Part Sixty-nine--Swords of Honor: A Knight’s Crusade for Right, part nine - Play and Closing Day

At the beginning of the year I envisioned our Latin class performing a medieval play. Right before our closing day we performed this. Everyman is the most famous medieval morality play, which uses allegory to show the human struggle universal to all. 

Angel—Larissa

Death—Giselle

Everyman—Katy 

Fellowship—Lorenzo

Kindred—Larissa

Cousin—Mikayla

Goods-–Bradley

Good Deeds—Mikayla

Confession—Giselle

Knowledge—Lorenzo

Discretion—Larissa 

Five Wits—Giselle

Strength—Bradley

Larissa painted this awesome sign for our entrance

The pediment blew off the top of our Greek temple, which worked out just right to turn it into a knights' hall stage. Our pretty ocean mural from the previous year had to be painted over since we were no longer studying ancient Greeks and Romans.

Instead of a pediment we adorned the stage with the cardboard shields I made for each of my 6 student performers, plus a larger shield of our motto: Miles Christi Sum. 

In the play, God is woefully upset with mankind, and sends an all too eager Death to bring Everyman to Judgment. Completely surprised, he pleads for time to put his Book of Reckoning in order. Whom can he convince to go with him to plead his cause? Family? Friends? Wealth? 

Giselle played Death

Katy was a great Everyman, learning twice as many lines as everyone else. 

Giselle next played the churchman who gave the sacraments to Everyman. She liked dropping "penance" (supposed to be a rock), on Everyman's head,

and then the "oil" of forgiveness, (she also liked pouring water on Katy's head.)

On the left is Good Works, then The Five Wits (the five senses), Cousin, Everyman, Strength, and Knowledge. Everyman asked them all to go with him on his journey to the grave.

Giselle as The Five Wits

In the end, only his Good Works could go into the grave with him.

The students didn't see it at first, but it really was a fun play to perform. 

Their acting really improved over the previous year. They were a great group of students!

After the play, our audience took photos with the cast. 

SWORDS OF HONOR CLOSING DAY

The royal proclamation summoned each prospective knight to a ceremony and feast.

We returned to the site of our opening day. For her daytime adventure Giselle wore the skirt Autumn made during our Shakespeare EPIC adventure.

Giselle and some of the teens later told me that they had not looked forward to the day. They thought it was going to be for little kids. They were surprised at how much fun they had. 

Some of the moms put together the most amazing closing day in the form of a medieval faire with stations and prizes.

To encourage participation, Brittany took our tee shirt design and created a small shield for collecting ribbons from each station. 

Every student, even the teenagers, visited every station and collected every ribbon.

Before the stations began, some teenagers asked me if they were going to be divided up into groups, and when I said "no," they were so glad to have a relaxed time celebrating the end of the year. Giselle practicing the joust. 

Giselle is on the right, helping wrap a Maypole.

After all the stations, we gathered to watch excerpts of Shakespeare's Henry IV, specifically the Joan of Arc speech, and Henry V's Battle of Agincourt speech. These students put on such an entertaining performance! I was so moved by Ashton and Camden that I cried! 

Lastly, we gathered together again for a closing feast and our knight ceremony. 

Lorenzo was our herald, and Ken, our trumpeter was there again.

"Their royal majesties!"

Students awaiting their turn to be knighted. Giselle wore her armor for the ceremony.

Hal and I, as king and queen, had the privilege of knighting about 50 students. 

The parents shared a brief statement about each child, and why he/she had earned the right to be dubbed, "Knight of _________"- -the virtue the child had worked to master that year. 

CROWN: You have been deemed fit for this high estate by your parents. Do you now swear by
all that you hold sacred, true, and holy that you will serve God, honor and defend your family
and nation, and to commit to a life of chivalry?

KNIGHT CANDIDATE: I do.

CROWN: Then, We, by right of arms, do dub you with our swords to the exalted rank of

knighthood. Once for Honor... Twice for Duty... Thrice for Chivalry... Arise!!!

 
   [CROWN turns new Knights to face the audience.]

HERALD: My Lords and Ladies, I do present to you, Giselle, Knight of Good Works!

The dubbing ceremony was so much fun because all the children took everything so seriously, especially the little ones. They knelt before us and bowed their heads in reverence. It was really important that they receive their title.

Afterward everyone took photos with the king and queen. 

Some of the students wanted the cool teenagers in their photos too!

This was epic-ally fun!

We ended the night by watching a 20 minute musical video overview of the entire school year. I love this memento of the year. The first and last song of the night was our school song:

Miles Christi Sum

(I am a Soldier of Christ)
  
Noble and Great
Courageous, Determined
Humble and True
Valiant and Virtuous
Faithful and Fearless—
 
Here we stand at the edge of night
With sword in hand we crusade for the right.
Face the foe—–the battle is long,
Undaunted we rise triumphant pure and strong.
 
At the breaking of the dawn We see the victor’s crown
We serve our Heav’nly King, To our Duty we are bound
We fulfill our Destiny going forth as Warriors
MILES CHRISTI SUM

What an amazing end to a beautiful year, which had been everything I had hoped for and more. The next day I wrote Giselle's end of year school letter. My heart was so full. She had far exceeded my expectations. We were so proud of her! It was a truly EPIC adventure!

All school year long our group of mothers communicated by email. I sent out reminders, etc. I addressed all these women as Ladies of the Court, and I sometimes signed my name as, The Queen. The day after closing day I sent a long thank you email to the mothers who really went the extra mile. I loved schooling with them! The next week Hal and I were surprised to receive still more thank you's addressed to Your Majesties.

Part Sixty-eight--Swords of Honor: A Knight’s Crusade for Right, part eight - Latin Class Field Trip

One week for Latin class I gave my students this extra credit sentence to translate into Latin: 😁"The beautiful, sweet, faithful, noble, Latin teacher (feminine), loves the students." They all translated it perfectly!

I love medieval architecture, and I wanted our students to see the three types of buildings we were studying this year: castles, monasteries, and cathedrals. I planned a trip to northern California to see some of the best examples in the United States.

Our trip consisted of 8 students and 3 moms in a 12 passenger van. The students played a ukulele and sang, and had a great time visiting. The first day we got to Sacramento just in time for rush-hour traffic, so I suggested we make a quick detour to see the state capitol. 

This was a good time to test the students in some classical architecture terms.

CASTLE

The next day we traveled to Napa to the Castello di Amorosa. It was built using medieval methods, and might be the closest thing we have to a medieval castle in the United States. 

Our Latin tee shirts that they received at the end of the previous year.

Mikayla and India at the drawbridge

Giselle loved this place as much as I did.

 This Knight's Hall is breathtaking, with murals from floor to ceiling.

Even the restroom stalls were beautifully painted.

I loved traveling with Crystal and Tammy!

MONASTERY

Before lunchtime we left the castle and traveled three hours to get to a monastery in Vina.

 

I found this monastery while watching a NOVA documentary on cathedrals. The stones are from an 800 year old monastery chapter house from Spain. 

 

William Randolph Hearst bought the chapter house with the intent to reconstruct it for his mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst. After bribing dock officials, he had the stones illegally transported to America. They ended up in sitting in Golden Gate Park for year.

 

Later a Cistercian monk heard about the stones. The chapter house will be used as the main chapel of this monastery.

 

So we got to stand in this reconstructed 800 year old building. This was a close as we could get to being in Europe!

 

CATHEDRAL

The next day we drove to San Francisco to see Grace Cathedral. Our van broke down when we got to the city, so while the van got fixed I led the rest of us up Nob Hill by foot. It was nice to do something physical, but everyone was glad to finally get to the top of the hill.

This day they wore their other Latin tee shirts. The back reads, "Sit vis vobiscum" - May the Force be with you!

This cathedral had two features I wanted the students to see--a copy of the Ghiberti Gates of Paradise doors, just behind the students...

and a replica of the Chartres cathedral labyrinth. 

Before coming here I gave each student an architectural vocabulary word, like 'ambulatory,' with the assignment to teach us a little at the structures we visited.

I purposely scheduled our trip so we could hear evensong. We got to sit in the choir seats and sing along with the male choir. It was heavenly! 

We got the van back, just in time to see a few more bay area sights before the light faded. I made sure we got to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park, and then we drove nearby to the Legion of Honor. It's a three-quarter scale version of the one in France.

 We saw some of the outdoor statuary, like El Cid, the medieval Spanish hero

 

 and Joan of Arc!

We saw a few other sites, and then drove home through the night. It was a super fun trip! We had an amazing time walking through these beautiful, historical buildings.

Here's a short clip of evensong. They began singing a song with the tune of a French Folk Song, which our family knows better as Noel Nouvelet.