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Martha
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Alrighty, I'm trying to make my first ever unit study! History is our favoirte subject so that's what I'm going with. I'm using the Door in the Wall and The Whipping Boy. Bought a couple DK books about the time period.
I'm kinda sorta thinking of a FIAR type style with these catagories, of course some are going to spill over to other areas:
Church/Religion:
Popes, saints,...
the Holy Roman Empire
Relics
Pilgrimages/crusades
typical beliefs of the times, superstition vs faith/knowledge
Society:
the feudal system
legal matters of justice
money
Language:
education practices
quills/ink and illumination
stained glass (for the illiterate)
poetry
Art:
Castle structures
tapestries
clothing & jewlery
mucial instruments
Science/Math
herbal medicine
the science of war
health and nutrition
telling time w/ candles
Just for fun:
jousting
board games
card games
gargoyles
I'm thinking this unit study will take about a month or so. Thoughts and opinions on this? Ideas welcome!
little nervous and a lot confused about how others would do this! 
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Martha
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Meredith
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Martha, this looks great!! How about reading Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (Vision book) as a RA, you could tie it in with your geography, and of course religion studies. We really enjoyed it. Looking forward to hearing others ideas as we haven't done this time period in depth yet 
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Martha
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ahhh, adding her to my list!
I've got some Popes - can't leave those out!
I've also got Augustine Came to Kent and If All the Swords in England as those are the Seton required book reports for my older 2 boys.
Joan of Arc, a DK reader for a younger child.
Attack! A lego adventure reader from DK for a K grader
Days of the Knights: A Tale of Castles and Battles, a DK level 4 reader
DK book called "Medieval Life"
and a Kingfisher Knowledge book called "Castles & Forts"
Homeschool Share has a unit study on The Whipping Boy, that I printed off.
The Sir Cumference math book story books.
The Duke and the Peasant: Life in the Middle Age by Sister Wendy
Also by Sister Wendy is the book Early Saints
Magic Tree House book #15
Cathedral by MacCaulay (hoping to get the video at the library too!)
some chapter books at about the same level as A Door in the Wall or The Whipping Boy that I also have:
Tower of London by Fisher
William the Conqueror by Green
I also found at Mardel's for additional craft ideas and receipes:
Hands-On-Heritage: Medieval Times Activity Book by EDUPRESS
Very basic and simple for the younger crowd
Kings, Queens, Castles, and Crusades: Life int he Middle Ages by Zelma Kallay
Almost like a brief text with some great craft activites and thought provoking questions that could be used in language arts writing. HOWEVER, this is a secular publication and it shows. I've seen worse views on the Church, but it certainly has some paragraphs/sentences I will censor/edit. On the positive side, it makes no mention what so ever to Luther, inqusitions, or the reformation.
I don't expect to go through all these, many I already had at hand though and will pull out for the kids to explore at will.
Martha
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Martha
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I also have several websites that will be nice too, if anyone wants them...
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MaryM
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Martha, this looks like a great approach to a unit study! What a wealth of info and resources you have assembled already.
These two books have a lot of ideas for crafts and activities.
Days of Knights and Damsels
Knights and Castles: 50 Hands-On Activities (This one is very PC and does make comments about the Church that you will want to edit. Since this is really an activity book you don't need to read the text with it anyway.)
For the study of heraldry, these are fun books.
Coat of Arms
Design Your Own Coat of Arms
Medevial foods picture book:
A Medieval Feast by Aliki
It would be fun to find an actual cookbook with medieval recipes.
Dover has great stained glass coloring books since you mentioned stained glass.
At some point someone recommended a book on Illuminated alphabets that was supposed to be really good. Anyone remember that?
Here's a link for making a quill pen from a feather. Or they can be purchased already made from history stores.
Building a catapult or trebuchet is a pretty cool activity. My husband did that with our sons. I've also seen lots of references to marshmallow catapults on line. Here is a link for one in a middle-ages study (scroll down)
Marshmallow catapult to build
Marshmallow capapult kit to purchase
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Martha
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Oh neat! Thanks, Mary!
I'm stock piling cardboard anything for crafts with this unit. 
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Kathryn UK
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Martha, you might like to look for Castle Diary, by Richard Platt and Chris Riddell. It is a "diary" kept by an 11yo boy sent to be a page in his uncle's castle. Great fun, well illustrated, and lots of educational information.
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Martha
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looking through shelves for it now... sounds familiar...
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It sounds like so much great stuff.
To add to your saint information, the middle ages laity were greatly influenced by the reading and telling of the stories in The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine in 1275. These were stories of the saints, some might have been legends...but the retelling of these stories were to reinforce the virtues to imitate from these saints. You can find different examples like this on St. Nicholas, or St. Benedict on the Patron Saints Index site.
There is also another book called Golden Legend of Young Saints by Daniel-Rops which is written for youth in the style of the original Golden Legend. It's out of print, unfortunately.
Another aspect of saints is the intercessory for all the needs of the time. This is shown particularly through the Fourteen Holy Helpers or Auxiliary Saints. These 14 were in particular invoked during the times of plague.
The influence of the liturgical year on daily life is quite interesting, especially considering that many couldn't read or write. Like in the thread on the Feast of the Archangels, the year would be divided with quarter days, with names like "Lady Day," Candlemas, Michaelmas, Midsummers (St. John the Baptist), Lammas Day, Whitsunday...all days on the liturgical calendar used to indicate business transactions.
Then there's the obvious influence of the liturgical calendar on the seasons. Find a copy of the old Farmer's Almanac or go to sites like Wilson's Almanac and find the many folkfore phrases and poems about certain days to give rhythm to their daily life. One example are Weather Saints. Another example would be on September 14, feast of the Holy Cross, Greek seaman bring their boats in until April 23, according to this proverb:
On the day of the Cross, cross your sails and tie your ropes; rest in harbor.
On St. George's Day, rise and set sail again.
That's just a little sample. It's fun to find the old proverbs in relation to saints and feasts.
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MaryM wrote:
Medevial foods picture book:
A Medieval Feast by Aliki
It would be fun to find an actual cookbook with medieval recipes. |
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A Medieval Cookbook
Martha, did you say a month??
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Martha
On the crafts theme, when we did Middle Ages my boys and girl loved making 'weapons'. Many a sword fight was held in our back lawn. They made wooden shields, maces, axes, catapults, swords and bows. This was all made from timber, we have a pile of 'scraps' of light wood on the wood rack. I might add some of this stuff was rather deadly, but hey they had fun.
Middle Ages is such a huge area. Have fun.
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jenngm67 wrote:
Then there's the obvious influence of the liturgical calendar on the seasons. Find a copy of the old Farmer's Almanac or go to sites like Wilson's Almanac and find the many folkfore phrases and poems about certain days to give rhythm to their daily life. One example are Weather Saints. Another example would be on September 14, feast of the Holy Cross, Greek seaman bring their boats in until April 23, according to this proverb:
On the day of the Cross, cross your sails and tie your ropes; rest in harbor.
On St. George's Day, rise and set sail again.
That's just a little sample. It's fun to find the old proverbs in relation to saints and feasts. |
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There are quite a few of these on a British weather lore page I put together for Mater Amabilis ... here
I like the sound of that Golden Legend book. Shame it is out of print 
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Kathryn UK wrote:
| There are quite a few of these on a British weather lore page I put together for Mater Amabilis ... here |
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Great collection...so much of the footwork done for me!!
I just want to commend you and Michele for your hard work. I need to spend a huge chunk of time to read over your curriculum.
Quote:
| I like the sound of that Golden Legend book. Shame it is out of print |
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Yes, it is a shame. I don't remember how I stumbled upon it. On bookfinder.com I found several copies, no more than $20, starting around $7.
Another copious writer of young saint stories is Joan Windham...her stuff is in and out of print. But many of her stories include the Golden Legend written at a child's level.
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Martha
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Karen E. wrote:
Martha, did you say a month?? |
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Actually, it starting to look like we may never stop! I was just thinking that if I go a bit longer I should have costumes for 10/31 all ready to go without any extra effort. 
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Martha
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Erin wrote:
Martha
On the crafts theme, when we did Middle Ages my boys and girl loved making 'weapons'. Many a sword fight was held in our back lawn. They made wooden shields, maces, axes, catapults, swords and bows. This was all made from timber, we have a pile of 'scraps' of light wood on the wood rack. I might add some of this stuff was rather deadly, but hey they had fun.
Middle Ages is such a huge area. Have fun. |
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yep! 6 boys here, so we're very familiar with the art of war!  the 5 gal. paint stirring sticks you can get for free with paint or a quarter are the perfect size for swords. As it's fall the kids are collecting twigs and sticks to tie into make-shift shields and mini-fortresses.
Martha
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Erica Sanchez
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This is a book we read for the kid's Art History class. It is set in the early 1400's in Paris and is about a girl who finishes an illuminated manuscript for her aging father. It mentions the libraire (bookseller), the parchment maker, and the apothecary. The pictures are beautiful and the descriptions of how she makes/mixes the colors for the manuscript are great!
This site has a good description of the book, but you can purchase it cheaper elsewhere.
Marguerite Makes A Book
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Martha
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I have tons of other sites, but thought everyone might like this one:
Medieval Career Personality quiz
I'm a Shepherdess!
Martha
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MacBeth
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I'm a minstrel. Maybe I'm living my medieval life through my kids? And I was just saying that Fllewder is my favorite Prydain character!
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MacBeth wrote:
| I'm a minstrel. |
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Was yours just *A Minstrel*, MacBeth? I'm The Dreamer-Minstrel.
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Kelly
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Hmmmmm...I'm a Dreamer-Minstrel. Not sure if that's good or bad. 
Kelly in FL
PS You might take a look at the History Links program on the Medieval period, published by Wooly Lamb. Very reasonable in price. I seldom have done THE WHOLE book, but have gleaned lots of good ideas for projects from the various books on the different eras. Very useful for coming up with things to do for varied ages. And it's Catholic, to boot.
Kelly
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Medieval History Unit
