There are many different approaches to Home Education and we are still finding our feet to see what works best for us, coupled with a very relaxed approach to help deschool/unschool (I haven’t as yet learnt the difference between the two words but know they aren’t both liked equally the same). Trying to wait for a child-led approach didn’t seem to be working for me (who also probably needs to unschool) so I thought I would go with a light touch topic approach.
At school I knew they were learning about the Vikings and so when Carlton Kids had World of Vikings by Stella Caldwell to review it seemed sensible to make this a topic of study.
World of Vikings: Robert Macleod
Viking enthusiasts will love this brightly coloured, well animated book about an age of fearless warriors and epic legends. Packed full of fun and interesting facts with breathtakingly vivid images unlocking the worlds of the legendary warriors, traders and explorers. Covering bloodthirsty raids, weapons, heroic figures, Viking ships, as well as daily life and exploration. The book is split into an introduction and a further five sections mixed with diary entries, facts and illustrations.
ISBN: 9781783123964
Paperback £9.99
Ages 8+
Viking Home Education
To make the Viking a fun topic of study for our home education I first created a Viking Wordsearch 
and then moved on to providing the means for the boys to make their very own wooden Viking shields (these were actually based on our Family Coat of Arms ready for the Medieval Festival).
Next I printed off lots of questions from TES about the Vikings. We talked about sources of information and borrowed lots of different books from the library to try to find our answers. For example there was a book specifically about Viking Clothing and we talked about how this was probably the best place to look first when finding the answer to the question about what did women wear in Viking times.
Viking Films
There are also some good Viking Films that could be watched such as How to Train Your Dragon and How to Train Your Dragon 2, which feature a young Viking boy.
Viking Ships
We discussed what the features of a Viking Ship were. We learnt in the World of Vikings book that they built several different kinds of ship – but the “dragonboats” were the most famous of all. These long slender boats were to carry warriors swiftly across the sea to carry out surprise attacks. We discussed how these were different to Pirate Ships with their cannons.
The World of Vikings book told us that one of the main features of the long boats was that they were made of thin planks of oak, supported by iron nails, using a design known as the clinker technique. They had a tall mast and big sail but could be rowed very fast. The boys then set to work on creating their own Long Boats (from LEGO) and LEGO Minifigure Vikings.
A Viking Day Out
I am sure there are many splendid places where you can visit and learn more about the Vikings but as I say we are currently having a very light touch to learning whilst we unschool/deschool a bit. Therefore we opted to head to LEGOLAND Windsor Resort where they have a Viking area. We discussed the clothes on the LEGO models, the name of the Viking helmet (or whether there was one), the fact that there were dragons in the same area – did they really exist? And so on. If you really want to push the boat out you could visit Iceland!
We were gifted World of Vikings book for purposes of review. All opinions are honest and my own.
My two are fascinated by vikings, I’m going to have a look at the World of Vikings book. May be a bit old for mine but worth a try at reading it together. Great idea on going to Legoland too, they learn more when they think they’re not learning.
Nat.x