Pathway to Liberty, The Middle Ages {Homeschool Crew Review}

If you've been reading my reviews for long, you know that our favorite subject around here is history, so I'm always excited for the chance to check out a new history curriculum or anything else history related. <grin> Thus I was grateful for the opportunity to review Pathway to Liberty's History Curriculum. We received The Middle Ages, Year 2, Level 3 from Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum. This is a complete curriculum for grades K-12, so your whole family can work together, covering the same topic/period.
What did we receive?

We received physical copies of The Middle Ages, Year 2, Level 3, teacher's guide and student guide. These are also available in digital format; some of the Crew members received those instead.

There are four levels of The Middle Ages: Level 1 is for grades K-3; Level 2 for grades 4-6; Level 3 for grades 7-9; and Level 4 for grades 10-12.
In The Middle Ages, we cover such topics as:
The Noble Stream of Liberty (which discusses the foundations: What is history? What is Liberty?)
Roman Republic & the Heroic Age of the Church (which discusses the Roman Republic)
Canon & Conversion (which discusses Constantine, the Bible Canon, Muhammad, Islam, the Crusades)
Transforming Nations (which discusses Saint Patrick, Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, the Magna Charta)
Blood & Ink (which discusses John Wycliffe and other reformers)
The Age of Exploration (which discusses Columbus and other explorers)
We also received The Chain of Liberty and study guide, by Jayme MacCullough, founder of The Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum. This book covers:
Big Problems, Simple Solutions
The Language of Liberty
The Principles of Liberty
The Links of Liberty
Creation Link
Dawn of Nations Link
Moses and the Law Link
Church Link
Reformation Link
First Colonies Link
First Constitutional Republic Link
Expansion and Erosion Link
Restoration Link

The study guide contains study questions for each chapter.

How we used it

Instead of starting at the beginning, we picked little before where we are in our core history curriculum. We quickly went through Muhammed, Islam, and the Crusades.

I reread aloud the selections from Famous Men of the Middle Ages, since we'd previously read them for our core curriculum. 
One of the things I like about the Pathway to Liberty curriculum is the fact they have a YouTube channel, with playlists for each year of their curriculum. We enjoyed watching the recommended videos for each week.
Each week begins with writing out the week's Scripture, Principle, and Leading Idea. So SJ filled copied those in.
Generally speaking, two or three lessons of each week consist of reading that week's selection, then filling in the study guide. So he filled those in.
One or two lessons provide videos to watch on their YouTube channel. There are also writing options each week, as well as vocabulary/word studies. I'll admit, we didn't work on those, since SJ is a struggling reader and writer. Sometimes it's all I can do to get him to just fill in the blanks! <sigh>
There is a chart of all the needed books for all levels at the beginning of the teacher's guide. The core books needed for The Middle Ages are: Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary; Bible (NIV recommended); How the Bible Came to Us, by Meryl Doney; Trial and Triumph, by Richard M. Hannula; The Magna Charta, by James Daughtery.
We are using a combination of paper copies, ebooks, and audiobooks. To be honest, I tend to listen to audiobooks as I am falling asleep at night (yes, then the next night, I rewind to where I faintly last remember hearing anything from the night before! LOL).
SJ tends to listen to audiobooks, or ebooks with text-to-speech on my Kindle, while he's playing games on his iPad. I think he has better comprehension when his hands are busy.


What we thought of it

I like the resources, and the layout of the student guide. I think I will continue combining this with our core history curriculum, especially the YouTube videos and the books. 

SJ says only that "it's okay." (He prefers math over any other subject...)
The Pathway to Liberty curriculum is made up of four years, with four levels of each year:
Year 1, Universal History, which takes students through the Bible chronologically.
Year 2, The Middle Ages, which emphasizes the history of the Christian church.
Year 3, U.S. History, which emphasizes the founding principles of the United States, covering US history from the colonies through the Civil War.
Year 4, World History, which offers understanding of the battle between tyranny and liberty.
As I mentioned earlier, the Crew reviewed all years and all levels of Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum, so you will want to read their reviews to see how they used it in their homes and what they thought of it. Simply click the banner below.

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Universal History,  The Middle Ages,  US History & World History Curriculum {Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum Reviews}

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