Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Story of the World Vol. 2: The Middle Ages Resources


Story of the World has been our spine for the last three years.  In addition to history, much of our writing, reading comprehension, vocabulary, geography and art have centered around Story of the World.

I planned our chapters in Google Docs with links to different resources.  I have decided to make those resources public.

I always buy the book and the Activity Guide.

My girls each have a binder, divided into sections for each book and within each section, there is a tabbed section for vocabulary.

We always read the chapter, answered the review questions in the Activity Guide, summarized the chapter and did the map work for each chapter/section.  If that was all we did, I have noted that.  For many chapters, we read supplemental books, watched movies and videos or did additional writing.

**Parents should preview all videos, books and websites.  What one parent finds suitable for their children another parent may find unacceptable.  

**There are affiliate links in this post.  If you click the link to buy the product, I will benefit from that.

Chapter 1: The Glory That Was Rome


Vocabulary:  Mediterranean,  Pax Romana, plague, barbarians, raven, 

Wandering Through the Roman Empire

The Fall of Rome

Chapter 2: The Early Days of Britain


Vocabulary:  bard, Anglo-Saxon

The Celts of Britain

Barbarians Come to Britain

Beowulf the Hero

Chapter 3:  Christianity Comes to Britain

Vocabulary:  monastery, parchment, scriptorium

Augustine Comes to England

  • We just read, reviewed, summarized and did map work for this part of the chapter.

Medieval Monasteries

Writing Books by Hand

  • We made the Medieval Letter Illumination suggested in the Activity Guide (art project)
  • Middle Ages for Kids

Chapter 4:  The Byzantine Empire


Vocabulary:  mosaics, tesserae, orthodox, patriarchs, rites

The Beauty of Constantinople

Justinian, the Emperor

  • The girls wrote their own "Code of Justinian" as suggested in Activity Guide (writing assignment)
  • They also made the paper dolls in the Activity Guide

The Empress Theodora

The Church in the East

  • We just read, reviewed, summarized and did map work for this section of the chapter

Chapter 5:  The Medieval Indian Empire


Vocabulary: fertilizer, monks, frescoes

A King Named Skandagupta

Monks in Caves

Chapter 6:  The Rise of Islam


Vocabulary:  peninsula

I realized that my girls had heard really bad things about Muslims and had a poor view, so we spent a month learning about different religions.  We visited a Buddhist Temple and a Muslim Mosque with our homeschool group.



Muhammed's Vision

Muhammed Flees to Medina

The Koran: Islam's Holy Book

  • We memorized the Five Pillars and what they mean
  • We labeled and colored the pillars in the Activity Guide

Chapter 7: Islam Becomes an Empire


Vocabulary:  mecca

The Fight for Mecca

The Spread of Islam

The City of Baghdad

Sinbad in the Valley of Snakes

Chapter 8:  The Great Dynasties of China


Vocabulary:  dynasty

Yang Chien Unites North and South

  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did map work for this section of the chapter.

The Tang Dynasty

  • China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty (Kids book - I am a children's librarian and a lot of the books we buy are requests from patrons.  If your library doesn't have a book you want, ask them if they will buy it or something like it.)
  • We made Chinese lacquered bowls as suggested in the Activity Guide (art project)

Chapter 9:  East of China


Vocabulary: clan

The Yamato Dynasty of Japan

A Tale of Three Countries:  Korea, China and Japan

We made a dish from each country:

Chapter 10:  The Bottom of the World


Vocabulary: continent, aborigine

The First People of Australia

The Long Journey of the Maori

Chapter 11:  The Kingdom of the Franks

Clovis, the Ex-Barbarian

  • King Clovis (video)
  • The girls designed their own dynasty as suggested in the Activity Guide (writing/critical thinking)

Four Tribes, One Empire

  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did map work

Chapter 12:  The Islamic Invasion


Vocabulary:  Berbers, moor, Rock of Gibraltar

Islam in Spain and Africa

  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did map work for this part of the chapter.

Chapter 13:  The Great Kings of France


Vocabulary:  chronicle

Charles the Hammer

The Greatest King: Charlemagne

Chapter 14: The Arrival of the Norsemen

** We took another month-long break and studied Norse mythology
Vocabulary:  Norseman, Normans, propel

The Viking Invasion

Eric the Red and "Eric's Son"

The Norse Gods

Thor and the Giant King

Chapter 15:  The First Kings of England

**At this point we updated our Book of Centuries and TimeLine

The Vikings Invade England

Alfred the Great

The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite.
But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
When he stands like an ox in the furrow – with his sullen set eyes on your own,
And grumbles, 'This isn't fair dealing,' my son, leave the Saxon alone

The Battle of Hastings

Chapter 16:  England After the Conquest


Vocabulary:  maternal, fraternal, feudalism, peasant, serf, lord, gruel, conquest

The English Language

  • We read, reviewed and summarized this section of the chapter.

Serfs and Noblemen




Stone Castles

  • A Medieval Castle - this is a cool book that shows you diagrams of what it was like in a castle
  • I had my girls do a piece of creative writing: Write a story, the main character lives in a castle during the Dark Ages.  

Chapter 17:  Knights and Samurai


Vocabulary:  chivalry, squire, page, samurai

The English Code of Chivalry

The Samurai:  Japanese Knights

Chapter 18:  The Age of Crusades


Vocabulary:  pilgrims, Crusades, ambush

A Command from the Pope

Recapturing Jerusalem

Saladin of Jerusalem

El Cid and the "Reconquest of Spain"

  • We made the "Conquest and ReConquest" Flipbook in the Activity Guide

 Chapter 19:  A New Kind of King


Vocabulary: Magna Carta, warrior, representative

Richard the Lionhearted



John Lackland and the Magna Carta

Robin Hood



Robin Hood and the Butcher


Chapter 20:  The Diaspora


Vocabulary: zealot, Torah

The Scattering of the Jews

  • We made a Mezzuzah as suggested in the Activity Guide

A Tale of the Diaspora

The Clever Rabbi of Cordova

  • We discussed the rabbi's plan and why it was good.  We came up with different situations and solutions to them.

Chapter 21:  The Mongols Devastate the East


Vocabulary:  khan, spare, domination

Genghis Khan, Emperor of All Men

  • we memorized the first lines of Kublai Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and discussed what they meant (poetry/memory work)

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
   Down to a sunless sea.

The Mongol Conquest of China

Chapter 22:  Exploring the Mysterious East

Marco Polo Goes to China

  • Even though it was not summer

The Forbidden City of the Ming

Chapter 23:  The First Russians

The Rus Come to Constantinople

  • I am Polish and we do something similar to the Russian Bread and Salt greeting at weddings.  We went over the tradition with the girls so they know what to expect at their own weddings.
  • I made Borscht, because I have always wanted to try it.
  • We made the Architectural Eggs suggested in the Activity Guide, but we used wooden eggs from the craft store instead of real eggs and I now keep those eggs in a dish in my living room :)

Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible



Chapter 24:  The Ottoman Empire


Vocabulary:  ghazi, sultan, mercenary, harbor

The Ottoman Turks Attack


  • A lot of the videos on this are very violent, we just read, reviewed, summarized and did the mapwork.

The Sheep-Rocks


  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did map work.

The Capture of Constantinople



Suleiman the Lawgiver



Chapter 25:  The End of the World


Vocabulary:  Black Death, buboes, bubonic plague, apprentice

The Plague

A New Way of Living

**Around this time I made sure that our Book of Centuries and TimeLine was up to date!

Chapter 26:  France and England at War


Vocabulary:  dauphin

Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt


  • Henry V Speech (youtube video from a movie, I did not watch the whole movie to know how it was, just the speech)

Joan of Arc


  • I had my girls read biographies of Joan of Arc (our library had several) and write a report.  Then we watched a movie based on Joan of Arc.
  • There are several Joan of Arc movies, we watched this one: Joan of Arc - Child of War, Soldier of God 

Chapter 27:  War for the English Throne


Vocabulary: regent, coronation

The Wars of the Roses



The Princes of the Tower

  • We made pop-out Tower of London cards as suggested in the Activity Guide (art project)

Chapter 28:  The Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal


Vocabulary:  navigation, compass, knots (boat speed)

Ferdinand and Isabella Unite Spain



Henry the Navigator, Prince of Portugal

  • Jason helped us located the North Star in the night sky (astronomy)

Chapter 29:  African Kingdoms


Vocabulary:  alms

Gold, Salt and Ghana

  • We played the Fast Tax Game in the Activity Guide

Mansa Musa of Mali



The Songhay Empire


  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did the map work for this section of the chapter.

Chapter 30:  India Under the Monghuls


Vocabulary:  moghul

The Moghul Dynasty



Akbar of India

  • I made Dal which is one of my favorite dishes ever! (comfort food)

The Bad-Luck Servant

**Around this time I made sure that our Book of Centuries and TimeLine was caught up!

Chapter 31:  Exploring New Worlds

Christopher Columbus


  • I had my girls each pick one of these three explorers, read a biography on them and make a poster with pictures and facts and present an oral presentation on the explorer.  This coincided with Easter and they presented their posters and presentations to our extended family--answering the question: what do these homeschoolers do? ;-)
  • Children's History: Christopher Columbus

Vespucci and Magellan



Chapter 32:  The American Kingdoms

The Mayans of Central America



The Marvelous City of Tenochtitlan

  • We made the Aztec Hot Chocolate recipe in the book--it was SO GOOD!  We found it so interesting that it was considered a sacred drink!

The Incas

Chapter 33:  Spain, Portugal and the New World


Vocabulary:  conquistadores, 

The Slave Trade


  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did map work.

Cortes and Montezuma



Chapter 34:  Martin Luther's New Ideas


Vocabulary:  indulgences, proxy

Martin Luther's List

Henry VIII's Problem



Chapter 35:  The Renaissance


Vocabulary: Renaissance, scientific

A New Way of Thinking

**We took a trip to an art museum at this point as well.  I coordinated a tour for our homeschool group and asked the docent to speak about the Renaissance.

Gutenberg's Great Invention



Chapter 36:  Reformation and Counter Reformation


Vocabulary:  seminary, Bishop, reformed

The Spread of Reformation



The Council of Trent



Chapter 37: The New Universe

** We took about 6 weeks to do a unit on the Solar System


Vocabulary:  astronomy, star maps, condemn, gravity, theory, logic

The Revolution of Copernicus

Galileo's Strange Notions



Chapter 38:  England's Greatest Queen


Vocabulary: behold, throne

The Queen Who Almost Wasn't



Good Queen Bess

  • My girls LOVED the Renaissance Cures in the Activity Guide!

Chapter 39:  England's Greatest Playwright

**If you have the opportunity to take your child to see a Shakespeare play, I encourage you to do so.  we were able to see Julius Caesar our first year homeschooling when we read about it in Story of the World Volume 1 and it blew my mind--I always struggled to understand Shakespeare, but when I see it acted, it is completely different.  We did not study Macbeth when we read this chapter because our local Shakespeare Theatre was putting on A Midsummer Night's Dream, so we read that instead.  I love "No Fear, Shakespeare" books.

Vocabulary: playwright, tragedy, comedy

William Shakespeare



Macbeth



Macbeth's Decision

  • The girls memorized Macbeth's Famous Speech (memory work)
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

We discussed the meaning of this speech, but I must admit I was really happy for my brother who is a high school teacher with a specialization in Shakespeare because the ability to understand this written is beyond me.  When I see Shakespearean plays it all makes sense, but reading it goes over my head.

Chapter 40:  New Ventures to the Americas


Vocabulary:  fertile, commander, settlement, fleet

Walter Raleigh and the New World



The Lost Colony



Chapter 41:  Explorations in the North


Vocabulary:  wigwams

The New-Found Land


  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did the map work for this section of the chapter.

Jacques Cartier's Discoveries



Chapter 42:  Two Empires Collide


Vocabulary: grapple

Spain and England's War


  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did the map work.

The War at the End of the Sixteenth Century


  • We read, reviewed, summarized and did the map work.
**We made sure our Book of Centuries and TimeLines were up to date!
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