Books we Love
Highly anticipating our dialectic classical journey through the Middle Ages, to learn the backstory to the themes of knights, chivalry, kings, and castles, we entered the time portal through books.
While reliving adventures of King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Marco Polo, we also learned about St. Patrick, Charlemagne, the murder of Thomas A Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Our imaginations soared with Sir Gawain, Beowulf, and Canterbury Tales.
Imagining ourselves in other lands, we learned of Camelot, the search for the Holy Grail, and the broken note of the Trumpeter of Krakow.
My personal absolute favorites were the tales of King Arthur and Robin Hood…all rooted in fact but surrounded by the mists of time, I fell in love with England.
And then, my heart stopped while reading the gripping story of the Newberry Award winning book, The Trumpeter of Krakow…
These books used the masterful craft of a writing creatively using literary devices while telling the facts.
I’m discovering that many children’s books are better written: romantic, beguiling, fascinating, interesting, and more accurate than adult versions.
Sometimes adult books fit that descriptor, but they are more difficult to find.
I Found these Books through a Combination of Sources
Most booklists are quite repetitive on the homeschool market, because there are only so many books out there.
Since I didn’t find a single curriculum booklist to be exactly what we needed/wanted, I simply edited down the suggestions.
Then I peruse the local used bookstore, where I often find treasures of yore.
Every once in a while, we use a better written picture book that is quite informative.
Our Least Favorite Books
Since they are included in the header photo, I thought I should mention the pros and cons.
There are a couple of books I cannot recommend, because they were flat in the narrative.
My least favorite books include Men of Iron and the history book on the Byzantine Era.
The Byzantine book is very dry. My son was in agony.
It’s one thing to learn discipline to read a book. It’s another when the booklist is long, time is short, and there are better resources on the market.
Now we’ve found Drive Thru History, I prefer to his DVD on Turkey to tell the very same story in a far more interesting way.
My kids’ least favorite book was Marjorie Rowling’s Life in Medieval Times, which I have to admit, considering their extensive reading load, this book felt like an encyclopedia smacking them in the head.
Although I did like the information in it, moving forward I find it best for reference instead of dedicatedly reading every. single. page.
My kids were already learning tons.
No need to throw the anchor on them while they are trying to keep afloat.
