Monks, Monasteries, and Missionaries for kids

This past week, we studied Monks, Monasteries and Missionaries. We read stories about Augustine, St. Patrick, Columba, Birgid, St. Valentine, St. Jerome, and St. Benedict.

We tried reading Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle as a read-aloud, but it didn't work out for us. The kids had a very hard time following the story and we ended up reading Augustine, The Farmer's Boy of Tagaste instead. This was much easier for me to read (the words were bigger!) and the kids could actually understand it. Ellie probably could have done Otto on her own, but she was already reading Augustine Came to Kent.

Here are some of the books that we read:


Some of the others we got from the library (and aren't available at Amazon), including The Man Who Loved Books, by Jean Fritz (about Columba), and St. Jerome and the Lion, by Margaret Hodges.

Our favorite project of the week was definitely illuminating our own manuscript page. The book Marguerite Makes a Book is absolutely beautiful and inspired the girls to make their own. They even wanted to try making their own paints - which we haven't done yet.

An interesting side note: We're moving to Savannah in the spring, and they appear to have a very vibrant Mardi-Gras type St. Patrick's day celebration (that is a week long). I never would have guessed that! We'll be arriving there too late to enjoy it this March, but the year after, we will definitely stake out our place on the street to enjoy the parade!! (I found this while reading about St. Patrick online.)