Exploring The Middle Ages

We've decided to keep up with more "formal" studies this summer, rather than taking three months off. Well, I should say, "I've" decided, and Kane is ok with it because we're focusing on history -- which he loves! And more specifically, we're studying the Middle Ages, which we both find really, really interesting.

Before I go any further into what we're studying and how we're doing it though, I want to clarify that my idea of "formal" studies is probably not as formal as you may think. I know that we're constantly learning even without doing any of the sit down, bookwork, so I'm not obsessive about spending x amount of time doing it. But for us, having a little more structure in certain areas has really paid off and has led us to discover things we might not have otherwise. We don't have a schedule or any kind of regimented plan or curriculum, though we do have a fairly relaxed routine. And during the summer we're even more relaxed. We've taken many days off already, so that we could go to the pool and Kane could take swimming lessons (and we're taking many more days off this month for just hanging out). On the days we do sit down and crack the books, we get started sometime after breakfast, do some math, spelling, history and science and we're usually done by lunchtime.

For history we're going in chronological order. Last year it was the Ancients, this year it's the Middle Ages (up to the beginning of the Renaissance). We're using Story of the World 2 (SOTW 2) as our main text, along with Usborne's Internet Linked World History book and many more books from our shelves and from the library. I'd ordered History Odyssey from Pandia Press, and I really like it because it's chock-full of great hands on crafts and activities, but I couldn't wrap my mind around the ordering of their chapters (i.e. studying Charlemagne before getting to the Celts or Christianity coming to Britain, etc...). I also wanted to have question and answer and narration work after each chapter....so I bought SOTW's Middle Ages Activity Guide to go with it. I'm using their ordering of events, but supplementing with all the cool History Odyssey activities. So far, it's working out really well.

At the moment, we're deep into the Celts and how they were driven into Scotland, Wales and Ireland when the Angles and Saxons came to Britain. Kane thinks it's cool that some of our ancestors were Celts, so he's really getting into it. We've been reading a lot of Celtic Mythology and introducing him to Celtic music. Some days our lessons consist of reading and making Celtic/Middle Ages type food. He learned to make porridge and together we made our own homemade butter!! (More on the joy of butter making in a future post).

Tonight we're diving deeper into the Middle Ages by watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It's one of many on a long list of movies I've compiled for us to watch that are set in the Middle Ages. And one I know Kane will enjoy. It may not be historically accurate, but it's definitely our type of comedy.