Castle Work

  Leah is doing her reading workbook in our new school room.

I was happy to get most of my boxes unpacked.  I still need more shelving units.  But things are getting more organized. 

I have six of these free standing shelving units that make up the east wall of our school room.

They are also the west wall of our family room.

Our family is enjoying this room especially since we haven't been able to use our living room much right now.  The dining room is still under construction so all the furniture from it is in the living room which makes it not a very nice place to be.

Our older sons came out on Sabbath.  We got to enjoy being with them all afternoon.  After sundown they and Daniel helped Tim put up dry wall in the dining room.  Today Tim did some taping and mudding before he had to go to work.

In our school timeline we are in the Middle Ages.  Daniel and I have been looking forward to doing the castle all year.  This afternoon I cut all the pieces out of the pages of the book.  Daniel wanted to help cut them out so I gave him a page.  When I checked on him he had two pieces cut out.  I wasn't too surprised as he does not like cutting.  I didn't mind doing it as I cut while I visited with a friend and her husband on the phone.  Later I cut while I watched Fox News.  There are over 100 pieces to cut out and assemble.

The directions are pretty clear.  So far we have not had trouble except that the directions say to use glue. Earlier I had read on the MFW forum that other moms found it difficult to get the glue to hold so they used tape.  One mom had written that she used glue dots.  I think that would have worked better than tape but I forgot to get some.  After putting some of the castle together I can see why glue would not work. 

We were able to get up to piece 45 tonight.  The drawbridge goes up and down as well as the "metal" gate.  About twenty people are included.   Of course the children were already playing with it.  It will be a fun project for us to work on in the evenings.

We have almost finished our read-a-loud, The Door in the Wall,  by Marguerite de Angeli.  The children and I have enjoyed reading about Robin, Friar Luke, and John-go-in-the-Wynd all set in Medieval England.  The castle project ties in with what we are studying in history.

This week we will wrap up the Human Anatomy part of Daniel's science.  Though I learned a lot about our bodies I have been looking forward to starting astronomy as I want to study the stars and planets.

I am grateful for all the good resources I have for our learning.