The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2 Audiobook: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance, Revised Edition (9 CDs)

I have been homeschooling my children for three years, and "Story of the World" is by far one of my favorite programs! The main text is wonderful, written in a very conversational style that is easy for children to understand, but includes many interesting facts that even adults may not know. Even my very young children love curling up on my lap as we pass the book around and my oldest child and I take turns reading the pages. Instead of being the dreaded subject that you might remember from your school days, History is a treat, and my children beg for us to read more. The main text alone would be a great resource, but combined with the activity and test books, this program is an absolute joy. I don't spend much time at all planning lessons, perhaps 30 minutes every weekend choosing worksheets and picking up library books to enrich our study. And for all this, it is priced quite low -- a steal for all the information that your children will be getting! It's also nice to be able to teach all of my children from one book, despite age differences, and many of the enrichment activities can be done or at least "assisted" by young children as well. I highly recommend this book!

I am so glad I bought this series just before the corona period. Almost every day, I read the stories to my DD13 and DS11. They love them and I do too (notwithstanding the fact that these books were written for elementary school aged kids). We are in the middle of the second volume. As for the first volume, I read two chapters in one go. In the current, second volume, I read only one chapter each time as the information is much more dense. This is a great way of spending quality time together! The kids always have something to ask or add. I believe that these books add so much to their general education in a fun way. The series also leaves room for further inquiry. (The writer states that she chose not to discuss the Inquisition. Consequently, my children are intrigued and will be looking for books on the topic as soon as the library opens its doors again in the post-corona period (if there will be such thing at all.)

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!!

Story of the World Volume 2 The Middle Ages "From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance" is authored by Susan Wise Bauer. She is a faculty member of the College of William and Mary, and co-author of "The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home." Story of the World Volume 2 The Middle Ages is the second volume of a four volume "Story of the World" book set. The book is divided into forty-two chapters which are comprised of the following: Introduction: Ch. 1 The Glory That Was Rome Ch. 2 The Early Days of Britain Ch. 3 Christianity Come to Britain Ch. 4 The Byzantine Empire Ch. 5 The Medieval Indian Empire Ch. 6 The Rise of Islam Ch. 7 Islam Becomes an Empire Ch. 8 The Great Dynasties of China Ch. 9 East of China Ch. 10 The Bottom of the World Ch. 11 The Kingdom of the Franks Ch. 12 The Islamic Invasion Ch. 13 The Great Kings of France Ch. 14 The Arrival of the Norsemen Ch. 15 The First Kings of England Ch. 16 England After the Conquest Ch. 17 Knights and Samurai Ch. 18 The Age of Crusades Ch. 19 A New Kind of King Ch. 20 The Diaspora Ch. 21 The Mongols Devastate the East Ch. 22 Exploring the Mysterious East Ch. 23 The First Russians Ch. 24 The Ottoman Empire Ch. 25 The End of the World Ch. 26 France and England at War Ch. 27 War for the English Throne Ch. 28 The Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal Ch. 29 African Kingdoms Ch. 30 India Under the Moghuls Ch. 31 Exploring New Worlds Ch. 32 The American Kingdoms Ch. 33 Spain, Portugal and the New World Ch. 34 Martin Luther's New Ideas Ch. 35 The Renaissance Ch. 36 Reformation and Counter Reformation Ch. 37 The New Universe Ch. 38 England's Greatest Queen Ch. 39 England's Greatest Playwright Ch. 40 New Ventures to the Americas Ch. 41 Explorations to the New World Ch. 42 Empires Collide To round out your history curriculum I would highly recommend purchasing the activity books and test packets which accompany each volume. These resources are available in either paperback or PDF-download. Based on our experience with this series and the content of the curriculum, I would recommend it for Grades 5-8. Overall we have been pleased with Ms. Bauer's approach to world history. To continue your study of World history, I would recommend Story of the World Volume 3 Early Modern Times "From Elizabeth to the First Forty-Niners."

I've been homeschooling my children for 16 years, and was homeschooled as a child, as well. Throughout this journey, I have not seen a more fun and engaging history text for children than Story of the World. It flows like a story (which is how I believe history is best taught) and doesn't bog down in too many details. I believe it draws students in with the excitement of history and leaves them hungering for more. I do history with all of my children at the same time, so my current students are 5, 7, 10, and 15. They all enjoy these stories, and are able to see how history is not a disconnected, unrelated jumble of names and dates, but a fascinating story that continues to this day. We use this book as one of our "spines" and supplement with lots of other books to expand the narrative (as suggested in the Activity Guide in this series). I read aloud from this book (and series) almost daily. Highly recommended!

Pros: The greatest strength of this book is that Mrs. Bauer gets to the point of what is significant about the people or events she presents. Many books tell interesting stories, but few tell why they matter. I really appreciate this facet of the book. In addition to history, the author gives simplified summaries of significant myths and literature (e.g., Beowulf, the Arabian Nights). These stories are probably one of our daughter's favorite parts of the book. Our child likes the readings. Cons: In order to give a summary that is simple enough for a child to grasp, many thing must be omitted which inadvertently distorts history, but I don't see any way around that for this level of study. Being a survey of world history, there is no connected narrative. You're in Europe one week and China another. My child finds this interesting, but I wonder if she'll retain very much of what we're studying. I would prefer a connected story of Western Civilization to World History. Conclusion: Our child enjoys the stories and the author does a good job summarizing what's significant, rather than burdening students with irrelevant minutiae. I question how much she'll retain, because each chapter is brief and moves from place to place. However, if she likes it should spark her interest in history as she gets older. We are finding supplemental readings (biographies or historical fiction) for people who I think are interesting or significant, and I recommend that for anyone who uses this book. Two other supplements we are using are Bauer's activity book - the map exercises are nicely done - and the Sonlight "Book of Time," so that we can locate people and events in time as well as place.

I love this product! The best ride-along companion ever.

This book came in much earlier than anticipated, and was also in great condition. Thank you.

子供用の本ということで、シンプルな文章で書かれててとても読みやすいです。物語調で書かれているというのも、理解しやすい理由の１つだと思います。ただ、年代があまり書かれていないので、時間の流れは少し理解しづらいところがあります。

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.

My son love it

Can’t sing the praises of this volume enough. Should be part of every primary education. The narrative style is interesting, with just enough detail.

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.