I love history. Well, I love certain portions of it. There are some portions I just can’t stand studying about, but we tackle them all in a home school setting. One time period I could study over and over again is the Middle Ages. Since history is NOT one of Ro’s favorite things to discuss, I’ve tried using literature and notebooking pages to make things a bit easier for her. We’re also using lap books to hold all of the little projects and notes she takes. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
History Resources
Alright, so I know I listed some of our history resources earlier in the school year. I’m not sure I listed the ones we’re using at this point in our study.
- Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Haaren and A.B. Poland (Project Gutenberg Ebook)
- Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Haaren and A.B. Poland (Librivox Audiobook)
- Biography Workbooks from a website called Student Handouts
- The Story of Ancient Irish Civilization by P.W. Joyce (Project Gutenberg Ebook)
All those resources are free. Now while some might say there’s nothing to be learned in such old books, I would have to disagree. We can learn a lot from older literature. If it wasn’t so, there wouldn’t be a major related to it in college. My favorite of these was definitely The Story of Ancient Irish Civilization by P.W. Joyce. The forward of this book blessed me, as did the way the Irish healers went about their work and how lawmakers made laws. I think we could learn a whole lot from mimicking them. However, it only worked for them because they had a solid moral system which was agreed upon by the majority.
Enough about that. We’re now well into Famous Men of the Middle Ages and using that in conjunction with the biography workbooks I mentioned. We read a chapter on day one. If there’s a corresponding biography workbook, we complete that on day two. If there’s not a corresponding biography workbook, we use a notebooking technique, which is a lot like taking notes the way we do it. The latter is a much slower process, but I feel that writing things down helps with remembering the information later.
Student Handouts offers more than biography workbooks. If you’ve never visited the site, I recommend it. It’s a great place to find some simple resources which are free to download and use. I use the printables because death by Power Point should not exist. The workbooks keep the student engaged because as they read through the sections, there are questions and activities placed within the text. Read a little, write a little, and that works pretty well for Ro.
I know this is a short post, but I hope you’ll be encouraged to check out these resources, or perhaps to use other resources you find on the main sites.
Our weather has turned nasty and I’m rushing to get this post scheduled for Tuesday, when the cold is supposed to be the worst. If we still have internet, I’ll be surprised. I’m still working on the second of the classification notebooking pages like the one I shared with you last week. I hope to have it ready to share with you by the 23rd. If all goes well, I may even have the third set ready, too.
If I happen to miss next Tuesday’s post, you can bet it’ll have something to do with the weather. It’s just that time again. On average, every 8 – 10 years or so we get nasty, icy weather. Sometimes it brings snow, but it’s never the happy kind. It’s wet and frigid and damp and miserable. And we’re praying our pipes don’t burst. We couldn’t get to them to wrap them, so… We wait and see.
Thank y’all so much for reading! Until next time…we wish you a belated Happy Valentine’s Day and a happy Mardi Gras, even if they officially canceled the parade in your town.
A Breath of Hope
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Magniflorious Homeschool Life 