Medieval-Palooza!

We wrapped up our Middle Ages study a few weeks ago. I was so looking forward to this study over the summer and I'm kind of sad to see it go.  We've done a ton of wonderful readings, map studies and art projects over the last 10 weeks.  Here is a sample of what we learned and accomplished together in our homeschool.....

BOOKS WE HAVE READ TOGETHER:

Story of the World, Volume 2, (audio, narrated by the amazing Jim Weiss)--this is great for car trips!

Life in a Castle by Kay Eastwood

Arts and Literature in the Middle Ages by Marc Cels

Famous People of the Middle Ages by Donna Trembinski

Medieval Society by Kay Eastwood

King Arthur by Felicity Brooks

Neil Phillip's book Myths and Legends, including the stories of Thor, Beowulf, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves

Robin Hood (Classic Starts series)

Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi by Tomie DePaola

A is for Asia by Cynthia Chin Lee

Who Was Marco Polo?  from the "Who Was?" biography series for kids

Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite Angeli

Illuminations by Jonathan Hunt (a medieval alphabet book with illuminated letters--explains something in medieval times from A-Z)

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists:  Pieter Bruegel (who didn't paint during the Middle Ages, but painted almost exclusively the world of the Middle Age peasants--tied in nicely) by Mike Venezia

PEOPLE AND PLACES WE STUDIED:

Early Monks and Monastaries of Europe

Justinian & Theodora

Augustine

Charlemagne

Muhammad

Erik the Red

Leif Erikkson

Japanese Samurais

Marco Polo

Genghis Khan

Kublai Khan

St. Francis of Assissi

Richard the Lionhearted

King John & the Magna Carta

Joan of Arc

King Charles VII of France

Johann Gutenberg



We are doing Archery in 4-H this year--perfect timing!



We made blackberry ink and wrote with turkey feather quills!

 

Trying their hands at "stained glass art" with tinted black glue outlines, filled in with watercolor paints.



And this is what Solomon remembered about King John.  LOL.

Nine-Man Morris can be played easily with scrap cardboard, cheerios and Craisins!

Making Peasant Pies for a long journey.....

Movies We Watched:

(Disclaimer:  I am a bit more liberal when it comes to film than some of my good Christian homeschool moms--LOL.  I don't like violence, but will tolerate it in a historical setting.  I don't approve of gratuitous lovey-dovey scenes for my guys, but will fast-forward through it if the rest of the movie is of merit.  Use your own discretion)

"A Knight's Tale"

 (one of the characters is Geoffrey Chauer--love it.  And the soundtrack rocks. Did a little fast-forwarding in the kissy-kissy scenes)

"First Knight"

 (Richard Gere/Sean Connery/Julia Ormond:  I remember loving this so much in the theatres.  It still is very impressive--love to watch Lancelot maneuver through the medieval gauntlet thing)

"Sinbad the Sailor"

(animated with Brad Pitt)

"Thor"

(Viking and Norse Mythology study) ---the new Marvel version

"How To Train Your Dragon"

 (Viking study)

"Nova:  The Vikings"

(from Netflix:  really rather good)

"Robin Hood"

 (the Kevin Costner version, because the Russel Crowe version stinks)

 "Season of the Witch"

(Funny, when I saw this trailer in the theatre, I literally said, "Yeah, we will NOT be watching that.  Turns out it is a perfect fit for our study of the Crusades and witch trials of the Middle Ages and even mentioned over half of our vocabulary words for the week--it is PG-13 for some violence and gross scenes of people that have the bubonic plague--use discretion--my kids handled it fine)

Lots of good ideas in here!  I found this book used at the library for 50 cents.

Another great "used book store" find!  Packed with good lessons for older elementary students.



Perspective Drawing Excercise.





Love these Noteooking Pages from http://www.notebookingpages.com/




Great People of the Middle Ages worksheet from the Middle Ages unit study shown above.




Study on Weaponry and Parts of a Knight's Armor.




Knowledge Box makes Lapbooks that align perfectly with Tapestry of Grace!  This one is the Middle Ages lapbook.





Here I printed some "cover and spine" clipart from Notebooking Pages.com for the kids to decorate their lapbook cover.



A little chess tournament--competition is good.



Now we are a few weeks into our new study of the Renaissance.  That means lots of art history--woo hoo!  But also lots of good geography studies on Early Explorers, Science experiments related to Renaissance inventions and I'm sure we'll fit in some food somewhere!  Hope you enjoyed our tour of the Middle Ages over here at Mrs. Smith's Homeschool for Wayward Boys!

Middle-Aged...

We are into Week 5 of our school year, using Tapestry of Grace , Story of the World and about a bazillion other bits and pieces of curriculum that I couldn't resist buying at convention.  Tapestry is our core, though.  It provides our vocabulary, our literature and history readings, and gives us great ideas for hands-on projects.

Last week we learned about Charlemagne.  We have serious genealogists in my family and one of our family lines has been traced back to Charlemagne.  So, my children got pretty puffed up and pompous about that little tidbit and started talking with a fancy European accent. 

This week, we studied about life for the common people in the Middle Ages, especially the tradesmen.  Today we made store-front banners for particular trades.  Without using words (most people were illiterate before Gutenberg's press came along), how would you symbolize your business?  The first step was to determine what they would have done for a living back then.  "What?  Work?  We are Charlemagne's descendents!  We would have sat in the castle all day playing video games."  I cleared my throat and gave a glare.....they decided promptly that they would be something manly.  So, Denver made this flag.  He is a butcher.

Solomon proudly displayed the flag for his blacksmith shop.  I love his interpretation of an anvil.....

And, since I love to do the project right along with them, I made this one for a tailor shop.  I wanted to do a baker and make a nice rustic loaf of bread, but it ended up looking like a prostethic limb.  I'll spare you the photo.

We finally took down the "Welcome Back" banner that's been hanging here for a month!

What sort of neat projects have you done with a Middle Ages/Medieval study? 

We plan to do stained glass pieces (either at the local pottery/art glass studio or with tissue paper).  I'd also love to try a mini-version of a tapestry if I can find something that's not too involved. 

Thanks for letting me share our projects with you!

TTFN,
Kimberly