A Homeschool History Book List for Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, and Exploration Time Periods
Something I love about homeschooling is that we can learn without tedious textbooks. I suppose if we wanted to read boring textbooks, we could, but it is so much more enjoyable to read “living books” that immerse the reader in a story or adventure while also teaching.
Living books can cover any topic, including more technical subjects, such as science and math. However, my favorite subject for using living books is history. Living history books may be quality historical fiction, biographies, or primary source documents- anything that draws you in and fuels your curiosity for information. We primarily use living books for our homeschool middle school history.
This year, our family is covering the time period from around the height of Rome through (hopefully) 1700ish. It covers medieval times, the Renaissance, the Reformation and into the period of the explorers of the “New World”- a huge chunk of time to cover! But whatever we don’t get through this year will be pushed to next year. That’s the beauty of homeschool.
Living Books List: Rome to Explorers
I wanted to share with you a sampling of some of the living books I’m using with my middle schoolers in our homeschool study of history this year. As a timeline guide, we are using the Mystery of History, Volume Two, The Story of the World, Volume Two and The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. Then we will go in depth by reading the following books:
- The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
- The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
- The Ides of April by Mary Ray
- Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard
- The White Stag by Kate Seredy
- Son of Charlemagne by Barbara Willard
- Beorn the Proud by Madeleine Polland
- The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French
- Wulf the Saxon by G.A. Henty
- Winning His Spurs by G.A. Henty
- The Magna Charta by James Daugherty
- Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray
- The Hidden Treasure of Glaston by Eleanore M. Jewett
- Red Falcons of Tremoine by Hendry Peart
- Big John’s Secret by Eleanore M. Jewett
- In Freedom’s Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce by G.A. Henty
- The Morning Star of the Reformation by Andy Thomson
- The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
- The Samurai’s Tale by Erik Christian Hauggaard
- A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh
- Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigating the World by Katharine Bailey
- Columbus by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
- Giant of Faith and Science Johannes Kepler by John Hudson Tiner
- A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla
- Inventor, Scientist, and Teacher Isaac Newton by John Hudson Tiner
- Mother of John and Charles: Susanna Wesley by Charles Ludwig
- Surviving Jamestown by Gail Langer Karwoski
The list of historical living books spanning this time period is enormous, and condensing it into a manageable portion for one school year was challenging! I hope this helps give you some ideas for creating your living books middle school history homeschool curriculum.
Which living books for this time period would you add to the list?
Check out this post for reasons why we homeschool!
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