Middle Ages - The Four "Alls"

There were:
"the peasants who worked for all,
priests who prayed for all,
knights who fought for all,
and kings who ruled all."

The above quote and following activity can be found in Knights & Castles: 50 Hands-on Activities to Experience the Middle Ages by Avery Hart & Paul Mantell.



We are enjoying our studies of the Middle Ages.

As we are working through the curriculum from Winter Promise called Quest for the Middle Ages, we found this activity that took about a week to complete. Each day we read about one of the "four alls" and completed a section of a shadow box of it. DD10 is really into this project and DS5 was only interested in making a knight scene that you see above. The book suggests using shoe boxes, but I felt a shadow box would be easier to display for a longer time.



DD10 made all of her figures out of clay except for some pigs in her peasant scene.

The peasant who worked for all.




Priests who prayed for all.




Knights who fought for all. (The background is a stone picture she printed from the computer.)





The king who ruled all. (This section is incomplete as DD10 is having difficulty in making a person kneeling to be knighted.)



DS 5's completed project can be seen at the beginning of this post.

We've started

On Monday, we started a light schedule.

But before that, we had to go out for ice cream on Sunday night. Growing up, it was a tradition in my family to go out for ice cream the night before the first day of school. It was fun and when it comes to family tradition, I figure the calories just don't count.

We are reading The Door in the Wall (Books for Young Readers) by Marguerite de Angeli and Short Stories from English History as suggested by Queen Homeschool. Since our summer activities are not over yet, we are going on a light schedule (which we should have been doing all summer).
So, on Monday we read chapter 1 and discussed it. We then read the suggested chapters from Short Stories from English History and had an amazing discussion with dad in the room. It was wonderful and I kept thinking "This is what I have been striving for!"
Isn't it wonderful when a plan comes together?

I realize this is just after one day, but I am hopeful. The curriculum I have chosen this year seems to really fit. DD12 will be doing Year 7 Lite in Ambleside Online and DD10 will be doing Quest for the Middle Ages from Winter Promise. Our plans this year include a field trip to Medieval Times in Maryland.

DS5 will just be along for the ride. He did request a math book - I think because his sisters each have one. So I went to Staples and got the Kindergarten math book for him and a workbook to practice writing which we are calling his copywork book.