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.

Pet Memorial

Our beloved guinea pig died last night. It has been especially hard on DD10.

She loved the little piggy way before she ever got her.

DD10 wanted a guinea pig. I am not a pet person. I have a hard enough time taking care of my husband and three children, I am not interested in adding the responsibility of a pet to my daily tasks.

I told DD10 that if this is what she wanted, she had to do the research by getting a notebook and answering the following questions:

How much do they cost?

What do they eat and how much does that cost?

What kind of living arrangements to they need?

Do they require supplements?



I also made it clear to her that she had to use her money to pay for this thing and to buy it's bedding and food for the entirety of it's stay with us.

There were many more questions, but DD10 did her research and filled her notebook. Once the notebook was filled, I told her that if we were patient, we could probably get a free guinea pig from somewhere. Sure enough, one came available in the local paper. We also got a free cage.

So we brought Mina home. My daughter took care of that piggy like it were her child. She scrubbed the cage once (sometimes twice) a week, fed her, cared for her, geave her treats at Christmas, and so on.

She even kept Psalm 36:6 printed on her cage.

We woke up this morning to find that Mina went to be with God. It was heartbreaking to tell her that the guinea pig was gone. She sobbed all day and there was nothing I could do to take the pain away.

Encouragement in Tough Times

So many things going on in our little lives right now. With the financial distruption to our lives in the beginning of August, things are finally starting to smooth out. By that I mean that hubby and I are at peace with it all. It is far from over, but we are at peace knowing God is in control and only has our ultimate best interest in mind.

Things I have found to be an encouragement at this time:

Books
The Bible - I am reading the book of James and it starts out "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper
Our Daily Bread for Persoanl and Family Devotions

Songs
Praise You in This Storm by Casting Crowns
Revelation Song by Philips, Craig & Dean
Our Great God by Todd Agnew

Friends - For the first time in my life, I feel I have people around me who aren't quick to judge, but will instead pray with me and for me despite their own struggles at this time. I pray for them, too as the act of praying for others invokes hope.

Apple Picking

Personal note: In our household we are facing a financial crisis. I hear that many others are facing these tough economic times and that we are not alone. That's little consolation when faced with a stack of bills and a paycheck that falls short every other week leaving many bills unpaid and not knowing what will happen in the next couple of months.
In the midst of this, I feel so blessed. Blessed to have opportunities like we had today to be able to go and be with friends and forget our troubles for a little while. God is good. He tells us not to worry and that He has everything under control.
Today's entry is about blessing. The blessing of friends, the blessing of educational experiences, and the blessing of fresh food. (Apples taste so good when just picked!)
I probably should have made the kids bring their nature notebooks or art journals and had them sketch some apples or an apple tree. However, that wasn't in the forefront of my mind. My goal was just to get there. Thank God I did.

We went on a field trip with our homeschool group to pick apples at a local orchard. It is good for our kids' souls to get out in the sunshine and fresh air. Even more important sometimes is how good it is for the moms to get together. We were there for 3 hours today and I didn't want to leave. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by the moms who are in our group and today I was really feeling it. I just didn't want to leave.

Our visit started with a wagon ride from the market to the orchard.

Each row of trees was a different type of apple. DS5 really loves Granny Smiths and we were able to find some.

His friend joined us and we had a great time exploring the orchard for the perfect apple.

Somehow DS5 and two of his best friends ended up with Star Wars figurines. I'm not exactly sure how to tie that in with apple picking. The picture was cute, so I included it here anyway.

I told these two to act like they like each other for the picture. This was the best I could get out of them.

We all enjoyed our bag lunches then headed to the petting zoo.

I thought this was a neat picture of my dear friend getting pictures of her kids.

And another dear friend trying to get coordinated to get on the wagon to go back.

I wish I could convey to all of those who were there today how much I love them and feel blessed by them - even if we talked for only a few seconds.

It was probably more that God knew just what I needed today and put me right there.

Jean Piaget

"The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done."

-Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss cognitive psychologist.

Kindergarten Nature Journal

For nature journaling this year, I am having each child pick a tree in our yard. On our 1/5th of an acre we actually have 6 trees to study - one of which is just a baby that popped up this summer.

At least once a month, I will have them observe and sketch their tree in their nature notebooks.

One of our trees appeared about the time DS5 was born so we have always called it his tree. Of course that is the tree he wanted to journal this morning. Even though I have studied this stuff and seen it a million times, it amazes me when a child of 5 years produces something like this. It's amazing what they can do if we let them.

DS5's tree and sketch

DD10's tree and sketch

I couldn't help myself