Story of the World, Vol. 2: History for the Classical Child: The Middle Ages

I homeschool my two children ages 7 and 9. They have different ways of learning, but we can always come together for history and dive right in! I’m so thankful for these books because we were using something else that was not working for the both of my kids. It is a lot like a story time for them. In my opinion I don’t think you need the extra books(activity book and test book), but they are also wonderful. I read the chapters and tweak it to my children’s way of learning.

My kids just love this. My 9 y/o son can't get enough of it. Start with Vol.1. This is "Highly" recommended.

I purchased Volume 1 of the series (there are 4 Volumes)and my son loved it so we went ahead with Volume 2. I found the book appropriate for Grades 1 through 4 but my Fifth Grader enjoyed the book because many topics are covered concisely. For older students (Grades 5 to 8) I would also recommend using "Kingfisher History Encyclopedia" concurrently.

My 12 year old son loves listening to the CD. He doesn't even consider it school work and I would guess that he is learning a whole lot more than he would from a text book. It is a wonderful overview of history.

While this book is designed for younger elementary children, I believe it is more concisely thorough than most high school students will ever retain. I am using it for late elementary and middle school students who are captivated by the stories which springboard their interest into deeper reading. We are, of course, supplementing every few sections with an appropriate grade level novel. I love that "whole world" approach which skips back and forth between the major cultures at each time frame. Most sources overfocus on European World History and eliminate the co-existing and critically, historically important Islamic and Eastern cultures. I would venture to say that most adults do not have the unified historical threads keenly integrated. My "kids" are learning the basic flow of history with a high degree of retention using this curriculum with historical literature supplementation. I would skip the activity book due to philosophical concerns (which I have posted under the activity book listing) if it were not true that the maps and question review are very important. We did add Sherri Payne's Around the World in 180 Days geography program to this. We hopscotched through the continental studies as we encountered them in SOTW, even breaking down the "Define" and "Term" sections into specific areas of SOTW study. When the year of history was done, 99% of the geography course was done, as well. It fit together well. I think the kids appreciated the variety of dividing the continent sections up a bit over the year, rather than an exhaustive study all in one length time frame.

I bought this book as a follow up to Ancient Times, the first volume in the series. That book was great--but this one is better. It covers a very complicated time of history in a simple, straightforward way that helps students makes connections between events all over the world--not just in Europe, but in the Americas before colonialism, in Africa, in Asia, in Australia. The author also talks about great works of literature and even retells some of them to give readers a little more insight into the times. We loved the story of Beowulf told in rhyming couplets! For the first time I have a good grasp of the order of events leading from the MIddle Ages into the Renaissance and Reformation--and my children are EXCITED about the study of history. Highly recommended. Can't wait for Volume Three.