Here’s a resource I’m so excited to share with you: A Child’s History of the Middle Ages. This beautifully illustrated book brings the Middle Ages to life for young readers, making medieval history engaging and memorable.

With A Child’s History of the Middle Ages, children journey through fascinating topics including: famous kings, knights and chivalry, the crusades, monks and monasteries, and the spread of Christianity.

A Child’s History of the Middle Ages is written for students in grades 1-4 and has a differentiated workbook that is accessible to students of varying abilities. This means that students of different ages and abilities can study the same material. Teachers and homeschooling parents can assign different worksheets to different students according to their writing skills.

Moreover, both the textbook and workbook are lavishly illustrated, which is a great aid to reading comprehension and enjoyment.

Here’s the textbook cover and table of contents:

Here’s the first chapter:

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So while each chapter is succinct and simple, the pictures speak volumes. A Child’s History of the the Middle Ages is more like a picture-book than a textbook.

My favorite part of this history resource, though, is the highly illustrated and colorful workbook.

As I said earlier, the workbook contains differentiated activities. Here are some samples:

For children in first and second grade, and those with handwriting skills that are just emerging, each chapter includes activities such as these, which strengthen comprehension:

For those in third and fourth grade who can write short answers, the workbook includes worksheets like this for almost every chapter:

Are these pictures giving away the answer? Yes, in a way they are! But these worksheets are meant to teach, not test. The pictures help students remember the answers and pave the way to successful learning.

Next, students can do picture narration.

Picture narration is such an effective way to help students learn history. Being able to retell a story or event in their own words really helps students remember what they have learned. Moreover, it develops attention, comprehension, memory, and clear expression.Younger students can dictate their narration to the teacher, who writes it down. Then the students copy the narration. Older students can write a short description of what is happening in the picture.

For students who struggle with picture narration, this guide at the beginning of the workbook helps them think of what to dictate/write about:

Some chapter have activities that invite students to think more deeply about what they have learned. These provide good opportunities for discussion while gently helping them to think analytically or to form their own opinions. For example:

In addition, many chapters come with map-work activities that help students become familiar with the geography of Medieval Europe and reinforce what they have learned. For example:

Of course, no history book is complete without a timeline. So I included time line cards. For example:

Cut them out, laminate, and put them on a wall-sized time line. Or have your student put them in chronological order for review.

I really enjoyed writing the workbook and thinking up different activities to make history fun and memorable. To give you an idea of the variety, here are more sample pages from the workbook:

Interestingly enough, as the text and workbook were coming together, I realized that certain themes were emerging. For example, the themes of justice and nobility, and what it means to be a just king or a noble knight appear. The importance of rules (as seen in St. Benedict’s Rules, The Code of Chivalry, and the Magna Carta) in building an ordered and moral society also becomes apparent.

For children in 3rd and 4th grade, the concepts of rules and fairness become very important. At this age, children want to know what the rules are, as they are beginning to develop a keen sense of justice. So these themes are great topics for discussion and can be very formative. It’s one reason why 3rd and 4th grade is a great time for studying the Middle Ages. (not to mention that knights, castles, and adventures capture their imaginations!)

So I hope that A Child’s History of the Middle Ages will be an engaging and vivid history curricula as well as springboard for great discussions.

Finally, I wrote this with busy teachers and homeschooling parents in mind. It’s an open-and-go curricula with very little teacher prep needed.

You can purchase both A Child’s History of the Middle Ages Textbook and Workbook at Amazon.

To see all my history resources, visit this page: History and Geography Resources for Catholic Homeschoolers.

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