In Hot Pursuit

Following our recent study of Sherlock Holmes, Tiger and I decide to keep up the interest in all things mystery.

I chanced upon a company that sells various themed mystery/treasure trails around the country.  The trails look quite interesting and challenging, and appears to offer a fun day out, so we tried out the one that is set in Convent Garden area.

Tiger was keen to take the lead for solving the mystery.  The trail is designed such that we are only told the starting point (this particular trail started outside the Leicester Square tube station), and have to find our way around by following the clues given in each step of the trail, which are in turned only revealed when we solve each cryptic code accurately.  We thought it would be very easy, but we realised that we were totally lost after three hours of walking around the side streets and narrow lanes in the Soho/Convent Garden vicinity and finding ourselves barely halfway through our trail.  The guideline on the trail says that it should take 1.5 to 2 hours to complete the trail.  Ooops.

Feeling very hot, bothered, and utterly defeated, we gave up for the day and went home to rethink our strategy for solving the mystery. 

We returned to complete the trail the next day, this time better prepared, both mentally and physically.

There must be something about wearing the Yorkshire flat cap that invoked Tiger's inner detective, as we were much more successful on our second attempt to complete the trail and hence solve the related mystery.  It took Tiger less than an hour to this time, and as we ended up in Convent Garden Market where there are many interesting sights to be seen, we spent the rest of the day congratulating ourselves for being super sleuths and rewarding ourselves with fantastic food found in the market.

Encouraged by our success at the Convent Garden trail, we then spent another fun day solving a second murder mystery, this time at Bankside.  I chose this location thinking that we would have a greater success because it has a shorter completion time of 1.5 hours, and that having been to that area many times we ought to know most of the places there.

Not wanting to take any chances this time, Tiger started studying the trail and working out the most efficient route once we got on the tube to get our first destination.

Our starting point this time is outside the London Bridge tube station, near the Southwark Cathedral.  This proved to be very interesting for me because we had mostly hung out on the St. Paul's Cathedral side of the river, so starting the trail from Southwark is an opportunity for us to explore a few new places.

And exploring and discovering new places we certainly did!  The trail took us through many significant, new-to-us landmarks that we did not know about or had not visited before.  Seeing new places is always exciting, especially when it is done in conjunction with delicious food, as we found when we were led to Borough Market.

It was Tiger's first visit to Borough Market, and the sights and sounds of the market fascinated him.  More importantly, we found a stall that sells Thai desserts and mango sticky rice which we both love to eat!

The trail gradually led us towards the side of the Thames that we are more familiar with, whereupon we walked past the Clink Prison Museum and Tiger wanted to go in to take a look.

I knew about this museum but did not take Tiger here for a visit when we studied Medieval England because I thought: (1) it looked more like a commerical attraction than a real, historical accurate museum, and (2) the content may be too gruesome and hence inappropriate for a young child.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only are the exhibits and artefacts historically accurate, the representation of this gruesome aspect of medieval history is not unnecessarily gory.  Tiger was fascinated by the exhibits, while I was slightly appalled by the inhumane use of certain instruments of punishment.

As we approached the end of the trail, we were brought to 'theatre-land' (at least in Tudor/Elizabethan times) and came upon the original site of the Globe Theatre, which was burned to the ground.  Although Tiger and I have visited the current Shakespeare's Globe theatre many times in the past, we have not been to the original site until now.  It is interesting to see that the site is now part of a compound inside a housing estate.  Not far from it stands the Rose Theatre, which was the first purpose-built theatre on Bankside (predating The Globe Theatre) in Tudor time.

We walked the trail at a very leisurely pace, so it took us nearly a whole day to complete it but we stopped and enjoyed our discovery of many previously unknown-to-us places as the clues took us down side streets or made us look closely at certain architectural and historical features along the way.

Looking at the Weird Sisters

This term's drama study ties in well this year's Halloween theme of witches -- the children studied another Shakespearean work, Macbeth.

We first visited the V&A to attend a workshop on Elizabethan England, with an emphasis on the theatre at that time.  During the workshop, the children learned about the development of the Elizabethan theatre as well as become a rowdy audience member (true to the South Bank crowd back then).  They also got to experiment with Shakespearean language, make stage sound effects and dress up as a performer in Elizabethan ruff.  Most relevant to our own study is when the children, with the help of a reenactor, rehearsed and staged the witches' scene (Act 1 Scene 1) from Macbeth.

That was a good introduction to Shakespeare's work in general, but as we knew we were going to study Macbeth in drama class this term, we came home to listen to the entire play and read it to prepare ourselves better.  There is also a BBC animated version of the play, which Tiger did not enjoy as much as he did with a few other plays produced by the same team that he had watched:

Being taught by the same drama teacher, the format of this term's study is very similar to that of the class on The Tempest.  Besides drama skills, the four-day course also covered the following:

• character analysis
• historical context of the play
• scene analysis
• nuances of the Shakespearean language as spoken on stage
• Shakespeare's dramatic techniques in context of how the play is divided into acts

We were extremely lucky to have caught one of the last performances of Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe this season.

Macbeth, as with all Shakespearean plays, is highly complex in terms of its themes that weave together human nature, history, propaganda, beliefs, and drama.  I studied this play for my O-levels and thought I knew a lot about it back then (since I got an A* for the exam), yet I find myself looking at the play now at a different level from my teenage self, with a deeeper understanding of the complexities of any given situation.  As such, even though Tiger has read the unabridged text and knows the general theme of the story, he is not expected to have the same level of appreciation of the complexity of human nature as a more mature audience would have.  Lessons that come from life experiences cannot be rushed.


This post is linked up to:

1. Hip Homeschool Hop - 11/5/2013
2. Entertaining and Educational - Nov 8, 2013
3. Collage Friday: 100 Boxes and a Comedy of Errors
4. Weekly Wrap Up: Dates, Drivers, and Divergent
5. The Homeschool Mother's Journal {November 9, 2013}

The Scots and the English Coronations

Edward I is best known as "The Hammer of the Scots" for his numerous attacks and conquest of Scotland.  In many ways, he was the first king since the Norman conquest to instill a sense of nationalism amongst the English.  His use of nationalistic sentiments for his various conquests of Wales and Scotland created the same effect in those areas, most notably in Scotland via William Wallace, more popularly known as Braveheart.

It has been interesting for us to learn from the different perspectives of the conflict between Edward I and the Scots.

We learnt previously that the coronation chair used by English monarchs was commissioned by Edward I and has been on display in the Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey has been the place for coronations of the English monarchy since William the Conqueror.

We attended a workshop at the abbey where the children found out what went wrong at the coronations of William the Conqueror and Queen Victoria.  During the workshop, the children also learnt about the symbolism and significance of various items used during the coronation process: the sceptre, the Crown Jewels, the robe, and the sword.

Our tour of the abbey was focused on kings, queens and the coronation, so we were given a guided tour of specific places inside the abbey related to our theme: the tombs of medieval kings and queens, the Tudor Lady Chapel, the burial place of a family of siblings -- Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

While Henry III extended the abbey and had it built to the scale it is today, the coronation process is highly symbolised by two items: the coronation chair and the Stone of Scone which Edward I had snatched from the Scots during his campaigns.

We had a close look at the restored coronation chair as part of our guided tour of the abbey.  The Stone of Scone has been returned to Scotland for safekeeping, but it will be borrowed from the Scots for future coronations.  Photo taking is not allowed inside the abbey but you can get a very good idea of it from the documentary here:

This post is linked up to:

1. Look What We Did 
2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 10/22/13
3. History and Geography Meme #96
4. Collage Friday - A Productive Week
5. Entertaining and Educational - Learning with Music
6. Weekly Wrap-up: The One with the Battle Against Illness
7. The Homeschool Mother's Journal {October 26, 2013}

Digging Up the Past

As we are on the topic of river, learning about its uses and features, it naturally follows that we ought to know a little about the history of the River Thames.  We also watched this documentary that takes a humourous look at some of the industries that flourished along the Thames from its source to its mouth in London.

The Thames, being the largest archaeological site in London, is of great interests to us in terms of its applicability to what we consider to be the 'practical' side of historical study, i.e. archaeology.  We watched the 10-part series of the Thames Discovery Programme to gear ourselves up for an actual exploration of the richness of the site:

Once we were ready, we went to the National Maritime Museum for an archaeological session on the Thames, just like a junior version of the Thames Discovery Programme.

The weather was quite good when we arrived so we spent some time outdoors surveying the site.

• The tide was fairly high for our purpose of going on to the foreshore for digging (photo 1 above) so our workshop leader decided that the actual dig would take place in the afternoon when the tide would be further out.
• The children were given copies of  old paintings of scenes along the Thames (photo 2) to make comparison about what they saw in the paintings with what they saw today, as well as to identify some of the landmarks that were depicted in the paintings.
• One of the landmarks in the paintings was the palace courtyard that we were standing in (photo 3), which dated back the Tudor period.
• The ground that we stood on has the remains of the foundations of the Tudor palace which was the birthplace of three Tudor monarchs: Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I (photo 4).   We were told that parts of the Tudor palace foundations have been discovered recently on the foreshore by archaeologists so there is still more to be discovered later in the afternoon when we would dig on the foreshore.

While we waited for the tides to go out, the children were engaged in various activities indoors:

• They were given the task of putting a pictorial puzzle together, in the sequence of the source of the Thames to its mouth (photo 1).  The puzzle wasn't too difficult, but Tiger was glad that our preparation at home enabled him to solve the puzzle very quickly.
• The rest of the indoors time was spent on classifying artefacts found in the Thames from previous archaeological sessions in a number of ways:
• by materials, e.g. metal, glass, wood, leather, etc (photo 2)
• by usage: pipes, wall tiles, roof tiles, floor tiles (photo 3)
• by time period: Roman, Medieval, Tudor & Stuart, Victorian & Industrial age (photo 4)

The tides were out in the afternoon so the children spent a good two hours combining a section of the foreshore.

There was indeed a lot to be found on the foreshore (photo 1 below).

 

• After two hours, everyone gathered up their finds on to a sheet of tarpulin for identification (photo 2 above).  After the indoor session where we learnt how to classify different objects by their time periods, there was still much to learn about identification of actual finds, especially different types of tiles.
• Most of the finds though, were animal bones (photo 3).  The presence of so many bones, as explained by our workshop leader, is due to the numerous pubs and butchers that operated along the river in the Victorian times.
• Much of our find were from the Victorian period, which makes a lot of sense if you think that it was only about 100 years ago.  The Victorian dock on the foreshore (photo 4) is another evidence of the recent yet long history of activities along the river.

The day before the trip, Tiger was very concerned about whether he could keep the things he would find during the dig.  I wasn't sure what the rules are about keeping items found along the river so I told him to be prepared for the answer to be no.  He was most pleased when the workshop leader told the children that they could keep anything they found, as long as the item isn't rare or precious.  The Thames is so actively excavated that I would be surprised if anybody unearth anything that someone else hasn't already found!  Nonetheless, my boy was just excited to be able to take home his own archaeological finds.  Even if they are just a few broken tiles or some cattle bones thrown into the river by a Victorian butcher, Tiger's finds are precious to him.

When we got home, I put his finds into a tray, washed and disinfected the items several times with sterilising fluid before I felt they were safe enough to be handled.  The Thames is not the cleanest river in the world by any measure.

Once the items have been cleared of killer germs and any potential nasties, we got down to the business of sorting out Tiger's "treasures".

We tried to replicate the experience we had in the indoor classrom at the Martime Museum by first classifying the items by their materials:

Then we tried to identify them by their time periods.  The video here gives a very good overview. 

It was difficult to recall the exact information on how to use the different pottery patterns to tell whether they were from the Medieval period or from the Tudor/Stuart periods, so we looked up the information here and here.

Medieval pottery

Stuart pottery

Bones, pottery, glass, shells - all from the Victorian era

The Victorian era finds warrant a closer look, not only because they make the greatest number of our total finds but also because they belong to a time period that we can still find plenty of evidence around in England.

We found a portion of a Victorian wooden nit comb (photo above), which has to be kept in water to prevent the dried wood from disintegration from exposure to air.  How do we know it's Victorian?  Because:

1. It's made of wood so it couldn't have been from a later period.  By the Industrial Age, people have started using metal combs.
2. Being found in the river, it couldn't have been earlier than the Victorian period otherwise all of the wood would have rotted away by now.  The nit combs portions from the Roman period (that we have seen in museums) are either made out of bones or if they were made out of wood, have been found in fields, not in rivers.

• photo 1: leather.  This looks like part of the sole of a shoe.  In Victorian times most people tried to recycle leather as much as they could before throwing it away.  As such, a piece of leather would have gone through several uses from being part of an item of clothing (most probably a belt) to being the the shoe soes.
• photo 2: oyster shells.  The presence of a large number of discarded oyster shells in the Thames tells us quite a bit about the Victorians' love for oysters, as they were readily available from the pubs that operated along the river back then.  The precise square and circle cut-outs from the shells were made to use them as mother-of-peral buttons on Victorian clothing.
• photo 3: cattle bones.  From the sizes and shapes of these bones, they are likely to have come from a big animal like a cow.  The possible explanation of them being in the Thames is that they were discarded by the butchers and pub kitchens that operated alongside the river in Victorian times.  We watched this clip to learn a bit more about identifying bones from an archaeological dig.
• photo 4: Victorian glass bottle.  The thickness, opaqueness, and dark green colour of the glass are clues to it being made before the Industrial Age.  The curvature of the bottom of the glass is what reveals itself to be from the Victorian era.  In Victorian times, wine bottles were made with a concave bottom to hold wine sediments.
• photo 5: various tiles.  The pigmentation and colours of the tiles are important to identification.
• photo 6: clay smoking pipes.  These are part of the smoking pipes that were used in the Victorian times, when tobacco was first brought into England from America.  Because of the way they were made, the clay pipes found are usually broken into at least two pieces.  The picture below shows what a clay pipe would have looked like in its unbroken form:

This post is linked up to:

1. Hip Homeschool Hop - 9/17/13
2. Look What We Did
3. History and Geography Meme #91
4. Collage Friday - The Simple Gifts are the Biggest Blessings
5. Entertaining and Educational - Sept 19
6. Homeschool Review and Resource
7. Field Trip Friday
8. Weekly Wrap-up: The One with Birthdays, Flowers, and a Little OCD
9. The Homeschool Mother's Journal {September 21, 2013}

The Italian Experience - The Tempest

The Tempest is Shakespeare's final play, making it a mature, complex, and highly symbolic piece of work.  It was also the theme that was used in last year's summer Olympic games opening ceremony.  We have been studying The Tempest as part of our Marco Polo study for its connection to Milan.

The way that we have prepared to study this play is a combination of:

1. watching a film production of the play;
2. reading a simplified version of it;
3. listening to the audio recording of the entire play, and reading the full script. 

As a genre, Shakespeare's work is best learned in the way that it was intended: as a play.  While reading the script is one way to analyse the literary elements of the play, the most memorable and engaging way for children to experience Shakespeare's work is through acting/drama.  If that is not possible, the next best way to learn is to listen to the play, rather than reading it.

It is difficult to find good Shakespearean classes for children so when one of the homeschooling groups that we belong to offer a 4-day course on The Tempest, led by an experienced actor who is also a literature teacher, we jumped at the chance to participate in it.

In Workshop 1, the children started with drama games to help them relax, get acquainted with one another, and to get used to the different drama terms such as 'neutral position' which means to be ready for instruction or action.

This was followed by a brief introduction to the history of drama, in which the drama coach told us that Shakespeare was inspired by the commedia dell'arte characters.  The children were also introduced to the different "levels" in acting, which they learned to convey using different body positions.  Another technique that the children learned was using their facial expressions.  For example, they were challenged to express 'innocence' through their eyes, face, cheeks, mouth, movement, then finally in the ways in which they interacted with the space around them.

The next half of the workshop concentrated on analysing Act 1 Scene 1, which involved a few rounds of discussions about the shipwreck scene.  After that, the children worked in several groups to turn themselves into the ship, and they had to convey the shipwreck using movements.

Workshop 2 again started with drama games that helped to enforce the ideas of relaxation, cooperation and teamwork.  This was followed by a review of Act 1 Scene 1.  This time, the children were led into an analysis of the characters and the scene.  For example, the children were asked to discuss the significance of the play as Shakespeare's final work, the possibility of it being used as an autobiography via the character of Prospero, the use of symbolism, and what Shakespeare's message to the world (through this play) might be.

The focus of Workshop 2 was on Act 1 Scene 2.   Analysis of the scene included discussions about:

• the element of suspense in the order of which the characters spoke
• the effects on the audience to have another character (Miranda) introduce the main character (Prospero)
• how rhythms and patterns in the speech conveyed the status of each character
• the emotions in Miranda's speech - the children were then trained to identify and create the different emotions in speech
• the motive behind having Miranda fall asleep when Ariel was summoned
• the relationship between Ariel and Prospero
• some background/historical inspiration for the character of Caliban - it stemed from Tudor records of "strange-looking" natives near the Falkland Islands

After this, the children worked in groups of four to create the character, Caliban.  They were to show, through working together and body movements, the character emerging out of the earth.

The children worked on Act 2 Scene 2 in Workshop 3, focusing on the characters of Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano.  In groups of five, the children were given the task of creating Caliban with multiple heads and legs under a piece of cloth.  To do this, they had to consider the characteristics of the character -- earthy, heavy movement, type of voice, it being half-animal and half-human, etc.  When they have developed their character, each child was given a line (Caliban's curse of Propsero) to add a voice to the Caliban that they have created.

The scene analysis in workshop 3 included:

• thinking about the mouth movements required for Shakespeare's speech, i.e. the emphasis of vowels
• considering how consonants and vowels work together to affect the sounds of what was spoken
• readings of lines and explaining unfamiliar words
• discussing the interactions between Caliban and the two human characters
• considering the comic potential of the scene - and think about why Shakespeare created the comic element to the story
• understanding Caliban's speech at the end of this scene - what he was trying to do and what it conveyed about him

The final workshop focused on analysing Act 3 and on understanding why Shakespeare has set the play on an island.  Specifically in Act 3 Scene 2, much time was spent on dicussing and analysing Caliban's speech:

• what is his plan?
• what emotions are portrayed in this speech?
• what does he want Stephano and Trinculo to do, and how?
• do the spirits like Caliban?
• what does Caliban need to do before killing Propsero?
• are his words believeable?
• how the use of certain words convey Caliban's state of mind
• what do we learn about Caliban here?
• Caliban's relationships to Prospero and Miranda

The discussions on Caliban led to the children thinking about how the settings of the play might have been related to the slave trade that took place in Elizabethan times, that perhaps Shakespeare intended the audience to consider what would happen if you treat other people as sub-human (as in the case of how Caliban has been treated).

Working in pairs, the children were then given the tasks of:
1) finding an image from the speech to be used to represent a statue of Caliban, and
2) finding a phrase from the speech to represent, as a statue, of either Stephano or Trinculo.

In doing so, the children had to analyse the body language of the statue that they were to represent with their bodies, while also analysing why the two humans may want to help Caliban.  It was interesting to see the many different, creative interpretations of the same speech.

It is all very timely because the new 2013 season has opened at The Globe and we went to watch The Tempest there.  You can catch the final moments of this year's production here.

This post is linked up to:

1. Look What We Did!
2. Hobbies and Handicrafts - May 31
3. Collage Friday - Joy and Loss
4. Weekly Wrap-Up: The First Week of Summer Break 2013
5. Hip Homeschool Hop - 6/4/13