Monks

 We have been learning about the early Christian Church. Monks and Monasteries were a large part of influence of the developing church.
Monks had to promise to give up everything they owned, to obey their abbot and not get married.
Medieval monks followed rules that were written by St. Benedict: Monks should pray, study, and work hard in the fields. They should eat plain food, wear simple clothes and look after the sick and the poor.

Just like the Monasteries, quiet, dark, and cold. 

We grew an herb garden with many of the same herbs that monks used in healing. Now we will work on learning how to use those herbs. We also looked at many of the manuscripts that were Illuminated by medieval monks. We tried our hand at doing some illuminating, it is definitely a tedious and time consuming art.
My favorite parts of this study has been reading, "Trial and Triumph" a book about Martyrs for the faith. Learning more about St. Francis of Assisi has been fascinating.
We decided to finish our unit on Monks by recreating a dinner in the Monastery. We did not use lights, we had the house really cold, and ate split pea soup with ginger ale in silence. Ian was our server so if anyone wanted anything they had to signal to him, and Ian would go get whatever they indicated they wanted. I was surprised that Liberty could eat the entire meal without talking! It was pleasant and gave us a small indication into what sacrifice the Monks made in their devotion to studying the Word of God. My one concern is that Sean will want to eat like this every night! Ruby thought it was the best, she wants to do this at least once a week!  Aaron was the only one who liked the Ginger Ale, so I had to put a stop to his finishing off everyone's drink.
And because I'm cool like that, or just because I didn't know how to end the meal, We turned on the lights and served ice cream sundaes.
What are you doing to bring history alive in your home?