Here goes! I have a lot to catch up on and I don't think I understand the blog yet, but
I'll give it a shot.
One of the things that we did on our own was make a diorama. It is based on the Middle Ages philosophy of " For All." Each kid made one level. At the lowest level, the peasants provided food "for all", the knights protected all, the royalty ruled all, and the Church was above all. The other thing we did was each kid made their own coat of arms representing something about themselves. They each had their "mark of cadency" which represents their birth order in the family ~ a bird for 4th, annulet for 5th, Fleur-de-lis for 6th and Rose for 7th. They picked colors based on the meaning. (xxx) added soccer balls and (xxx) has a Cub Scout symbol.
Here (xxx) is teaching about weaving. He and (xxx) needed to teach something for a requirement for a Boy Scout merit badge. He taught them about a loom, etc, then he taught them how to make a simple loom out of a paper plate. They all made looms and practiced weaving. This technique made a "rope" similar to what some of you may remember from your childhood using a wooden spool with nails in it. (xxx) uses a yardstick to make lines on his plate. 
Pierce demonstrates the actual technique for making the rope.
(xxx) taught part of the candle unit. He taught the vocabulary for candles after reading some books. He decided that he wanted to do dipped candles and poured candles. We used crayons to color wax we bought at the hobby store. Older sister couldn't resist the fun and had a moment of wishing she was back at home school! The favorite part for the boys was burning the candles!! Are all boys pyromaniacs?
Making the coins was fun. They learned some hard lessons about mirror writing as (xxx)'s "55" coins came out as "22" because he forgot to make the mold in reverse. (xxx) realized that he needed to do that all on his own!!
I want to take them on a field trip to the Denver mint, but I think I'll wait until there is less chance of running into bad weather.
We also went on a field trip to a fiber farm. The lady that owns it raises all kids of animals for their fur. She had alpacas, llamas, sheep. She had a friend come over and dem
onstrate a spinning wheel for us. She let the kids try carding raw wool and gave us a drop spindle and showed us how to use it. She told the kids all about dyeing, too.
(xxx) cards some wool.
The drop spindle was made from a CD and a pencil with a hook in the eraser. 
Oh do you know the muffin man? The muffin man, the muffin man??? (xxx) with a batch of made from scratch blueberry muffins that he made himself!
