Dec. 10, 2007 - Middle Ages Study
We have been slowly plugging away at our Middle Ages study. We are currently using A World of Adventure by Learning Adventures as our "spine" for our chronological history studies.
I absolutely love the Middle Ages time period, but I have found with the Christmas season being right in the midst of our study, I haven't been able to give this time period our full attention. I did, however, want to share a few "must have" resources and books that we couldn't live without for our studies.
Upon the recommendation of AWOA, we read A Door in the Wall and Adam of the Road. Both of these books are fantastic and really help bring to life the MIddle Ages.
I also love and highly recommend Usborne's What Were Castles For? This book, as well as all in this series, really gives a great view at many different aspects of life in the Middle Ages.
Personal reading time:
The Measly Middle Ages--insight into the "real" and sometimes gross realities of living in that time period
The MInstrel in the Tower--my daughter has really enjoyed this one.
The Knight at Dawn--from Magic Treehouse series The research guide, Knights and Castles is absolutely fantastic as well. I was a little hesitant years ago to allow my children to read these titles, as we do not do wizards, magic, etc. However, after reading over these and discussing my concerns with my children, I have been very pleased with the information they have received from these books.
The Whipping Boy--can you imagine being the boy who gets punished for what the "bratty" prince does? UGH! Then the 2 boys run away together and meet up with some robbers--read it to find out what happens next. My son is really enjoying this book.
Usborne Beginners Castles--is a great book for beginning readers. I also allowed both my kids to read over it as a quick review.
David Macaulay's Castle and Cathedral are both phenomenal in the pictures and descriptions of both types of architecture. Well worth the read and pictures.
More read alouds:
The Reluctant Dragon--a cute book by Kenneth Grahame about St. George and the dragon
All of the Sir Cumference titles were a wonderful addition to our study. We allowed these to take the place of our math time.
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi
Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland
Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter
Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone
We checked out a plethora of books from the library and really have enjoyed these a lot!
We also have used and really like Hands and Hearts Middle Ages kit. These are well worth the money and really help the kids with "hands-on" projects that help solidify aspects of the time periods in their minds. They also come with Scripture cards and notebooking pages. They are available in a variety of time periods as well. http://handsandhearts.com
We also just started using Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation with Botany. I cannot believe how much I love this book. I have heard many homeschoolers rave about her books, but I had not felt led to try them. A friend of mine said that I should look at the botany one, to go along with our plant unit study, and I absolutely love it! I will be getting the other titles in the series for myself to go along with the rest of the science we will be studying for the rest of this year and the next. She also has notebooking pages on her site to go along with the titles. You can also find kits to go along with the books from Creation Sensation. I do not plan to get the kits for the botany book, because we will finish our plant study next week. However, I am going to look into the kits for the other books I am going to pick up. http://jeanniefulbright.com and http://creationsensation.com are those websites.
There is also a really neat video of an animated portion of the Bayeux Tapestry which details the Battle of Hastings. This link should take you directly to the You Tube link, but please be extra careful with the kiddos around. I would never want to send you anywhere inappropriate, so double-check this link and make sure! Thanks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDaB-NNyM8o
Unfortunately, we were unable to make a lapbook on the Middle Ages, which I had really hoped we could do. So, we have stuck with notebooking pages from http://notebookingpages.com and http://historyscribe.com as well as a few from our Hold That Thought CD we purchased through http://handsandhearts.com We have also added a few "pop-ups" and mini-books to our notebooking pages to add a little more excitement.
We also have used the History Throught the Ages timeline figures from http://homeschoolinthewoods.com to add to our timeline chest.
I know this is not an extensive list of all the things we have done or read, but I wanted to get the basics down for you. If I think of any others, I will add them later. Also, if you have any Middle Ages resources to share, please add it to the comments section.
