Story of the World, Vol. 4, Chapter 42 (titled “The End of the Twentieth Century”) is the last chapter in volume 4 and, as such, the end of our journey through Story of the World volumes 1-4. It has been a long and pleasant journey. Every year, we covered this curriculum in a different way.
Bust of one of three US presidents from TN, Andrew Johnson – at the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville.
One year, we faithfully followed every suggestion in the book, did all the reading comprehension questions and narration exercises, read most of the books recommended, did the mapwork, and at least one craft. Another year, I just could not seem to find time for history. So we crammed it all in during the second semester. Actually, it was more like from the middle of March until June.
The next year, we read it through the summer and did the mapwork and some crafts, no comprehension questions or narrations anymore. The fourth year has been this year. The kids are more mature, they do not connect with all the crafts, so we focused more on mapwork and timeline building.
New Strategy
We will do this whole curriculum all over again. This time, I have an intermediate student and a middle grader. It is going to be different in a new way. We will read more books, look things up more in the encyclopedia and online, fill in the timeline books, and maybe do a craft or two. Sometimes they feel crafty or they want to color something. It will be a more relaxed approach, I suppose, but a more in-depth study at the same time.
For this chapter, we did not do a craft. Instead, we admired all the busts and monuments and statues inside and outside the Tennessee Capitol when we were in Nashville back in February. This last chapter talks about the importance of monuments and highlights the Washington Monument.
