King Arthur - Week 2

We started off Monday morning with Grant's paige training, aka, The Games of Camelot.  We began training in the batting cage where we used baseballs as "bags of poison" and the pitching net as the mouth of a dragon.  The goal, of course, was to get the poison into the dragon's mouth, lest you loose your sword in battle. 

After that we used a hoola-hoop as a target for throwing our "spears" through.  The spears were 4-foot-long 1 inch dowels.  Grant also used his bow and arrow to shoot some arrows through the hoop.  I was taking a picture of him doing this when he let the arrow fly, and it hit me, coming full speed, right in the head.  Grant felt REALLY bad, and I told him next time just wait until I am not standing next to the target!

Next, we did some "jousting" with our dowels.  The goal was to knock the other person off first.  Each bout began with a bow and a good luck wish for the opponent.  Each bout ended with another bow, and a congratulations of success from the one who was knocked off.

Here I am jousting with Julia.  This is her "jousting face."

Once we had done that for awhile, I laid out two of the dowels and then moved them farther and farther apart while Grant, and Johanna (sort-of) jumped over them.

Once we were inside, Grant reviewed about ten more of the most common words in the English language by reading it, spelling it, and then spelling it again with his eyes closed.  After that we practiced the penny whistle, and I read Grant the story from here about Excalibur.

Afterward, we had a snack and then I wrote out some words relating to our morning paige training for Grant to copy. 

We finished up with Grant reading me a shortened version of the story of Excalibur which I found here.

On Tuesday, Dad was home in the morning, so he got to join in on the Paige training and did some sword fighting with Grant, as well as throwing some poison bags into the dragon's mouth.

In the school room, Grant spelled out some more of the 100 most common words and we played another noun/verb game.  This time one of us named a noun and the other named a verb about what it does.  We came up with some pretty funny combinations.  We also practiced the penny whistle.

I also set up another game inside where we used silks as stepping stones across a lake filled with magic spirits.  We started out with 7 silks, and then I kept taking one away after each trip across the lake until there was just one left. 

We also drew a picture in our lesson books.

Mom's Picture

Grant's Picture

On Wednesday, we started off the day outside with more paige training.  Once we were in the school room we reviewed our times tables songs, practiced the penny whistle, spelled out some more of the 100 most common words, and then I had Grant copy a poem about Excalibur.



Once again on Thursday, we started the morning with paige training and enjoyed the warm Spring morning.

Inside, Grant continued to read and spell out more of the most common words.

I also had Grant write each word from the spelling list three times on his chalkboard.

While Grant was working on this, the girl's were playing "Mommy and Baby".  Julia was pretending to be the baby, and Johanna was the mommy putting her to bed.

While she was laying there, Julia asked "Mommy" Johanna if she would sleep with her. Aahhh...

We also continued working on our coat-of-arms this week.  We took what we had done on paper to Grandpa Paul, and he cut the shape out of plywood.  When he got it back to our house, we decoupaged it onto the wood, and then began to decoupage the symbols we wanted in each section.  Here it is so far.  Once it is done I will explain what all the symbols and colors mean, and why we picked them.

We were also reading these books with the theme of gardens. 

(From this book we read the story of Peter Rabbit causing

 mischief in Mr. McGregor's Garden.)

And, we began planting in our own garden.  We planted some of our veggies seeds, including carrots, beets, and bush beans.  As well as, sprinkling some wild flower seed mixes on one of the hillsides by our pond. Also, Julia planted some sunflower seeds in a pot, Johanna planted some pink daisy seeds in her pot, and Grant decided to plant some watermelon seeds in his pot.

The color is returning all around us.  The lilacs, tulips, azaleas, and red buds are blooming, the hostas are shooting up, the ferns are unfurling, and green is returning to the surrounding woods. Soon the growing season will be in full swing, and the work in the garden will really begin!