Catholic Family World History plans-- Middle Ages-- for next year

I think I finally have sorted out what books I will be using for next year's Connecting With History, Volume II. I'll be doing things a little differently this year-- following along in each unit but still slowing down the pace of our reading because last year we tried to read everything on the list. Although I enjoyed it, I think the kids felt a bit rushed and also.... I think it wasn't as CM as it could have been, since she advocated building a long, slow relationship with only the BEST books. I really want us to stay as faithful to CM's methods as we can.

This year I have one kid in Grade 2, one in Grade 1, one in Prep, and one in Awakening. ;)

I plan to include tales from each unit in our term's literature/tales reading, and saints in each term's catechism/church history reading, just as we did last year in our study of the Ancient World.

History readings will include work from the spine (Our Island Story), Catholic supplementation (Founders of Freedom for the littles and Old World's Gifts to the New for the oldest), and one historical literature book per term that I felt encompasses the era.

We will still be doing age appropriate copywork and memory work from CWH, bible reading, as well as narration topics for testing understanding, activities (one per unit), a book of centuries, mapwork,  and presenting (usually a play) at the end.

I know I've been asked a few times which way I'm going to go, so here are the final choices I've made.
The family read-aloud is Our Island Story, Founders of Freedom,  and also the reading from the lives of the saints each unit, and the rest are individual assignments.

For MA users Prep Level/ AO users Y0/ Grade Prek/ K:

Core:  Founders of Freedom and Our Island Story
Saints: Once Upon  a Time Saints
Tales: D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants

Term 1: Spend the day in Ancient Rome, Mary my Mother, Good St Joseph, The Apostles of Jesus, Pompeii: Buried alive
Term 2: St Valentine, St George and the Dragon, St Brigid, and Hodges' King Arthur
Term 3: Usborne time traveler: Vikings

For MA users Level 1B/ AO Y1/ Grade 1:
Core: Founders of Freedom and Our Island Story

Saints: Once upon a time saints and More once upon a time saints
Tales: D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants

Term 1:  St Paul the Apostle by Windeatt
Term 2:King Arthur Tales from the Round Table
Term 3: Leif the Lucky by D'Aulaire

For MA users Level 1A (1) / AOY2 / Grade 2:

Core: The Old World's Gifts to the New and Our Island Story
Saints: 57 Stories of Saints
Tales: D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants

Term 1: Augustus Caesar's World
Term 2: King Arthur and His Knights
Term 3: Viking Tales