Today we looked at Heraldry and its origins and then how it spread from knights to families and estates, to peasants and merchants, to towns and cities, each wanting to have its own poignant identity.  The children found the symbolic meanings of the animals and colours fascinating and created their own designs for their own Coat of Arms.

Monkey Girl made this awesome castle rat :)

 The Boy made a King...

...and showed how well he is getting on with his mazes.

They spent over an hour in the garden riding their bicycles (aka horses) and pretending they were in a jousting tournament (n.b. I thought perhaps that the 'no literal lancing of other people' rule should apply here and thus enforced it  before the tournament began :)

Panda Girl made a jester...

...and a gorgeous shield with her designed Coat of Arms on it.

And we also made our own jousting tournament field

Monkey Girl made a super Coat of Arms with symbolic designs she found relevant to her...

 ...here she is looking brave with her knight visor she created last week while the rest of us 'rested' with a tummy bug.

A few worksheets to remember the facts

Ballet Girl opted for a simple Coat of Arms...

...and also worked hard on similes, metaphors and personifications

 Ballet Girl designed this :)  ...

... and drew this.

Panda Girl made a Medieval Headdress

...and she also drew this castle and painted it with water-colour.

Monkey Girl painted this one :)

 The Boy requested a cooking session and found this recipe in his book...

...we had no jam so we used marmalade instead.  Scrumtious. Ballet Girl helped him with the whole thing.

Sorting for The Boy

A new way to use the bead board.

 I am overjoyed that my Panda Girl has discovered the joys of reading.  It 'clicks' in their own good time.  

I thought we could start collecting and painting jars to put candles in for a Summer evening.  Here is our first batch.  

Monkey Girl helped The Boy make a knight mobile. :)

Our new unit:  The Normans and the Feudal System / and the Middle Ages

I'm noticing a bigger gap now between the two eldest and the younger two now, resulting in having to have lots more ideas every day to keep them all interested in whichever theme we are studying.  Sometimes I gear it more to the older two or vice versa.  We are moving steadily on with our history, recently studying The Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest.  It seemed apt, therefore to have a castle theme for the littlies to enjoy, while the older two learnt more details of castle life, castle architecture, defense and attack means and all that goes with it.  Ballet Girl is especially interested in the use of falcons, merlins and buzzards in the Middle Ages.  She dressed as a huntress this morning and spent a good while reading up on the subject.

Here's a selection of how we got the ball rolling:

Fairytale castle sensory box for my Kinaesthetic Panda Girl

Castle story words for Panda Girl to use to create her own story.

 Dragons and a castle for The Boy

The Boy's favourite musical castle

Castle cards

The Boy is learning to do worksheets.  He especially enjoys matching and tracing over dots.

Some of our castle books and activity books.  The older two have started lap-books: watch this space :)

Our half term week

We booked a session at our favourite forest centre and learnt about fossils and rocks...

...and made pre-historic creatures out of clay :)

Uncle T showed The Boy how to use his new saw....

...and made a cross :)

 And we spent the week catching up with friends.

St Valentines and Lent

The kiddies made St, Valentine's biscuits for our morning snack

At the end of our week we went for a St. Valentine's meal. I love my children!