All That's Goood: medieval

October 19, 2013

Passport to the Middle Ages

TJ's Viking longboat one of the souvenir crafts from stop #21.

TJ painting his viking longboat sail.

The back end of Zak's Viking longboat.

Max's Viking longboat dry docked on his loft bed self.

Front view of TJ's Viking long boat.

A close up of Zak's jousting mini book. The arm broke off but it should move up and down with a brad hinge and the knights face each other and can be slid forward to simulate a joust.

The inside of the jousting mini book

Max working on his jousting mini book.

Max's complete jousting mini book.

TJ playing the Fox and the geese game with Dad.

We attached the fox and geese prints to old othello game pieces so they played better on the board. Looks easy but it is a very challenging game for the geese.

TJ's own coat of arms. We used this book for ideas and then scanned some pages so the boys could trace them via the window light. They first selected what shape of shield thy wanted. Then they selected a motto, we decided not to try and put it in latin. Then they added animals and scrolls etc as they wanted by tracing them onto their paper using the sunlight as a light box.

Max's Coat of arms.

Following are excerpts from their medieval newspaper, templates provided by Passport tot eh Middle Ages.

Pageboy advertisement by Max.

Upswitch Armory advertisement by Max.

Jousting Match news article and Viking long ship drawing by Max.

Viking Longship illustration by TJ

News article and accompanying picture by Zak.

New Castle Article and picture by TJ.

Zak's coloring page and Viking souvenir craft card.

TJ's Rooms of a Castle overlay.

The castle without the overlay.

Lifting the overlay.

The boys have been getting postcards from historical figures like Alfred the Great and the Viking chief Rollo. They then illustrate the picture for the postcard. This is Max's postcard rack.

All these wonderful hands on activities are from Passport to the Middle Ages.

Thanks for stopping in.

July 30, 2013

FREE Medieval Audio Resources

Librivox.org has oodles of great audio books for free, but up to now I have used them only occasionally. In the past I have been spoiled and was able to buy professionally produced audio recordings however, this spring as we traveled around the NW in our car we really enjoyed listening to White Fang by Jack London which I had downloaded from Librivox.org and burned to a CD so we could listen to it in the car while we drove back and forth from swimming lessons and home, to the coast for a field trip etc. The boys 'drank it to the dregs,' so to speak and never missed all the fancy audio drama etc. Seems well written books all by themselves really do feed the mind.

Since that experience this spring I decided to venture out into the freebie audio resources this year to save a little money and to have more great stories to 'strew' about the house for the out of lessons hours that make up our day. (I feel better about a free CD getting accidentally scratched or broken than one I paid over $20 for. ) I have been busy lately downloading some of these public domain audio books to supplement our Medieval History and literature. We will be using The Story of the Middle Ages published by Nothing New Press for our spine next year, which I have loved ever since I first saw them four years ago. One of the reasons why I love these books so much is the recommended reading list at the back of the book. It is an extensive reading list advising what books would enhance the stories of the middle ages which H. A. Gruber wrote and also when to read/use them so it all flows by in chronological order. I love it!

The books can be downloaded and left on your MP3 player, iPOD, played straight off your computer with good speakers or you can burn them to CD's. I like to burn them so the boys can use them outside of school time. They often play them in their rooms while they fiddle around with their uber stix or legos. Leaving the CD's 'strewn' about gives them a way to hear stories again that we have read in our history lesson or to hear something new that we will not have time to fit into the history schedule.

Librivox.org has in the recent years added CD covers and CD artwork to their list of features for each book. This makes burning CD's even more inviting I think. I am enjoying printing out the covers and fitting them in old CD jewel cases we have laying around the office. Who would have thought we would have over forty jewel cases laying around. Just so you don't have to go hunting for the medieval themed books yourself I have listed them below in a alphabetical order not according age appropriateness just an extensive list you can peruse. Just click on the title below the CD art work you want to investigate and it will take you to the Librivox.org site where you will be able to do with it what you like.