Home is where you start from: Knights & Medieval history- learning without school

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Knights & Medieval history- learning without school

We are wrapping up our study of knights and the Medieval age with Sonlight's Core 2 World History. I love Sonlight, and it is really working with my 8th and 10th graders...but lately, with my 3rd and 5th graders- we are just not feeling the love with the Usborne Book of World History and the Usborne Time Traveler. They are interesting books, don't get me wrong...but they are difficult for reading out-loud, the kids lose interest. They are nice for the individual kids to sit with and read, but they are just not working for our group learning.

I perused the shelves at our town library, and came home with

"You Wouldn't want to be a Medieval Knight!" and

"The Magic Tree House research guide-Knights and Castles" We are reading these instead and using them to jump off into research/study areas. I am planning to end with a video on Castles.

I love Sonlight because everything I need is on my shelf, and it is all scheduled- but I have mentioned before that I am a worksheet girl. I ended up making my own worksheet for the Feudal System (as soon as I can get it scanned in, I will link to it here for anyone interested) And then, joy of joy- I stumbled onto a site called Homeschool Share.

I am all over the internet looking for worksheets and learning ideas, I do not know how I ever missed this site. It is a mostly lapbooking-unit study site, but you don't necessarily have to make a lapbook. I am using some of their pages just as worksheets to re-enforce our learning. Loving it!

the lapbook material for Level 2 Knights are all found here * level two knights templates,

So far, we have used:

What happened next cards

the life of a knight tab book

Where did knights live?

design a shield

Kn in Knight phonics add-on

**We used the What happened next cards as a time-line, instead of putting them into a pocket.

Level 3 Knights templates *here

We are using:

Protecting the castle

Code of Chivalry

Bible verse cards

Vocabulary cards

lots of learning and connections...it's what a life learning without school is all about :)

Labels: homeschool, sonlight

posted at 12:27 AM
5 comments

5 Comments:

At 4:34 AM, Rebecca said...: We are using Sonlight 2, as well this year. Thanks for posting these links! I will def have to look at them for some extra actvities!!
At 5:15 AM, Luke Holzmann said...: I love the flexibility of homeschooling to make it fit your family [smile].

Interesting point about the Usborne Time Traveler working better for individual study. I don't remember my mom reading it us, but I do remember looking through it again and again.

Thanks for sharing!

~Luke
At 5:28 AM, Joy said...: What core(s) are you using with your 8th and 10th grader? I have thought about getting it for my daughter, but wasn't for sure if she would like it. What do you use for science, English/Grammar and electives?
At 2:47 PM, Unknown said...: Looks like fun! We have a cool dinner show here (Orlando) called Medieval Knights. That would be fun for you guys!
At 10:28 AM, Anne Galivan said...: This is one of the many joys of home-schooling, that you can make adjustments to make your home-school work for YOU!

I congratulate you on your ability to be flexible! It's one thing I try to encourage readers at my website to do.

Came by from the Hip Homeschool Hop!

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