Miko at The Tower of London Fall 2017 – (built in late 1070s) stories of knights, prison, palace, torture, crown jewels. Currently, Queen Elizabeth II is the ‘owner’
Right now we are enjoying an unplanned and completely welcome serendipitous coordination of learning with our history and geography curriculums. One of my favorite perks of home-education is our family learning together. I love when connections are made – where we kind of “connect the dots“ between subjects as a family and create common familial context.
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- The girls in the Tower of London.
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- Tower of London arrowslit
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- Family learning – Quinn & Miko in Tower of London courtyard
Case in point:
DOT: In language arts we are reading historical fiction novel, Georges, by Alexandre Dumas (France, 1800’s.) We are using the Bravewriter Boomerang Guide for literary analysis and copywork.
Kira’s Copywork for Georges using the Bravewriter Boomerang Guide
DOT: In geography we are studying Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
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- Chinese pasteries from our local Asian Market.
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- Newspaper from Asian Market.
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- My middle and upper elementary kids during Geography Club. The older kids many times run the activities for the younger.
DOT: In history we are reading the Story of the World (SOTW), Volume 2 – Middle Ages.
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- Mezuzah on our front door jam. Jewish custom. One touches as leaving and entering home.
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- After studying the Diaspora – the scattering of the Jews, we creating our own Mezuzah
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- Story of the World Activity Workbook. I pick and choose which activities to complete.
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- Making vintage parchment paper with coffee.
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- One of the enclosures placed inside the Mezuzah
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- I love these! We also included blessings for our family & home inside our Mezuzah. We kiss and touch them as we enter and leave our home as a reminder of when we are leaving one space to enter another. Outside world or our inside world.
DOT: We are binge watching the Crown on Netflix.
The girls love this show and have acquired such an understanding of who Elizabeth, Philip, the monarchy, Winston Churchill, historical events and much more. We are excited for Season 3!
DOT: We just returned from a field trip to France and England.
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- Kira was smitten with London.
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- To actually see Buckingham Palace, amazing!!
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- Parliment. We have seen this building on The Crown for weeks, and here it is!
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- Our flight was a lesson on time zones, earth rotation and plane speeds, geography…
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- Windsor Castle. The Queen was in residence the day we arrived as they were preparing for their 60th wedding anniversary the following day.
DOT: Poetry Teatime Tuesday is a Bravewriter staple in our home. We have tea, hot chocolate, lemonade and treats on Tuesdays and read poetry or lyrics to songs. When we were in England we made sure to have high tea and brought home some special souvenirs to keep our holiday alive just a little longer.
Poetry Teatime Tuesday special treat
DOT: My eldest daughter just finished reading Don Quixote and recently attended the Carolina Ballet perform it as well. (Spain, 1600’s.)
DOT: In the story, Georges, the main character is confiding to Lord Murray that he intends to duel his nemesis to win Sara’s (his love) hand in marriage from Henri (to whom she is already engaged.) Henri is of no masculine threat to Georges. Lord Murray makes a comment to Georges that perhaps he not worry about Henri as he is like a “windmill and not a giant.” This subtle little reference could have been so easily glossed-over and missed if it were not for my eldest.
CONNECT THE DOTS: Kayah giggled and ‘got it’ straight away! She explained to us that in Don Quixote he is preparing to fight a “giant” that turns out to be nothing but a mere windmill. Thus, the author was implying Henri maybe should be of little concern to Georges…nothing but a mere windmill.
Kayah sharing the passage from Don Quixote during our read aloud this week.
All of these dots connect to create an image of connected context (that is some serious alliteration!) I may be a total dork, but I love when that happens.
These are the AH-HA moments that can never be planned – learning that occurs across curriculum. THAT is exciting! Subjects never seem independent of one another, but connected.
One of my favorite questions to ask the girls when we are exploring a new topic is “what was going on in the United States at this time…” I love this question because sometimes the USA was not even an idea and other times they can connect the global dots of what was occurring during the many phases of the United State’s maturity – a layering of history.
If you are looking for some ideas to study this time period, here are some links to product we enjoyed! You can just click on the image for links or more information or select the links in the text above.
(All amazon links are affiliate links.)
All I can say is wow! You all are amazing! Was impressed with Kira’s paper… the richness in your curriculum and bringing learning to life is wonderful!
Andrea, I love “bringing learning to life.” Thank you for always being so supportive, friend. I know your family is getting ready to do some real life learning and experiences real soon – s’amuser!