Home Education - History
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Medieval Day
We were recently fortunate to experience a Medieval Day, which was hosted by our homeschooling group and presented by our local guild. The day was sensational! I truly think it may have been one of the best days our homeschool group has had yet. Many of the children (and parents) dressed in period costume. We started the day with a parade of costumes. The presenter from the guild was truly excellent, very skilled and very passionate about his topic. He was dressed in period costume and then suited up into knight’s armour, explaining as he went. It was a very interactive presentation which went a long way to keeping the…
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Building Medieval Weapons
The children are continuing with their project work some more diligently than others. For some, individual projects have given way to jointly working together, which creates a wonderful flow of energy. Michelangelo is researching Medieval Weaponry. This is very reminiscent for us as quite a few years back Carpenter was into making all sorts of weapons, although I do think time has honed skills. Michelangelo is planning on making miniature replicas of various weapons. His first item is the catapult. The spring mechanism of rubber bands produced a surprising spring. Carpenter made a slightly different model of the catapult.
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Following Interests
I have briefly shared that we are trialling a little of project based learning. We have most intrigued by the areas of interest the children have each chosen, they are rather varied and some choices have surprised us. Princess’ choice however wasn’t a surprise in that she expressed an interest to learn more about Native Americans, in particular the Plains People. This was an area of interest she had last year and it had got pushed aside. Hopefully we can encourage her this year. Princess was rather keen to make a teepee. A small scale teepee was suggested but when she saw a picture of a large one she wanted…
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Paper Making
Recently we studied China and during that time read a picture book The Cloudmakers by James Rumford Princess was particularly taken with this book, it tells the story of how, many, many years ago men from Kazakhstan were raiding over the border of China. During one such raid a grandfather and his grandson were swept up in the raid. They were to be sold as slaves until it was stated that they could make ‘clouds.’ They were given 7 days to prove they could, using their hemp sandals the little family set about making paper. There follows a detailed and amazing account of the process. They were successful and went…
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Roman Projects
Now I have found my camera/computer cord I thought it time to share the hands on projects the boys undertook when we studied Early Church/Roman History Einstein made a centurion’s helmet which was a difficult task for him as making items such as this is not his natural forte. I found that if I worked with him every step of the way he managed and was very proud of his end result. If you visit the above link you shall find detailed instructions on how to make the helmet. Their result was far more elaborate than ours but I was just so pleased that Einstein completed this project. Michelangelo was…
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Creating A Family Timeline Keepsake
For so long I have wanted our family to keep a timeline/book of centuries but wasn’t too sure how to go about it, then one day I was browsing at Suzanne’s site and was so excited by the timeline that her boys were using and how they were keeping it. Finally the ‘lightbulb clicked’ and I thought “I could do that”. Suzanne’s timeline was Amy Pak’s History Through the Ages. I just loved the layout but the cost was too prohibitive for an Australian due to postage and currency conversion. I started brainstorming other ideas, sourcing local realtors in my quest to make my own timeline. Contacting the local printers…
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‘Archaelogists Dig For Clues’
We have just started using RC History and the opinions from the children vary(typical, standard procedure.) Following RC History in chronological order means that we go right back and start history from Creation onwards. As well as studying the earlier parts of Genesis we are reading archaeology books. For the first time in a long while I am seeing the children become excited and this book is sparking off lots of ideas and questions:):) After reading the book the children were eager to show me a fossilized rock in the paddock. If you look closely you can see wood in the rock. They were also inspired to ‘make’ artifacts. Carpenter…
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Vietnamese Catholics
October 23rd, 2006 For the past few days I have been engrossed in the world and words of Tom Dooley, an American Naval Doctor who gave medical aid to 600,000 Vietnamese refugees in their flee from the Viet Minh in the 1950s. Later Tom dooley set up Medico. ‘Deliver us from Evil’ has really made me stop and think, about the selflessness of Doctors and medical staff in refugee camps. Most of all I have become fascinated by the Vietnamese people and their history. Their tenacity to hold onto their Faith is astounding, the Communists cruelly tortured these people for holding true to the Catholic Faith. 150,000 of Vietnamese’s 200,000…
