Edward "Longshanks"

Compared to his father, Henry III, Edward I appears to have led a much more eventful life.  A quick summary of his life is shown in the following documentary (from 9 mins to 17 mins):

We started our study with a narration from Our Island Story, typed and pasted into the accordian timeline that we have been working on for years.

This was followed by watching relevant episodes from two excellent DVDs.  Each was done from a slightly different perspective by two respectable English historians.  One thing that I always emphasise to Tiger in our study of history is to learn from as many sources as possible before drawing our own conclusions with regards to how history is to be interpreted or represented.

We also played many, many rounds of History Heroes.  We first played this game after reading Suji's review a few years ago.  When we first played the game in 2011, Tiger was at the beginning of his British history study so he didn't get very far beyond the Normans.  Now, after two years of continuous reading from different sources of British history (mostly in his own leisure time), he is able to win each game against me.  Regular readers of this blog are aware of how s-l-o-w-l-y we go in history around here so in that sense, Tiger has been "forced" to read up on anything that interests him outside of our 'school time'.

I remember that the Tower of London has a Medieval Palace with Edward I's bedchamber preserved there (although he hardly ever used it, considering that he mostly lived in encampments due to his numerous campaigns), so off we went.

Since the focus of our visit was on Edward I, we headed straight to the Medieval Palace.

There is not much to see of Edward I's bedchamber apart from the space it was supposedly located, as well as a few original timber frame and wall plastering.

Since Edward I was always out and about, I don't suppose he had much use for his bedchamber at the Tower anyway.  Nonetheless, it was good to have had a look at it:

The rest of the Medieval Palace has been well preserved, with much information about the medieval kings and courtly life dotted around.

The small chapel in the Medieval Palace was particularly interesting as it has marks a spot in front of the altar where Henry VI allegedly died.

Before we left, Tiger made a medieval knight's helmet out of paper to mark our visit.

The Tower is so steeped in history that I am quite sure we shall be back for future visits.


This post is linked up to:

1. Look What We Did 
2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 10/15/2013
3. History and Geography Meme #95
4. Collage Friday: Exciting News about a Great Journey
5. Entertaining and Educational - Oct 18
6. TGIF Linky Party #99
7. Homeschool Review and Resource Link-Up
8. Weekly Wrap-up: The One in Which I Felt Super Productive

Surcoat and Richard I

Nowadays Tiger has more say in how he wants to learn.  Instead of trying to do every project in SOTW 2 Activity Book, Tiger gets to choose which, if any, he feels would add to what he is interested to learn.  Unsurprisingly, he chose to make a crusader's surcoat to add to his collection of armour and weapons.

I cut up an old bedsheet according to measurements of Tiger's shoulder width and shoulder-to-knee length.  On one sheet, I drew the outline of the crusader's cross using a piece of red chalk.

Tiger then filled in the cross with red tempera paint.

The final step is to stick two pairs of velcro (no sewing!) on each side of the shoulder pieces.  It worked!

For history, we are currently in the 12th century where British History pretty much coincides with World History.  While we study the topic of crusade (which spanned nearly 400 years), we would inevitably encounter Richard the Lion Heart.  We watched the following documentaries:

1. Richard the Lionheart
2. The Third Crusade: Saladin and Richard the Lionheart

We attended another reenactment set in the time of Richard I.  It was a whole-day event with (1) fighting scenes, (2) squires training ground, (3) archery display, (4) weaponry display, (5) gory medieval surgery,

(6) jousting knights

(7) early version of canons

(8) musicians playing medieval music

This post is linked up to:
1) Homeschool Mother's Journal: October 12, 2012
2) Collage Friday
3) Favourite Resources: October 12, 2012
4) TGIF Linky Party #51
5) It's a Wrap
6) Weekly Wrap-Up
7) Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop #34
8) History and Geography Meme #45

Do knights go to school?

Apparently so, according to the people at Westminster Abbey.  The main participants in the crusades were knights, so it follows naturally from our recent study of the crusades to be learning more about this Western warrior class.

The workshop started off with a presentation of how the knights were introduced into England by the Normans after the 1066 conquest.  Anglo Saxon England had "thanes", who were both nobles as well as warriors.

Next was a mention of the characteristics or requirements to be a true knight, using an example of the inscriptions on an actual tomb of a knight buried within the abbey (that we later visited).

Then we moved on to the different types of armour across times and cultures, as we discussed the reasons for different materials used to make armous in different cultures.

The discussion of armour naturally led to a brief introduction to heraldry and symbolism.

The children really came for Knight School, where they learnt to how to become knights.

First, they had to learn the duties and manners required of a page, which included serving meals in a respectful manner, i.e. presenting the cups and bowls with both hands, learn to bow, and hold their bodies straight.

Once they were promoted to the status of a squire, they have to learn how to dress the knight.

The most important part of preparing to become a knight is to learn how to fight.  Therefore, the children spent the most part of the workshop learning the different sword fighting strokes.  I suspect that's the most enjoyable part for most of the children.

At home, it's back to learning from books and documentary.

The documentary led us to be out and about again, this time to the oldest Grand Lodge in the world -- the Freemason's Hall in London.  We went on a tour there where the tour guide told us what he was allowed to.  The interior architecture is fascinating, especially inside the temple.  As with visits to ancient sites and looking at old art work, one has to understand the meaning of symbolisms to fully appreciate what's in plain sight.

Along the way, we came across another important templar-related architecture -- the Temple Bar. Interesting bits of history and symbolism, as always.

This post is linked up to:

1) History and Geography Meme #44

2) Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop #33

3) Homeschool Mother's Journal: October 5, 2012

4) Collage Friday
5) Favourite Resources: October 5, 2012
6) TGIF Linky Party #50

7) Weekly Wrap-Up

8) It's a Wrap

Fighting in the name of God?

In learning about the crusades, we started from the beginning at the First Crusade, by watching Jerusalem - The Making of a Holy City, to help us understand why Jerusalem is regarded as sacred to the Abrahamic faiths.

Following that, we wanted to understand more about the causes for the conflicts that led to crusades, so we watched The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross, which provides more food for thought.  The study of history these days very often lead to philosophical discussions such as:

• the actions, motivations, and consequences behind historical events and figures;
• whether and how view points can be informed or misdirected depending on the sources of historical records; and
• the roles of faiths/religions at different times in history.

The following book provides a humours look into the perils of fighting in the First Crusade.

All the reading and learning from documentaries are well and good, but the most exciting part for us was when we stumbled upon an ancient church which claims to be "the oldest wooden church in the world"!  The church is still being used for services on Sundays.

The highlight of discovering this church lies on the outside of the building.  I don't normally get excited over discovering people's tombs, but there was a 12th century crusader's grave there, right outside the front entrance!  How cool is it to have seen one?!

This post is linked up to:

1) Homeschool Mother's Journal: September 28, 2012

2) Collage Friday: Life is Short
3) Favourite Resources: September 28, 2012
4) TGIF Linky Party #49
5) Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Really Good Monday

6) History and Geography Meme #43

Ohayou gozaimasu!

After a short study of the Korean history and culture, we spent a much longer time on Japan.  Last year's study of ancient world history has taught us that mythologies and legends can give us much insight into the cultural aspects of a civilisation, so that was where we started with our Japan study -- by reading stories from Japanese legends and myths:

It was fascinating for us to learn that the Yamato family has been ruling Japan for over 800 years.  To understand more about this unique situation and to know more about this family, we watched the following clip:

We then headed to the British Museum's Japan gallery to see artefacts for ourselves, while we learned more from joining a gallery tour.

Tiger, being fascinated for the longest time about warfare and warriors, stood for a long time in front of the samurai cabinet to admire the samurai swords and armour:

Naturally, this was followed by reading up on the samurai and comparing how they were different from the English knights (in terms of armour, training and culture) that Tiger is so familiar with:

The samurai seemed to have thrived in the Edo Period, which occurred a few hundred years after the Yamato family first took control of the country.  The following documentary helped us gain a better understanding of the samurai and the period they lived in:

When asked to choose a hands-on project for this topic, Tiger chose to make a samurai helmet.  Is anyone surprised at his choice?  I'm not.  We followed the instructions from this book:

Making the samurai helmet was no small feat.  It took Tiger a few days to complete it, and involved plenty of measuring, drawing, cutting, pasting, painting, folding, and assembling, as documented below:

Tiger's effort paid off in the end, as he now has a samurai helmet to add to his "armoury":

This post is linked up to several blog hops, where you can visit to see what other homeschoolers have been busy with.  It is also featured in TGIF Linky Party #19, as well as being linked to the Hands-On Homeschooling Blog Carnival for April 23rd.