Ready to Explore the Medieval WOrld?
In this 32-week elementary medieval history curriculum, we seek to develop the key understanding that that life as we know it is not how life has always been. We do this through three core learning practices:
1) Reading fantastic books
2) Focused discussions
3) Engaging student pages
Who is this for?
This curriculum is designed for elementary students and can be used family-style. The content and the challenge level of the student pages is probably most suited toward 2nd-5th grade, but could be adapted for use with 1st-6th graders.
What subjects are covered?
Medieval World: History covers Bible, memory work, history, and geography, as well as exploring language and manners (as the chosen “life skills” for this year’s program). Hands-on art activities and art history can easily be added through our companion resource, Medieval World: Art. Through weekly history notebooking exercises, your student should also get practice in copywork and/or composition, depending on their level and the way in which you choose to implement weekly notebooking.
What other subjects will I need to add?
Other core subjects (i.e. math, language arts, and science) and any electives of choice (i.e. piano, typing) would need to be added to create a complete elementary year of study.
What books do I need to buy?
There are a LOT of books scheduled in this literature-rich program. You can find the complete booklist in the sample. You do not need to purchase all of these titles, although if you are in a season of life where you are looking to build up your home library with good children's books, these are great titles to choose from. If you have good library access, many of these titles are widely available at libraries.
It is ideal to purchase the spine books that are used all year long, each of which can be found listed in the booklist.
Can I replace a book from the booklist with a different book?
Of course you can! We seek to make book replacements very easy by making it clear what the topic of study is. For example, we list the book The Girl Who Helped Thunder and Other Native American Folktales by Joseph and James Bruchac. This is a collection of short folktales from variety of Native American cultures. If you’re unable to access this book, you could easily substitute it with a different book of authentic Native American folktales for children, or any other quality picture book introducing children to the worldview and way of life of Native American peoples before Europeans reached North America, because that is the purpose of including this book in our curriculum.