Medieval Living

One of those must-do activities with children is to make a coat of arms. Known as “heraldry”, the study of crests and emblems and the meaning behind the symbols can be fun and educational at the same time. Homeschoolers and public schoolers alike will enjoy researching and creating their own crest and blazon. The “language” of the heraldric symbols and their descriptions provides an opportunity to study Medieval English with Latin prefixes and suffixes. For example: “gules, on a bend between six crosses crosslet fitchée argent; an escutcheon charged or, a demi-lion rampant its mouth impaled with an arrow within a double tressure fleury counter fleury gules”.
With a little research, all of these mysterious sounding terms will make alot of sense. A very fun and user-friendly website is through Mr.Donn.org. This site includes instructions of how to design a coat of arms, shield shapes, symbol meanings, terminology, heraldric charges and more.
Students can also explore modern military history with this activity. Perhaps grandpa or “Uncle Gary” or whoever served in the miliary – look up their unit’s emblem and write a description using heraldric language!
Also check out this from MotherBedford! Very good discussions on heraldric language – better known as the “blazon”.