6ichthusfish

Making medieval style shoes...

Looking back, I remember this as one of the most challenging homeschool activities we did as part of our EPIC Adventure.  We made our own medieval style shoes as part of the work related to the Tanners Guild.  Firstly we looked at how a modern boot is assembled, then we researched pictures of different medieval shoes and sketched some ideas...

 

Then we worked out our own patterns... (Roman's foot!)

 

We used some thin fabric to make 'mock-ups' of our shoes,  

We made the mock-ups by just stapling the pieces together, trying it on & drawing any modifications onto the fabric itself. 

 

Below is the mock-up for Roman's boot.

 

Once the pattern pieces were modified, the children chose mock leather or felt or suede-ish stuff to actually make their shoes.

 

Smurf LOVED using my old Singer sewing-machine & got really good at it.  Sewing mock leather is not the easiest thing to sew on as your first attempt (!)

   

Smurf had chosen to design a 'Poulain' type shoe which was so long and pointy that medieval people had to tie the point of the shoe up! He enjoyed this activity so much, I remember it was past his bedtime but he really wanted to finish the sewing.

 

A finished shoe...

   

All the children made a different style shoe, out of different materials.

It was challenging but they learnt a lot!

Here's a few photos I took at Walsall Leather museum on a trip we had...(it was free too)...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we're big picnic-lovers, a day out is not complete without one!

 

Medieval Guild activities...(4)

We had a fantastic day out near Dudley when we were learning about glass making. Behind Chef is the 'bottle-kiln' where glass was fired at 'The Red House Glass Cone' museum.  Obviously this kiln does not date back to medieval times (!)... but the process of glass making itself has been around since Roman times in this country.

 

 

Smurf is looking at really old Roman glass...

 

Roman was pretending to be a glass-maker with the old tools etc...

 

Smurf then copied Roman....

 

We were all intrigued to watch the glassblower at work...

 

 

 

Down the road at another museum called 'Broadfield House' we saw stunning examples of glass objects, from many time periods.

 

The variety of glass was amazing...

 

 

Roman had been studying Newspaper articles at the time and wrote this totally fictitious article...

 

Smurf & I worked together (I helped him) to write a poem about the glassblower that we saw at work.  We looked at photos that we'd taken on the day, collected together some descriptive adjectives & adverbs and after some chat about poetry not having to rhyme (!) we produced this poem...

The Glass-blower at work

 

The Glass-blower

generously sprays

the black, soggy

newspaper,

he's ready to

shape the orangey

scorching glass.

He rolls the long,

heavy, blowpipe

forward

and back, non-stop.

 

He wants the glass

to grow but not to

crack... and so... he

lunges at the furnace

to get the glass piping hot.

Then blowing really hard,

twirling very fast

the red searing ball

expands.

 

A dripping

wooden plank,

charred by fire

flattens the base

of the vase, ready

to stick to the pontil.

The Glass-blower widens

the neck of the vase.

Gravity is his friend.

Tapped off and caught

then put in the Lehr to cool.

The vase is finished.

 

by Smurf & Mum

Chef wrote a letter thanking the museum and Tiger-girl wrote a fictitious interview with a glass-blowers apprentice.  I've found that it works well for us when each person produces different types of writing.  We seem to cover more & the children learn more somehow.

Medieval Guild activities... The Potters Guild...

Having decided upon the 3 'Guilds' of 'Potters Guild', 'Tanners Guild' & 'Glassmakers Guild' we then studied in more depth about the different Guilds.  To enhance our understanding of medieval pottery, we went to Hanley Museum in Stoke-On-Trent to find out about the techniques & glazes etc. of medieval pottery.

 

 

We then had a go at designing and making a model of a medieval plate.  The children drew designs on paper, having studied photos we'd taken of different plates. 

   

It was interesting to see the symmetry of the designs.  Then they tried 'slip-trailing' onto cheap terracotta plant pot holders from a DIY shop...

 

Once dry the slip-tail was a dark toffee colour & they just filled in the spaces with acrylic paint, using natural/earthy colours like we'd seen at the museum... 

  

 

Their medieval-style plates...

 

The children each made a poster to tell about their experiences...

 

 

  

Loking back at these activities, I'm so glad I can be a part of their education    :) 

Medieval Guild activities... (2)

Here's another post about the work we did about Medieval Guilds.  In the previous post I mentioned that we sorted ourselves into 3 'Guilds'.  We designed & made 'Guild Emblems'.  Below, Smurf is in the final stages of making the Guild emblem/banner...

   

Making them involved researching the various tools used by the different Guilds/trades then designing a recognisable banner for their particular Guild.  Below, Roman is drawing around the templates he designed.  He is drawing in pencil onto the fabric, so that next he can paint over the pencil lines.

 

 

Once the paint was dry, the children put letter stickers onto their emblem/banner.  Because the fabric was an old curtain it already had wide loops at the top, so Chef just sawed 3 lengths of dowelling and we called it good.

 

We hung the Guild emblems in the schoolroom.

 

Medieval 'Guild' activities... (1)

I thought I'd post some more about the work we did last year. We did an  EPIC Adventure for 7 months from January to July 2008.  An amazing & inspiring woman called Karen Kindrick had home-schooled her big bunch of kids back in the 1980's and has since put together a down-loadable learning experience based on what she did with her own family years ago.  The emphasis is on hands-on, practical, memorable learning experiences and we loved it!  Yes, as the mother, I had to prepare activities & research outings and get equipment together but I can honestly say I enjoyed it.  I also had to make sure that maths was covered separately.  Karen is from the USA & as far as I know we are the only UK family to have done an EPIC Adventure but there is a members parents forum & Blog which I found really helpful & encouraging.  Our present curriculum is different as we had to go back onto the UK accredited system so that Roman could get actual recognisable qualifications.  Most of the fun stuff we did was part of the adventure and any credit must go to Karen Kindrick. 

As part of the adventure, we divided our 6 family members into 3 Medieval Guilds.  Roman & Husb were the TANNERS GUILD, Tiger-girl & Chef were the POTTERS GUILD & Smurf & I were in the GLASSMAKERS GUILD.  We learned about how the various Guilds used to meet at Guild Hall & prepared then acted-out a Guild Hall meeting.

To prepare for the Guild Hall meeting the children made guild aprons (pattern from Karen Kindrick) to wear over their costumes.  They had to follow the instructions & measure/cut carefully.

 

 

  

We also 'aged' the documents we'd be using, by tearing, swabbing with cold tea then adding sprinkes of coffee granules...

 

 

Husb presided over the Guild Hall Meeting and acted very pompous really got into the role(!)

 

   

 

Smurf was very interested in melting the sealing wax and sealing the documents.

 

  It was a chilly day to pose in the garden with our signed, sealed & aged documents...

 

I would definately recommend an EPIC Adventure to any homeschool family.. we enjoyed it     :)

 

 

Looking back to our History Project last year & Valentine's Day...

This post has been linked to Homemade Thursdays  at the blog Ship Full O'Pirates.

I've had my mind on the past quite a bit recently & was thinking about how this time last year (February 2008) we did a project on The Middle Ages and The Renaissance.  I made us all simple Medieval style costumes which we wore as part of our learning experience.

 

I wanted to keep the costs right down so started by looking around for what we already had.  For example we had a dressing up costume for a pirate already & as it was big enough for Roman (the kid with the least clothes because he's the eldest) so I adapted it.  Chef ended up with the trousers and with some bootlaces sewn in a criss-cross style the pirate tunic looked medieval enough for our purposes.  I had an old curtain that was beige and made Smurf's tabard & Chef's cape (if you look closely the bottom edge of Smurf's tabard was the top of the curtain).  Then I got as many super-cheap tops from the Charity Shop (Goodwill) that I could in browns, beige and white & chopped away with my scissors.  For our purposes I hemmed as little as possible (the frayed look just added to the costume).  By layering the clothing things looked better.  Finally, I sewed Tiger-girl & myself an apron & made a muffin cap for her too from a white bed-sheet.  I always think that hats make you feel like you're dressed up so I made a Tudor style round hat for Chef out of upholstery fabric from an old chair.  This item took the longest to make but he loved it.  Smurf's Robin Hood style hat we already had.  Since we wouldn't be leaving the house dressed up I wasn't worried about shoes.  The boys made their own swords & daggers. 

One of the fun things I remember doing during this project was when Husb researched all about the life & inventions of Leonardo DaVinci and dressed up as Leonardo. We hired him a super costume & he visited us doing 'character in role' so that the children could ask him questions about his life etc.  Husb has a background in drama & was absolutely brilliant!  Husb, as Leonardo, explained all about his famous notebooks (using dodgey props that I'd made..)

 

I wish you could hear the dodgey Italian accent he was talking in!

 

It was amazing all the facts that Husb was coming out with! 

 

The chidlers wrote some of his quotes in mirror writing (which is how Leonardo wrote in his notebooks)...

   

We read our mirror writing... 

 

 

Tiger-girl & me  :)

The whole family dressed-up...  

Great memories & loads of learning.  This was just a small part of our project and we did loads more activities, had some great outings & learned cool stuff about the Middle Ages & The Renaissance.

 

As for Valentine's Day...

I woke-up to a full English breakfast in bed on Valentine's Day... a total surprise...Husb had even cooked fresh mushrooms & tomatos (my faves).  He'd written me a funny poem (I'm a sucker for poetry - especially from the chidlers or Husb).  Then Husb & I had a lovely day out, just the two of us.  We went to Birmingham... wandered round the markets, went in Borders, Waterstones & WHSmiths bookshops.  We dawdled around Selfridges...  Husb drooled over the dohnuts & I pawed all the stationery (yes, I know I'm wierd!) then i took him for a Starbucks Coffee.  We got a passer-by to snap this pic of us on the balcony outside Selfridges...

Then we went out for a meal.  I had steak, salad & jacket potato.. YUM doesn't quite cover it.  I am so blessed.

Beadlings bracelet a post by Tiger-girl

I have linked this post to the blog Ship full of pirates for homemade thursday.  

Hi my name is Tiger-girl and I wanted to show you the bracelet I made for my mum. Last week I made the beadlings then decided to put them on a bracelet.  I got the idea of making my mum a bracelet from my Grandma's  LOVELINKS bracelet that she got for her birthday.

  

My mum loved the bracelet I made and wears it.

 

I got the patterns from the Klutz book called BEADLINGS.  Here is the pattern to make the skunk.  I like this beadling.

 

 

 

Our family like Klutz books.

 

Hope you like the beadling bracelet.  It took a long time to make but was worth it.

By Tiger-girl.

 

Happiest snowman ever ...

The snow has mostly gone now & our backgarden grass looks a rugby pitch.  Smurf & Tiger-girl built the happiest looking snowman I've ever seen & named him 'Phil Smiley' (!)  Here is a photo of Smurf & Phil Smiley ...

   

   

 

His arms were from the swing-ball set.

Stitch in the ditch...

This post has been linked to Homemade Thursday at the blog Ship Full O'Pirates.

 

Feels good to be back at the quilting again.  The 'Frogs & Bugs Quilt' has thankfully come together far better than the 'Cupcake Quilt' did.   I learned from the mistakes I made first time 'round (it was painful in places).  That first quilt was a character builder I can tell you! 

Anyway, I basted the quilt a day or two ago... basically that's when you make up the 'quilt sandwich' from the three layers...

1) Quilt top,

2) Batting (padding stuff)

3) Backing fabric. 

I got the backing fabric from a charity shop (it's a hardly used colourful duvet cover).  The tag tool I use to baste the quilt saves a lot of time.

 

The tag tool is very popular & there are always other 'helpful' folks ready to help...

 

 

Once basted, last night  I started the actual quilting....  Yay!  I decided to 'stitch in the ditch'  along the edges of the square panels.  This was considerably easier than last time due to my new grippy gloves which are small & a better fit.  My first pair of grippy gloves were way too big & flappy. 

 

 

This quilt is bigger & heavier than the first quilt I made & while sewing it last night, I discovered some muscles in my forearms I never knew I had (!).  This morning my arms are aching  ;}

 

I've just noticed how miserable I look.. but I'm just concentrating... honestly!

Looking forward to quilting 'pebbles' on each panel. 

[See the left sidebar and click on 'Quilting efforts' to read about the piecing process of this quilt & about the making of my first quilt].

 

Bead critters & quilting..

Tiger-girl has been making 'Beadlings'... cute little critters made from teeny glass seed beads...

   

 

Smurf also made me two beautiful bead rings.

I have been working on the frog quilt again.  Christmas threw me off my momentum but I'm keen to get on with it again.