Castles Homeschool Lesson

We are in the middle of a Medieval Unit Study right now. This post will be going hand in hand with my knights’ post of last week. When I was planning our castles homeschool lesson, I knew this was an opportunity to a practical, more field trip based learning.  So I asked Gary if he would mind taking some time off for us to go and visit a couple of castles and spend enough time in them and exploring them that the children would have a real feel for them.  That said, you know I’d never be able to turn down a good book.

Castles Homeschool Lesson

Books

Read aloud was Macaulay’s Castle book and had the children read through the others themselves. I have a love/hate relationship with Macaulay’s books, in that I either love the one I’m reading or I hate it.  I loved Pyramids and The Way We Work but I really disliked City (about a Roman city).  This one would have to go the love pile.  It was so very interesting and we all learnt so much.  I read almost all of it aloud in one session lasting over an hour – it was THAT interesting!

Building a Castle

Thomas, 11, decided to try, as much as he could, to replicate the fortress in the book with his Play Mobil:

Visiting Castles

We had really wanted to visit the Tower of London, but B2 is too young and way too unpredictable in her moods (smile) for us to spend a whole day in London with her.  If she was having a bad day we would ALL have a bad day!  So we decided on two castles we could drive to rather than catch a couple of trains to:  Bodiam Castle, fairly close to the site of the Battle of Hastings and a beautiful castle with a moat, and Windsor Castle, the largest castle in Europe and still used as the queen’s residence at times.

Bodiam Castle

First was Bodiam castle:

I would really recommend a visit here.  This is probably one of the most beautiful castles in the world.  There was something about its atmosphere – just stunning!

Windsor Castle

Next up was Windsor Castle:

Castles Notepages

Whilst we were there we took photos, bought information guides and anything else we thought might be useful for the children.  The next day I had them read through the Windsor Castle Guide book and asked them to make a quick note page as a memento of their time there:

One of the few writing assignments this week was to write about a fortress’ defence features:

I have a few more medieval themed posts on the blog. I will update this list whenever I get a chance.

Giotto Artist Study for Homeschoolers

Domesday Book and its accompanying maths post, Maths at the Manor

Marco Polo Adventure Box

Medieval Re-enactment