Homeschool Field Trip: Clayshire Castle Medieval Faire

This field trip happened back in the fall, when our combined AP European History/World History Grade 6 studies both just happened to wrap up the medieval period in time for the Clayshire Castle Medieval Faire.

What better way to celebrate?

Now, what you must know about the medieval period is that all interpretations of that period, from the Renaissance to now, are technically "medievalisms," or just that--interpretations. They're ahistorical in that they tell us more about the culture in which they were created than the culture that they're meant to represent, but as long as you take what you experience in with a grain of salt, and you listen carefully to the woman next to you with a Master's in Medieval Studies (hint, hint: she's your mother!), you can happily immerse yourself in A Knight's Tale, or The Name of the Rose, or yes, even an Indiana Medieval Faire!

On Will's syllabus (I don't write syllabi for Syd, but Will, who is doing high school coursework this year, needs a written syllabus, book list, and portfolio for each subject), these types of experiences are referred to as Contemporary Interpretations.

There's a lot to take in at, and quite a lot to take from, an Indiana Medieval Faire!

Here are The Knights of the Rose, an all-female jousting troupe:

Women wouldn't have jousted officially in the Medieval period (that we know of... see? That's a medievalism!), but otherwise, these performances are pretty accurate. And also full of powerful women!

And of course you get to pet the horses afterwards.

The tall, tall horses...

A turkey leg is also an anachronism. Come on, you know why! Can you tell me? Think about it...

The turkey is a North American bird! And yes, I know you're going to tell me about that painting of Henry VIII holding a turkey leg, and that's why we have turkey legs at Ren Faires, but Friends. That painting is a myth. Nobody would have painted a member of the royal family nomming.

Henry VIII eating turkey legs is a myth. Troll bridges, however? Clearly not a myth!

OMG I just noticed Matt is still holding his turkey leg in this pic. Sigh...

 Syd made a friend, and this is pretty accurate to the Medieval period, two little girls sitting around on the grass playing with a pet bunny:

Get to the Point, the bullwhip performance duo, are not particularly medieval in tone, but that's okay because they're awesome:

There's also fire breathing:




Also not particularly medieval, but who particularly cares? They breathe fire!!!

I have a huge soft spot for stage combat, having done a little of it in college, so we for sure watched the stage combat show by the Shattock Schoole of Defence:

I think the kids might have liked it, too, don't you think?

I was pretty well getting sunstroke by this point in the wildly unseasonal day-- 

--so we sat in the shade-ish for a while and learned some truly authentic facts about medieval falconry, thank goodness:

Syd helped:

Okay, now I really had just the teeniest bit of sunstroke:

If only Medieval women wore baseball caps! Or covered their bosoms better!

Going to dress as a Medieval man next time, I swear. They looked so comfy and well-shaded.

I was so dizzy and sunburnt and pestered by flopping skirt folds that when this stage combat show asked for a volunteer to swordfight with one of their actors, I couldn't even volunteer! Worst letdown of my life. The guy who did volunteer did an okay job, but I am sure that if I'd been wearing pants and a hat, my fencing skills would have taken that knight down within seconds.

Well... after reflecting on their fighting style, maybe not...

We bought Syd a present:

 And on the way out, look what we found! Stocks! EVERYONE loves to pretend that they're locked up in the stocks, right?!?

Hmpph, children. Here, you do it like this!

Although much of a Medieval Faire is intentionally silly--I mean, of course!--if you keep your eye out and keep your Medievalist near, you can find some moments of good authenticity. For us on this day, it was jousting and falcons.

Although if I'd had some rotten fruit at hand, I could have made the children's experience in the stocks more authentic...

One More Kid + Cat Photo Shoot

The kid and cat photo album and/or framed photos did not happen at Christmas, because it turns out that mermaid tail blankets and shark blankets take an infinity of time to make.

Good thing the kid has a birthday in early May!

Here is one more photo shoot that I did before abandoning the project for the winter. I just happened upon Syd and Gracie snuggling on the window seat in front of a sunny window, and fortunately, Gracie didn't even notice that I was there, so didn't give me any stink-eye:

I haven't completely decided how I want to present all of these so-sweet photos of Syd and her kitty. A photo book, definitely. A couple of large-format prints, perhaps--I have a canvas-wrapped print of Syd that my in-laws gave me several years ago, and it's my favorite look for a photo. But here are some DIY ideas that I've collected, as well.

• engineer prints
• photo in one of our vintage bottles
• faux Polaroid picture banner
• photo block tower
• wood pallet picture frames

Let me know if you have any advice!

How We Completed the Cadette Book Artist Badge

We're finished! We drew this Cadette Book Artist badge out for quite a while, because we all enjoyed it so much that I added several extra activities to it, but last week both kids finished the last of their projects and are now fully certified Cadette Book Artists.

Here's what we did, as a troop and individually, to earn the Cadette Book Artist badge:

Step 1: Explore the art of bookbinding.

Fortunately, our local university has a stellar special collections library (at which I used to work!), and so our troop took a field trip there to explore the art of bookbinding. We have Juniors in our troop, as well, and they used the trip as enrichment for the Junior Scribe badge--how much more fun is it to write stories and poems when you can then put them in your very own handmade book!

When I arranged this field trip, I forwarded the librarian a pdf of the entire Cadette Book Artist badge book, and told them that although, of course, the children would be delighted with whatever they wanted to present, I would especially appreciate it if they could cover the requirements for Steps 1 and 2. The librarian came back to me with the plan that they would do not only that, but would also mediate a hands-on workshop for the children in which the kids would get to assemble and hand-sew their own five-hole pamphlet, learning the basic stab binding technique in the process. 

In other words, I HIGHLY recommend that you find a library with rare books that is in driving distance for this step. There is nothing like actually seeing the books in person to really help you understand how beautiful bookbinding can be. The kids are still talking about the handmade, decorative binding and case for the Lord of the Rings trilogy that they saw there.

Y'all, the binder incorporated the Eye of Sauron! And the book's case was the Tower! And you could take the book out of the case and fit it on top so that the eye was looking out from the top of the tower! It was INSANE!!!

Step 2: Get familiar with the insides of a book.

You could do this one yourself, or watch YouTube videos, but this was also covered in our library field trip. It might be hard to find a library, even one that contains rare books, that also has a department for book repair, so you could look for private book repair businesses or antique booksellers. 

Step 3: Try out book artist techniques.

We spent most of our time on this step, as I wanted the kids to learn several ways to make books, and become comfortable enough with those methods that they could happily use them in other projects. I firmly believe that Girl Scout badges are about mastery, not simply checking off steps, and I try to make sure that I don't award a badge to my own girls until I feel that they truly have mastered the skill that the badge is teaching.

Thus the children didn't just make a sewn book in the library, under the direction of the librarians, but they also had to do it independently at home, to show that they could remember the steps without prompting and complete them without help:

The kids had to become proficient with the paper cutter--

--the awl--

--and they had to be able to follow the stitching guide to correctly sew their binding:

On another day, I taught the kids to make a glued accordion book. I meant to teach them how to use my spiral binder to make spiral-bound books, but it's dead simple to learn and use and I could tell that the kids were ready to move on--after all, they'd each made several sewn and glued books by then! We'll spiral-bind another time.

4. Focus on function.

I let the kids loose for the final two steps in the badge. I pulled out all of the supplies that they weren't already familiar with, so that they knew all of their options, and told them that they were each responsible for creating a book that fulfilled a specific function, and a book that was creative.

Will made another sewn book for Syd, who you'll see in a minute uses the heck out of them for her stories, and Syd made a 2018 planner, which she mostly uses to note the dates of her French class and how much she hates French. Sorry, Tatiana! *I* think you're great!

5. Focus on style.

Style simply sounds more fun than function, and the kids both did have a lot of fun with this particular step. Syd got really into using her handmade books to tell a series of stories about a fox war, and two foxes who meet cute from opposite sides of that war.

I was also SUPER impressed by Will's creative book. She made another sewn book, but instead of paper she used fleece, red fleece for the cover and white fleece for the pages. Essentially, she made herself a book stuffie. Doesn't that just suit her to a T?

Optional Activities

Those steps may sound as if we didn't really spend all that much time on the badge, after I told you how much we'd drawn it out. But actually, much of our time was spent doing optional enrichment activities. We made paper by hand (several times, as I required the kids to master the steps)--

 marbled paper--

did several art activities using old book pages, and made these super cute Book Artist badge SWAPS:

They are ridiculously cute, right? I can't even stand them, they're so cute.

Here's my full list of projects to enrich the Cadette Book Artist badge.

Need more ideas? Here are some more options for some of the steps:

Step 3

• Cover a book with fabric.
• Make an accordion book with pockets.
• Spiral-bind a book.

Step 4

• Make a printable calendar journal. This printable template is for young children, but could be used as inspiration for older book artists, or they could use the template to make journals to give to younger children.
• Upcycle brown paper bags into a book.

Step 5

• Make a book out of upcycled CDs.
• Make a fabric three-ring binder cover, including sewing in the binder rings.
• Make a note card and postcard journal. 
• Turn your book into a locking diary.

And finally, here are some of the additional resources that we used for this badge:

• The Book on the Bookshelf
• Making Books with Kids
• Adventures in Bookbinding: Handcrafting Mixed-Media Books
• Re-Bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled and Repurposed Materials
• Anna the Bookbinder

Want more adventures in Girl Scouting and handmaking? Follow my Craft Knife Facebook page for links and pics and WIPs!

Homeschool Science: Process-Oriented Experimentation with Exothermic Reactions

The kids and I are using CK-12's 9th/10th grade Biology textbook as the spine for this year's biology curriculum--for Will, who is in the eighth grade but who is taking high school-level coursework, this will be recorded as Honors Biology on her transcript.

Chapter 2 of CK-12's biology textbook is entitled "The Chemistry of Life," and includes a section on biochemical reactions, including exothermic and endothermic reactions.

Exothermic reactions, in particular, are simple to create with household supplies, so this was a great chance for the kids to practice their scientific observation.

To begin, I set up a series of solids and liquids on our big table, with the proper measuring tool for each one, as well as a card that noted if one needed to wear gloves, goggles, and breathing mask before using it. I ended up with distilled water, vinegar, acetone, hydrochloric acid, baking soda, lye, potassium iodide, epsom salts, steel wool, yeast, and hydrogen peroxide. 

I also provided two large thermometers and supplies to clean them between uses.

The kids were required to write down the procedure in their science notebooks--

--and then were free to begin the experiments that were as much process-oriented play as scientific inquiry:

Hydrogen peroxide, lye, and hydrochloric acid all called for the use of the gloves, goggles, and breathing mask:

  
The straps of the breathing mask ALWAYS get caught in our hair...

I can't even tell you what combinations the kids tried, as I was more focused on standing guard and keeping them from pouring hydrochloric acid in their eyes or licking the lye. This reaction, though, is surely lye and water or lye and vinegar:



The kids loved the experience, and the more so, I think, because the loose format allowed for the element of play--of creating new possibilities and trying them out as they wished, with little worry about structure or product. Science needs more playfulness than we usually allow kids to have; so much of science is follow this specific method, record these results this particular way, do exactly this thing in order to see exactly the thing that you're supposed to see, etc.

That's important, sure, but you know what? Playing is important, too!

P.S. Want to create even more exothermic reactions? Check out what you can do with potassium nitrate and sugar, and hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide.