With these books your family will spend a delightful time getting to know the people, events, places, and culture of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation. Geography will focus on the Age of Exploration, and you will begin to work your way through the epistles of the Bible. (Since the Bible history narratives are the focus in our three Ancients studies, the rest of the Bible books are spread throughout the remaining three studies.) Older students will learn how to study the Bible on their own, focusing on the same epistles that the Family does, and work on a six-year project of looking for doctrinal truths as they read through the Bible.

• Daily lesson plans are available in the corresponding book, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation & Epistles.
• See our suggestions for where to find the books.
• You can also view all the books below in the CM Bookfinder for easy scheduling in our CM Organizer.

Read the books listed under Family to all the students together. Add the grade-level books as individual reads for any children you have in those grades. For example, if you have students in grades 2 and 7, you will want to get the books under Family, Grades 1–3, and Grades 7–9.

• Around the World in a Hundred Years by Jean Fritz
• The Beggars’ Bible by Louise Vernon
• Bible
• The Bible Smuggler by Louise Vernon
• Castle by David Macaulay
• Cathedral by David Macaulay
• Christopher Columbus: Adventurer of Faith and Courage by Bennie Rhodes
• Famous Men of the Middle Ages by John H. Haaren and A. B. Poland, edited by Rob Shearer (Greenleaf Press edition) (optional for younger grades)
• Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation by Rob Shearer (optional for younger grades)
• GOAL Bible Study by Sonya Shafer
• Ink on His Fingers by Louise Vernon
• The Man Who Laid the Egg by Louise Vernon
• Thunderstorm in Church by Louise Vernon

plus . . .
Grades 1–3

• The Apple and the Arrow by Conrad Buff
• Brother Francis and the Friendly Beasts by Margaret Hodges
• Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess by Richard Platt
• Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire
• Leonardo da Vinci by Diane Stanley
• Leonardo’s Horse by Jean Fritz (optional)
• Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson
• A Medieval Feast by Aliki
• Michelangelo by Diane Stanley
• Michelangelo’s Surprise by Tony Parillo (optional)
• The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzynski
• Pippo the Fool by Tracey E. Fern
• The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla
• Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla

• Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray OR The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli
• King Arthur and His Knights audio by Jim Weiss
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning
• The Vikings by Elizabeth Janeway
• The World of Columbus and Sons by Genevieve Foster

• The Book of Arthur by Howard Pyle
• Book of Centuries
• Discovering Doctrine by Sonya Shafer
• In Freedom’s Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce by G. A. Henty
• Life in the Word by Sonya Shafer
• The Magna Charta by James Daugherty
• The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
• The Shining Company by Rosemary Sutcliff
• The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
• The White Stag by Kate Seredy

• The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Book of Centuries
• Discovering Doctrine by Sonya Shafer
• The King’s Fifth by Scott O’Dell
• The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff
• Life in the Word by Sonya Shafer
• Men of Iron by Howard Pyle
• The Second Mrs. Giaconda by E. L. Konigsburg
• Voices of the Renaissance and Reformation edited by Rob Shearer