Teaching history with living books-- what and who to cover?

[DesertBlossom]

I decided that the best way for history to get done this year is to just do living books as read alouds and have them available for the kids to read on their own  time. I'm having a baby mid-year, so we're keeping our expectations especially low. :)  We are studying middle ages. Our library has a lot of children's non-fiction books about the middle ages in general, but I realized I need an outline for major events or people that I should cover as well. Where can I find something like that? My kids are 8,7 and 5.

 

Thanks!

[EKS]

Just to point out, SOTW is a living book.  I'd use that and then add in a bunch of supplemental reading from the library.  You don't have to do anything other than reading.  If you want to add some output beyond what naturally arises in discussion, you can have them write about what they're learning.  At that age (well, 7 and 8, not 5 so much), I'd say "Tell me about..." whatever seemed interesting.  Castles, knights, Joan of Arc, whatever.  Or not.

[Chelli]

Look at the Table of Contents of Story of the World Middle Ages or the TOC of any Middle Ages curriculum.

 

Use the TOC to decide what books to look for.

 

You could also purchase All Through the Ages which lists hundreds of books for different time periods and reading levels then all the work is done for you and you only need to find the books. I can easily say that All Through the Ages has easily been the most important purchase I've made in our homeschool so it might be a good investment for you beyond this year. 

 

And congrats on the baby!

[SeekingHim77]

We love Truthquest history guides for this purpose. :-)