Things I Have Learned

1. If you thought it would only take 2 days to make a piñata, you were wrong. It takes a week.

2. If you put said piñata in the oven--it will dry faster. Then, it will crack open from balloon expansion.
3. If you make a papier mâché paste of 2 parts flour and 1 part water, then leave it on your counter for a week, it will ferment.

4. You might try using Elmer's Glue instead of the flour/water mix. It doesn't ferment.
5. If you buy a bag of candy on Thursday, but do not have a piñata until a week later on Saturday, you will have a much smaller bag of candy.

6. The more weird protrusions on your piñata, the better. (Toilet paper tubes work well).
7. Crêpe paper tassels add even more to your weird protrusions.

8. Little girls will enjoy putting little crêpe paper flowers all over the piñata. Little boys will enjoy covering the carpet with little bits of crêpe paper.
9. It is very fun to watch your kids (and all the neighbors) try to crack open the piñata.

10. After making one piñata it will seem like you have filled your piñata quota for life. And you will be right!

Persian Rugs

We really skimmed over the Ottoman Empire last week, it was way over my head much less the kids. But, we did find a cool craft to make our own persian rugs. Super simple, fairly easy, and fun to have afterward. (I really hate those crafts that you make only to throw away. The kids are planning to use their rugs for Littlest Pet Shop rugs/blankets.)
So here's how you do it. First you need a loom. Ours was a cardboard box with an equal number of slits on both sides. The slits have to be pretty close together. Then you thread the loom nice tightly and tie the loose threads together. (Pictured are the front and back of the loom.)
Now tie the thread you are planning to weave onto one of the corners and to the loose end of thread add some scotch tape to make your "needle".
Now just weave under and over, every other thread, and be sure to go all the way around the last thread (this was tricky for my kids).
Once you have done a fair amount of weaving, you have to push the weaved part down to tighten it up. The rug on the left is loose, the rug on the right is compressed.
After you are totally done weaving, clip the threads off of the loom and tie them together to make a fringe. If you don't tie them together at the ends, the whole rug will fray apart.

My kids really enjoyed making these. They now want to make one for all of their friends. I like the rugs because they weave while they are listening to me read school books and they are much less fidgety with their hands occupied. :)

Learning about Japan

We have been studying Japan this week. We learned about the civil war period and some of the great warlords, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa. I had never heard of them until now. Tokugawa encouraged the Samurai to put down their swords and sumo wrestle instead. So we watched some youtube videos of sumo wrestling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ1wnbNIUrc&feature=PlayList&p=334FBF2379C73995&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=45

Elliot immediately decided to be a sumo wrestler. We have been wrestling for days.
The girls were pretty grossed out by the sumo outfit. They wanted to try Japanese kimonos instead.

Then we tried to make a miniature Japanese Zen garden.
Turns out flour is not a very good substitute for sand. Oh well, we had fun, right?
Now I think it's time to go get some sushi!

Poetry Recitation

My kids always work on memorizing poetry for school. I thought I would give them a chance to show off what they have been working on recently.


Elliot just passed off "Peter, Peter, pumkin eater". He sometimes get confused, but he really does know it.



Jill's poem is "Clouds" by Christina Rosetti

White sheep, white sheep,
On a blue hill,
When the wind stops
You all stand still.
When the wind blows
You walk away slow.
White sheep, white sheep,
Where do you go?



Molly's poem is "Sunrise" by Katherine Kosmak

I've never seen the great sun rise,
For then I am in bed;
The sands of slumber in my eyes
Hold down my drowsy head.

I think the sun climbs up the sky
And throws the clouds away,
Then girds her flaming tunic high
And strides to meet the day.

Soft-touched by bird's wings is her head
Her feet caressed by trees;
She turns their leaves to gold and red
And stoops to drink the seas.



One more from Elliot. Here he will sing the ABC's. (We recently noticed that Elliot might be tone deaf. But he makes up for it with confidence!)

The Plague

(You knew it was coming - but do you have the stomach for it?)

The bubonic plague, or the black death.
Started in 1347, came from Asia via Italian merchants. (Why didn't the Asians get it? they had immunity because they won the challenge on last week's episode)

Was a bacteria that was carried by rats. The rats also carried fleas (they were equal opportunity pests). The fleas bit the rats and got the bacteria. Then they bit the nasty, non-bathing, unhygienic middle-agers and presto infecto.

Once you came down with the initial symptoms (headache, fever, vomiting, weakness) you really only had about 3 days left. The for-sure sign that you had it was the buboes, or swellings that would appear in the groin and armpits.

The plague swept through Europe between 1347 and 1350. By the time it had run it's course, 1/3 of the population had died. People thought it was the end of the world. The plague completely rocked the social structure of medieval Europe. The deeply entrenched system of feudalism could no longer be supported. There just weren't enough people.

The plague wound it's way around Europe for the next few hundred year, but it seems it was never quite as bad as the initial outbreak.

In case you were wondering, yes, it was hard to study a topic like this with small children. They were very worried about getting sick. They were very worried that we had rats in our house. I had to explain over and over that we have antibiotics and that we are hygienic (we give our trash to the garbage man, we don't throw it in the streets).

But we still had to do a project or craft. That's what we do on Fridays to make school fun and memorable. But how do you put the fun in Black Death?
We made little rats out of bread dough. They have cute little nut-ears and ham-tails. And raisin-fleas. Then we made them into sandwiches and ate them. Now you know why homeschoolers are so strange. Their moms do it to them.

Renaissance Festival

Since we are studying the middle ages--we had to go to the Renaissance Festival. (It runs this weekend and next. For more info check out their website utahrenfest.com. I believe they have one every year.)

The kids went in costume. Elliot was a knight and Molly and Jill were princesses (as usual!).
Elliot was excited to see all the other knights in full armor and watch the displays of real swordfighting.We tried out some huge turkey legs for lunch.
And the kids rode ponies while they waited for the featured event...
Jousting!!

Here is the squire helping the knight to put on his helmet and extra chest protection.
The knights clashed.
And clashed again, until their lances were all broken (they had 4 each.)
It was really cool to watch. And unbelievably loud when their lances broke. I was amazed that anyone was crazy enough to want to ride at a full gallop while aiming 8 foot long wooden poles straight at each other! (I wondered what their insurances rates are like!)

Okay, one more picture, but it is kind of inappropriate, so if you are reading this with your little people, you should send them out of the room for a drink or something.

Dave and I saw these and could not stop laughing.

Obviously designed by a man, no woman would ever want them.

And seriously, you males out there, what is the appeal here, besides the see-through factor? I'll tell you my theory; if you are the kind of person who makes stuff like this--you are probably reading too many fantasy novels.

Sir Elliot

I finally saved up enough empty milk cartons to make Elliot a suit of armor. (In case you were wondering, it took 3; 2 gallon jugs and 1 half-gallon.)I was really happy with how it turned out. So was Elliot. He has really been needing some boy dressups! And he loves being a knight. He knows that he should fight bad guys and be chivalrous. We have been studying chivalry this week in school. You might be interested to know the origins of chivalry:

You see, it seems that great lords amassed many knights to help them fight battles, but during the times of peace, the knights got bored and/or greedy. They began to misuse their power. They roamed around the countryside, fighting the serfs for sport and stealing from the wealthy for treasure. This was obviously a problem.

So the kings and great lords and bishops put their heads together and came up with the ideals of chivalry. In the feudalistic system, a knight swore fealty to a lord whom he served. Well, chivalry says that he must swear to serve God as well. He must only use his great strength to help the weak, never to hurt them. The weak included monks, women, the poor, and especially widows and orphans. Chivalry also dictated that a knight must always treat noble ladies with the respect they deserved. He must court her if he loved her and wanted to win her affection. And that meant writing her poetry, singing her songs, etc. Also, about the same time, tournaments began to be organized, to give the knights an opportunity to practice the art of warfare in the time of peace. So there you have it. Chivalry came about because of the standing armies that were required to be maintained by all lord and kings under a feudal system, which I'll have to get into more...later!

hiSTORY

(this post may very well bore you to tears)

I have been reading up on my medieval history. The kids and I are using Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World series for school. This year we are in book two: the Middle Ages.
And it is just great, we really enjoy it. I am learning about so many new people and so much of history is becoming more real and more clear to me. I wanted an adult level of information to flesh out what I am learning with the kids, so, I tried reading these books:

Civilization of the Middle Ages by Normal F. Cantor

The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe by George Holmes

Aethelred the Unready: the Ill-Counselled King by Ann Williams

A History of the Vikings by Gwen Jones
(sorry, no picture)

Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell

And frankly, I am very disappointed. These history books are either too broad in scope, covering 400 years in a paragraph; or they are too specific, spending a chapter on listing all the different theories of a very minor part of the story. Sheesh. Even when I tried the historical fiction it is lame, or too graphic, and honestly, I think there were enough real characters in history, I'd rather read about them than made-up people!

It amazes me that with all of this interesting stuff that happened in the past, I am having such a hard time finding out the story of it all! It's like the historians want to keep it all to themselves. Could somebody please just tell me what happened to who, when, where, and maybe why (not too much why though...I like to think about that for myself!)

Perhaps part of the reason I am so frustrated is because last year I read an excellent (story-form) history of the ancient world. I learned so many interesting things! And every chapter had a bibliography at the end so you could get more specific, in depth info. (I highly recommend reading this for pleasure, it was very well written!)
Also, the other big beef I have with historians is, why don't they ever give me a picture of the life of a commoner? Nobody is talking about the common man but there he is...filling up all the history you can think of!

Okay, now that I got that off of my chest, let me ask you some questions; just to test your knowledge of the Middle Ages.

1. When did the Middle Ages start?

2. And when did they end?

3. Charlemagne--what made him so great, anyway?

4. How did everyone forget to read? They used to know how before the middle ages!

5. What is the deal with feudalism?

(for those of you who are LDS)
6. We believe there was an apostasy ... but what was it like exactly?

7. Aethelred the Unready? Who? What country was he even from?!?

8. How did monks and monasteries start? That wasn't part of the New Testament church...was it?

9. You know 1066 is an important year...you might even know the name William the Conquerer, but what did he conquer? And why do you even know that fact?

10. Is it actually worth it for me to try to learn all this stuff, considering that I will probably forget most of it anyway?

Comment your answers and I will tell you if you are right.
Comment your questions and I will try to answer them.
Please comment if you know a good book (or 2) that I should read!
Who knew blogging could be so educational?!?

custard, anyone?

When learning about other cultures, it is important to try their foods. You can really feel a connection to someone when you have eaten the way they do. So we decided to try a recipe from the middle ages...I found a very easy one in this book:


I made a regular pie crust, but baked it in muffin tins. The book suggested letting the kids mix the pudding powder, milk and raisins in a quart jar with a lid on. This was definitely a good idea! We sprinkled cinnamon on top and, voila, raisin custard.


Don't you love how dirty Elliot's bib is? It was lunchtime, what can I say!


Anna doesn't know if she likes it. Instead of thumbs, she's giving it one finger up and one finger down.


p.s. If I get really on the ball and awesome--I am going to try to make a knight's suit of armor which I found in the same book.

Castles

Since we are studying medieval times in school, we decided to make some castles (you know, cause we are learning about the feudal system and such). I was totally pumped cause I found these weird box things that were perfect...just add t.p. rolls!Notice how Molly made tiny stairs and bridges on her rooftop.