Well-Trained Mind Press Story of the World, Vol. 2: History for the Classical Child: The Middle Ages

We've been reading it for last couple of weeks. Perfectly written for the the target audience - children. We read ours in the car and it makes short work of long journeys and is genuinely interestingly written.

Comprei o livro para que meu filho pudesse praticar e o inglês e aprender um pouco sobre história medieval ao mesmo tempo. Tem funcionado maravilhosamente.

We enjoy listening to the story of the world on road trips. Jim Weiss is a great narrator. I’m looking forward to listening to other books by him.

Susan Wise Bauer has done it again. This book is a quick read for adults, but it is packed with information. The target audience is young children, after all it is "The Story of the World" and it doesn't bore young children. Our children often would rather hear the next chapter than go play. And sometimes I'll catch my oldest reading it on her own. The book does a good job of providing a balanced look at the major events during the Middle Ages. The book will focus on one area of the world, going over the major events, who was in charge, and who accomplished some of the important things, like discovering America. Then the book will move on to another part of the world for a couple chapters. Susan Wise Bauer did an excellent job of weaving in various parts of history. For example in talking about a culture the book might go into a major myth or story of the group. The variety in pacing flows nicely from history, to what it might have been like to live at the time in a given culture, to some of these myths, and then back again. This helps keep the children interested. The book is just right for young children. When they are young they don't need another 1000 pages of details most of us forget anyways. This book is written in such away that young children really want to listen, they want to know what happened, and then what will happen next. They can develop a love for history such that they'll go back and read in more detail about the parts of history they found interesting. If you are looking for a good book for young children covering the major events of world history during the Middle Ages, this is the best I've found.

We use this as our history curriculum in homeschool and the kids really enjoy it. It's written in a way that engages the reader and asks questions to involve them in the story telling. This book is part of a series and I would recommend them all. You can buy a corresponding course book to go along with it but it's not necessary. Highly recommend!!