A Monks Meal (and Brownies)

We were in the kitchen tonight making our history lesson come to life. We had been studying how Augustine traveled to England to bring Christianity and started monasteries. The kids found this pretty interesting but we wanted to make it really come to life and stick in their minds. With some helpful ideas from our wonderful history curriculum Story of the World we set up to have a monk's monastery meal. We improvised costumes for the kids using fabric, ribbon, and scissors (no sewing involved). The day before they made cross necklaces out of play doh and ribbon and let them dry. My 8 year old loves to cook and is becoming quite talented at it so I put him in charge of this meal. We had learned that the monks could only have butter on their bread for special occasions and did not eat any meat from four legged animals. The curriculum suggested lentil soup, bread, cheese, and apple slices. While we were missing a few of the veggies from the soup, we improvised and used what we had to make a tasty and filling soup of lentils, tomato, carrots, and herbs. My son was able to do the soup basically by himself with adult supervision and a little bit of assistance on the sauteing of the carrot and garlic. He then finished the meal off with some homemade bread, cheese, and apple slices. We used apple juice to drink to represent apple cider. My son even said that they wouldn't have had power (which we did use to cook) and so instead of our regular lights we should eat by candle light to make it more authentic. He didn't however, want to go so far as to have the meal silently which would have been the rule at the monastery. :) While I'm sure it wasn't totally authentic the menu gave the kids a good idea of the filling but simple meals that the monks would have eaten. They enjoyed it but agreed that they wouldn't want it every day. Not to be left out, the 6 year old got to make brownies. Now you may be asking what the brownies had to do with monks and monasteries and I'd have to say nothing. They did however, relate back to our Bible lesson. We are working through Apologia's book "Who is God". We had read about how we now that there was a creator because we see His creation. Just like we know that the ingredients for brownies can't just make themselves, we know that the world didn't just form itself. She enjoyed getting to make the brownies and I felt that it would certainly help her to remember that lesson later. Even though the monks would not have them, we did enjoy the dessert after our monastery meal. We find that incorporating cooking into our lessons is very helpful in helping make things really stick with the kids and increasing their enjoyment of school. Its also a win for mom because I get help doing a task that needs to be done anyway.

Welcome to "Homeschoolers in the Kitchen and on the Go". This is the story of our journey as a homeschool family especially focusing on our adventures in using food, cooking, and travel in our homeschool. I'm Dawn and I have a great husband Chris and three kids, Matthew (8), Elizabeth (6), and Benjamin (5 months). We are in our third year homeschooling and have found that some of our greatest times are found in the kitchen and as we travel. We are excited to share our adventures and hopefully provide you with both helpful hints and good laughs along the way.