A Monk's Supper

For our history curriculum, I'm leaning a lot on Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World. The kids love to listen to me read, and while selective, the story of history is written in an engaging style. This year we're on year two which covers from the fall of Rome until the rise of the Renaissance.

Side note: Thank you to Mr. Macmillan, my 6th grade teacher, for making sure I will never misspell renaissance. And for playing Tracy Chapman's Talkin' About a Revolution for us in class when you taught us where and what apartheid was.

Anyway, Story of the World has an activity book with everything from crafts to map and globe work to games to projects. Perfect for me. I'm all about implementing other people's good ideas!

One of the features I've come to love is when the activities we can choose from include a recipe/menu for a meal. A few weeks ago, for example, we ate like Roman soldiers. We roasted food over the open fire (grill) and ate it with no utensils. (No one ever taught me how to never misspell "utensils," but thank you spellcheck).

During our "Christianity Comes to Britain" week, we learned (among many other things) about the establishment of monasteries. And we got to cook a monk's supper!

Now, does this look like a list of ingredients that would make a seven-year-old, a five-year-old, and a two-year-old happy?





Turns out that you can add a magical ingredient:


PARTICIPATION! Probably a better seasoning than hunger for this age group.

I forgot apples at the store, so we had to make do with nectarines. Add some sourdough bread and Irish sharp cheddar and, Ta-Da! The kids ate it up! Bud thought lentil soup was delicious. Amazing.

We did pretend it was Christmas, though, so we got to butter our bread. :)




PS: I just Googled Tad Macmillan... he's now a principal for one of the middle schools in the town where I had him for a social studies teacher in sixth grade. Wish he was still in the classroom, but so glad he's still serving kids in the town I love!