This will be my last post on the crusades (ye ha! We're done!). Just to get you in the mood for another information overload to do with the Holy wars, here's a fun music video which towards the end handily touches on the effects of the crusades. There is one of the videos for almost…
Category: History – Medieval Crusades
Explorer Study: Ibn Battuta
I particularly wanted to study the Islamic, medieval explorer Ibn Battuta. Being a contemporary of Marco Polo, who we had studied at the beginning of the year, I felt a comparison study would be quite interesting. Both travelled widely throughout the Eastern Medieval world; both met with similar tribes and peoples; and most importantly both wrote about…
Medieval Mini Presentation
When we heard that Gary's parents were coming to stay with us, we thought it might be good for them to see for themselves some of the work we have been doing. So we decided to do a mini presentation. Mini because I knew there was no way we would have the time or the…
Leadership Study: Richard the Lion heart and Saladin
We had done a leadership study on Hamurabi when the children were younger, and they had concluded that he was a fair leader, by studying some of his laws that he had written. This time I wanted to take our leadership studies a little bit further. Why do leadership studies at all? One of my…
The Other Side of the Crusades: The Muslims
Over the last few weeks the children have been learning about Islam, the primary religion (and way of life) that made up the other side of the Crusades. This has taken much longer than I anticipated and we still have not quite finished. This post is primarily about the Islamic religion. I wanted to attempt to give a…
Informal Letter: Crusades Writing Activity
When I wrote about the writing activities I had set the children, a few of you expressed an interest in seeing some of the results. As I have already posted some of T11's work and C10's work, I thought I would post L10's writing this time. This particular assignment was to write an informal letter to…
Crusades: Pope Urban’s Speech – Part Two
For part one see here At the end of the week it was our plan to dress up and conduct our own Council at Clermont. Each of the children would have a chance to recite some of Urban's speech either verbatim or in their own words. The whole event would be full of propaganda, one…
Crusaders: Pope Urban’s Speech – Part One
Pope Urban II speech at Clermont, 1095, is arguably one of the most influential speeches of all times. It is the speech that fired up a whole nation to join together, even whilst parts of it were at war with each other, to fight against the perceived enemy of God, the Muslims; to fight for…
Writing Assignments this Term
Source This year I am wanting to teach a new writing skill to the children - that of being able to write persuasively. Given the amount of nagging the children would naturally do if we allowed them (we don't) you'd think they'd be experts! I designed four writing assignments attached to the crusades: To write a…
Preparing for our Crusade Study
Over the summer the children have continued with their daily quiet times. This is something we have insisted on with all five children from the moment they stop napping. B2 is still napping. A4 has her quiet time in my room, listening to a book on CD and playing with her quiet time toys. The…