Ok, I guess it might be weird that one of my favorites books that I have read lately is actually the book we use as my child’s history textbook. But, honestly, I so need the refresher course in history that I get from Susan Wise Bauer’s books. I have never, ever, ever been a big fan of history. I loathed it, in fact. But if we are going to use the classical model to homeschool our child, then I’m going to have to become much more of a history buff. History is HUGE in a classical education. So, we just finished up Volume 2, which took us from the fall of Rome through the rise of the Renaissance. I re-studied Augustine (and God) bringing Christianity to England, Justinian and Theodora, The rise of Islam, Charlemagne, the Vikings with Eric the Red and Lief Erikson, the Samurai of Japan, the Christian Crusades, the signing of the Magna Carta, Robin Hood, the Diaspora, Marco Polo and the Silk Road, the Black Plague, the War of the Roses, Ferdinand and Isabella, the great explorers, Martin Luther and the 95 Theses, and the beginning of the Renaissance. I had forgotten that the Renaissance was begun, really, by with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. As books were printed, people had such greater access to the great writers, thinkers, and philosophers, as well as personal copies of the Bible. As I study with my sweet girl, I learn that there is so much I need to re-learn. Learning all this stuff together is one of the best parts of homeschooling!Although this book was written to be a history textbook, I really believe that I would read it anyway. It’s such a great, concise history review!
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