- Placement
- No placement test on the publisher’s site when we checked.
What it does well
- One volume and its Activity Book make a full year of history and geography, with review questions, narration, map work and projects laid out for the parent.
- The books are written to be read aloud to younger children and read alone by older ones, so siblings several grades apart can share a year.
- The text and Activity Book come in paperback or PDF, and audiobooks are sold for listening in the car.
- Reading lists for each chapter point to history and literature books to go further.
Watch for
- The new Volume 1 edition and the older Activity Books do not mix, so check that the text and guide you buy are the same edition.
- The student pages are consumable, so a second child needs an extra set of Student Pages, sold separately.
- The reading-list books and project supplies are not included; you borrow or buy them yourself.
- The series ends at about 8th grade, so high school history needs another program.
It fits
A family that wants world history told as one story in time order, read aloud together, with narration, mapping and projects for children of several ages.
It doesn’t fit
A family that wants a workbook course a young child can do alone, or a program that continues into high school.
Visit The Story of the World ↗
Compare The Story of the World
- The Story of the World vs The Mystery of History side by side
- The Story of the World vs History Quest side by side
Other programs for the same subject and grades:
- Beautiful Feet Books Kindergarten to 12th grade, in grade spans such as K to 3rd, 4th to 6th and 5th to 8th
- The Good and the Beautiful Preschool to 12th grade; high school has language arts and biology only
- History Quest 1st to 6th grade; United States is for 3rd to 6th, and the Modern History Bridge book reaches 7th grade
- Khan Academy Kindergarten to 12th grade, plus early college courses
- The Mystery of History Ages 5 and up, about kindergarten to 12th grade; Volume I reads at a 3rd to 4th grade level and Volume IV at 9th grade and up
- Notgrass History 1st to 12th grade: elementary courses for 1st to 4th, middle school for 5th to 8th, high school for 9th to 12th
- Tapestry of Grace Kindergarten to 12th grade in levels: Primer (K to 1st), Lower Grammar (1st to 3rd), Upper Grammar (4th to 6th), Dialectic (7th to 9th), Rhetoric (10th to 12th)
Lists it is on
What we read, and how we label
Every fact on a card was read on the publisher's own website on the date shown, and the page it came from is linked. A fact we could not confirm there is left out. Costs are for one child and one year of the main package, as the publisher's page showed them that day; prices and sales change. Method and format are the publisher's own description where it gives one. The only thing we say about religion is one label, secular or faith-based, given by the rule above; where the publisher's pages don't settle it, the card has no label.
The publisher’s pages we read on October 29, 2026:
- welltrainedmind.com/c/series/the-story-of-the-world/
- welltrainedmind.com/c/series/the-story-of-the-world/sotw-og-edition/
- welltrainedmind.com/a/introducing-story-of-the-world-volume-1-25th-anniversary-expanded-edition/
- welltrainedmind.com/p/the-story-of-the-world-vol-2-the-middle-ages-revised-edition/
- welltrainedmind.com/p/activity-book-2-story-world-vol-2-middle-ages-revised-edition/
- welltrainedmind.com/p/the-story-of-the-world-activity-book-1-ancient-times-from-the-earliest-nomad-to-the-last-roman-emperor/
- welltrainedmind.com/p/the-story-of-the-world-vol-4-the-modern-age-revised-edition-activity-book/
- welltrainedmind.com/about-us/
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