Home School - Castle Part 2

here  

On Monday William and I was looking through our Castles book as part of our topic.

With the weather going from horrid to nice at a moment’s notice it has been difficult for me to plan a day trip out to a castle; after my last attempt I need to make sure it’s a good day at least.

Luckily within the first few pages William picked up on this particular picture and started asking questions:

• Why is this Castle made from wood?
• Why was the Castle at the top of the hill?
• Why does the Castle and the Village both have separate walls?
• Why are some houses round?
• Why doesn’t the Castle have a drawbridge if there is a moat?

All of which, I felt, were valid questions; With William being of Year One age these seemed like questions that we could explore.

The problem suddenly became: How do you explain all these points through a picture?

Then, as it sometimes does, it dawned on me; we are not in School and we have the freedom of Home to do what we want. So in typical Dad and Boy fashion there was only one thing we could do: Let’s make the Castle!!

This was perfect actually as I could layer in another of our topics: Recycling (Or in this case how to Upcycle through Recycling)

Out came the recycling and we fished through to find all the materials that we thought we needed. William decided that a small cardboard box would suit for the Castle. (Although I wouldn't have been surprised if he wasn't just checking to find any chocolates still in there!)

With a little guidance I shaped out several pieces of card , of different, stackable, sizes, for the mound. Then he layered and stuck them together:



I took this time to discuss why the Castle was at the top of a hill. I explained that it provided a good point of visibility to see what was going on around as well as it being defensible.

Our next target was the walls.

Again, with a little of guidance from Daddy, we used strips or cardboard but ripped one side off to get to the corrugated piece underneath. William even pointed out "Look Daddy, it looks like wooden poles" (Cute Kid) 

We used different items to weigh down or hold our parts together; William was extremely good here showing far more patience than me!! (I wanted to make our Castle now!!)

I took this time to explain why the Castle needed several walls and what the difference between the Moat, Curtain Wall and the Keep were. Each were explained and we explored the different defensive features here. William, as in our last post, found the fact that Archers could fire down upon people the most useful part.

To get this far took us most of the afternoon so for the time being we surrendered and decided to continue it the following day.

Day Two:

With our Castle now taking shape there was only one thing that we now needed to do: The one thing that every craft activity needs.....Paper Mache!

This was so much fun. We took the time to cover everything with it; We did leave the walls though as we felt that they looked far more realistic the way they were.

  

We had to take some time to let the paper mache dry, and have our lunch, so took this opportunity to discuss why there were round houses. This was a difficult one; as the picture showed both round and 'regular' shaped houses. I explained that, like we do today, houses come in different shapes and were used for different reasons.

We also took the time to discuss why there wasn't any drawbridge: this was really interesting to see William try to understand. He could clearly see that a drawbridge is a great way of keeping people out. I explained that the one in the picture was made of wood and if necessary they would have burnt the bridge to stop people getting in. William understood this however he did raise a very valid point that I couldn't answer: Did they have a spare bridge? How did they get out after? (if anyone knows please tell me!)

All we had to do now was paint.

This activity took us almost two days to complete but in doing so answered all of William's questions; the best part, for both of us, was how fun it was. This met so many areas of learning and we can refer back to this time and time again.

Ultimately what part of school was ever boring when it involves Making, Sticking, Paper Mache and Painting; One little boy, and his Dad, were very happy......We made a Castle and its grounds!

Take a look at the finished thing: What do you think?

If you want to find out more about our home school journey then please click