Tag Archives: homeschool

Middle Ages, the Plague, and Microbes.

07/15/2015 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

We started out our study of the Middle Ages with an overview of what was going on all over the world during the early part of the Middle Ages.

There were actually different stages to the Middle Ages and each one was pretty different.

Not all of them were Dark either.

Please remember my boys are adventure loving and they like the exciting history best before you look at the timelines they created.

They latched on to even the slightest mention of a battle…

I did get them to leave Easter Island battle free though!

Boys…

romemiddleages

Yes, the Roman Empire was still around during the Middle Ages.

I pretty much got every book the library had on Knights and the Middle Ages and just let my boys go at them.

You Choose history books were again a favorite of my boys.

They will read them again and again.

I like to mix in a LOT of Historical Fiction with our studies.

We watched Disney’s Robin Hood to go with our study.

I was pretty excited about it!

They also did a couple of the lessons with Draw and Write your way through History.

I felt like I failed in the science department at first.

I was just getting books on the plague and talking about different discoveries that were going on.

Then at the end of our study we collected puddle water and studied it under the microscope.

They were amazed and proceeded to eat up all the books the library had on Microbes!

We also watched the Magic School Bus Episodes on Microbes.

Magic School Bus “In A Pickle” and “Inside Ralphie.”

I have to remind myself sometimes that my slow and steady approach to getting the boys interested in something does work!

It just looks lazy for a bit but always pays off!

For more ideas on the Middle Ages, check out my Pinterest board.

Homeschooling

The Vikings

06/16/2015 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

We continued our journey through our history timeline with Vikings!

We have studied Vikings before when we were learning about Explorers but that was a while ago so the boys did not really remember it.

I had them read some of the same books we used the last time.

Voyage with the Vikings (AIO Imagination Station Books)
is a great introduction to Leif Eriksson and it touches on them going to America.

Viking Ships At Sunrise (Magic Tree House, No. 15)
is a great easy read from the Magic Tree House Series, my boys always enjoy reading those.

Stories in Time: Library Book Grade 5 Discovery of the Americas (Discovery of the Americans)
does a great job giving an overview of the known history of the Americas and does touch on Vikings. It does however start with evolution, just a heads up.

“Eric the Red” is a great detail book with so many neat things that made up there everyday life (at least that we know about).

The Vinland Map is a controversial piece of history and you know how much I enjoy teaching controversial history.

There is an interesting documentary about one side of the debate on Netflix right now called “Secrets: A Viking Map?”

The boys and I really liked it, even though I thought the program jumped to a few conclusions…

We used something new when we started our study on Vikings, Draw and Write Through History: The Vikings, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.

The boys really enjoyed learning how to draw a Viking ship!

They also did some cursive copy work about Vikings from the same book.

We did two crafts from the “Crafts from the Past: The Vikings” book.

I can only find used copies online for sale, it must not still be in print.

This one is a Runestone.

I thought it would really fun to do since we have a Viking Runestone in Oklahoma that we have visited.

The book actually said to use Styrofoam and have them carve out the runes but I did not have any so we used clay.

I had them carve out runes with toothpicks.

I really like how they turned out!

My youngest boy smashed his a bit when he decided to do both sides…

They also made a Viking Sun Compass from the same book.

If you want to really get an idea about how much we do not know about the Vikings, look up Viking Sunstone.

It is pretty amazing how good they were at navigating.

If your child really likes Viking weapons (like my boys), Netflix also has “Secrets of the Viking Sword” on instant view right now.

We read stories about Asgard and Thor of course because, you know, I have two boys…

They have several options of tales about Asgard for free download on Amazon.

Homeschooling

Saint George, Dragons, and King Arthur

06/04/2015 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

*This post contains Amazon Associate links

I really liked the story of Saint George and the Dragon!

Such an interesting story to add to our history study and a great way to get ready for the middle ages!

I liked that Hunt for the Devil’s Dragon (AIO Imagination Station Books)
and Saint George and the Dragon
where different versions of the same story.

I like the boys to see that history can be told many different ways and that stories change as they are retold.

We studied dragons with the idea that they might be stories based on dinosaurs.

If you believe that God created all of creation at the same time and that it was not billions of years ago that dinosaurs existed then it stands to reason that people might have seen some before most were killed or died off.

And if I saw a dinosaur I would probably talk about it a lot and the story would be retold.

Of course I would want the monster I killed to the biggest and meanest, maybe it might grow into something that looks more like fantasy then reality.

I find discussing controversial history with my boys to be the best way to learn.

I always ask, “why do you think that?” when they jump at the easy, popular opinion.

They are quick to realize that they were just spitting out what they had heard and they have nothing to back it up.

Answers in Genesis has an interesting video on their site about what might have happened to the dinosaurs, here.

King Arthur was actually set in Britain before the middle ages were in full swing.

You can listen to what they would have really sounded like during his time, here.

I read about an article about all the fuss about who King Arthur really was and why do we even care.

Should we even learn about him, he probably never even existed, was there a point?

As a mom of boys I love what he stands for.

He is a king that makes little boys want to save the day, do what is right, and treat people fairly.

That seems like a good enough reason to me.

Also, I am a firm believer that stories come from somewhere.

If a story shows up over and over and will not die, maybe that story is based on something that really happened.

Why not debate an interesting story?

Sounds like a good opportunity to get kids interested in history and literature to me!