Stumped for History – Middle Ages/Renaissance

We have been using SCM’s history for the first 3 modules. For Greece my kids were not in love with Famous Men of Greece. They are getting much more out of The Story of the Romans. Now, my daughter says she just doesn’t like Rome – not the history study, but the people and their greed and constant fighting. I would be happy to continue this series (The Story of…) if there wasn’t so much material for the next time periods (over 100 chapters per book). Module 4 uses the Famous Men series, so I am researching other spines/curricula for the middle ages/renaissance time periods.

I like how TruthQuest gives options and has a strong biblical worldview, however, I love the open-and-go format of SCM. TQ seems quite daunting to me, and while I know that you are not expected to read everything, there is a great deal of planning involved.

I listened to a sample of SOTW (after having avoided it for so long b/c it is “Classical”) and really love the Jim Weiss recording! Even if I don’t use it as a spine, I likely will get the recording to supplement. I did notice that the lessons are much more condensed. Perhaps this would be a good thing for my kids who are 10 and 8. I don’t want to gloss over things that are important, but I don’t want to put out so much history on them that it is overwhelming.

There are many other history curricula and spines out there too. Is a spine necessary for this age, or are living books alone enough? What curriculum and/or spine did you use for this time period? Did you love it? Not love it? I want to hear the good and the bad. I really feel at a loss right now.