Story of the World - The New 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition Volume 1
My Experience with SOTW
We have been using Story of the World for the past two years. I’ve written several other articles about this curriculum, with plans to write more. At the time of this writing I am preparing to teach SOTW Vol 3 next school year.
In the meantime I discovered that Susan Wise Bauer is publishing a “25th Anniversary Expanded Edition” for each of her volumes, and while she only has Volume 1 complete at this time, I was eager to see what she has done. Here is my analysis from comparing the two versions of SOTW Vol. 1 and the accompanying curriculum.
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Overview of the Changes
Susan Wise Bauer announced this expanded edition on YouTube as well as on the Well Trained Mind website. According to her article, the Expanded Edition includes:
Two new chapters on East Asian history (These appear to replace some of the previous chapters, as both editions have 42 chapters.)
Additional material in the existing chapters on key historical events
Ten new biographies of historical figures (I’ve noted where these fall in the Additional Biographies section below.)
Twenty new illustrations and maps (I’ll explore whether these are replacements or additional.)
An updated pronunciation guide
A new order to the chapters for better chronological flow (I compare these in the Text section below.)
Different/clearer formatting
A new audio recording by Katherine de Leiros
The Text
As I began to write this review, I realized I had loaned my Vol. 1 text to a friend, so I am having to rely on memory and the IG to help me compare the new and old text books.
Chapter Changes
The first 11 chapters are the same title in each. Then, the Expanded Edition (EE) rearranges the chapters, but they are still mostly in the same order until The Return of Assyria (ch. 16 RE, ch. 18 EE). After that the texts diverge greatly in the order of the chapters, and several chapters have completely different titles, which I assume means they also changed the text significantly.
Additional Biographies
Spread throughout the new EE are ten new biographies. They are each called “Optional Lessons” and do not have a chapter number.
I will list them below (with the EE chapters it comes between in parentheses after it).
The Story of Shammuramat, Warrior Queen of Assyria (18/19)
The Story of Draco and Solon, The Two Lawgivers of Athens (20/21)
The Story of Tullia Minor and Tarquin the Proud, The Last King and Queen of Rome (22/23)
The Story of Ajatashatru the Expander, The First Empire-Builder in India (25/26)
The Story of Mencius, The Greatest Follower of Confucius (26/27)
The Story of Spartacus, The Rebel Gladiator (31/32)
The Story of Zhang Qian, Hero of the Silk Road (33/34)
The Story of Judas Maccabee, Champion of the Jewish People (36/37)
The Story of Pliny the Younger, Survivor of Mount Vesuvius (38/39)
The Story of Zhang Heng, Astronomer, Poet, Mathematician, Geographer, and More (39/40)
Instructor Guide
Now Its Own Book
FINALLY - The Instructor’s Guide and the Student Activity Book are in TWO DIFFERENT BOOKS!
In the previous Revised Edition (RE), the Activity Book contained both the Instructor’s Guide at the front and the Student Activity pages at the back. You could buy additional copies of the student activity book separately, but I really disliked this combo and always had the binding cut and separately bound the instructor’s guide, then placed the student workbook pages in a 3-ring binder for easy copying.
I will still probably spiral-bind my Instructor’s Guide for ease of use (I do this to almost all my teacher books!), but the student activity pages are already separated. And they are perforated, so I can easily tear them out and hole-punch them!
More than 200 MORE PAGES
For comparison, I am only including the Instructor’s Guide (IG) pages from the previous edition (not the student pages that were originally included).
The previous (Revised) edition Instructor Guide had around 180 pages.
The Expanded Edition (EE) Instructor Guide is over 430 pages! Some of this is probably due to a slightly larger font used in the new edition (maybe 1-2 pts increase). And, it is formatted for better readability with sections more clearly marked. More on that below.
The Price
The new EE Instructor Guide appears to be slightly less expensive than the previous Activity Book, but because you have to purchase two books the cost will be more overall. However, I think the changes will be worth it.
Changes
The previous RE guide typically included about 3-5 pages per chapter, while the new EE Instructor Guide includes closer to 7-10 pages per chapter. These are rough estimates but give you an idea.
The new EE includes lots of headings and visual cues to make it easier to flip through the pages and find what you need. It includes a copy of the map within each chapter, along with instructions. The activities are listed in a gray box so that they stand out (and then the instructions are given after this list),
Literature
One thing I appreciated about the old RE that appears to be “missing” in the EE is cross-references with history encyclopedias (like the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia). In the previous edition, these were always listed at the beginning of each chapter in the IG. In this newer edition, the Usborne History Encyclopedia is mentioned in the “How to Use This Book” section, but it is apparently up to the instructor to correlate the pages.
Both editions have Additional Reading suggestions - both historical and literature. I compared three different chapters (with the same titles) to see how the book suggestions had changed, and they were actually quite different. There were some in each chapter that had been “kept” from the previous edition, but the lists included a lot of changes as well.
Scripted Lessons
Whereas previously you could use the narration exercises and the review questions to review the material after reading, in the EE the IG has scripted lessons for these two “Core Exercises.” Furthermore, the IG suggests alternating between these two activities.
This new edition appears to focus on making it very teacher (or parent) friendly. Before they appeared to have a smorgasbord of options to choose from, this edition makes it very clear that the teacher does not need to do every activity for each chapter. As a chronic over-achiever-who-then-fails-to-reach-my-own-aspirations, I appreciate this.
Types of Projects
Previously the IG simply called all the activities “Projects.” In the new version, each is labeled according to the type of activity it is.
Every chapter includes at least one map, coloring page, related topics to explore, creative writing prompt, and additional reading suggestions.
The list of activities by type are listed in Appendix 4. (I’ve added notes in parentheses.)
Activity Page (These only go with a few chapters.)
Art (Quite a few of these but not one per chapter.)
Celebration (Only a handful of chapters have these.)
Classroom Option (Most chapters seem to have one or more of these.)
Cooking (Quite a few chapters incorporate this.)
Craft (It looks like about half the chapters include crafts.)
Field Trip
Game (19 different games are included throughout the volume.)
Geography (Map work is included for every chapter with a total of 43 maps. A few additional Geography activities are included for several chapters.)
Low Pre/No Prep (All optional mini-lessons are considered “low prep.” Most chapters appear to have one or more of these.)
Make a Model (12 chapters include these.)
Math (This applies to 3 chapters.)
Memory Work (9 chapters suggest memory work/)
Movement (Lots of these!)
Picture Study (This only applies to chapters 28 and 36.)
Research Skills (These are included for all lessons as they suggest prompts to look up further research.)
Appendix 4 includes a list of all the activities in this volume by type.
Where Can I Purchase It?
I bought the Hardcover Package from Rainbow Resource.
Christian Book has the Paperback Package.
Amazon offers a Paperback Package as well as the audiobook for download.
You can also buy directly from the publisher here.
NOTE: The Well Trained Mind website (the publisher) has two PDF add-ons available for purchase, regardless of where you buy the rest of the books. These PDF Options are:
Review Question Worksheets (These “worksheets” are not included elsewhere, but the questions are in the Instructor Guide)
