I believe I’ve already mentioned it, but after our study of New Zealand we moved on to Scotland. As before, we started with the Around the World study from Knowledge Quest before heading to the library for more books. Thankfully this time the selection was much better. Phew!

Baby Boy is excited about breakfast!
We started with a couple of picture books, Little Toot and the Loch Ness Monster (Hardie Gramatky) and The Magic Bagpipe (Gerry & George Armstrong). From there we moved on to Macbeth (Shakespeare, retold by Adam McKeown), but I’ve already told you about that. At the same time we slowly picked our way through Scotland (Enchantment of the World series): dull in spots, but a decent overview of the history and culture. I also picked up The Illustrated History of Scotland (Chris Tabraham) for my own reading, so I was able to share interesting facts and gorgeous pictures from this book as I was reading the other book aloud. Our final read aloud was Girl in a Cage (Jane Yolen & Robert Harris) which is a historical fiction account of Marjorie, daughter of Robert the Bruce. I found it fascinating–as for the boys, let’s just say that they didn’t complain about listening. At least. . .not much.

Boy Genius and Silly Boy are ready for lunch.
We were very lucky–as in, I couldn’t have planned this one if I tried!
You see, during our study, the Celtic folk duo Men of Worth performed in our area. You can read more about them at their website, or you can watch this short promotional video: Men of Worth. After enjoying the concert, we spent quite a bit of time listening to other Scottish folk music on YouTube. We also watched videos of the Highland Fling, of Scottish sword dancing (ah–now that got the boys’ attention!), and of bagpipes. We ordered a couple movies from Netflix. Twirly Girl enjoyed Brigadoon; the boys did not. Greyfriars Bobby went over better but still was not a favorite; with hindsight I wonder if I should have gotten the newer movie rather than the 1960ish Sunday night Disney version.

Toad-in-the-Hole
I didn’t give a writing assignment this time, but all five students spent a morning labeling a blank map of Scotland. The younger boys labeled seas and island groups and large cities; the older kids also labeled lochs and firths and more cities. The older three also added Scottish dates to their timelines, choosing those that interested them from the timeline included in The Illustrated History of Scotland.

Twirly Girl loves her tea.
Finally, as you may have guessed from today’s pictures, we wrapped up our unit yesterday with the foods of Scotland. I don’t know that we had traditional Scottish meals, but rather we chose Scottish foods that appealed to us. . .and there were enough that we spread them out through the day instead of a single meal. Nearly all the recipes came from this index, with only two exceptions: I used my own almond flour scone recipe, and my first batch of bannocks fell apart so I had to Google for help in a hurry.
The kids vetoed porridge for breakfast in favor of a traditional Scottish breakfast, albeit a very simplified version. I only added bannocks/oatcakes to a breakfast of bacon and fried eggs (farm fresh–yummy!). Our lunch menu gave me some problems–Drama Boy had chosen a salmon dish with a whiskey sauce, but the grocery only had smoked salmon. I simply sliced it and served it alongside the rumbledethumps (a potato-cabbage dish). I’m sure it’s no surprise that caramel (millionaire’s) shortbread was the dessert of choice! We opted for high tea in the early evening–although most of the boys drank water.
For our hot dish I made toad-in-the-hole and also served scones (and the leftover bannocks) with butter and jam.