Was It a Fair Trial? Part 1 of 2

A large part of our study of Victorian England seems to revolve around the plight of the poor, especially of poor children.  Charles Dickens' story, Oliver Twist, showed us the world of the working class where poverty, oppression and crime go hand-in-hand.

To get a better sense of what happened to the Victorian poor when they were caught in the cycle of poverty and crime, we participated in a mock trial based on an actual Victorian case in the restored Victorian courtroom in the town of St. Albans.

The courtroom trial was done following proper Victorian courtroom procedures (see photos above), with three witnesses called to stand in turn to give their account (photo 2), the defendant making his case (photo 4), and the prosecutor giving his case (photo 5).

The trial was based on a real case that took place in the Victorian times that involved a 14-year-old street urchin who was accused of theft by the local butcher.  We sat through the trial, listening to all sides of the story given by various parties, and finally the actual verdict that saw the child being sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour.  The sentence would have taken effect immediately with the child being put in a prisoner's uniform:

and being locked up in one of the cells situated below the courtroom.

The workshop leader then led a discussion that had us consider two important points:

1. to compare the Victorian sentence of a minor for theft to the current legislation for a similar crime;
2. how the difference in social classes between the judge (middle class) and the accused (working class) would have contributed to possible biases against the accused's account of innocence.

We were all quite dismayed by the harshness of the sentence the Victorian boy received, given that there was no clear evidence (circumstantial or otherwise) to make him the undisputed perpetrator.  However, that seems to be the fate faced by the Victorian working class, as we shall see in another case in part 2.

A Walk Around Town

One of the many advantages of learning history in the UK is that it is very well preserved everywhere.  While we are currently learning about the Victorians through books

and a documentary,

we are able to take a Victorian-themed guided walk in a historic town, St. Albans, where we can see the various Victorian architecture and buildings while learning the interesting historical development of the town in Victorian times.

Just by living in the UK and observing what's around, most people would be able to recognise Victorian red brick buildings but it was still helpful to have our guide point out a few interesting historical facts about various places.

1. a typical Victorian angular, red brick building.
2. a Victorian school building that now a small infant school.
3. a disused Victorian hat-making factory.
4. a disused Victorian railway signaling station.
5. a still-in-use church build in the Victorian times.

There were more to see in and around the town park.

1. the drinking fountain that was installed in 1894.
2. the pavillion in the middle of the park where people could sit and rest, or where small-scale performances could be put up.
3. a horse-racing viewing gallery built by a Victorian aristocrat to entertain his friends and relations.  The horse-racing field in front of the gallery was converted to a cricket ground in the 1970s.

Perhaps the most interesting building we came across on that day was that of the town hall.

The current office (photo 2) was built an extension to the annex of a Victorian prison.  The original Victorian iron railings of the prison building (photo 1) were very visible and well preserved.  The town hall was guarded by a 1840-built, 32-pounder cannon suitably positioned right outside its front door.



This post is linked up to:

1. Hip Homeschool Hop - 1/20/15
2. History and Geography Meme #151
3. Collage Friday: Homeschooling an 8th Grader
4. Weekly Wrap-Up: The one with the first week of workbooks
5. My Week in Review #21

The Italian Experience - Mosaics

When we look into the traditional art associated with Italy, the one that we come across the most is mosaics.  I wonder whether this is due to the influence of the Roman culture, which is also our main association to mosaics.

We started off our exploration of mosaics with a set of puzzles that Tiger had used when he was a preschooler.  Following last week's land and water forms exercise (also from his preschool days), we seem to be feeling rather nostalgic lately.  Maybe it's because the academic year is coming to a close soon and I am feeling more reflective about what we have done so far.

Once Tiger has the hang of forming a mosaic picture from the above exercise, I wanted us to make one out of paper.  To get our design inspiration from real mosaics, we went to look the V&A.  The V&A prides itself as a design museum, so everything in it is filled with ideas for designers.  We had a good look at the different patterns on its mosaic floors as well as a few more modern mosaic portraits on the wall.

 At home, we proceeded with our paper mosaic project.  We cut an A4-sized white card into two to use as our base.  Then we each sketched the outline of our designs using pencil before filling the designs in lightly with coloured pencils.  This is to help us plan where the colours go.

Tiger's design

My design

We gathered all the coloured craft papers we needed, measured and drew 1cm squares on each and cut them up with a pair of scissors.  The coloured paper tiles were put in plastic trays by colours for ease of use.  Then we glued each paper tile onto our designs carefully, one colour at a time.

The paper mosaics took a while to complete but it was a fun exercise.

Finally, I gave Tiger a mosaic tile set that I bought from a craft shop.  The set came with ready-cut tiles, a wooden base, ready-drawn design, and grout.  All Tiger had to do was to assemble it.

Tiger actually prefers to make his own paper mosaic rather than to use the ready-made set because:
1) he prefers to draw his own design, and
2) the tiles in the set are all standard 1cm squares, and we cannot cut the tiles easily without making a mess and breaking them.  The inability to cut the tiles results in a less refined finish.

This post is linked up to:

1. Look What We Did!
2. Virtual Refrigerator
3. May Culture Swapper
4. Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #4
5. History and Geography Meme #75
6. Hobbies and Handicrafts - May 24
7. Homeschool Mother's Journal: May 24, 2013 
8. Homeschool Review
9. Collage Friday - Time for Nothing and an Exciting Something
10. Weekly Wrap-Up: The One at NCHE
11. Hip Homeschool Hop - 5/28/13

Advent: The Nutcracker again

The Nutcracker theme has been a Christmas tradition in our household for quite a few years now.  This year is no exception.

We read the unabridged version for bedtime story,

followed by getting more out of the story by reading the DK Eyewitness version which gives other interesting background information to the story.  Then Tiger completed the Nutcracker Activity Book that he had started on when he was four years old.  The activity book contains various activities such as mazes, crossword puzzles, colouring-by-numbers, anagrams, etc.

We listened to two different CDs of The Nutcracker music -- one with narration, the other was purely instrumental -- as we went about our days.

Last year we were able to attend a live performance of the ballet at the Royal Opera House.  This year, we have to be contented with watching the performance at home.

After watching the ballet on the screen, Tiger remembered seeing much of the stage changes at the live performance last year, and he was inspired to put on his own theatre show of the story at home, complete with prop changes:

Although we did not get to watch the ballet live this year, we did however get to attend an orchestral concert of the same piece of music in which a prominent illustrator completed several pieces of illustrations live on stage, in time with each section of the music.

Before the concert, Tiger attended a craft workshop where he made a paper nutcracker and a mouse king's crown.

This post is linked up to:
1) Homeschool Mother's Journal: December 21, 2012
2) Collage Friday - Christmas Preparations
3) TGIF Linky Party #58
4) Weekly Wrap-Up: The One When the World Didn't End
5) Look What We Did: December Link-Up 
6) All Year Round Blog Carnival: Winter
7) Homeschool Hobbies and Handicrafts - Dec 21

Robin Hood

We have been working through Robin Hood this term, both as a book of literature as a part of our history (UK and World).  We have a few different versions of the story of Robin Hood, and the one that we have used for our literature study is the version by Howard Pyle.

For a start, we watched the following documentary to gain a broad overview of the character as interpreted by different sources (historians, Hollywood, etc):

We find that the unit study approach to be working well for us in this respect, so we are using the lapbook resources from Homeschool Share as our basis.  We work through the units slowly, taking our time to explore in depth the various suggested points.  Although Tiger has been working through the various lapbook pages, I am not too concerned about whether he eventually puts them into lapbook form - it would be great if he were to feel inclined to arrange the various pieces of information that we are saving in a file into a presentable format, but if he doesn't want to do that, it's not a big deal for me.  I am happy as long as he has been engaged in the learning process and can orally present what he has learnt.  The final output (lapbook) is a non-essential part of our process at the moment.

After that, we wanted to know whether the character is true or fictional:

One of the points brought up in the documentary above in ascertaining how true the character of Robin Hood really is, is the possibility of surviving in all seasons in an English forest.  This is an interesting point to consider, given the sheer dampness of forests most of the time, not to mention how often it would be raining.  Tiger and I spent a fair amount of time considering whether that would be possible, and what it would take to live in the forest for any length of time.  For this discussion, Tiger consulted his favourite survival book:

We were lucky to attend a talk on medieval English archers given by a very experienced and knowledgeable member of an archaeological club that Tiger belongs to.

In the two-hour talk, the man covered in great details:

• the different types of bows used in medieval times;
• the different materials used for bows and arrows;
• the functions and designs of different bows and arrows;
• the medieval yeomanry; and
• the strength and distance covered by each type of bow and arrow.

The most common and formidable type of bow in England in the middle ages was the long bow, which was made from yew trees.  As part of the talk, we were shown an actual growing yew tree in an ancient Anglo Saxon churchyard a few yards away.  We not only saw the yew tree, we were also cautioned about it being poisonous (branches, leaves, and the pip of its berries).

Tiger wore his Robin Hood hat to the event, and it became an impromptu topic for the man to talk about.  He told us how the hat would have been very useful when worn by hunters in different ways under different weather conditions.


This post is linked up to:
1) Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop #39
2) History and Geography Meme #52
3) Homeschool Mother's Journal: November 30, 2012
4) Collage Friday
5) Favourite Resources: November 30, 2012
6) It's a Wrap
7) TGIF Linky Party #56
8) Weekly Wrap-Up

Late Anglo-Saxon period: Ethelred to Harold

As we move closer to the late Anglo-Saxon period, ie about 300 years after Alfred the Great's death, we get to know the decline of the Saxon rule in England in the way they were less ready to fight the Vikings than before.  One particular king, Ethelred, seemed to have been gone down particularly bad in history, by being called "The Unready", although historians are divided whether that is an accurate translation of the Saxon title Ethelred was given.  Some historians think he should be more accurately called "The Ill-advised", given the circumstances surrounding his rule.

We went to another Saxon encampment (Tiger just can't get enough of reenactments) where they were recreating the year 1012AD.  We attended the court of Ethelred where we witnessed how crime and punishment were administered in three different cases: (1) a theft, (2) bearing a child out of wedlock, and (3) a neighbourly dispute.

 

We had a lot of time to look around the encampment, to talk and listen to the reenactors about their roles, their displays, and the period in which they are 'living' in.

Minting Saxon coins out of pewter.

There was a children's vike where they were "trained" to fight against the adults, after a few simple rules and instructions.  Naturally, the battle was over in a few minutes with all the adult warriors being unceremoniously defeated.

After a short rest, the adult warriors showed their true prowess by having a weaponry and combat display, which Tiger watched with much enthusiasm.

The finale was a huge battle between the Saxons and the Vikings, although you would not be able to tell who was who from the photographs, since their armour and helmets were so similar.

The turbulent late Saxon period finally came to an end with King Harold losing the kingdom to William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings, the reenactment of which we attended at the actual site last October.  We have studied this event so many times before that it needs no further work, apart from the very glaring error we found in SOTW2 that really bothered us, which we feel we must point out here: we have never heard of King Harold being called "Harold the Unfortunate" by anyone in England, and there definitely isn't an inscription of this kind on his tombstone, see evidence below:

King Harold's tombstone at Waltham Abbey

A stone plaque at Battle that marks the spot where King Harold fell.

I think many English still regard King Harold as a tragic hero rather than simply an unfortunate king who happened to lose a decisive battle.  The circumstances surrounding the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings are much more complex than how SOTW2 has depicted them.  The way SOTW2 has oversimplified (and errorneously reported) events that we happen to be very familiar with makes us question the credibility of the book.  It is nonetheless useful for Tiger to acquire a healthy sense of skepticism to information presented by "popular textbooks" and "experts".