oceandaughter Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 I'm not really interested in making a model of a castle out of toilet paper rolls and cardboard (nothing wrong with that, but my kids do that kind of thing on their own.) I'm more interested in crafts that would go along with our studies next year that are as authentic as possible. Jo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Theophan Academy Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 try this link - they have amazing projects - very inexpensive and well worth it if you are looking for impressive projects Enrichment 4 You Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plaid Dad Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 You might also check the SCA web site. They list books and web sites on a very wide range of topics relating to the Middle Ages, including crafts. If you have a chance to attend one of their events or a local Renaissance Faire, you can sometimes see demonstrations of particular crafts and find with people who teach classes in their area of expertise. Summer is Faire season, so this is a great time to do research and make contacts. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceandaughter Posted June 9, 2008 Author Share Posted June 9, 2008 SCA! Why didn't I think of that? We will be in Wales next school year so we can actually spend some real time exploring castles and other medieval sites. I'm going to check the Enrichment 4 You site, too. I like stuff that's already put together for me. I'll have a two year old and newborn to entertain, too. I've been looking through our books and prereading our historical literature selections and getting excited. Jo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paula j Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 How about a homemade bow and some arrows? My ds's boy scout troup made an awesome working catapult, that would be a good project. They weren't allowed to use any metal in it so it had to be tied together with rope. At their camporee, which had a middle ages theme, they had a contest between all the troops which involved who's catapult could throw a trailer hitch ball the farthest and his troop won. Another simple idea is favors, these are long strips of fabric the ladies made to tie around the knight who had their favor. You could make shields, they aren't too hard and then design a family crest. What about cooking an authentic meal, perhaps a stew, and making dc eat the food out of the pot with their fingers like they did during that time period? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceandaughter Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 Good ideas. My oldest is vegetarian (by his own choice) so he wouldn't do the stew unless I made it without meat, but I guess meat wasn't always available now was it? I'm excited now. I have a list going of projects to try: caligraphy family crest tunics bow and arrow (We are going to be starting The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood soon.) quill pen catapult Just that is probably enough if you factor in all the time we'll spend just touring around the UK and Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 How about carding wool or using a drop spindle? Dyeing is fun too. Hammering copper? I guess it's too late for a Maypole but maybe next year Dipping candles (keep the two year old away from this one :001_smile:) Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomOfOneFunOne Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 These are some of the things we did (I have a girl but in many cases it' won't matter. Needle work (we started off somewhat generally and moved to embroidery. We spun off into a unit on cathedrals and gargoyles that led to clay sculpting. We built a catapult and trebouchet. We constructed different kinds of walls with our legos and compared strength of the different walls and distance and strength of catapoult and trebouchet. We tinkered with calligraphy but never really dove in very deeply. Book making cooking, of course! We made a model of the social structure: feudalism. hmmm, let me think . . . Oh, stained glass coat of arms um . . . we made a typical? medicine chest that a woman would have. We didn't grow any of our own stuff (that would be fun but not exactly us!) We bought several things and made a little box for them. We even treated a boo-boo with wine and olive oil and linen strips instead of neosporin and band-aids. We did a TON of read alouds and most of our ideas came from what we read. For example The Boy Knight of Reims inspired us into the cathedral/sculpting/gargoyl rabbit trail. it was a long year and we did a lot of stuff, I just can't remember it all just now. If I remember more, I'll let you know. One more . . . all year I had been dying to go to a mill to see how flour would have been milled and make a period bread. I had heard of a mill in the next state over (arkansas). We finally went a couple of weeks ago. We had a grand time/wonderful trip but I was disappointed in the destination as a middle ages learning opportunity. It was a great mill on the river with a cool water wheel, et c. but the grinding mechinism was far more modern than I had anticipated. Still it was neat. We tried grinding with stone and got to compare different kinds of grain with the flours they made. That was neat, too. okay, that's all for tonight. Seriously, this is the last one! We bought some wool at a farmers market and got some internet instructions for making a carding brush-thingy and a drop spindle. It was fun to compare a few kinds of wool with the textiles but the spinning didn't work out. We did buy some special kind of yarn (that looked home spun) and did a bit of weaving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceandaughter Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 Great ideas, keep them coming. We are very familiar with the maypole. We usually end up participating in more than one (like maybe five or six) maypoles a year. We are involved with our local morris dance team and my oldest even dances one dance with them. We get up before dawn in order to morris dance at the "town square" at dawn (and a special cake with a sword drawn through it, ect.) Perhaps a bit of research into those things will be a nice edition to our studies. I think between the ideas I've gotten here, from the wtm secular list, and being in Wales next year to actually see castles and historic sites, we will have it all covered. Cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 First, many people during the Middle Ages had perfectly good table manners. Not everyone ate with their fingers! Second, here is the webite for the SCA branch in Wales. Attending an event would be great. Their Arts and Sciences meetings are in casual clothes, but will have people working on all sorts of things: http://www.mynydd-gwyn.org/ Thirdly, some craft resources! My favourite tabletweaving website. Make sure you check out her gallery too! I can post pics of my loom, which isn't perfect but it's the only one I know how to use. There are many designs however. http://members.shaw.ca/evethejust/btablet.html Lots of information... http://www.stringpage.com/ My favourite tunic making site. Definately a good idea to make some if you want to attend an SCA event (though you can borrow easily enough.) Ignore the formula for the gussets. I use 10cm squares for myself, about 6cm for the kids and 12cm for men. http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Tunics/TUNICS.HTML Authentic recipes. This woman should be given a medal for her translation work! She hasn't redacted the recipes (or not that I've seen) but that's half the fun of it. They didn't write out their recipes the way we do. I've emailed her for clarification a few times and she's been really helpful. http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/ Ok, I don't have any resources off the top of my head, (can find if you want) but if you have access to leather you can have a go at making shoes. There are some really simple ones that your older kids could have a good go at. You could also try making subtleties, illumination- not just calligraphy. Mosaic would certainly count too. Ok, there's my ideas for now. :) Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceandaughter Posted June 17, 2008 Author Share Posted June 17, 2008 Wow! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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