We have been neck deep in the British Middle Ages this year.  We started out the year thinking we were going to be studying US Presidents, and then switched to the Middle Ages.  I could write a series of posts of all we have learned about how most of the world went from being conquered by the Romans, to being individual countries.  This has been a time frame that I had not studied before – learning with the boys is always more fun!

This post, however, is to introduce you to a new to me company – Heritage History. Since their Curriculum Packages cover so much more than the British Middle Ages, I’d like to spend some time showing you how we implemented their Electronic Books into our reading program.

Ready?

I received a CD and a package of three hole punched papers, with a heavy cardstock cover and side sleve, that I put in a three ring binder.  Please note. I’m cheap Frugal. I used an old busted binder.  You could go buy a shiny new one. . . .

I spent a weekend bringing the binder with me everywhere.  Reading, reading reading. Because I enjoyed it! Not because it was difficult to understand.  I needed to figure out how to incorporate this into the Middle Ages studies we were currently learning, if you are looking at this for next year, you could just open it up and start on page one.  They have quite a bit of helpful information for the person implementing the curriculum that was a joy to read.

One thing I liked, is that you get a smorgasbord of types of literature to choose. Comprehensive History, Legends, Adapted Literature, Biographies, Historical Fiction, and  European Middle Ages. They color code the books to give a simple indication of the level, beginning to advanced. If your goal is to browse this period of history, you could choose beginning level historical fiction reading, or get intense with advanced comprehensive history. You Choose your Living books! Hmmm. Note to self. Don’t eat lunch while taking pictures of curriculum for reviews. . . . .

What’s that you say? Where do we get all of those books?  Well. My Friend.  . . . Unlike so many other companies that have come up with reading lists that force you find crazy out of print curriculum – they send it to you. On a VERY easy to use CD.  When you put your CD into the computer, it pops up with a very simple to use screen.

You  may choose a book, click on the title, and read it in the program that comes on the CD, or click the MOBI and read it in Kindle PC, or save it to your computer, and download it to your iPod or Kindle.

View from Heritage History Software.

View from Kindle Below:

Choose your eBook format and download it to your computer. 
I use a plug in from Amazon called “Send it To Kindle”.
Amazon has Send it to PC for Mac and for Send it to Kindle for PC

Right click on the title you desire, then choose Send it To, then click on which devices.  Presto.  Secondo. Yer Donno.

Create a Collection called Heritage History (or whatever you desire) and add the books to the collect for easy selection.

That’s great. Now we have three pieces of the puzzle. 

We know what period we are interested in.

We have a company that has laid out maps, books, history, teacher guides, interesting questions and study guides.

We have the books on one CD easy to download to read on the Mac, PC, Kindle or iPod. 

Next it is up to us – to USE it.  We have enjoyed the reading selections. Nate was claiming to read them so quickly that I started to doubt that he was reading them.  I had him verbally narrate the stories.  He narrated them practically word for word. I asked him, could you write that out for me? He asked, may I text you from my iPod?  My thumbs are fast today. I rolled my eyes.  But he did. Two large paragraphs, very detailed, from thumbs, emailed it to my account, and then read it to dad when he got home. It’s an electronic age these teen boys are living in I tell ya! Charlotte Mason didn’t write about the importance of thumb typing on a tiny touch screen.  I can’t help you with your desire to be disciplined with digging into history each week, combining reading living books with geography – but I can steer you into a direction where every thing up to that point has been gathered in one place for you.  At a price of $25.00 (less if you bundle), what is your excuse for not digging deep?

British Middle Ages
The British Middle Ages collection features books that cover the 5th through 17th centuries in Europe and the British Isles. Topics include barbarian invasions, Christian conversion, feudalism, mediaeval war-craft, church-state conflicts, and the Reformation, all covered with a special focus on British history.
Includes 55 books, 60+ maps, teaching aids, and a Study Guide

Each volume sells individually for $24.99. Their entire 5 volume set ,The World History Collection, is available for $99.99, a savings of $25 if bought individually. You may visit their website at http://www.heritage-history.com/for more information.

I received these resources for free as a part of my tour on The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Review Crew.  I was expected to use these supplies in my home for a few weeks and then share my experience with you. I shared the how to do it, I did enjoy their layout and living book feel experience as well. You may click over to our Crew Blog, scroll to the bottom to the Linky, to see how others used the product as well! Thanks for hanging in there on a huge review. I could go on an on and on and on and. . . . .