Big Plans: Days of Knights

Have I mentioned that the oldest four Zoomlians have been taking a class on Medieval history on Tuesday mornings?

This has worked out well: a teacher that loves his subject and does lots of hands on visual aids (like real swords!) and I get some time to focus on the younger Zoomlians.

 I was a bit conflicted about the class because I also love to teach history, but the extra time plus the older Zoomlians getting to meet more home schoolers  tipped the balance.

Besides, I can still teach history!  I'm gearing up for a Medieval unit of my own.  A lot of the books I'll be doing will be geared towards Oob and Choclo, but the projects should be an immersive boost to the older Zoomlians as well.

What do I want them to learn, and how will they learn it?

Why was the Medieval Age the way it was?  To me, the most interesting thing about this time period is that it is a recreation of civilization: chaos to warlords to kings.  We'll probably explore this with discussion and skits.  If no one was in charge, what would happen?

And yet, when Rome fell, not all civilization was lost.  The Church, while suffering from the chaos, preserved knowledge, maintained some order, and proposed Christianity as the basis for the new civilization. In essence, it was the chivalric code (proposed by the Church) that turned warlords (out for their own gain) into knights (bound to defend the weak and helpless).  Was this perfectly realized outside of the legends?  Let's just say it was realized at least as well as Christianity is realized now.

Knights are fun for other reasons though, mainly the chance to study their arms and armor!  We will be making our own "Code of Chivalry," developing coats of arms, and designing suits of armor based on body traces.  We'll make helmets and tabards (our house is already chock full of swords).

The older Zoomlians will be turning our dining room into a castle, and we'll all do some other castle building and designing projects.

We'll take a closer look at the Church, especially the lives of bishops, monks, and nuns.  We'll be doing some stained glass projects, looking at cathedrals, saints, and symbolism, and some calligraphy.  We'll also look at some of the science preserved by the Church.  We'll be making and using sundials, hour glasses and time candles.

Then there are the lives of serfs, peasants, and artisans.  We'll do a little metal working,  some "field work," and talk about "Baa, Baa Black Sheep."

I'm also looking to watch The Black Arrow,  Robin Hood, and The Court Jester, and we'll top off the unit with a feast!

Easy Fun Bird Cookies

These would be cookies for birds, not bird-shaped-cookies-for-people!

We took 2 cups of Bisquick and added enough water (a few tablespoons) to make a firm (not too sticky) dough.

We sprinkled it with birdseed, then rolled it out, adding more seed as needed.

Then we cut it our with cookie cutters.  We also put a hole in each one with a straw.

As we rerolled the scraps, we got more and more seed inside the cookies.

We baked the cookies for 15 minutes at 400, or until they became quite hard and golden brown.

After they cooled, we strung them with plastic lanyard (you could use ribbon, but the lanyard made it super easy for little fingers).

Then we hung them on bushes in the yard at kid level.

So far we've mostly seen house sparrows nibbling at them, but they seem to really like them!

Toe Explosion

The other day, I noticed that Leena's shoe was starting to fall apart.  This was annoying, to say the least, since we had just bought that pair 2 months ago.

A day or so later, I was going to the store, and decided I'd better check first to see how bad the shoe really was.

Both shoes had exploded at the tips and now had toes sticking out of them.

Really?  Really?!?

Yes.  She had accidentally stepped in a puddle of Miracle-gro and her feet had grown 2 full shoe sizes in as many months.  She is now wearing shoes half a size smaller than my shoes.  Why, yes, she is 10 years old.

What can you do?

I'll tell you what everyone else did.  They went off to find the puddle, and I've just replaced four pairs of toe exploded shoes!

More Adventure

From here on out, scheduling is heavily weather dependent.  It doesn't just matter whether the day is sunny or rainy, it also matters how cold our winter is and how early spring arrives.  These are the things I hope to do, but the dates themselves are subject to shuffling.

3/6 National Zoo Weather dependent, of course, but early March is often a great time to visit the Zoo.  You get early spring, lots of animals and no crowds.  Also you don't overheat while tromping back up the hill to your car!

3/13 National Arboretum  The magnolias should be in bloom!

3/20 The Baltimore Museum of Industry (costs money, but parking is free), or a second round at the Walters, or the Cherry Blossom Festival

3/27 Holy Week Cherry Blossoms or the Franciscan Monastery I'm hedging my bets as to when the cherries will blossom!

4/3 Skip week:  Easter Break

4/10 The C + O Canal  It was so nice in the fall, I'd like to see it in the spring when the water is higher.

4/17 Fossil Hunt  (Shark's teeth) down by the Bay

4/24 Monuments on the National Mall (Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, maybe more)  This will be a hike!  It's one mile from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, so we'll see how far we get (and if I can figure out how to park in the middle!)

5/1 National Arboetum: The Azalea Walk should be at peak bloom.

5/8 Back to the Bay for another fossil hunt!   Just a note about shark tooth hunting: after Memorial day, they will charge a ridiculous amount of money to visit the beaches.  Also, summer and fall are jellyfish season, as we have found to our pain, so this will be our last visit for the year.

5/15 FDR Memorial, MLK Memorial, and the Tidal Basin

Plans for Adventure

This is the fourth year in a row that I have done Adventurers!

This started out in 2009 as a weekly field tip with the oldest kids in my home school co-op (which was a way to keep the co-op running with an ever widening age range).  The co-op has been gone 2 years now, but I keep going by simply publishing a list and a meeting place for car pooling.

I lived near DC for eight years before I found the nerve to take independent trips downtown. I was afraid I 'd get lost.  I was afraid I'd lose a kid.  I was afraid I couldn't find parking.  Worst of all, I was afraid I would have to parallel park!

None of that happened!  Now I keep inviting other families so that they will know where to park, what fun things there are to do, and what the best times are to do them.

This is the schedule for January and February, they are all Wednesdays, except as noted:

1/9 National Gallery/Natural History: We'll start out at National Gallery and move the younger Zoomlians over to Natural History when they get restless (they museums are next to each other).  The older Zoomlians (who have been asking to spend real time with the art) will stay at National Gallery, then meet us back at the van.

1/16 The Walters Art Gallery up in Baltimore.  We will be starting a new Medieval unit, and the Walters has the best Medieval collection since the Cloisters.  We may pass through their Egyptian stuff (Choclo is still on a mummy kick), we won't miss the Hall of Wonders, and we may also visit their Japanese collection, what with Mxyl studying Japanese.  Maybe we should just move there.

1/25 Friday March for Life The Emperor is doing this one with the older kids and the Youth Group.

1/30 Skip Week!  I have my portfolio review that morning.

2/6 Air and Space Udvar-Hazy Annex We'd planned to go in the Fall, but never made it. This one is free to get in, but you are required to park on site for $16.  A great place to car pool, but worth it regardless!

2/13 Ash Wednesday Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

2/20 Museum of American Art  I've never been there, but, if it's not fun, we'll bail and do the US History museum.

2/27 Sackler Gallery/African Art/Smithsonian Castle  These are all adjacent.  This is another trip where I may leave the older Zoomlians with the great art, and take the younger to go play in the Moon Garden.

Hanging Around

Usually, when I don't post for a while, it's because we are so busy doing stuff, I don't have time to blog.

This time, it's because we've been hanging out and relaxing!

After all the Advent crazies, I've been reading  (Men of Iron, The Story of Roland, Good Poems, and the lovely, lingering A Place in Time), playing silly games (Star Wars Angry Bird Jenga, which is actually all one game), silly computer games (Christmas Chuzzle, anyone?), and just... lolling about like a sloth (although not generally upside down).

I haven't wasted this much time in years!  And the strangest thing happened: I feel like doing all kinds of interesting and fun home school stuff.

Happy New Year!

 Every year we have a family party on New Year's Eve.  We serve fancy hors d' eurves horsderves hordeveres appetizers, and sparkling cider.  We count down to midnight in another time zone (this year it was Paris!), we watch the fireworks from Sydney (thank you, YouTube), and then we watch a Cirque de Soliel show (thank you, Netflix).

This year, shortly after Christmas, Leena suggested that we do a masquerade party.

I opted for pirate.  Completely independently, the Emperor went for pirate, too.  I'd claim he stole my idea, but if he were stealing stuff, it would make him more piratey than me.

 Leena was a medieval damsel.  This was a late switch from archer, when that costume proved too difficult.

Me: Don't you need a bow?

Leena: Why would I need a bow?

Me: Well, don't archers have bows?

Leena: I've never seen an archer wear bows.  They wear a pointy green hat with a feather.

Well, she made a great damsel, anyway!

 Moving right along, Choclo was a knight, and Oob was a king.  We are terribly proud of the king cape, although you can't see much in the picture.  I taught Leena how to use the sewing machine, and she sewed on the "ermine" trim.

Klenda was the Guardian of the Forest.  She designed and sewed her costume in secret (by hand!) and it looked fabulous!

 Mxyl was the Doctor (yes, that is a sonic screwdriver he's holding: he made it from a kit he got for Christmas!), and Zorg is a robot (but not a cyberman).

Unbelievably, we had, not one, but two adults drop by unexpectedly while we all dressed up.  They were both quite surprised.

What can you do except say, "Arrrrrrr!"

And, "Happy New Year!"

Thank You Grammy Ann!

The Zoomlians have been opening your presents!

Real thank you notes to follow, but I thought you'd like to see the pictures now.

Mxyl got a cool black fedora.

Klenda is wearing her new chic cloche hat.

Zorg is wearing his mohawk wig.

Leena is showing off her pretty boots.
Choclo got a penguin pirate balancing game, and Oob got a game which involved an alligator knocking monkeys off a bridge (which I spent a chunk of the afternoon playing with him, until he decided he wanted to play it by himself!).

All in all, a very successful round of presents!

The Boar's Head

After years and years of singing The Boar's Head Carol, we finally decided that serving a boar's head "bedecked with bays and rosemary" for Christmas was the way to go.

The careful observer may note that the boar's head in the picture is not actually the head of a boar (as the actual preparation of the actual head of an actual boar seemed too actually icky for Christmas).

It is, however, from a boar, if not from the front half of the boar...  OK, I guess we don't know for sure if it was a boar or a sow, but you can't very well walk into the dining room singing, "The sow's haunch, in hand bear I.."

It is, however, artfully decorated to look like a boar's head, and we did all sing as the Emperor bore it in!

If you have no idea what we are talking about and think, perhaps, we are making it up, you can find a fair rendition of the Boar's Head Carol with lyrics here.

Choclo's First Communion

 Choclo made his First Communion on Christmas!

Mumpy and Pa were visiting for Christmas, so they got to be there, too. 

It was so beautiful!  You can't get a better Christmas present than Jesus!!

Choclo told me afterwards, "It feels like getting a big hug from Jesus!"