Winter School

We are on winter break until the beginning of February, but I love to take this time to sneak in a bit of fun book learning. It doesn't happen every day.  Some days we don't get beyond playing Lego, making paper doll clothes, or folding laundry, but several times a week we stick our noses into a book on a school topic.

This term we are learning about medieval history.  The Middle Ages conjure up dark and dreary images in my mind, but I've gathered a stack of books that make me as excited as I'll ever get about this time period.  Reading good living books makes history come alive.

We started with Castle (Revised and in Full Color) by David Macaulay.  The text is the same as the original edition, but many of the color illustrations are all new and more detailed.  The book took us through every step of the building of a castle and its neighboring town. 

This week we moved on to Hudson Talbott's picture book series about the legend of King Arthur.  The 3-book series includes The Sword in the Stone, King Arthur and the Round Table, and Excalibur.  The boys are especially excited!

We're also using our winter break to get our health requirement out of the way.  We're using God's Plan For Growing Up series by Queen Homeschooling.  These booklets are short enough to read through in one sitting, but we're breaking them up into several sessions to make it less overwhelming.  I'm reading From Girl...to Woman! with Maddie, while Brian reads From Boy...to Man! with Gavin. 

What are you learning on these January days?