Homeschool...

I have not updated on the homeschool for a while....

In our co-op for history we have been going through the Medieval Period. The kids continued to do hands on projects while at home we read Story of the World, Usborne History Encyclopedia and Kingfisher Encyclopedia.

This past Monday in order to bring the Medieval period to a conclusion, we had a Medieval Feast. We served dinner on pita bread plates (trenchers) We served Leek and potatoe soup, chicken (instead of a pork roast) bread, salad and castle pies.

Prior to entering the hall, there was a handwashing station in which the childrens hands were washed in herbed water...

The older kids portrayed the King and Queen as well as visiting Kings and Queens, and were heralded in by trumpets...We took a collection for the poor (canned food). The upper grammar class gave an explaination of the importance of salt, one child gave the explaination of the origin of the "upper crust", and yet another gave an explaination of weapons used in that timeframe.

For entertainment, one of the kindergarteners was dressed as a jester and danced for the King and Queen, there was a beheading of 3, however the third ran off...and a sword fight.

At the end was a dance lesson which was truly enjoyed by the kids.

Since there were photographers there I did not bring my camera, however, next time I will as I would like a lot more photos.

In Science they have completed the Botany semester and have started on Flying Creatures. In last week they made "quill pens" from peacock feathers (since the chapter was on feathers)

We are about 3/4 of the way through Treasure Island. The teacher is awesome, so far the kids have done a small report on Robert Louis Stevenson, they have each researched a real pirate and this weeks assignment was to listen to 5 pieces of music written by R.L. Stevenson and copywork one of his poems. (Each child did their own poem from www.robert-louis-stevenson.org where all of his works are listed.

We have already decided that if the coop continues (which it looks like it will as the only family not returning is because they are moving and we have a list of others who want to join)...we will be going back, God willing.

They all continue with their SOS studies. The older two have been incorporating a video series to go with their American History, called Liberty's Kids. I found it on netflix, and the kids love it and they are learning from it!

TaeKwonDo continues 2ce a week and I have scheduled them for the 20 minutes a day on the WII fit. They love trying to beat the "records" and when they do, I go on, bump up the record time/hits etc and give them a new goal to work for.