"living books" from a particular time period? I remember one year when my older son read every G.A. Henty book he could get his hands on. He learned so much about history that when he decided to take the Western Civ. CLEP tests, he was already quite familiar with many of the events. If your sons are readers, use the Sonlight and Greenleaf catalogs to find books corresponding to whatever you wish to study for history. Another great resource is the book "All Through the Ages". We often added classic works from the time period as well so as to integrate history and literature. Then we just talked about the books we read.