The Story of the World!

The kids and I have been learning about the middle ages for school. We have had so much fun. Last year we studied Ancient Times, and it was fun, but this year the kids are showing alot more interest in what we are doing. Its been wonderful. We read our chapter every day, narrate and then discuss what we learned. Then I let them pick a project. Last year the excitement wasn't really there. This year love of learning is starting to show itself. (Yeah for tjed!) I think I am the most excited about this. The last couple of weeks have been filled with Roman Battles, Roman Signums, Crossing the Roman Empire and eating like Roman Soldiers. Unfortunately, I have a camera thief in my house. A couple of my kiddos are so fascinated with picture taking, they take pictures and mess around with my camera. Consequently, all of the pictures we took of our Roman fun were deleted along with a few other pictures. I took some fun pictures with their Roman signums that they made. And we were able to have some friends come over and have a Roman dinner. We all ate with our hands around the fire(a small candle in the living room) and thought about how boring the food was as a Roman Soldier. That was fun until we learned about the Celts driving the Romans out of Britain. Then all of a sudden my kids turned into mad Celtic warriors.(Okay, I know some were already a little crazy;)


Here is Wild Man painting his double headed war axe. There was no way my kids were going to make one just out of cardboard. They had to have one that could stand the test of time.

Here is Smiles Alot with hers. Thinks Alot refused to let me take his picture, unless I promised not to put it on the blog. He is being really camera shy, that's why you won't see any pics of him:(
They also made Celtic brooches and cloaks to go along with their attire. And of course we had to have the blue war paint.
I even joined in the fun!
And don't forget, the Celts put great value in becoming a warrior. They started training them when they were very young!

I think the best part of this whole thing is my kids really have begun to value living in this time of the earth. We spent a whole day going over the worst jobs in the middle ages. When we talked about all the funny medical treatments, (like putting worms around your neck to cure a sore throat ) what the barbers did during that time (bleed people, and amputate limbs), they really started to see that war is fun to play at, but not so fun to live. One of the articles they read talked about how one of the jobs of the archers during that time was that if you survived the battle you were to walk around the dead and dying. If anyone was still alive and suffering you were supposed to put them out of their misery. UGH!!! Smiles alot was especially glad, she didn't have to go down to the local marsh area, walk in the water barefoot so she could gather leeches to sell to the barber. We have so many blessing to live in the time of modern medicine!! And now when I hear murmuring about doing jobs, all I have to say is .... dry dishes or gather leeches? Which would you prefer?