Vendor Name: Homeschool Legacy
Vendor Contact: Contact Us
Name of Product: Knights and Nobles
Price: $15.95
Age/Grade Range: grades 2-12
What if I told you that doing a unit study with your children could be something you could do without prep work? You’d probably laugh in my face, but, before you do, let me introduce you to Homeschool Legacy.
Homeschool Legacy provides a once a week unit study that takes all the prep work out of unit studies, making it feasible for families large or small and with varying ages and abilities since they are geared toward 2nd through 12th grades. I even had my 1st grader participating in our Knights and Nobles study. You can view a sample of a scheduled at the website, but the study is easily customizable to your family’s needs and schedules. We did ours within a Monday through Thursday since we don’t do school on Fridays.
Knights and Nobles is a 4 week unit study on knights and nobles and if you have a Boy Scout he can earn a merit badge in art for completing this study, some of the other studies are set up for American Heritage Girls as well. Your book will cover merit badge information, a suggested schedule, four weeks worth of unit study ideas, suggested reading for non-readers, and getting the most out of the Once-A-Week Unit Study. In knights and nobles the following are covered:
- Week 1: Castles
- Week 2: Kings and Queens
- Week3: Knights
- Week 4: Life on a Manor
The most prep work needed is a quick library search, or if you want to gather all the books at one time, a lengthy search – I suggest using your library’s online capabilities. Then pick up the books, unless your going to do the suggested field trip, that is the extent of the prep work. Supplies for each week’s work is also given at the beginning so you can have it all gathered before hand. There is both independent reading and the family read aloud – I made all our choice family read aloud since even my middle reader doesn’t like to read on her own – it was easier and everyone was included. We have read some fantastic books that I never would have sought out otherwise!
There is the family devotional, which aims to keep the child focused on the Lord and includes the story of Esther, Solomon and the armor of God – all keeping with the royalty theme. Arts and crafts are included, such as making your own bookmark using the illumination technique. History, literature and research skills are included as are suggested field trips. In week one you can visit Biltmore Estate if you live near it, look through the book on the Estate or visit a stained glass artist. Since I can’t visit Biltmore and the book was no where to be found in any of the three libraries I use, I’m lining up a field trip to a stained glass artist. Unfortunately, they have been on vacation so the field trip will take place after this review publishes.
A family movie/game night is also encouraged which can draw dads into what the children are learning and makes a tidy and fun wrap up to the week. I also used this study in conjunction with our current history curriculum and it tied in so well with all that the children have learned thus far. At the end you can chose to put on a Medieval Feast – we haven’t reached that part yet – but in case you’re worried that there are foods that wouldn’t be liked, they are all tame. Some of the foods are sweet capon, may sallat, handmade butter, custard tarts and all – to make it more authentic, dress up!
My children have enjoyed doing this study and have especially enjoyed the read aloud books that we’ve done thus far – they ask if they think I’ve skipped it – since it works into our regular schedule and what we’re currently studying I’m sure it feels like we have skipped something when instead it just fits fluidly in with what we are doing. If you’d like to see what other homeschool parents thought about Homeschool Legacy’s unit studies check out the Schoolhouse Crew Review blog.
**Disclaimer: As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.
GrowingForChrist 