A Child's History of the World

This post contains affiliate links to the materials I actually use for homeschooling. I hope you find them helpful. Thank you for your support!

*NOTE*
This post originally appeared on my blog on August 7, 2015. I am working on writing a Renaissance & Reformation page for the website and accidentally deleted this post while creating my notes for that page.

If this ever happens to you it is important not to panic. Just act quickly... VERY quickly! I quickly searched for the post name on Google before the spiders could update it, viewed the cached version, hit "view source," copied and pasted the source code for my blog post, and saved it. And here it is!

My 8th grader has not yet done the 7th grade Age of Exploration/ Renaissance/Reformation block, so we are beginning the year with that. We will have 11 stories. I've chosen to use V.M. Hillyer's EXCELLENT book, A Child's History of the World, Revised, with New Material (1951)

We have the 1951 edition, pictured. This is a controversial book, with many people objecting to some of the language which would now be considered not politically correct. It is also very Eurocentric, with lots of ancient civilizations from around the world ignored completely. However, I find it well written and engaging and I prefer to omit or supplement then try to replace it. As far as I am concerned, no other book (including newly revised versions of this one) is better.

Even if you don't like Hillyer (that's Harvard graduate Virgil Hillyer, one of the earliest headmasters of the Calvert School, which also sells its own homeschool curriculum nowadays), you may like how he paces out these 11 chapters -- perfect fit with our time frame, Virgil, thank you -- and so I offer their contents to you. I am starting with the year 1300 and the chapter about Genghis Khan and Marco Polo because the invention of the compass, and Polo supposedly bringing it to Europe, was key to the Age of Exploration.

Chapter 55 - A Great Story-Teller
Cathay, Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, 1300, Venice, Marco Polo

Chapter 56 - "Thing-a-ma-jigger" and "What-cher-may-call-it" or a Magic Needle and a Magic Powder
compass, gunpowder, Roger Bacon, Schwarz

Chapter 57 - Thelon Gest Wart Hate Verwas
1338, Edward III, Hundred Years' War between England and France, Crecy, longbow, cannons, the Black Death, Joan of Arc

Chapter 58 - Print and Powder or Off with the Old, On with the New
1440, invention of the printing press, Gutenberg, first printed Bible, Caxton, 1453, fall of Constantinople, end of all that was left of the old Roman Empire, end of the Middle Ages, start of the New Ages

Chapter 59 - A Sailor Who Found a New World
Genoa, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand and Isabella, discovery of South America

Chapter 60 - Fortune-Hunters
spice road, Vasco da Gama, Cape of Good Hope, 1497, Cabot, Balboa, Magellan, Pacific Ocean

Chapter 61 - The Land of Enchantment or the Search for Gold and Adventure
Ponce de Leon, de Soto, Aztecs, Montezuma, Cortes, Incas, Pizarro

Chapter 62 - Born Again
Renaissance, Michelangelo, David, Moses, Sistine Chapel, Raphael, Sistine Madonna, Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, Mona Lisa

Chapter 63 - Christians Quarrel
sixteenth century, Church of St. Peter, Martin Luther, 95 theses, Worms, Bible translated into German, Protestants, Henry VIII, church of England, divorce of his first wife, marriage to Anne Boleyn, the rest of Henry's wives

Chapter 64 - King Elizabeth
Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary, Philip II, Inquisition, William the Silent, Elizabeth Tudor, Mary Stuart, Spanish Armada, 1588

Chapter 65 - The Age of Elizabeth
Sir Walter Raleigh, Roanoke, Virginia Dare, tobacco, William Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway, Stratford, London, famous plays