Middle Ages History: A Family-Style History Program PDF

Course Overview

Middle Ages History is an activity-based history program. It covers all of the major civilizations that shaped world history including in Europe, Asia,  Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Students learn to think about and analyze human behavior as revealed in our history while doing hands on activities, crafts, and experiments. The best part is the family-style design that allows you to teach all ages at once.

Learn more about how Layers of Learning works.

What’s In This PDF Set?

Middle Ages History includes nine individual month-long units including:

1. Early Medieval Europe – This unit includes the Byzantine Empire, the Barbarian kingdoms of the Franks including Charlemagne, and the Vikings.
2. Islamic Caliphates – This unit covers the founding of Islam, the Golden Age of Islam, and the various Muslim Caliphates in North Africa and the Middle East through the Ottoman Empire.
3. Asian Empires – Learn about the middle ages in China, the Japanese shoguns, the Mongol Empire, and the middle ages in southeast Asia.
4. Pacific Peoples – This unit includes the aboriginal Australians, people of Micronesia and Melanesia, and the Polynesian people.
5. High Middle Ages Europe – In this unit learn about the feudal system, the Crusades, and events from 1000 to 1400 in Europe, a time known as the high middle ages.
6. Medieval Britain – This unit covers the middle ages in Britain from the Anglo-Saxon invasion to the Norman invasion to the Hundred Years War, and ending with the Wars of the Roses.
7. North American Peoples – In this unit you will learn about the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations in central America and then the Mound Builders and Native American tribes of North America.
8. African Kingdoms – This unit covers the Mali Empire, Benin, Kongo, Ethiopia, and Swahili Coast civilizations.
9. Renaissance – This unit includes the Renaissance period in Europe from about 1400 to 1550, encompassing the Italian Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, and English Renaissance.

A Layers of Learning History Lesson

Each Exploration in the units is written as a complete lesson plan. It will direct you to books to read, videos to watch, projects to craft, games to play, and discussions to have. The units are clear full of Explorations to choose from, and you won’t have time for them all. This is a pick-and-choose curriculum.

Besides the history lesson for the day, the units are lined with sidebars that direct you to discussions, books, famous people, interesting facts, writing ideas, and more.

You will also see a Library List at the beginning and a Show What You Know section at the end that will help you create assessments or tests based on your individual learning.

Reusable and for All Ages

These units books are for the mentor, not to hand to the student. They are supposed to be used repeatedly. Since this is a pick-and-choose curriculum, you do some of the explorations and save others for later on. If you follow the four-year cycle, you will progress through Ancient History, Middle Ages History, Colonial History, and Modern History over the course of four years. Then you will cycle back to Ancient History in the fifth year when your kids are older and learning at a higher level. In all, you may use this book three times with your child.

The Middle Ages History units contain lessons ranging from crafting city walls from blocks to reading original sources about Charlemagne. There are plenty of concepts for little kids and plenty to challenge high schoolers. Most lessons are meant to be taught to many ages, from 6-year-olds clear up to seniors in high school.  Each age group gets the same Exploration and principles, but they learn on the level they are ready for. Books from your library and video from the YouTube playlists customize the learning for each age.

Extra Resources

YouTube playlists and links to helpful websites are all assembled and ready for you to access on the Middle Ages History Resources page.

If you are buying the PDF course, you may want a printable Middle Ages History Cover for your binder.

Printable Packs

Middle Ages History also includes printables for every unit. These are worksheets or paper crafts for the students. The Printable Packs are available as a digital PDF download and come with your purchase on your receipt.

Also Sold As Individual PDFs

The Middle Ages History course also comes as individual PDF units you can purchase one-by-one as you go. The individual PDFs are exactly the same content as the units that are included within the paperback or PDF Middle Ages History book. It’s like buying the course chapter by chapter in a digital format.