Queen for a day

We have been meeting once a week with two other families for a History Coop this year. The curriculum that we are using is called  The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance, Revised Edition by Susan Wise Bauer. She has written the history of the world in a 4 volume set and we are at the end of the 2nd one. An activity book for the text has been giving us ideas for projects, games, and crafts throughout the year. I really like these books, mainly because they are a good outline for studying history. We do a lot of extra reading to go along with the chapters and the parents rotate teaching each week.

This week we studied Queen Elizabeth. After teaching a lesson, reviewing the chapter, and looking at lots of portraits of the queen, we took pictures of the girls dressed and posed like her.

Here are Ellen and Arianna and our other two friends. Beautiful!

The kids in the group (2 are not pictured) love going to "history" every week. They enjoy listening to and talking about stories from the past. They especially like doing crafts and dressing up. This year we have had them dress up like celtic warriors, samurai, knights, and ladies to name a few. They've also made all kinds of weapons including cannons, axes, swords, shields, etc. mostly out of cardboard tubes, paint sticks, and duck tape. In addition, they've done all sorts of crafts like mosaics, Japanese carp kites, illuminated letters, pysanky eggs, glue batik, etc. We've also tasted traditional foods from the Native Americans and the Moors.

I'm thankful to be involved in this group. We have developed some great friendships. Learning with friends can be a lot of fun! Besides having fun together it can also serve as an accountability group. Without them I might not push through the chapters and have the energy to do the activities. I know I've learned a ton about the middle ages from this coop!

Here's the link for the rest of the pictures I took today.