LoginA Child's History of the World
Description:
A Child's History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer. Revised edition hardcover with lesson manual and workbook, $62. Workbook and lesson manual only, $48. Text only, $28. Available from Calvert School. Buy the 1951 edition via HomeschoolChristian.com's Amazon affiliate link.
A Child's History of the World is a classic. Written shortly after World War I by Calvert School's first Head Master, this history storybook combines charm with facts to stimulate young minds and leave them yearning for more information. Calvert School now offers a revised version with a student workbook and lesson manual as a supplement for any curriculu
A Child's History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer. Revised edition hardcover with lesson manual and workbook, $62. Workbook and lesson manual only, $48. Text only, $28. Available from Calvert School. Buy the 1951 edition via HomeschoolChristian.com's Amazon affiliate link.
A Child's History of the World is a classic. Written shortly after World War I by Calvert School's first Head Master, this history storybook combines charm with facts to stimulate young minds and leave them yearning for more information. Calvert School now offers a revised version with a student workbook and lesson manual as a supplement for any curriculum.
A Child's History of the World , containing 91 chapters that start at the beginning of time and reach to the present, has had numerous revisions since its first appearance. After many years of experience teaching students and revising and rewriting lessons, Mr. Hillyer published the original A Child's History of the World in 1924. Virgil Hillyer died in 1931, and his work was revised and additional history that occurred since the first publication was added for the 1951 edition, updated by the Assistant Head Masters at Calvert School at that time, Edward G. Huey and Archibald Hart. In 1994, the book was revised and enlarged by Suzanne Ellery Greene Chapelle. According to Bob Graham, Calvert Public Relations, "Some information was added to include more ancient history (Africa, mostly)."
According to Mr. Hillyer, the purpose of this "basal history study" for nine year olds is to "have the pupil able to start with Primitive Man and give a summary of World History to the present time, with dates and chief events without prompting, questioning, hesitation, or mistake." Mr. Hillyer suggests that students who do not have a firm grasp on dates and names have suffered from "superficial teaching and superficial learning." The student should be "required to retell each story after he has read it and should be repeatedly questioned on names and dates as well as stories, to make sure he is retaining and assimilating what he hears."
Many homeschooling parents are concerned about whether this book is written from a Christian perspective. In the introduction, Mr. Hillyer mentions that, as a child, he heard of Christ and His times only in Sunday school. They were "to me mere fiction without reality. They were not mentioned in any history that I knew and therefore, so I thought, must belong not to a realm in time and space, but to a spiritual realm." He weaves a story in this book that relates Biblical history in the context of other events and people of the same time.
Evolution is not specifically addressed in A Child's History of the World. Mr. Hillyer asks us to think back to when there was no world at all -- "only the stars, and God, who made the stars." He then suggests that the earth was created by a spark thrown off from the sun and that tiny plants, animals in the sea, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and finally humans came. Mr. Hillyer then moves on to a discussion of what life was like for primitive man and the discovery of fire, bronze, and iron in Chapters Two and Three. He offers an overview of the "cradle of civilization," in Chapter Four.
In Chapter 5, "Real History Begins," the terms "B.C." and "A.D." and the creation of written history are discussed. After touching on ancient Egypt and Babylonia, the author moves on to a chapter entitled the "Jews Search for a Home," in which stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Samuel are briefly recounted. Mr. Hillyer continues with a comprehensive overview of civilizations around the Mediterranean. While European history has more pages devoted to it in the book, he also addresses China, India, Africa, South America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. All of the stories are engaging and yet filled with important facts.
Mr. Hillyer's presentation takes us back to an earlier time when writers considered discussion of the Bible and faith to be a standard part of life. In Chapter 17 about the Assyrians, Mr. Hillyer mentions that the huge statues in Ninevah are "what are called cherubs in the Bible." When relating the story of China, he compares Confucius's teachings with the comment, "This sounds something like one of the Ten Commandments: Honor thy father and thy mother." He says, "Confucius also taught the Golden Rule that you are taught today, only instead of saying, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, he said, Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you." He tells the story of Christ's life in simple, factual terms in the chapter devoted to Him. Much later in the chapter on Constantine, the author tells the story of St. Helena and talks about the Nicene Creed, "which many Christians still say every Sunday." In the middle ages, knights are said to have sworn "to fight for the Christian religion."
Unfortunately, in the later sections of the book, editorial "signs of our times" and political correctness have crept in. Singling out of African American contributions occurs even though the events do not particularly add to the story. For example, in chapter 82, "The Age of Miracles," the combustion engine is mentioned with no discussion of inventor, and the next paragraph brings up the popularity of automobiles with the comment, "An African American named Garrett Morgan invented the three-color traffic signal and patented it in 1923." The paragraph after that discusses Thomas Alva Edison. In the final chapter of the book, after failing to mention the name of the discoverer of the smallpox vaccine or anything beyond the name of Albert Einstein, the following sentence appears: "And blood plasma -- an African American, Charles Drew, figured out how to store this in blood banks so it, too, could be used to save the wounded fighting men."
In the last paragraph of "The Age of Miracles,"chapter, the author draws far reaching conclusions that attempt to compare the people of 1,000 years ago with today.
"Life is faster and more exciting; but it is more difficult and more dangerous. Instead of singing or playing the violin, or piano, we turn on the stereo or the radio and miss the chief joy in music, the joy of making it ourselves. Instead of the jogging drive in an old buggy behind a horse that goes along through the countryside almost by himself, we speed on in dangerous autos, to which we must pay constant, undivided attention or be wrecked. Instead of pure air, we often have pollution."
The author of the revised chapters continues to harp on the topic of environmentalism. After a discussion of the Industrial Revolution and colonization, the following paragraphs appear:
"You know that sometimes changes aren't always all good. One bad thing that happened because of the Industrial Revolution was the taking of colonies by the rich industrialized countries. Another bad result of the Industrial Revolution is still troubling us today. That is pollution. Also, many natural resources are being used up or destroyed. Pollution and the loss of natural resources are called environmental problems. We know that factories that make wonderful things sometimes discharge poisons into the air that we breathe and the water we drink. That is pollution. People can get sick from breathing polluted air and drinking polluted water. We know that over the years, many of the earth's forests have been cut down so the wood from the trees could be used for building houses and furniture and for making paper. When a forest is destroyed or an ocean is polluted, then the animals that live there have no place to live any more, and so they die out. Wen there are no more animals of any given kind, we say that they are extinct. Today, a number of animals are in danger of becoming extinct, either because they are being killed or because their homes are being destroyed. Can you name any of these animals?"
In the conclusion of this chapter, the author refers to the "four big things to remember about the Industrial Revolution," the last two of which are that "the industrialized nations became so rich and powerful that they could control most of the rest of the world" and that "we still have to solve environmental problems that were caused by the Industrial Revolution."
In the final chapter of the book, the author brings up the topic of environmentalism again when speaking of the future:
"Perhaps by then people will know how to build factories that don't poison the air and water and to use earth's resources wisely so we don't run out. And perhaps people will have learned to share, so that everyone in the whole wide world has enough food to eat and a decent place to live. Perhaps, best of all, people by then will know how to settle their problems without fighting wars."
Another area of concern for conservative parents may be in the discussion of the Viet Nam war. A factual account of the events that led our country to become involved and the outcome of the war are told. The paragraph below follows that account:
"The wars in Korea and Vietnam had been very costly. Many men, women, and even children lost their lives. Many other people were injured. All the countries involved had to spend a lot of money on guns and ammunition, airplanes and bombs, and all the equipment they needed to fight. This was money that they could not spend on other things -- like food and homes and schools and hospitals."
A Child's History of the World Workbook -- The spiral-bound, paperback workbook offers 292 pages of activities divided into three sections. The first 137 pages are fill-in-the-blank outlines of the reading. While these outlines may help the student recall events of the chapter, they will not take the place of narration of the story as Mr. Hillyer recommended. I would advise that parents check the work pages for political correctness and to make sure that the point of the story has been expressed in the outline. For example, the work page for Chapter 34, "The Noblest Roman of Them All," is an outline of Julius Caesar's life. The point Mr. Hillyer mentions at the end of the story, the identity of the "Noblest Roman" -- Brutus, is not covered at all in the outline. One could easily miss Mr. Hillyer's point if only using the worksheets.
The second section of the workbook has a timeline that begins in 2,400 B.C. and ends in 2000 A.D. The student is supposed to remove this from the book and glue it together for display on the wall. One page of "cut and paste timeline pictures" is included.
"Enrichment activities" are in the last section of the workbook. Word scrambles, crossword puzzles, hands-on projects like making Babylonian bread and crafts of many kinds, poetry, and other activities add fun to the material. There are 107 tasks that correspond to the lessons in the Lesson Manual.
A Child's History of the World Lesson Manual -- This spiral-bound, paperback has 90 step-by-step lesson plans for A Child's History of the World . The numbering plan on the lessons corresponds to a "complete" Calvert program for fourth grade by having the lesson number match the day that the child would do history work. Consequently, the manual skips from lesson 1 to lesson 3 to lesson 5 to lesson 6 and so on.
Each lesson includes a list of student assignments and materials for the enrichment activities at the top of the page. It then shows an objective for the lesson and some suggested introductory questions to ask your child before reading the story. In the first lesson the following note is made: "Please feel free during the next chapters to discuss a different theory your family may hold about the origin of the world." After the introductory questions, the "instruction" section tells the parent to read the story with the child and have the child do the workbook outline page. Then, basic discussion questions with answers in parentheses are provided for the parent. Last, one or more enrichment activities are assigned in the workbook or described in the lesson manual. Additional books related to the time period are occasionally recommended.
Answer keys to the workbook outlines and enrichment activities are in the back of the Lesson Manual.
Recommendation: A Child's History of the World is a delightful way to introduce an elementary-aged child to world history. The stories are brief, yet engaging, and will hold the interest of even the youngest school children. The introduction of "political correctness" in the revision is disappointing, but can be worked around by the involved parent. This book makes an excellent read-aloud book for all children.
The support materials, the workbook and lesson plans, are easy to adapt to the family's needs. I especially liked some of the suggested enrichment activities. I urge parents to act upon Mr. Hillyers recommendation to have the child narrate the story as the primary method for remembering the material, rather than relying on the "fill-in-the-blank" approach of the workbook outlines.
All in all, A Child's History of the World study program offers families a well-laid out, thorough introduction to world history that is bound to spark interest in further studies.
How Things Got Started
Umfa-Umfa and Itchy-Scratchy
__ Fire! Fire! Fire!
From an Aiplane
__ Real History Begins
The Puzzle-Writers
__ The Tomb Builders
A Rich Land Where There Was No Money
__ The Wandering Jews
Fairy Tale Gods
__ A Fairy Tale War
The King of the Jews
__ The People Who Made Our ABC's
Hard as Nails
__ The Crown of Leaves
A Bad Beginning
__ King with the Corkscrew Curls
A City of Wonder and Wickedness
__ A Surprise Party
The Other Side of the World
__ Rich Man, Poor Man
Rome Kicks Out Her Kings
__ Greece vs. Persia
Fighting Mad
__ One Against a Thousand
The Golden Age
__ When Greek Meets Greek
Wise Men and Otherwise
__ A Boy King
Picking a Fight
__ The Boot Kicks and Stamps
The New Champion of the World
__ The Noblest Roman of Them All
An Emperor Who Was Made a God!
__ Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
Blood and Thunder
__ A Good Emperor and a Bad Son
In Hoc Signe Vincere
__ Our Tough Ancestors
White Toughs and Yellow Toughs
__ Nightfall
Being Good
__ A Camel- Driver
Arabian Days
__ A Light in the Dark Ages
Getting a Start
__ The End of the World
Real Castles
__ Knights and Days of Chivalry
A Pirate's Grandson
__ A Great Adventure
Tit-Tat-Toe; Three Kings in a Row
__ Bible Made of Stone and Glass
John Whom Nobody Loved
__ A Great Storyteller
Thing-A-Ma-Jigger
__ Thelon Gest Wart Hate Verwas
Off With the Old, On With the New
__ A Sailor Who Found a New World
Fortune Hunters
__ The Land of Enchantment
Born Again
__ Christians Quarrel
King Elizabeth
__ The Age of Elizabeth
James the Servant
__ A King Who Lost His Head
Red Cap and Red Heels
__ A Self-Made Man
A Prince Who Ran Away
__ America Gets Rid of Her King
Upside Down
__ A Little Giant
From Pan and His Pipes to the Phonograph
__ The Daily Papers From 1854 To 1865
Three New Postage Stamps
__ The Age of Miracles
Germany Fights the World
__ Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Harsh as it sounds, I would like to make the argument that no matter how much children enjoy it, this book is still a very bad idea. The biggest problem with it is its overtly racist framework, something that may have seemed perfectly all right when it was first written in the 1920's, but that is quite shocking today. The author is very clear at the outset about who "we" are: white Christians of European descent. And the word he uses - which even the 1947 revision does not cut - is "Aryan", an imaginary racial category that reached its peak of popularity in Nazi Germany.
The author carefully explains that there were "just three different white families, and from these families all the white people in the world are descended". Although the book does not explicitly say so, these three families, the Aryans, the Semites, and the Hamites, are presumably descended from the three sons of Noah. (For the discredited 19th-century racist origins of this theory, see [..].) The paragraph that has stayed in my mind since I first found a copy of this book 20 years ago runs:
"If your name is Henry or Charles or Wiliam, you are probably an Aryan.
"If it is Moses or Solomon, you are probably a Semite.
"If it is Shufu or Rameses, you are probably a Hamite."
According to Mr. Hillyer, all the major civilizations of the world have been created by white people (the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent are helpfully identified as white). Although Confucius and the Buddha get respectful nods, the civilizations of Asia are not worth mentioning. When Asians do come into the story, they appear as "tribes of yellow people" led by "terrible fighters" like Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, who wanted to "wipe off the face of the earth all white people and everything that white people had ever built." Russians, indeed, are suspect, because "although they were white people, they were living so close to the yellow people in China that they had become much like them in many of their ways." And astonishingly, for a book that was written in Baltimore in the twentieth century, people of African descent simply do not exist. The author muses that "we don't know how nor when nor where colored people first lived, though it is interesting to guess," and that's the end of it.
Racism aside, the other main problem with the book is gross inaccuracy. According to the author, humans did not discover fire until long after they had been hunting with stone spears and painting magnificent pictures on cave walls (with charcoal among other things.) And almost immediately after the discovery of fire, they discovered copper and tin and the Bronze Age began. But only in the Tigris and Euphrates valley and along the Nile (where the white people lived); everyone else was still living in caves.
Things get better as the book goes along, but there are still plenty of instances in which myth is presented as historical fact. (I leave out the chapters in which the Old Testament is treated as literal history, since I know that many readers of this review will not share my views on that issue.) People in Columbus' time did not actually believe the world was flat. George Washington did not actually chop down the cherry tree. And printing and gunpowder were not actually invented in Europe, but were known in China hundreds of years earlier. But all of these tales are treated as fact. The chapter on Gutenberg starts out with the sentence, "Up to this time there was not a printed book in the whole world" - although this month's National Geographic contains a picture of a printed Chinese book from the ninth century. In addition, both the Reformation and the American Revolution were apparently due entirely to resentment over taxes. The great ideals of human freedom and equality and democratic self-government - certainly the most inspiring parts of the American story that I told my children - are considered too advanced for the readers of this book.
True, children love stories about people, and the stories in this book are charmingly told, if your children don't mind the condescending tone. And true, they stick in your brain. Many years ago I had a children's history book rather similar to this one, and what sticks in my brain about Elizabeth I of England - arguably the greatest ruler in European history - is that she was very vain and had lots of dresses. Hillyer improves on this picture, but only very slightly. His Elizabeth is still vain, and has lots of lovers (!), but she does manage to defeat the Spanish Armada. Hillyer is so impressed by this that he considers her "more man than woman", and jokingly calls her "King Elizabeth." Is there some reason that we are still sending this message to our daughters?
I'll grant you that it's a good thing for children to have heard of Pericles, Louis XIV and Peter the Great. The Italian Renaissance gets a chapter, there is commendable attention to the contributions of the Muslim civilization of the Middle Ages, and there is at least one hint that not all the motives of the Crusaders were entirely admirable. But in general, most "world history" happened in Europe, and after the Renaissance it generally involved English-speaking people. Among the missing pieces are the era of European colonization, slavery, the Industrial Revolution, the continent of South America both before and after the Spanish conquest, and the entire history of Native Americans.
I would argue that even for small children, a view of "the world" that completely leaves out the voices and experiences of non-white and non-English-speaking people, that in fact treats most of them as if they are either strange "yellow races" or just not worth noticing, is potentially crippling in the twenty-first century. It conditions its readers to see people who are not just like them as alien, incomprehensible, and vaguely frightening - "them" rather than "us". Attention, homeschoolers: your children will be growing up into a world, and a country, full of people not just like them. In order to function in that world they will need some understanding of, and respect for, the different experiences of those people. Third grade is nowhere near too early to start. ... (more) (less)
A Child's History of the World is a classic. Written shortly after World War I by Calvert School's first Head Master, this history storybook combines charm with facts to stimulate young minds and leave them yearning for more information. Calvert School now offers a revised version with a student workbook and lesson manual as a supplement for any curriculum.
A Child's History of the World , containing 91 chapters that start at the beginning of time and reach to the present, has had numerous revisions since its first appearance. After many years of experience teaching students and revising and rewriting lessons, Mr. Hillyer published the original A Child's History of the World in 1924. Virgil Hillyer died in 1931, and his work was revised and additional history that occurred since the first publication was added for the 1951 edition, updated by the Assistant Head Masters at Calvert School at that time, Edward G. Huey and Archibald Hart. In 1994, the book was revised and enlarged by Suzanne Ellery Greene Chapelle. According to Bob Graham, Calvert Public Relations, "Some information was added to include more ancient history (Africa, mostly)."
According to Mr. Hillyer, the purpose of this "basal history study" for nine year olds is to "have the pupil able to start with Primitive Man and give a summary of World History to the present time, with dates and chief events without prompting, questioning, hesitation, or mistake." Mr. Hillyer suggests that students who do not have a firm grasp on dates and names have suffered from "superficial teaching and superficial learning." The student should be "required to retell each story after he has read it and should be repeatedly questioned on names and dates as well as stories, to make sure he is retaining and assimilating what he hears."
Many homeschooling parents are concerned about whether this book is written from a Christian perspective. In the introduction, Mr. Hillyer mentions that, as a child, he heard of Christ and His times only in Sunday school. They were "to me mere fiction without reality. They were not mentioned in any history that I knew and therefore, so I thought, must belong not to a realm in time and space, but to a spiritual realm." He weaves a story in this book that relates Biblical history in the context of other events and people of the same time.
Evolution is not specifically addressed in A Child's History of the World. Mr. Hillyer asks us to think back to when there was no world at all -- "only the stars, and God, who made the stars." He then suggests that the earth was created by a spark thrown off from the sun and that tiny plants, animals in the sea, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and finally humans came. Mr. Hillyer then moves on to a discussion of what life was like for primitive man and the discovery of fire, bronze, and iron in Chapters Two and Three. He offers an overview of the "cradle of civilization," in Chapter Four.
In Chapter 5, "Real History Begins," the terms "B.C." and "A.D." and the creation of written history are discussed. After touching on ancient Egypt and Babylonia, the author moves on to a chapter entitled the "Jews Search for a Home," in which stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Samuel are briefly recounted. Mr. Hillyer continues with a comprehensive overview of civilizations around the Mediterranean. While European history has more pages devoted to it in the book, he also addresses China, India, Africa, South America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. All of the stories are engaging and yet filled with important facts.
Mr. Hillyer's presentation takes us back to an earlier time when writers considered discussion of the Bible and faith to be a standard part of life. In Chapter 17 about the Assyrians, Mr. Hillyer mentions that the huge statues in Ninevah are "what are called cherubs in the Bible." When relating the story of China, he compares Confucius's teachings with the comment, "This sounds something like one of the Ten Commandments: Honor thy father and thy mother." He says, "Confucius also taught the Golden Rule that you are taught today, only instead of saying, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, he said, Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you." He tells the story of Christ's life in simple, factual terms in the chapter devoted to Him. Much later in the chapter on Constantine, the author tells the story of St. Helena and talks about the Nicene Creed, "which many Christians still say every Sunday." In the middle ages, knights are said to have sworn "to fight for the Christian religion."
Unfortunately, in the later sections of the book, editorial "signs of our times" and political correctness have crept in. Singling out of African American contributions occurs even though the events do not particularly add to the story. For example, in chapter 82, "The Age of Miracles," the combustion engine is mentioned with no discussion of inventor, and the next paragraph brings up the popularity of automobiles with the comment, "An African American named Garrett Morgan invented the three-color traffic signal and patented it in 1923." The paragraph after that discusses Thomas Alva Edison. In the final chapter of the book, after failing to mention the name of the discoverer of the smallpox vaccine or anything beyond the name of Albert Einstein, the following sentence appears: "And blood plasma -- an African American, Charles Drew, figured out how to store this in blood banks so it, too, could be used to save the wounded fighting men."
In the last paragraph of "The Age of Miracles,"chapter, the author draws far reaching conclusions that attempt to compare the people of 1,000 years ago with today.
"Life is faster and more exciting; but it is more difficult and more dangerous. Instead of singing or playing the violin, or piano, we turn on the stereo or the radio and miss the chief joy in music, the joy of making it ourselves. Instead of the jogging drive in an old buggy behind a horse that goes along through the countryside almost by himself, we speed on in dangerous autos, to which we must pay constant, undivided attention or be wrecked. Instead of pure air, we often have pollution."
The author of the revised chapters continues to harp on the topic of environmentalism. After a discussion of the Industrial Revolution and colonization, the following paragraphs appear:
"You know that sometimes changes aren't always all good. One bad thing that happened because of the Industrial Revolution was the taking of colonies by the rich industrialized countries. Another bad result of the Industrial Revolution is still troubling us today. That is pollution. Also, many natural resources are being used up or destroyed. Pollution and the loss of natural resources are called environmental problems. We know that factories that make wonderful things sometimes discharge poisons into the air that we breathe and the water we drink. That is pollution. People can get sick from breathing polluted air and drinking polluted water. We know that over the years, many of the earth's forests have been cut down so the wood from the trees could be used for building houses and furniture and for making paper. When a forest is destroyed or an ocean is polluted, then the animals that live there have no place to live any more, and so they die out. Wen there are no more animals of any given kind, we say that they are extinct. Today, a number of animals are in danger of becoming extinct, either because they are being killed or because their homes are being destroyed. Can you name any of these animals?"
In the conclusion of this chapter, the author refers to the "four big things to remember about the Industrial Revolution," the last two of which are that "the industrialized nations became so rich and powerful that they could control most of the rest of the world" and that "we still have to solve environmental problems that were caused by the Industrial Revolution."
In the final chapter of the book, the author brings up the topic of environmentalism again when speaking of the future:
"Perhaps by then people will know how to build factories that don't poison the air and water and to use earth's resources wisely so we don't run out. And perhaps people will have learned to share, so that everyone in the whole wide world has enough food to eat and a decent place to live. Perhaps, best of all, people by then will know how to settle their problems without fighting wars."
Another area of concern for conservative parents may be in the discussion of the Viet Nam war. A factual account of the events that led our country to become involved and the outcome of the war are told. The paragraph below follows that account:
"The wars in Korea and Vietnam had been very costly. Many men, women, and even children lost their lives. Many other people were injured. All the countries involved had to spend a lot of money on guns and ammunition, airplanes and bombs, and all the equipment they needed to fight. This was money that they could not spend on other things -- like food and homes and schools and hospitals."
A Child's History of the World Workbook -- The spiral-bound, paperback workbook offers 292 pages of activities divided into three sections. The first 137 pages are fill-in-the-blank outlines of the reading. While these outlines may help the student recall events of the chapter, they will not take the place of narration of the story as Mr. Hillyer recommended. I would advise that parents check the work pages for political correctness and to make sure that the point of the story has been expressed in the outline. For example, the work page for Chapter 34, "The Noblest Roman of Them All," is an outline of Julius Caesar's life. The point Mr. Hillyer mentions at the end of the story, the identity of the "Noblest Roman" -- Brutus, is not covered at all in the outline. One could easily miss Mr. Hillyer's point if only using the worksheets.
The second section of the workbook has a timeline that begins in 2,400 B.C. and ends in 2000 A.D. The student is supposed to remove this from the book and glue it together for display on the wall. One page of "cut and paste timeline pictures" is included.
"Enrichment activities" are in the last section of the workbook. Word scrambles, crossword puzzles, hands-on projects like making Babylonian bread and crafts of many kinds, poetry, and other activities add fun to the material. There are 107 tasks that correspond to the lessons in the Lesson Manual.
A Child's History of the World Lesson Manual -- This spiral-bound, paperback has 90 step-by-step lesson plans for A Child's History of the World . The numbering plan on the lessons corresponds to a "complete" Calvert program for fourth grade by having the lesson number match the day that the child would do history work. Consequently, the manual skips from lesson 1 to lesson 3 to lesson 5 to lesson 6 and so on.
Each lesson includes a list of student assignments and materials for the enrichment activities at the top of the page. It then shows an objective for the lesson and some suggested introductory questions to ask your child before reading the story. In the first lesson the following note is made: "Please feel free during the next chapters to discuss a different theory your family may hold about the origin of the world." After the introductory questions, the "instruction" section tells the parent to read the story with the child and have the child do the workbook outline page. Then, basic discussion questions with answers in parentheses are provided for the parent. Last, one or more enrichment activities are assigned in the workbook or described in the lesson manual. Additional books related to the time period are occasionally recommended.
Answer keys to the workbook outlines and enrichment activities are in the back of the Lesson Manual.
Recommendation: A Child's History of the World is a delightful way to introduce an elementary-aged child to world history. The stories are brief, yet engaging, and will hold the interest of even the youngest school children. The introduction of "political correctness" in the revision is disappointing, but can be worked around by the involved parent. This book makes an excellent read-aloud book for all children.
The support materials, the workbook and lesson plans, are easy to adapt to the family's needs. I especially liked some of the suggested enrichment activities. I urge parents to act upon Mr. Hillyers recommendation to have the child narrate the story as the primary method for remembering the material, rather than relying on the "fill-in-the-blank" approach of the workbook outlines.
All in all, A Child's History of the World study program offers families a well-laid out, thorough introduction to world history that is bound to spark interest in further studies.
How Things Got Started
Umfa-Umfa and Itchy-Scratchy
__ Fire! Fire! Fire!
From an Aiplane
__ Real History Begins
The Puzzle-Writers
__ The Tomb Builders
A Rich Land Where There Was No Money
__ The Wandering Jews
Fairy Tale Gods
__ A Fairy Tale War
The King of the Jews
__ The People Who Made Our ABC's
Hard as Nails
__ The Crown of Leaves
A Bad Beginning
__ King with the Corkscrew Curls
A City of Wonder and Wickedness
__ A Surprise Party
The Other Side of the World
__ Rich Man, Poor Man
Rome Kicks Out Her Kings
__ Greece vs. Persia
Fighting Mad
__ One Against a Thousand
The Golden Age
__ When Greek Meets Greek
Wise Men and Otherwise
__ A Boy King
Picking a Fight
__ The Boot Kicks and Stamps
The New Champion of the World
__ The Noblest Roman of Them All
An Emperor Who Was Made a God!
__ Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
Blood and Thunder
__ A Good Emperor and a Bad Son
In Hoc Signe Vincere
__ Our Tough Ancestors
White Toughs and Yellow Toughs
__ Nightfall
Being Good
__ A Camel- Driver
Arabian Days
__ A Light in the Dark Ages
Getting a Start
__ The End of the World
Real Castles
__ Knights and Days of Chivalry
A Pirate's Grandson
__ A Great Adventure
Tit-Tat-Toe; Three Kings in a Row
__ Bible Made of Stone and Glass
John Whom Nobody Loved
__ A Great Storyteller
Thing-A-Ma-Jigger
__ Thelon Gest Wart Hate Verwas
Off With the Old, On With the New
__ A Sailor Who Found a New World
Fortune Hunters
__ The Land of Enchantment
Born Again
__ Christians Quarrel
King Elizabeth
__ The Age of Elizabeth
James the Servant
__ A King Who Lost His Head
Red Cap and Red Heels
__ A Self-Made Man
A Prince Who Ran Away
__ America Gets Rid of Her King
Upside Down
__ A Little Giant
From Pan and His Pipes to the Phonograph
__ The Daily Papers From 1854 To 1865
Three New Postage Stamps
__ The Age of Miracles
Germany Fights the World
__ Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Harsh as it sounds, I would like to make the argument that no matter how much children enjoy it, this book is still a very bad idea. The biggest problem with it is its overtly racist framework, something that may have seemed perfectly all right when it was first written in the 1920's, but that is quite shocking today. The author is very clear at the outset about who "we" are: white Christians of European descent. And the word he uses - which even the 1947 revision does not cut - is "Aryan", an imaginary racial category that reached its peak of popularity in Nazi Germany.
The author carefully explains that there were "just three different white families, and from these families all the white people in the world are descended". Although the book does not explicitly say so, these three families, the Aryans, the Semites, and the Hamites, are presumably descended from the three sons of Noah. (For the discredited 19th-century racist origins of this theory, see [..].) The paragraph that has stayed in my mind since I first found a copy of this book 20 years ago runs:
"If your name is Henry or Charles or Wiliam, you are probably an Aryan.
"If it is Moses or Solomon, you are probably a Semite.
"If it is Shufu or Rameses, you are probably a Hamite."
According to Mr. Hillyer, all the major civilizations of the world have been created by white people (the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent are helpfully identified as white). Although Confucius and the Buddha get respectful nods, the civilizations of Asia are not worth mentioning. When Asians do come into the story, they appear as "tribes of yellow people" led by "terrible fighters" like Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, who wanted to "wipe off the face of the earth all white people and everything that white people had ever built." Russians, indeed, are suspect, because "although they were white people, they were living so close to the yellow people in China that they had become much like them in many of their ways." And astonishingly, for a book that was written in Baltimore in the twentieth century, people of African descent simply do not exist. The author muses that "we don't know how nor when nor where colored people first lived, though it is interesting to guess," and that's the end of it.
Racism aside, the other main problem with the book is gross inaccuracy. According to the author, humans did not discover fire until long after they had been hunting with stone spears and painting magnificent pictures on cave walls (with charcoal among other things.) And almost immediately after the discovery of fire, they discovered copper and tin and the Bronze Age began. But only in the Tigris and Euphrates valley and along the Nile (where the white people lived); everyone else was still living in caves.
Things get better as the book goes along, but there are still plenty of instances in which myth is presented as historical fact. (I leave out the chapters in which the Old Testament is treated as literal history, since I know that many readers of this review will not share my views on that issue.) People in Columbus' time did not actually believe the world was flat. George Washington did not actually chop down the cherry tree. And printing and gunpowder were not actually invented in Europe, but were known in China hundreds of years earlier. But all of these tales are treated as fact. The chapter on Gutenberg starts out with the sentence, "Up to this time there was not a printed book in the whole world" - although this month's National Geographic contains a picture of a printed Chinese book from the ninth century. In addition, both the Reformation and the American Revolution were apparently due entirely to resentment over taxes. The great ideals of human freedom and equality and democratic self-government - certainly the most inspiring parts of the American story that I told my children - are considered too advanced for the readers of this book.
True, children love stories about people, and the stories in this book are charmingly told, if your children don't mind the condescending tone. And true, they stick in your brain. Many years ago I had a children's history book rather similar to this one, and what sticks in my brain about Elizabeth I of England - arguably the greatest ruler in European history - is that she was very vain and had lots of dresses. Hillyer improves on this picture, but only very slightly. His Elizabeth is still vain, and has lots of lovers (!), but she does manage to defeat the Spanish Armada. Hillyer is so impressed by this that he considers her "more man than woman", and jokingly calls her "King Elizabeth." Is there some reason that we are still sending this message to our daughters?
I'll grant you that it's a good thing for children to have heard of Pericles, Louis XIV and Peter the Great. The Italian Renaissance gets a chapter, there is commendable attention to the contributions of the Muslim civilization of the Middle Ages, and there is at least one hint that not all the motives of the Crusaders were entirely admirable. But in general, most "world history" happened in Europe, and after the Renaissance it generally involved English-speaking people. Among the missing pieces are the era of European colonization, slavery, the Industrial Revolution, the continent of South America both before and after the Spanish conquest, and the entire history of Native Americans.
I would argue that even for small children, a view of "the world" that completely leaves out the voices and experiences of non-white and non-English-speaking people, that in fact treats most of them as if they are either strange "yellow races" or just not worth noticing, is potentially crippling in the twenty-first century. It conditions its readers to see people who are not just like them as alien, incomprehensible, and vaguely frightening - "them" rather than "us". Attention, homeschoolers: your children will be growing up into a world, and a country, full of people not just like them. In order to function in that world they will need some understanding of, and respect for, the different experiences of those people. Third grade is nowhere near too early to start. ... (more) (less)
Manufacturer: Sonlight Curriculum Ltd.
Release date: 1 January 2000
ISBN-10 : 1887840370 | ISBN-13: 9781887840378
Release date: 1 January 2000
ISBN-10 : 1887840370 | ISBN-13: 9781887840378
Tags: Sonlight Core 1 (1)
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Themes heist, drugs, kidnapping, coming of age
Genre drama, parody, sci-fi, comedy
Locations paris, submarine, new york
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