We are wrapping up our Middle Ages study, which lasted longer than I originally planned (it WAS interesting!) and now we are starting to ease into our Renaissance studies. 

We tend to work on a bit of a tight budget, and are definitely not much into a regular  history textbook except as a read aloud to get the big picture, so I tend to use the library and internet to find most of our history materials.  I am also a bookstore junky, and people give me giftcards to Barnes and Noble for every holiday and birthday, so I save up for books that will take awhile for us to read, or books that I think we will really like that I can't get at the library.  I also surf around Ebay and the other homeschool lists to see what I can get cheap.

I usually come up with a reading list based on what some of the bigger, more expensive programs use, and use that as a starting point to begin with.  Tapestry of Grace and Sonlight are great!  If you can afford them, go for it, because they do all the work and planning for you!  I also tend to order in some of the big, more visual books, like Eyewitness, and various other younger kids books.  Even though we are seventh grade, and he reads at a highschool level, I've found if we start off with a few quick and easy reads right at the beginning, we start with a lot of the basic facts that I want to get across, and can use that as a launching point to get to the finer view of things.

I also watch out for the History Channel, Discovery Channel, etc., to have shows on related to our studies, and I incorporate them as well.  It  makes a nice break for us, and very often their websites will have a lesson plan related to it.

The internet is also a good source of materials.  I go out and google my different topics, then print what I want or bookmark them for later.  Just remember to preview them before you send the little kiddos online!

I'm going to pass along a few links here for you to check out on the Renaissance.  If anyone finds a timeline for this period, please let me know.  We keep a book of centuries, and that helps us organize entries.

http://www.kidskonnect.com/Renaissance/RenaissanceHome.html

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/renaissance.htm

For some great free books about every period in history, and many topics, try:

www.mainlesson.com

I'll also give you a list of some of the books we are considering using for our study.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/16RGU79GM8L3E/ref=reg_hu-wl_goto-registry/103-2606855-7263811?ie=UTF8&sort=date-added

The above is an amazon.com wish list that I put some of the books that we are considering using.  I try to  get anything from the library that we can finish within 3 weeks of so.

I hope you found this informative, folks.  If you have any other suggestions or comments, feel free to post them.