Year 2 History: Middle Ages and Renaissance Times
It becomes really fascinating when you study world history chronologically and see how interconnected everything is, all the causes and effects.
We use Tapestry of Grace for book lists, but I also peruse Ambleside Online and other lists for a well-rounded history curriculum. I want all sides and perspectives.
We use this spine history text as a guide, especially for my younger kids: The Story of the World: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance.
We love The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade and The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople by Susan Wise Bauer for high school age. I learn lots too!
I go to the library about every week and get what I can.
I shop thrift stores, yard sales, half-price and used bookstores to get books we love to read again and again.
Other books we use throughout our history studies – over several years, when it applies to our time period:
- This Country of Ours by HE Marshall
- Our Island Story by HE Marshall
- The Struggle for Sea Power by MB Synge
- The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon
- Magic Treehouse
- If You Grew Up…
- American Girl Collection and Real Stories From My Time
- The Royal Diaries
- Dear America
We love Netflix and Amazon Prime for streaming. We sometimes view YouTube.
Famous Men of the Middle Ages is a good read this year.
Monks and Mystics is good church history.
See how we do history.
I am trying to teach real history, from every perspective. I want my children to understand that the winners wrote most of the history I learned. I love learning along with my kids and opening my mind to new ideas.
I want to learn and teach my kids about accurate events and stories involving colonization, racism, religion, and war.
I’ve read these books to help me educate myself:
It’s my job to teach my kids Truth and sometimes it’s really hard to face it and learn alongside my kids the issues my parents, public school teachers, and curriculum conveniently left out.
The Middle Ages and Renaissance time periods are fascinating and so many ideas during this time set the stage for our modern governments, literature, arts, and way of life.
We focus on exploration, colonizing, slavery, church missions and how European white supremacy created the world we are trying to salvage.
Unit 1: The Fall of Rome and Medieval Asia
History
Topics:
The Fall of Rome
Celts
St. Augustine
Byzantine Empire
Medieval Indian Empire
Hindu
Buddhism
Islam
Medieval China
Genghis Khan
Medieval Japan
Samurai
Medieval Oceania
Books:
Augustine, the Farmer’s Boy of Tagaste
Calligraphy by Fiona Campbell
The Story of Writing and Printing by Anna Baneri
Let’s Take a Walk through the Orthodox Church
Piece by Piece: Mosaics of the Ancient World
Places of Worship in the Middle Ages
In the Heart of the Village: The World of the Indian Banyan Tree
The Usborne Book of World Religions
Muslim Mosque: Places of Worship
Mosque by David Macaulay (like City and Cathedral)
Heroes: Great Men Through the Ages
Heroines: Great Women Through the Ages
The Great Wall of China by Leonard Everett Fischer
Literature
Beowulf (I love Seamus Heaney’s translation)
The Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Abbot and I: As Told By Josie the Cat
How the Monastery Came to Be on the Top of the Mountain
The Prince who Became a Beggar
The River Goddess: A Hindu Tale
Cat and Rat: The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac
The Warlord’s Puzzle (There’s a whole series!)
The Hunter by Mary Casanova
The Legend of Mulan by Wei Jiang
Liang and the Magic Paintbrush
The Master Swordsman and the Magic Doorway
Activities
Music from this period
Art from this period
Visit museums
Make your own book
Calligraphy
Quill and ink
Illumination – see our project
See our St. Patrick Unit and Ireland Unit Study
See My St. Nicholas unit
Sand art – see our project
Weave cloth
Eat with chopsticks
Make or go out for Indian, Chinese, Japanese food
String block printing
Origami
Make a kite
Compose haiku
Make poppycock or Bombay mix as a snack
Learn to use a boomerang
Make a paper lantern
Church History
The Church: Life in the Middle Ages
Movies
Unit 2: Middle Ages in Europe
History
Topics:
Clovis
Charles the Hammer
Charlemagne
Merovingian Dynasty
Franks
Moors
Vikings
Alfred the Great
Battle of Hastings
Bayeux Tapestry
Crusades
King Arthur
Saladin
Magna Carta
King Richard
Diaspora
Marco Polo
Ivan
Sulieman
The Plague
Joan of Arc
War of the Roses
Books:
Medieval Paris by Anna Cazzini Tartaglino
Paris by Renzo Rossi
Ten Kings and the Worlds They Ruled
The World in the Time of Charlemagne
Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky
The Grandchildren of the Vikings
Cathedral by David McCauley
William the Conqueror by Robert Green
A Three-Dimensional Medieval Castle
Castles by Gillian Osband
Clothes and Crafts in the Middle Ages
Knights by Philip Steele
Knights by Catherine Daly-Weir
The Middle Ages by Jane Shuter
Saladin: Noble Prince of Islam
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Marcia Williams
Magna Carta by C. Walter Hodges
Ten Queens by Milton Meltzer
The Silk Road by John Major
Suleyman the Magnificent and the Ottoman Empire
The Black Death by Tracee de Hahn
Life During the Black Death by John M. Dunn
Medieval Times by Giovanni di Pasquale
Plague by Katie Roden
The Little Princes in the Tower
Literature
East o the Sun and West o the Moon
The Mystery History of a Viking Longboat
Norman and Saxon poem by Rudyard Kipling
A Medieval Feast by Aliki
Sir Cumference (There’s a whole series!)
Saint Francis (see my unit study)
Queen Esther (see my Purim unit)
Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave
The King the Prince and the Naughty Sheep
The Legend of the Persian Carpet
Adventures of Tom Thumb by David Cutts
Richard III
Activities
Music from this period
Art from this period
Visit museums
Fleur-de-Lis art
We visited Paris and saw Saint Denis
We saw the Tapestry of Bayeux
Thor’s Hammer clay pendant
See or make a tapestry
Make or go out for Spanish food
Make oat cakes
Play chess or checkers
Design a coat of arms
We visited London
Learn archery
Celebrate Passover
Jewish responsa
Make Charoset
Tzedakah
Make a Mezuzah
Make borscht
Make Faberge eggs
Make Gingerbread
We went to Cologne
We visited Prague
Church History
Early Saints of God by Bob Hartman
Movies
Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse
Unit 3: Renaissance and Reformation
History
Topics:
Mansa Musa
see my Shakespeare unit study
The Tudors
The Borgias
The Medicis
Martin Luther
The Reformation
Books:
Outrageous Women of the Renaissance
Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation
Kings and Queens of West Africa
The Taj Mahal by Christine Moorcroft
A Medieval Cathedral by Fiona MacDonald
King Henry VIII by Robert Green
Copernicus by Catherine Andronik
Galileo by Leonard Everett Fisher
Galileo’s Leaning Tower Experiment
Galileo by Jacqueline Mitton
The Planets by Gail Gibbons
Elizabeth I by Greenblatt, Carrie Hollihan, Carol Greene, Diane Stanley, Kate Havelin,
To Be a Princess by Hugh Brewster
Art History
See how We Do Art
Art and Civilization: The Renaissance
The Printing Press by Richard Tames
How a Book is Made by Aliki
see my Michelangelo unit study
see my Bernini unit study
Italian Portraits: Images across the Ages
Leonardo da Vinci: authors – Mike Venezia, John Malam, Sean Connolly, Norman Marshall, Diane Stanley
What? series Richard Muhlberger
The Fantastic Journey of Pieter Bruegel
Katie books by James Mayhew
Pish Posh Said Hieronymus Bosch
Literature
Africa Calling, Nighttime Falling
Mansa Musa by Khephra Burns
Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta
Premlata and the Festival of Lights
Sacred River by Ted Lewin
Savitri by Aaron Shepard
Stories from India by Vayu Naidu
The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane
The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci
Starry Messenger by Peter Sis
Uh Oh Leonardo by Robert Sabuda
She Was Nice to Mice by A E Sheedy
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
Shakespeare
Activities
Music from this period
Art from this period
Visit museums
Learn Latin
Learn Greek alphabet
Scientific Method
Potato Painting
Stained glass with tissue paper or craft kit
Solar system model
Pisa drop experiment
Look at constellations
We like castles
We went to Versailles
We went to Porto, Portugal
We went to Bruges, Belgium
We visited Amsterdam
We went to Venice, Rome, Florence
Church History
Saint Francis (see my unit study)
Places of Worship: Christian Church
The Reformation by Fiona MacDonald
see my Reformation unit study
Movies
Unit 4: The New World
History
Topics:
Counter Reformation
Age of Exploration
Magellan
Vasco da Gama
Aztecs
Mayans
Incas
The Middle Passage
Walter Raleigh
Books:
The World of Columbus and Sons
Maps and Mapping by Barbara Taylor
Roanoke: The Lost Colony by Bob Italia
Sir Walter Raleigh by Susan Korman
Sir Walter Raleigh and the Search for El Dorado by Neil Chippendale
Sir Walter Raleigh by Tanya Larkin
Jacques Cartier by Donaldson-Forbes, Blashfield, Humble
Newfoundland by Jackson, Beckett
Pirates by Gail Gibbons
Ship by David Macaulay
Sir Francis Drake by Larkin, Champion, Duncan, Gerrard, Rice
Literature
From Slave Ship to Freedom Road
Follow the Dream by Peter Sis
Encounter by Jane Yolen
Secrets in the House of Delgado
Cuckoo by Lois Ehlert
Moon Rope by Lois Ehlert
The Lion’s Roar by Stainer
How Snowshoe Hare Rescued the Sun
Kayktuk
Shipwreck by Claire Aston
Activities
Music from this period
Art from this period
Visit museums
Make a compass
Make a boat
Eat sweet potatoes and cassava
Mayan math
Aztec hot chocolate
Church History
Mr. Pipes and the Hymns of the Reformation
Church History in Plain Language
Movies
Sankofa
Lions Among Men
Tula, The Revolt
I’m still adding to my list. I love researching and learning with my kids.
See my Pinterest board for Year 2 History:
What’s your favorite medieval history book?
This brings back such wonderful memories of my homeschool days. My friend used Tapestry of Grace, and I used KONOS. Both using the “living books” format which my kids and I loved!
I wish that there was a blog community like this back when I was homeschooling which would have been a wealth of encouragement and inspiration like you’ve shared here.
Wow! What a list! Do you/ your kids read all of this? It says “resources” so just checking…. Stopping by from Let’s Have Coffee.
Liberty @ B4andAfters.com
We really do read all of this during our history cycle. I read many books aloud.
Wow, Jennifer! You certainly are thorough consideriding every angle and every nook and cranny of history. And how awesome to learn with your kids. I think the Lord wants us to be life-long learners and students. So true that bits and pieces of stories and events are often left out.
Yay! I’m just about to start year 1, but I’m definitely pinning this for next year. What a great help! Thanks for sharing your collection of year 2 history resources!
Yay! Here are my Year 1 Resources: https://www.jenniferalambert.com/year-1-history-resources/
Wow, I am impressed. What a great list. Blessings, Maree