We have learned about some of the English and French and Dutch Explorers of the New World and the Native Americans they met there. We built a Wigwam and ate fish, cranberries, dandylion salad, and jerky. 

We learned a little bit about Shakespeare one of the most famous playwrights during Elizabeth's reign. We enjoyed making up insults and learning about pentameter and reading lines from a midsummer nights dream.

We learned that Martin Luther's ideas influenced King Henry the VII to declare his religious independence from the Pope, and divorce his wife in the search for a male heir. He was unsuccessful, but one of his daughters, Elizabeth became one of the most loved and feared Monarchs of England. We made ruffs to show something of the common dress of that time. We got a little carried away but then so did the Elizabethan's occasionally.

Then we learned about Martin Luther and his 91 theses that changed how christians viewed their church leaders. We made faux stained glass windows to represent stories from the bible since that was how many people in the Middle Ages learned their religion, from the pictures in the windows of the Cathedral.

This is one wall of our Cathedral of Gilroy.

Then we moved over to Spain and learned about the exploration and damage done to the America's in the name of the King of Spain, Phillip.

These shields represent the important ideas the Spanish held about thier country and their role in the world as conquerors and bringers of Christianity to the Savage.

So next we learned about Russia's Great unifiers Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible.

We made black Russian Easter Eggs to show how Russian people's architecture was unique.

I know it itsn't Friday but this is such a cute photo of Jessica on her promotion from Kindergarten to First Grade I had to post it.

conquest of constantinople

We started out this year with the conquest of Constantinople and the culture of Byzantium.

We learned that they were very religious and believed that they were the true Christian Church. The religion of these people is reflected in their art. These Cross cookies show our ideas of traditional elements that were used in crosses during that time period. We also learned about the Muslims who conquered Constantinople and did an example of their art.  They only used geometric shapes so we used beads to make interlocking circles.

Janae, my third daughter, tagged us. This is our fourth photo in our fourth file on this computer. It is of the violin group we used to belong to playing fiddle songs in the Morgan Hill Independence Day Parade in 2000. We had about 20 kids from 6 years old to 16. The horses and wagon belong to Eric Cohen who is driving. He hires out his horses and wagons for weddings and other events. He has been a friend for about 25 years. He was our OB when we were expecting Jessica. Jean Lance, our paternal grandmother, was accompanying us on her keyboard, you can just see her white hat behind the drivers seat.

Flashback Friday

So this is the begining of Yorktown Academy's career of educating students. Jessica was in 7th grade, that would make her almost 12 and Jarom was in 5th, so he would be almost 10.

Just Starting Up

So we jumped on the bandwagon and started a blog. We will actually post what we have done up to now and then add on as the weeks go by. We started school this year at the end of the Middle Ages. We studied explorers at the end of last year and wrote reports. We are Julia and Sophia in 6th grade and Joshua in 4th. Kathryn, Kaitlyn, Jordan, Joanna, Justin, Julia, Jordan, Jarom and Jessica have all been part of our school in previous years. We will do some Friday Flashbacks for you with these characters. We are on the wrong computer to post pictures so we will do that tomorrow or after the other people in our house get off the computer with the pictures.