Wrapping up the Middle Ages ...

... even though I really don't want to leave. There's just so much great, fun stuff for this time period.

Our last few books:


Anne-with-an-e is reading Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. I haven't read this one myself, but have heard that it's excellent. It'll be in my summer reading pile.







Betsy is reading a biography of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Elizabeth's Three Crowns. This is one of the Vision series. We have several of these and have enjoyed them all.






On a different note,
Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Medieval Castle is typical Frizzle fun. The girls and I have always loved all things Magic School Bus, and this book is no exception.





Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz was a delightful find. I plucked it from the library shelf and immediately had that feeling that I'd found a treasure. Original poetry and prose are used to tell the stories of all kinds of folk, from "simpletons to saints." (Note: some imagery is too violent for younger or very sensitive children, and be prepared to explain several historical events related to faith.)



There are a few more, but I'm out of time for this morning!

Sort of a review: If All the Swords in England

If All the Swords in England is a beautiful book about St. Thomas Becket. I called this post a "sort of a review" because I'm actually going to cheat and send you to Alicia's terrific review at Love2Learn. It can be found here, and summarizes the book and characters wonderfully. And, I see that Alicia and I even left out the same line when reading this book aloud (Ramona was in the room, so I skipped a couple of other details as well.)

This book (dubbed "Sif all the Words in England" by Ramona, thanks to the cover design) held Anne-with-an-e and Betsy captive all the way through, their interest never waning. They were nearly as moved as I was when St. Thomas was killed (though I think I'm the only one who actually wept.) Seeing the action from the young twins' point of view was particularly moving, and left an imprint on my girls that a straight narration of the facts would not have accomplished.

Quick detours had us looking up more information about King Henry II, discussing the responsibilities of the Church vs. the state, and looking (very) briefly into Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral.

I love, love, love this way of studying history with my children. It comes alive and stays with them in amazing ways.

If you're looking for some historical literature but don't know where to start, try visiting the Reading Your Way Through History page for ideas. It's never steered us wrong!

The Grail Code

Here's the problem with homeschooling:

I keep taking time away from school to learn things.

We're wandering through the Middle Ages this year, and I just finished reading The Grail Code, by Mike Aquilina and Christopher Bailey.

Last night I stayed up too late to finish wandering around their Grail Code website, which is full of fascinating stuff, such as these links on their Scriptorium page to the texts that are discussed and quoted in the book.

Did you know you can read the old French original of Chretien de Troyes' Lancelot, or, The Knight of the Cart, if you so choose? (Alas, if only I were able to so choose. The only French I remember from high school is "Ou est la salle de bain?" A vital phrase, oui, but limited. But I digress.)

The Scriptorium page alone is worth a look, even if you skip the book. But, don't skip the book -- I learned volumes about the Grail, its origins and its chroniclers.

Their website whet my appetite for more Grail art (don't you dare skip that click -- it's only two pieces of art, and they're worth your clicking efforts) and they'll even tell you How to Pronounce Those Impossible Welsh Names.

I admit that my Grail-Lancelot-Arthur knowledge is fairly limited. I have a passing-to-average acquaintance with Camelot (enough to know that I don't picture Lancelot as Robert Goulet.) I knew about Malory, of course, and we have a few books that I rounded up for the kids this year. I first read T.H. White's The Once and Future King when I was in high school, and loved it dearly.

What The Grail Code offered me, on top of fascinating lore and legend, was an historical look at the rise and fall of the story and the world's enduring fascination with it. The authors' quest takes us through the Grail's sacred beginnings, into periods of secular, cultish appeal, traces why and how those changes happened, and finally, routes us back to what the Grail really means:

What (or Who) is our quest really about? What makes us thirst so, and how is that thirst quenched?

When Anne-with-an-e asked me what I was reading, I gave her a short teaser version, and she said, "Wow ... searching for the cup ... that would make a great story!"

Ahem. Clearly, I've not covered Arthur with her in any depth. And she's never seen the Indiana Jones movie, either.

I might just hand her The Grail Code and let her know that her quest is about to begin.

The Striped Ships: book review

I can thank Kathryn of The Bookworm for recommending this one as part of our Medieval study.

It's the year 1066, and young Juliana, a Saxon thane's daughter, is on the beach when she sees the striped ships arrive. Her life changes quickly, drastically and miserably after the Norman invasion; Juliana's life will never be the same.

Enduring countless hardships, including separation from most of her family, Juliana struggles to survive and find her way. She's a realistic, tough and admirable character, one the girls and I liked very much.

Eloise McGraw uses vocabulary proper to the time period (a glossary is included in the back of the book) which adds to the authenticity of this historical novel. We enjoyed the characters, the plot, and we learned a lot, too. We shared some terrific discussion about politics, prejudice and points of view. Who was right, and who was wrong in this story? Did Harold Godwinson really swear an oath to William and later break it? Is he not the man Juliana thought he was? Or was he? Who writes history? Who gets to tell the story?

We also took a quick side-trip to look further into the Bayeux Tapestry, which plays a prominent role in the story.

Some fascinating links for further exploration of the tapestry can be found here at Bayeux Tapestry.org, and here and here, at Hastings1066.com. Not to be outdone, YouTube offers an "animated" Bayeux Tapestry. (Yes, really. Kinda fun, too, though of course, you'll ask yourself, "Who has time to do that?")

The Striped Shipsis appropriate for roughly ages 12 and up. As I read aloud, I dropped a couple of unsavory references, but other than that, no editing was necessary. The book is out of print, but I had no trouble finding a used copy for a reasonable price.

That's why we homeschool

The other day, as the girls and I reviewed some of the things we've read about so far in our Middle Ages study, I stopped in the middle of my globe-pointing and said, "Well, of course, this isn't the only stuff that was happening during that time. Basically, we're covering a very tiny portion of what happened in European history. It would take years and years and years to learn everything there is to know about the Middle Ages."

Betsy, with gusto, replied, "Then let's take years and years and years to learn everything!"

Beorn the Proud

Our latest read-aloud:

Beorn the Proud, by Madeleine Polland, is set in ninth century Ireland and Denmark and follows the young lives of Ness, an Irish Christian girl, and Beorn, a pagan Viking boy who, in a raid on Ness's village, takes Ness as his slave.

The brutality of the Vikings is realistically portrayed from the opening pages: Ness's village has been destroyed, her family murdered. But we see, too, early in the story, a glimmer of hope for Beorn's future.

The clashes of culture, religion, and personality are deftly drawn. The power of slow but steady evangelization, the importance of knowing one's faith (in order to pass it on to others) and the beauty of conversion are at the heart of this story, which is also a rattlin' good tale of action and adventure.

Betsy gives it five stars. Anne-with-an-e enjoyed it, but perhaps not quite as much as Betsy did (though Anne was grateful for a female protagonist for a change, and is also looking forward to The Striped Ships. And, she's hanging on for all of our Joan of Arc reading.)

Son of Charlemagne

We just finished reading Barbara Willard's Son of Charlemagne. The girls and I really enjoyed it, and found it even more compelling than Augustine Came to Kent.

The life of Charlemagne (742-814), or Charles, King of the Franks, is viewed through the eyes of his son, Carl. Because we are seeing through the eyes of a child (and later, a young man) who loves and admires his father, one might assume that the portrait will be too rosy but Willard does a fine job of portraying Charles as a flawed and conflicted man and a product of his time. The order to kill more than 4,000 Saxons at Verden, for example, is presented in a relatively straightforward manner, with the implication throughout the rest of the book that the incident may have been one of the greatest sorrows of Charles's life. At the same time, repentance is never explicit and Charles maintains (and his son assents) that it was the only decision he could have made given the circumstances.

It's in light of such actions that the girls and I discussed the ways in which one can be "a product of one's time." In his history of the Catholic Church, Triumph, H.W. Crocker (in the section on Charlemagne) puckishly laments the passing of the days when "one could be both a Catholic warrior and a Frankish barbarian without contradiction." It's exactly that sort of contradiction that led to some good discussion here. The girls originally had no sympathy whatsoever for Charles, and were scolding him for his hypocrisies. By the end of the book, they judged him to be a man ("He was definitely human," said Anne) of greatness in many ways (who would not admire his deep love of family?) but also one who made a great many mistakes.

A book for children that can acknowledge and communicate such complexity is a treasure indeed. Highly recommended.

Don't Forget Your Medieval Mice

Just for fun, we're also re-reading Redwall by Brian Jacques.

What's a Middle Ages study without the daring deeds of brave mice, rabbits and badgers?

I'm tempted to buy The Redwall Cookbook too. But, I'm done buying books. Right? Right? Yes, I'm done. Done, I tell you.

Twelve Bright Trumpets and Augustine Came to Kent

We started our Middle Ages reading with Margaret Leighton's Twelve Bright Trumpets. It consists of twelve fictional stories, set in the Middle Ages. Real historical figures drop in and are accurately depicted, but the main action centers on young people of the time. This would, I thought, serve as a nice introductory piece for our reading this year.

We do like the book, and the girls were enjoying the stories. But I felt I'd dropped it into the wrong slot in our reading schedule. There was just enough confusion ("What year are we in again?") that I decided we'll go back to this one at the end of the year. Then, certain stories will make more sense ("Oh, yeah! I remember when we read about Charlemagne!") and Twelve Bright Trumpets will serve to reinforce our other reading, rather than introduce us to it.



From there, we moved on to Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard. We all enjoyed this one quite a lot. Set in the year 597, it follows the life of young Wolf, who is being raised in Rome after his father, a former slave, was freed by Pope Gregory. Now, Wolf longs to accompany his father and the admired monk, Augustine, on a Christian mission to the land of their birth, England. Once they've landed, Wolf encounters foreign speech, strange beliefs and unsettling danger. He also finds a lifelong friend.

Willard has a nice way of roping the young reader in fairly quickly, creating concern for her characters. At the same time, the prominence of Pope Gregory and Augustine (later bishop of Canterbury) in this story helped to fix the time period in the girls' minds. Highly recommended, and the girls' only complaint was that Wolf was not a girl.

We've just begun Son of Charlemagne, also by Barbara Willard. And, though they're enjoying it so far, they're still wishing for a female protagonist.

They'll have to wait, I think, for The Striped Ships by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. According to Kathryn the Bookworm (see the comments of this post), it's told from the perspective of a young Saxon girl. I recently ordered a used copy of it, so my girls will eventually get their wish and might stop asking me, "Why are the Middle Ages all about boys?"

Just one other quick note: the girls are loving their Color Your Own Book of Kells.

Ramona prepares for the Middle Ages

by drawing her own creation, Princess Genevieve.

She says she also has a story brewing in her mind, and has asked me to write down her list of character names. In addition to Genevieve, her story will feature:


Nesquit
Donald
Blossom
Lilac

She asked if I could also show her how to spell the word said, because, as she said, "People who write stories usually have to write things like, 'Nesquit said' ... right?"

Oh, so right, Princess. I can't wait to hear that story.

Snippets of our days

I'm

still

planning.



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Jennifer kindly alerted me to this Illuminated Lettering Kit. At a great price.

~~~~~



You know those very cheap
little plastic letter holders?

They make very good little book holders:

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Things I love about Anne-with-an-e's brain: Today, when I asked her what she was thinking about, she said, "Oh, nothing. Well, actually ... about how monkeys can get malaria."

I also love that she has used ear buds as little defibrillators.

~~~~~

I'm not done spending money. Did I say I was? Nah ... you must have misheard me.

Dover Publications has several great little books about The Book of Kells. See here and here and here and here.

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Mr. Cable Guy was back today. We are no longer obsolete, thank you very much.

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Ramona's assessment of the quiche we had for dinner: After pushing aside the very tiny helping of quiche that I'd placed on her plate, she pointed to the cantaloupe, the honeydew, and the crescent roll, and pronounced, "These are the items that I like." Pointing back to the quiche, she said, "This is the item I don't like."

We've had these quiche conversations before.

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I'm still planning.

Stop! My budget can't take you people ....

I'm getting lots of great ideas for our trek into the Middle Ages.

Check out the comments on this post for suggestions and much enthusiasm.

I know I said to keep the great ideas coming, but I think I promised Atticus that I was done spending money on books. For now.

For this month.

For the first part of our Middle Ages study ....

Our plans this year: History

We're headed into the Middle Ages here, and our reading list (or, at least its beginning) reflects it:



Augustine Came to Kent
Son of Charlemagne
If All the Swords in England
The Hidden Treasure of Glaston
Big John's Secret
The Trumpeter of Krakow
Robin Hood
The Black Arrow
Twelve Bright Trumpets
King Arthur (Jim Weiss audio)
Parts of The Once and Future King

Reading about some saints of the time:

Dominic
Francis and Clare
Elizabeth of Hungary
Thomas Aquinas
Joan of Arc
Catherine of Siena
The Holy Twins by Tomie de Paola
Mark Twain's Joan of Arc


Some of our Artists and Composers of the Month will dovetail nicely.

Activity Books:
I got Knights and Castles from our library, but haven't given it an in-depth look. Opinions?

For me: Mike Aquilina's The Grail Code

Other favorite resources for the Middle Ages, anyone?