Days of Knights and Damsels

Next week is our week of "summer vacation." Tim is taking a week off work, there are lots of little house projects we want to take care of, time to play games with the kids, and just for fun, we are also doing a "Medieval Studies" unit. We started with the intro yesterday. The big girls read all about how knights and damsels dressed - and then created costumes for Victoria, Jonathan and Elsie Mae. I was so disappointed when I found out that the batteries in the camera were dead (AGAIN!) for when the big girls introduced me to Robin Hood and Maid Marian... WOW! Were they cute!

This is the book we are using to get a lot of our ideas and information from, although we have a couple of other resources, too. And Tim is excited, too - since we are using medieval recipes for all of our meals this coming week - means a diet more based on meat and potatoes than we typically have, to he's sure he's in for a treat.

Some of the foods we are plannig to eat: French Toast, Stew served in a Trencher, Meat Pies, Cabbage Stew and Dumplings, Mead, Marzipan, Curds and Whey, Apple Tarts, Curd Tarts and Real Gingerbread. We are even going to make our own butter! I've had to come up with some creative substitutions for some of the recipes, but I think things will actually work and then, much to my surprise, I was actually able to find everything when I went grocery shopping this morning. Of course, the big girls will be heavily implicated in all meal preparations. I need to get some batteries so we can share some pictures. We also hope to construct a miniature castle that they can use to play with puppets they'll also be making.

Preparing for this unit of study has been lots of fun - I've learned lots of interesting things I'd never heard before - we'll be sure to be sharing some of those tibits with you throughout the week, too!

TIDBIT #1

Did you know that the following sayings all came from the Middle Ages?

1. Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
2. One shears the sheep, the other the pig.
3. He casts roses before swine.
4. He's an ear-blower.
5. The world turns on her thumb.
6. It's a hoe without a handle.
7. He sits in his own light.
8. The pigs run loose in the corn.
9. He kills 2 flies with one blow.
10. She takes the hen's egg and leaves the goose's.

It will be interesting to hear what the kids think these different proverbs mean - I'm sure we'll get some funny responses!