Medieval Times Unit Study

by Kira Keller

1,000 years of History

When my son was getting close to his Middle Ages unit in his History book, I started getting really excited. That feeling was short lived as I soon realized, they meant to cram 1,000 years of History into a single week. 

A Thousand Years..of the most influential, invention development, political chess, crusading era that gave us the beginning of our modern and civilized society today. Beep Beep, Back the Truck Up... No way are we going to skim over the tippity top of the Middle Ages!! What could he possibly take away from that?! Maybe a little about castles and catapults... but it wasn't enough!

So began my hunt for all things Medieval & Middle Ages. When the average person thinks about that time frame, what typical things pop up? 

-Knights (in shining armor, duh)
-Castles
-King Arthur
-Beautiful Gowns
-Feasts

And then there are things that the history lover would think of, and that is where my passion about history took a very expensive turn. 

-The Crusades
-The First Christians
-Cathedrals
-Castle Music
-Shakespeare
-Queens of infamy
-Inventions
-Templars
-Newspapers
-Fashion Trends

No, I'm not a history buff, by any means, but I do LOVE history.  When we lived in England for two years, I simply appreciated the fact that many of those Medieval buildings stood and we could have access to them! I mean, one minute you're traipsing around the dungeon of a castle, and then you cross the street to shop in the mall the next minute.. (that's Norwich Castle). It was amazing and crazy! Unfortunately for my children, two were tiny things and one wasn't born yet when we lived there, so now we supplement with books and movies. Sorry kids.

You might also be thinking...why am I using 'Medieval Times' & 'Middle Ages' together simultaneously. Well, as I learned, they are terms meant to gather the years in that 1,000-ish timeframe from c1100 to 1453, the period of history from the fall of the Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople. Although some resources pinpoint that era as 500-1500 roughly.  They mean the same thing basically, but some people are more familiar with one term. 

Here are the resources I found for a complete Unit Study. They aren't in an order for any topic, but you can certainly filter out what your interests are in. And you may see more in the pictures than listed as I continued to grow our study. 

 
 

Middle to High School Level Books

  • The Middle Ages Vol 1-4 Encyclopedia for Students
  • The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades 
  • The Templars
  • The First Crusade: A New History
  • The Medieval Knight
  • Story of the Middle Ages 
  • The Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England 
  • The Door in the Wall 

Elementary Level Books 

  • Knightology
  • Draw & Write Through History 
  • Knight's & Castles: 50 Hands On Activities 
  • The Medieval Cookbook
  • Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!
  • Castles
  • Good Queen Bess
  • Joan of Arc
  • Saint George and the Dragon
  • Knight's & Armor Coloring Book
  • The Midwife's Apprentice
  • A Medieval Feast
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • The Two Gentlemen of Verona 
  • MTH: The Knight At Dawn
  • The Middle Ages 
  • MTH: Knights & Castles 
  • A Year in a Castle 
  • Marguerite Makes a Book
  • Sir Cumference Math Books 
 

DVD's & CD's 



Gameschooling

 

Projects & Crafts 
 
You can also check out my Shakespeare post for other resources like quill pens, old paper, and poetry! 

Alright, now instead of leaving you here, I'll share some of the things we have done already. If you're like me, you seek visual inspiration, so this is for you! 
                                           Playing Dreaming Dragon! 
Using Project Bricks, my son designed and built his own castle!

 


NEW IDEA: Break this huge Unit Study up into Mini Units to allow for more projects and less overwhelm! 
Amazon affiliate links included. 
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