History Co-op Writing Assignments - Vikings

A writing assignment was given most weeks of the Viking History Co-op. The children presented their work the week following the assignment.
 1.    If you were to take a long voyage to a new land as the Vikings did, what would you bring and how would you use it? Put pictures or descriptions of your items in your sack (envelope) and write on a separate piece of paper.
2.    Write instructions for how to make a cloak.
3.    Write about a day in the Viking village as if you are a:
         a.    Thrall
         b.    Bondsman
         c.    Karl
         d.    Jarl
Then tell which person you would prefer to be and why.
4.    Write a Viking rowing song
5.    Pick a Viking fighting name for yourself and write a story about how you got your name.


To read more about our homeschool history co-op activities click on Homeschool History under Homeschooling Topics on the right-hand side of the blog, or one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China

Viking History Co-op. Week 8: Food and Feast

Week 8: We made butter, prepared a Viking stew, and had a Viking feast complete with drinking horns and mead.

The Vikings ate a variety of grains, meats, fruits and vegetables including; wheat, barley, rye, venison, wild boar, fish, carrots, garlic, leeks, apples and berries and more. Their favorite drink was a weak honey beer known as mead. Horns of cows served as cups during Viking and medieval times. They were hallow, but couldn't be set on a table due to the curved shape.

Viking Stew
To make the stew each child was responsible for chopping or preparing one item. The soup included carrots, parsley, spinach, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, bay leaves, barley, and fish.

Everything was tossed into a large pot and boiled.

Home-Made Butter Activity for Kids
Making butter is a fun and easy child-friendly activity. All that's required is a carton of heavy cream, a glass jar and 20 minutes of energy.

After pouring the cream into the jar, 20 minutes of shaking results in butter and butter milk. Once the butter milk is poured off and the butter is rinsed, it's ready to be spread onto a slice of bread.


Mead for Kids

Kid friendly Mead recipe - apple cider and ginger ale

Drinking Horns for Kids

Drinking Horns - Start with a plastic cup. Tape aluminum foil stuffed with newspaper to the cup in the shape of a horn.

To read more about our history activities click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China





This post is linked to: 
Saturday Show and Tell

Viking History Co-op. Week 7: Mythology

Week 7: We made Tree of Life Pendants.

Yggdrasil, was the Norse name of a giant ash tree connecting all worlds. An eagle lived at the top and guarded the tree. A destructive dragon lived beneath it's roots in Niflheim. The tree gave life to the people of Midgard and was the home of many creatures.

Since Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, was so central to Viking mythology, we created tree of life pendants.

Following the Tree of Life Pendants instructions, the kids slipped beads onto wires and wrapped them around the hoop constructed from thicker wire into the shape of a tree.



D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Mythology describes each of the Viking gods and important aspects of Norse Mythology in a story format. It is great for kids, but I wouldn't recommend it for young children.


Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China



Life of Fred - Math Curriculum

Life of Fred and Math-U-See are two excellent math curriculums. Up until this year we have relied on games and appropriate level workbooks for math. This year however, we have added both of the afore mentioned curriculums to our homeschool.

We have made Math-U-See our daughter's math curriculum because she is flying through math and learns very well with this method. It is straight-forward and visual and she can do the majority of work on her own. The curriculum includes DVD's which show a teacher leacturing to a typical math class. The lectures are short (10-15 minutes) and each topic is explained very well.

(This is not my son. We brought our Life of Fred books to a homeschooling event for a friend to evaluate. Her kids liked them so much they couldn't put them down. My kids treat them the same way.)

Although my daughter learns well with the Math-U-See curriculum, we have found Life of Fred much more in-line with my son's (and my husband's) learning style. Life of Fred is a fairly new series of books that follows Fred (the main character) through his daily life and his interactions with math. The books are written in story format with a few problems to be worked at the end of each chapter. The questions at the end of the chapters are never repetitive like more traditional math texts. They may include questions such as how do you spell the third day of the week? Followed by how many in a dozen, count the perpendicular lines in this picture, and what is 3+4. In addition to covering math the story goes off on many tangents covering subjects such as astronomy, healthy eating and the German language. What I love most about these books is that they teach thinking. My son loves them so much that the one he is working in right now has made its way up to his bedroom so he can read it when he is supposed to be sleeping. My daughter has chosen on her own to read through the first three books in the series and has told me she plans to read all the books.

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.

Viking History Co-op. Week 6: Warriors

Week 6: We made Viking shields.

Not all Vikings were brutal fighters. Some were peaceful farmers, blacksmits, wives and mothers. And, they didn't wear hats with horns? That style of dress was originally used to portray Vikings in a play in much more recent history.

On the other hand, some Vikings were fierce warriors. Their ships were lined with men rowing oars seated next to round shields. Most of their attacks took their enemies by surprise and they loved to attack religious establishments as they contained many treasures, but were not well guarded.

Dying in battle was respected, honorable and desired by Vikings. Those lucky enough to die fighting went to Valhalla where they fought all day and feasted all night.

In conjunction with learning about Viking warriors, we created Viking shields. Viking shields were round and constructed from metal with raised designs. Our shields were constructed from round pieces of cardboard found in pizza boxes.

They were adorned with glue droppings, lids from food containers and buttons to create raised areas.

Then they were painted.

Here are links to other hands-on history activities.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China

Matilda Jane for Mommies


I was excited to pick-up a package from the post office today in a Matilda Jane box. As I have said before, a friend of ours started this company that sells clothes through home shows a few years back. Anyway, I was even more excited to find out all the clothes were my size. It turns out I just opened my Christmas Present. Thank you Jeff and Matilda Jane.

Matilda Jane Clothing

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.

Bring Your Own Bags

Grocery stores sell plastic bags so most people bring their own and there are no baggers so customers must work quickly to fill their own.

Science Living Books

Here are some of the great books we have enjoyed reading to learn about science:

These are good for young children (K-3rd grade)

Animal Adventure Books by Thornton W Burgess
More Animal Adventure Books by Thornton W Burgess

Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Birds by Jim Arnosky
Crinkleroot's Book of Animal Tracking by Jim Arnosky 

How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World by Faith McNutty

These are a little more challenging (2nd grade-5th grade)

The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton W Burgess
The Burgess Seashore Book for Children by Thornton W Burgess
The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W Burgess

My Life With Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall

The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merril - Light Science - great for entrepreneurs

The Story of Inventions by McHugh and Bachman

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children. 

Science Experiment Curriculum

Science is both fun and entertaining with the Discover & Do Video Series. The kids watch a short video of a young (high school) science guy which explains and does a simple science experiment. Then the kids repeat the experiment. I like it because we usually have everything required to do the experiments and the experiments take a relatively short time to complete. Plus it is all explained so the kids can do most of it on their own.


Some of the videos are available used on amazon. (Although they are very new, I believe the names have changed slightly from Volume 1 to Level K, etc.)
Discover & Do Level K DVD: Air, in the Kitchen, Plants
Discover & Do Level 1 DVD: Water, Magnets, Light and Mirrors
Discover & Do Level 2 DVD: Batteries, Your Body, Weather

The videos are also available through
Sonlight
On the Sonlight website you can see Sample Videos from the DVD's.

Favorite Resource This Week

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children. 
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