Cardboard Cathedral part II

 

 This is an example of several things:
1-A Medieval Cathedral with flying buttresses, stained glass, and transverse architecture.
2-A creation I was way more into than my kids were.
3-A school project I can drop, unfinished, without any guilt while the fun is fading.

 

But it was still fun.

Here are some of the pieces before I hot glued them together:

 

 

Tower

 

 

Side and buttresses; these were simply stuck into the slits I cut in the sides. They didn't even touch the ground and were what I like to think of as a truer flying buttress.

 

 A detail of the Bible stories in the windows (Noah's Ark, David & Goliath, Moses and the staff/snake)

 

People going to church above the "cat rooms where the dead people are."

That's catacombs, dear, and those are the columns in between.

 

And a view from above. It's a lot simpler than it looks, glued in only 7 places. I just realized I had scored the top half of the walls and was going to hot glue them to a peak...maybe it will happen before the dumpster recycling bin, maybe not...

 

 

Cardboard Cathedral part I

When Bowery Bird was in Y2 we made cardboard castle. There are catapults and crossbows and all kinds of other instructions for Middle Ages stuff to be made by kids. But it all looked too complicated. But I'm not an engineer, I'm an artist. Maybe when I have a boy in Y2. This go around we are making a cathedral. Easy, right? We had friends over today to help/distract us, depending on the time.

I looked up simple floor plans and images to remind myself what they actually look like, then started cutting. The girls enjoyed making stain-glass windows on tracing paper with color pencils.

Here is the nave and a flying buttress (patent pending). So it's just stuck in with a slit between windows and is in fact, really flying in this picture...I scored the upper half above the windows to fold over making a steep roof when connected with the other side. The slit at the end of the nave is where the folds come out for the transept, or crossbeam of the cross in the cathedral floor plan.

 

This is my favorite part so far. 7y/o Mockingbird did the catacombs. This is just a flat piece that goes below. So there are the color-pencil gardens around the cathedral, and then the buried king, saint, lady, and knight in their tombs below. I was thinking we could open their coffins and see something surprising inside, but this idea never came up. I think it is only because the boys all went to play elsewhere...otherwise it would have only been a matter of time... Then there are "stairs" above.

 

 

We watched this film just before I pulled out the cardboard pieces and assigned parts to work on. It is an older movie, I think geared toward children. It's all very appropriate but quite cerebral.

Cathedral is an animated story where a fictitious cathedral is being built little by little interspersed with two guides taking us to actual cathedrals in Europe to show us relics, gargoyles, windows, and other unique bits about cathedrals. I think it was worthwhile, but I didn't make them finish it, a lot is learned in any part of it, and I was starting to see the squirming surface from the six on the sofa so...we had lunch.

We'll finish it later.

There might be ALIENS in this...!

We are about out to watch a history film for Bowery Bird when Kingfisher starts whining
 "Awww-No! That's BORING!"
His two sisters offer that it's really not. I have to leave the room for something (I don't think it was imaginary this time).

When I get back the movie is starting and Kingfisher leans in to me with an excited,
"There might be ALIENS in it!"
I check the title : "Colonial Life for Children; French & Colonial Quebec". Pretty sure there's not, but I don't say anything.

Halfway through Kingfisher turns to Bowery Bird "There are no ALIENS in this!"
I turn to look at her. She reluctantly meets my eyes and gives me a nervous twitter, then turns back to the Iroquios involvement.
End of movie he volunteers, "There were no aliens. But it was still good." as the credits roll.

Who knows? Maybe aliens would have helped things.

The Pocahontas Perspective, and other biographical tales of worth

 

About 3 picture book biographies are scheduled for us year with Ambleside Online Year 3. But I love biographies and especially in our first term this year we read several extra.

For history we were again, reading about Pocahantas when Mockingbird (who wasn't supposed to be listening) piped up "What! John Smith didn't marry Pocahantas--it was some other guy!"

This was after she'd read a picture book bio on her and seen an accurate cartoon depiction of her life--I know it. But not till eavesdropping on her sister's school did the truth trump the Disney impression of a one-time viewing of the movie and mass marketing. It blew her mind, but perhaps the real shocker was the realization that her Disney dolls aren't really married now...

I have an aunt whose daughter is Native American and was never allowed to watch the Disney version. (I think there may have even been spitting involved when the idea was suggested.) My own children have a great-grandfather is full-blooded Mohawk.

We were reading in Our Country of Ours  about Pocahontas and found this dated history book to be as politically incorrect and offensive as I did when we read something like "and even though she was a savage and a heathen she was very beautiful". A publishing house was even named "La Belle Sauvage" that existed long after--if not still.

Kingfisher,"That's so funny! cuz they call them savages--and we're indian so we're savages! ha aha ha!"

"Hmmm, A--since this book is calling Native Americans savages--and telling us that they are not as good as the colonists--do you think we should keep reading it for history?"

Bowery Bird gave a quick nod, "Yeah, because everyone can have their own opinion," and a great conversation ensued, and will continue. Maybe about bias in history, maybe just about Pocahantas and her wedding plans...

After this we talked about Pocahantas and her life as a princess in two worlds and what that must have been like, and if they could think of anyone else in history whose life ended up in a completely different world than it began.
 Much thought, then G said "Annie Oakley! She was very poor and then she met the Queen!..." then "Me! I am from here, but I went to Missouri--and that's like another world!" no argument there. But then it got a little fuzzy as she shouted out "Cinderella!"--and every Disney princess she could think of...

Other Biographies we've read this year for fun:

Davy Crockett
Daniel Boone
Jane Goodall
George Washington Carver
Mozart
Bach
Sitting Bull
Geronimo
Annie Oakley
Sacagewea
Silent Witness (Civil War)
John Henry's Box
Hans Christian Anderson
Fannie Farmer
Houdini
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Florence Nightingale
Charlie Parker (stagecoach driver story we requested for purchase at our library, after learning about her from a tour of a Wells Fargo Station in the Silver Reef ghost town in Southern Utah)
Tony Sarg (Balloons Over Broadway)

What does 'hostage' mean?

We are reading in This Country of Ours, albeit a bit controversial for some--but a book great for discussions on viewpoint.
This week it was Pocahontas being traded for a copper kettle then held hostage on a ship by colonists. I asked Bowery Bird, "do you know what 'hostage' means?"

A pause then she sits up off the couch, "Yeah, Princess Leia and Han Solo were held hostage by Darth Vader in the Cloud City until Luke came and rescued them from Jabba the Hut--"

"and C-3PO was shooting the Stormtroopers and saying "Die Jedis! Die!" and then "What am I saying?!-- Oh Pardon me." ( Kingfisher interjected, complete with facial expressions).

It went on from there as they relived a few more scenes.
"So I guess that's a Yes..." and I tried to reel them back into the 17th century.