Please share!
Today, we began what will probably be a 3 month long unit on the Middle Ages. We’ll be using several literature-based unit studies from Homeschool Share and one from Five in a Row. Today, we began with Saint George and the Dragon.
This book is a Caldecott medal winner, and we immediately could see why. In fact in the midst of reading it, Ben asked, “Momma, did this book win a Caldecott because the illustrations are beautiful!” Using FIAR for 4 years has taught him well.
We also read several pages from an Usborne book entitled, Medieval World. I’m a lover of Usborne books in general, and this book did not disappoint. We read a bit about the timeline of the Middle Ages, what part of the world we would learning more about, and a little about knights. Then we read another picture book, written by Jane Yolen, entitled, Merlin and the Dragons. Ben really enjoyed this story about King Arthur. We’re awaiting a Jim Weiss CD from the library entitled, King Arthur and His Knights. One other book I’ll be using for these units is the DK book, Medieval Life.
We usually have 2 read-alouds going at once. Ben reads one of them aloud to me during our school time, I read from the other at bedtime. During this unit, Ben’s read-aloud is My Father’s Dragon and my read-aloud is The Dragon’s Boy: A Tale of Young King Arthur.
We’ll be making a lap-n-notebook, using my favorite spiral bound book from Bare Books once again. Homeschool Share has a Knights Lapbook and a Plague Lapbook that we’ll use parts of, plus several of the units have lapbooking or notebooking components to go along. I don’t think I’ll have to create many minit books myself at all, which is so nice. We put together about 6 minits today, so a very good start to the study I think. Ben will also be memorizing Ephesians 6:11-17 about putting on the Armor of God. He began today by learning the first 2 verses. As we get things glued down into our notebook, I’ll add some pictures to the blog for you to see.
Curious about what other HSS and FIAR units we’ll be using? Well, here’s a list:
Castle Diary (HSS)
The Duchess Bakes a Cake (FIAR)
The Valentine Cat (HSS)
Robin Hood (HSS)
Crossing the New Bridge (HSS)
Marguerite Makes a Book (HSS)
The Sir Cumference Series (HSS-math lessons only)
We’ll be in lots of hands on activities to our lessons as well. Some of those include: creating a coat of arms, making a shield, building a castle, illuminated letter writing, and at the end cooking a medieval feast and attending a Renaissance festival. I hope Ben enjoys this study as much as I think he will. I know I will!
Please share!
