I've been delving into my family tree for a good while now and recently got my DNA results back. Lockdown has limited options for some project ideas so I had a ponder and did some planning and created this project for the children. My results came back as North Western Europe, including plenty of Irish and Scottish, English, Welsh, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany and Scandinavia. I researched further and uploaded my DNA to a fascinating site which matches your DNA to samples from archaeological digs. It then summarises your ancient history into tribes and travel. The breakdown was super interesting and matched my basic DNA results well.
So, our new thematic unit is Our DNA Story. While the children might not share all my DNA they certainly share enough of it for this to be part of their history too!
While libraries are closed and field trip options are limited, there will be an inevitable imbalance in some areas of study. But we are giving it a good go, hoping that we are culturally sympathetic as we travel back in time.
The Bell Beaker culture. Several sample matches are from Bronze Age Bell Beaker, Scotland, England and France.
The Boy learnt about phenotypes and the Bell Beaker origins in the Eurasian Steppe. He did a great portrait too.
Sunbaby sees all four of her older siblings studying around the house and she has asked me for schoolwork like them. Throughout this project I have been making her themed workbooks and she ploughs through them. I see a big future for this little one!
Outside time is a must and while we are limited in some resepcts we still have our garden. So the children have been doing various archaeological digs - in tune with our project and important cabin fever prevention.
Hilariously we realised we had a whole lot of potatoes to dig up before we could go any further.
The Celts and Celtic jewellery
Celtic roundhouse. The Boy watched a great series on how to build an actual Celtic roundhouse and Sunbaby role-played a lot in a little one we set up for her.
Celtic coins
Making a roundhouse
Artistic big sisters are for making tiny pottery pieces
Cornish pasties! The Celts in Cornwall and much of Wales were left to themselves during the Anglo Saxon and Viking invasions. We recognised this fact with a Cornish pasty making morning.
Celtic crosses and knots
Sunbaby spent a few days having fun with Celtic Ireland and Irish leprechauns. It was a good time to work with colours and rainbows, counting, sorting and sizing.
While The Boy learnt to count in Gaelic
And identify his dig finds.
The Vikings
Viking vocabulary
Researching Viking place names from Danelaw's Viking settlements in England.
Viking longhouses
Viking runes
Viking longboats
This one's reading is coming on in leaps and bounds! Yay!
Norwegian fjords
Highlighting Viking place names along the East coast of England
There are not many by The Wash because The Fens were under water at that time, until Elizabeth I irrigated the area for new farmland during the late Tudor period.
Danish flag, vocab, and learning to count in Danish.
While The Boy focused on Vikings, Sunbaby had fun with Scandinavian trolls
We made a magical troll landscape
Redesigning the longhouse
Viking food:
Norwegian meatballs
Dandelion tea
Cooking chicken on hot stones in the ground
And slow-cooked chicken and vegetables - similar to medieval pottage I suppose.
Scandinavian flags
I guess, inevitably, we needed to have a longboat in the house.
One of Sunbaby's favourite books.
Thank you, English Heritage for a very opportune children's magazine this month!
A viking horn to sound the alert and another to drink from.
Viking money
And Viking shields
A day of dragons and learning about the Aroura Borealis
Sunbaby made a dragon bookshop
Dragon food
And making a river for a longboat
Part 2 coming soon!
