Illuminations

I've spent a lot of time this week focusing on Megan and her new preschool program.  I wanted to share that Laura is going strong, and we are making progress.  We have been learning about the Vikings and the Medieval time period.  We have been reading the book Viking Quest 1: Raiders of the Sea by Lois Walfrid Johnson.  Last week we made a Viking brooch.  This week, after reading about how the Monks copied the Bible by hand and illustrated the books with beautiful artwork called Illuminations, we made our own Illumination.

We had looked at some pictures in an encyclopedia of some of the ancient illuminations and were awed by their beauty.  We took up the craft in the Preparing Hearts for His Glory guide to make our own illumination.

Despite Megan, the three year old, wanting to draw on Laura's 'B', it still turned out beautiful.  Laura did a good job.  The colors don't stand out in the picture as much as they seem to in person.  The gold just shimmers in the sunlight!  It was a project that showed just how talented and creative people were in the past.   The fact that the Bible was illustrated so beautifully, often with covers that had jewels on them, showed just how revered the Bible was.  Unfortunately, many people couldn't read.  However, those that did read and write took the copying of the Bible with beautiful script seriously.