Today we finished another read-aloud for history — In the Time of Knights by Shelley Tanaka. Mr. E listened to most of this one along with Miss M. It’s the story of William Marshal, a knight who was declared at his burial to be “the best knight who ever lived.” The book follows him from a childhood an under-valued younger son, to him making a way for himself as a young man, to his adulthood as he served various kings and learns about the virtues that embody a great knight.
For a picture book, I was surprised by the somewhat graphic descriptions of various injuries and deaths. Miss M, also to my surprise, did not flinch at these descriptions. But if you have a sensitive child, this book may not be the best choice. There are a number of boxed-off pages that break from the flow of the story to give additional information relevant to the story on topics such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Crusades and the Knights Templar. We skipped these pages as most of them duplicated topics we’ve read about in Mystery of History Volume 2. We read the book in two sittings over the course of two days, but you could easily spend a lot longer with this book, exploring the many topics it brings up about the late 12th and early 13th centuries in England and Normandy.
Bedtime Read Aloud with Miss M:
After mutually deciding to give up on Little Women, we decided to start Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes. While I wouldn’t say it is one of my favorite read-alouds we’ve done this year, Miss M seems to really like it and I do think it is a cute story so far. We’re about half way through, so I am sure to have more thoughts once we’ve read the whole thing.
The Boys’ Favorites this Week:
Mr. E picked out three different books from a series called “Easy to Read Spooky Tales” from the library – Don’t Walk Alone at Night, Don’t Open the Door and Don’t Go Into the Forest. These stories seem designed to both entertain and teach safety lessons at the same time. I was worried they might be a bit too scary, but even Mr. K stayed to listen to all these stories. I guess they are just outlandish enough to not be TOO scary. The final page of each book explains the origins of the stories — they are all based on folktales or myths from various countries around the world. I see on Amazon there are several more books in this series, so I have a feeling we’ll be reading more of these.
Mr. K is on a train kick again. We had a book based on the “Chuggington” TV series that went back to the library on Wednesday. I was not sorry to see this go back, since I think I had already read it to him about a dozen times. I think a couple pages were possibly even missing in the middle of this well-loved library book, but that didn’t bother Mr. K a bit. While at the library, he looked and looked for another Chuggington book, but a quick check of the catalog revealed that none were going to be found on the shelves that day. He was disappointed, but took a Thomas train book instead — which we have already read three times in the past two days. Mr. K’s birthday is coming soon, and I think I see more train books in his future.
I’m linking up with Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope is the Word!
Homeschool Discoveries 
We’re studying the Middle Ages, too, so that first book looks like a good resource. Ginger Pye and Pinky Pye are both favorites around here, but we first met Ginger in an audiobook, and I think that helped me like the story better before I read them both aloud.
Thanks for linking up to RAT!
If you want other information about the Middle Ages, I have tons, especially religious art work – illuminated bibles and prayer books. I might even be able to offer Ms. M (maybe Mr. E?) a lesson in calligraphy, if she wanted. It could easily be presented as art combined with faith. It was a huge hobby of mine, which is on sabbatical until we have a larger house.