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| Busy Timmy and his friend climb the Oxford Castle motte(for the fiftieth time!) |
We have been studying Our Island Story, and most recently, about England just after 1066. England's third Norman king, Stephen, basically stole the throne from his aunt, Matilda, but after fighting a civil war for 14 years, they eventually agreed to let Stephen stay king as long Matilda's son (later Henry II) could become king next. Some of these historical events played out at Oxford Castle, so it was neat to be in the very place where Matilda escaped from the tower on a snowy evening, wearing white bed-sheets so she wouldn't be seen.
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| The view from the top of the tower |
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| Catapault-building Workshop: launching marshmallows at the enemy's castle |
True to form, a 2-hour session lasted us all day, since once the tour and workshop were over, we used the rest of the day to explore what we hadn't seen on the tour, re-visit some of the cool parts, climb the motte another hundred or so times, watch the tourist film, dress up as prison officers, body-pump on the old jail treadmill.
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| It was tempting to leave him here! |
On the back to our car, we stopped off at the covered market and ordered some cheese from the cheese man. We finished off with a family pose by Oxford's famous Radcliffe Camera, now part of the university's library system.
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| Choosing Cheese |
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| The Crew of Four in front of Radcliffe Camera |
Lovely photos! A good workshop too xx
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kim. We should write them with comments to let them know how good they were with home-ed kids -- it takes a bit something special to cope with all that enthusiasm!
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