Toys!

Absolutely LOVE when the kids toys can be used for educational purposes. A number of years ago, Thing One and Thing Two asked my parents for a castle similar to this one. They both have one and enjoyed playing with them for awhile. It got to the point that they became occasional toys, but I wasn't ready to "retire" them. This week, I'm very thankful we didn't. It has been very useful to point out various words like:

• battlements - stone walls
• crenels - gaps in wall to shoot arrows out
• merlons - solid place to duck behind

After today's reading from "Castle Diary" by Richard Platt, I'm thankful this castle doesn't have a garderobe in it. You see, in medieval times, it was their version of a toilet and indoor plumbing. The major difference, is that the plumbing, instead of leading to a sewer system like we know, lead to a whole in the castle wall where things got dumped into the moat. How would you like to be the Gong-Farmer who's job it was to remove the piles of waste or unclog the pipes?

Anyhoot, Thing Two put on a short show with the castle and knights. Here's his "short":