Awesome History: Conquistadors to Renaissance

 This was a super fun class, which was great because it turned out to be our last class of the year!

We did chapters 64-66, covering the Conquistadors, West Africa and the beginning of the Renaissance.

I have to admit that when reading the Renaissance chapter, the kids noticed a certain connection between Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael, and, I am embarrassed to admit that I remembered that the fourth turtle was Donatello.

Actual mask

But the actual class was fantastic!  Shelli, who happens to be part Aztec as well as a professional artist, set up this cool Aztec death mask craft!

She had drawn a basic mask and had cut up lots of paper squares to make the mosaic (we also used glue sticks).  The kids got really into it, and ended up with some masks that were quite realistic as well as some that were fantastically creative!

For our active activity, we played a Renaissance children's game called "All Hid."  Which is actually Hide and Seek, so: easy + fun + no set up required = perfect year end activity!

For our snack I made chocolate (from the New World) pudding from scratch and added just a touch of cinnamon...mmmmm!

Well, we had planned on a few more classes, but they got cancelled due to illness, travel, and dentists, so we decided to leave well enough alone.  The Renaissance is a fine place to finish up the Middle Ages, and I think it leaves us enough chapters to do a third set of Awesome History next semester!

This was chapters 64-66 of A Child's History of the World.

Awesome History Middle Ages: Mongols- Magellan

 Our seventh session covered the Mongols, Marco Polo, and Joan of Arc (chapters 58-60).

I had planned to play Marco Polo (like Blind Man's Buff), but it was a beautiful day, so we went on an expedition like Marco Polo.

Mostly we walked down through the woods and lake, giving  Marco Polo like explanations for the things we encountered.

These were misunderstandings: "Look!  Their roads are carved from a single piece of stone, many miles long!", exaggerations: "The trees are hundreds of feet tall!", and actual facts, "They have chariots that move without horses!"

            Back home, our art activity was the making of quadrants.

We got our quadrant patterns (and excellent directions for making and using them) here. 

Our snack was Mongolian pork with rice.

Longtime readers know that I am fascinated by all things Mongolian, and the Mongolians did grow grain, even while they were  nomads.  Before leaving their winter quarters, they would throw the seed on the ground and trample it in with their horses.  By the time they returned in the fall, the grain was ready.

Our 8th session was Print, Powder, and the Age of Exploration (chapters 61-63). This was yesterday, so I am finally caught up!

Our active activity involved gunpowder!  Most fireworks are illegal in my state, but they do allow tiny firecracker type things, so we had fun with those (outside!).

Our art activity was printing.



Primarily we were doing potato printing.  If you haven't done it, you cut a potato in half, carve it as a stamp, dip it into paint, and press it onto paper.

I also had a bunch of rubber stamps (especially letter stamps) and ink pads that I put out.

This is one of those simple projects that makes me glad we are doing the class: everyone is wildly successful at their own level of skill, and everything is amazing at the end!





Our snack was Mexican snacks (snacks from the New World!) provided by our very own Miss Shelli (who is half Mexican).  Yum!

She had bought a lot of different things like guava paste, sesame cakes, and pork rinds (common in Mexico and brought over by the first Europeans!).  She said fresh fruit would be a great choice.  It's served sliced, spritzed with lime juice, then sprinkled with  chili sugar (like cinnamon sugar with chili instead of cinnamon).

Awesome History Middle Ages: West Africa- Magna Carta

 Our 6th episode featured chapters 55-57: West Africa, Cathedrals, and the Magna Carta

This time we had two active activities: a  Mansa Musa themed obstacle course outside, and a mancala game going on inside.

Our art project was making sealing wax and seals (like the seals on the Magna Carta).

We made the seals out of pipe cleaners covered in foil, and they worked pretty well.

I used candle wax as the sealing wax, and that turned out to be a bit too rigid -it tended to pop off the "letter."

I think adding some paraffin or oil would keep it more flexible next time.

Our snack was rolled sugar cookies which the kids cut into cathedral shapes (with a knife).

They then cut windows and filled the space with crushed hard candy.

The way to do this is to roll it on parchment so that you don't have to move it after it's been cut!

 You just slide the parchment onto a baking sheet.

Yummy and beautiful!

Awesome History Middle Ages: Vikings-Crusades

 The 4th session was chapters 49-51; Vikings, Castles, and Knights.

We started with the art project- body traces so that the kids could design their own armor!

Very fun!  I have them hanging on the stairs since some of my kids now wear very large life sized armor!

The active activity was castle building.  I gave them a choice of building materials, but in the end everyone wanted to build with the large cardboard bricks (presumably because you could build a castle you could step into).

And, of course, Legos.




The snack was mincemeat pie (and grape juice "wine"). 

This was the first time I had made mincemeat pie with actual  meat, but it was really tasty! I used ground beef, apples, whole ground oranges, and whatever dried fruit I had on hand (cherries, apricots, and raisins).


The 5th session was chapters 52-54: Normans- Crusades.

Our active activity was the game Going to Jerusalem (which turns out to be the original name for Musical Chairs!)

Our art activity was designing coats of arms.


Our snack was apples, cheese, and bread.

And I'm almost caught up!

Awesome History Middle Ages: King Arthur - Alfred the Great

 This was actually 2 classes, I'm trying to catch up!

The first class covered Clovis, King Arthur, Monastic life, and Christian Africa.

Our active activity was a treasure hunt: The Quest for the Grail!  This was an actual treasure hunt with clues leading to the fancy cup.

 The art activity was calligraphy.  We cut nibs from goose feathers, and used watercolor ink.

We learned that pen knives really are the best tools for turning feathers into pens!

We also learned that cutting a perfect nib that will stand up to lots of writing is pretty difficult.  

Fortunately, cutting a simple nib for mucking about is easy!

 The snack was an Ethiopian spiced honey bread called ambasha. It was very similar to this ambasha recipe, except it had about 1/4 cup of honey also (you would add it along with the water).

Traditional ambasha is flatter than mine came out, but it was seriously delicious!  We ate ours with butter and honey and drank diluted honey as "mead."

That was A Child's History of the World chapters 42-44.

The following week got simplified due to illness.

We did chapters 46-48: Arabic technology, Charlemagne, and Alfred the Great.

Our active activity was Prisoner's Base (for all of Charlemagne's battles).

Our art activity was supposed to be making metal lanterns like we did here.  We were feeling pretty under the weather, so I still have a bunch of ice filled cans in my freezer!

We kept the snack, of course!  We had "Alfred's  Cakes" for the cakes King Alfred burned. With unintentional historical accuracy, I  lost track of time and burned them a bit on the bottom! We also had Brie cheese, reputed to be Charlemagne's favorite.

At this point  I'm 3 classes behind in blogging these classes, so I'll  keep doing double until I catch up...

Awesome History II: the Middle Ages, Rome to Revolution

Happy Awesome History Students

For our first Awesome History we used Story of the World, but I didn't much like the second book in the series (heavy handed Protestant treatment of the Reformation). 

That left me with a quandary.  I needed a book that gave a good neutral overview of the historical time period, suitable for a wide age range, and a fun read aloud.

The winner is: A Child's History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer!



Its even more of an "overview" than Story of the World (the entire story fits in one book), but it hits all my requirements, right down to being fun to read! The idea is that you can give your older kids extra information as you go, while still maintaining the flow which shows how the eras and events are interconnected.

In our case, we are reading three short chapters a week and going from Constantine and the fall of Rome, all the way to the events which started the American Revolution. That gives me the option of doing a  third Awesome History series as either American History or World History.

This week we did chapters 39-41, Constantine through Attila the Hun.

 Our active activity was an epic Nerf battle
between Romans and Barbarians.

It's a good thing we've been practicing!

Our art activity was these "In Hoc Signo Vinces" crosses. 

Constantine, when he was fighting to become emperor, the night before a crucial battle dreamed that he saw a cross in the sky with the words "In This Sign You Will Conquer."

When he awoke, he had all his soldiers paint a cross on their shields,and he won the battle and his crown.  He then legalized Christianity!




Our back grounds are very wet water color sprinkled with coarse salt which gives a starry effect as it dries.  We actually dried them in the oven so that we could finish the project.  Watercolor paper gives the best effect but it works even on copy paper.

The cross is just strips of construction paper, pasted in position.  I had contemplated writing "In Hoc Signo Vinces" in gold marker, but I liked it as is, and I figured leaving it plain allowed this double as a Lenten decoration!

Our snack activity was making these cross hot pretzels- yummy and fun!

We often have hot pretzels, so this was super easy for us.

If you ever want to make hot pretzels, it's just bread dough, dipped in a basic solution (baking soda in our case, industrial pretzels are dipped in lye), and sprinkled with salt.

And baked.  We definitely bake ours!