General ideas for Roman Feast

[Marie]

General ideas for Roman Feast.


Additional informal ideas may be found in the General ideas and the thread for Week 1:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 891#p77653
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 044#p28044

[Julie in MN]

I was wondeing if anyone has put together a play for kids while studying the Medieval times? My kids and a couple other families (their kids) were going to write a play - but it would be great to find a play already written that would give them a good story-line to go off of. Does anyone know of a resource, book, website, personal experience, etc. that could help us????? Thank you!
Kris

Hi Kris,
Some resources you might look for at your library or local teacher's store:

1. Plays Children Love has scripts, and some of them are for children. I'm not sure if any are medieval, specifically, but there should be the usual fairy tales & such. I believe there is more than one volume.

2. You could just do a "reader's theater" and read a book together, having each child read a certain person's lines, while one person is the narrator. You would need stories with lots of dialogue. For resources, you might search for "Tandem Reading" at places like Amazon and go from there.

3. As far as actual "reader's theater" books (rather than choosing your own book to read aloud), there are several in an "On Stage" series. Another series is "Readers Theater Scripts."

4. As far as historical plays, teaching companies such as Evan-Moor have mostly American History, but this one looks like it *might* have something Medieval? http://www.amazon.com/Readers-Theater-G ... 545&sr=1-1

5. Shakespeare retellings might be especially easy to find. "Shakespeare With Children" is a possibility, though I haven't seen it in person.

6. You could write your own play. I'm thinking of Max Lucado's "I'm With You All The Way" or something simple from RTR book basket. It might be especially easy after watching something on a children's video which they could imitate.

7. Oh, and the easiest play I was involved in was when my Girl Scouts did an American Girl play, because the theater kit came with script booklets and a director's book, with everything planned out. If you know someone who has one of the American Girl theater kits, you might take a look at it for some general ideas.


My kids always enjoyed chances to act at co-op and in homeschool theater groups. Usually we had the good fortune of having an acting student or a budding playwright do most of the script work (keep your eye out for one of those!)
I hope you have a grand time!
Julie

Thank you Julie! I know this is a very late thank you, but better late than never? My oldest daughter decided to write a play since we couldn't find something. I especially liked your idea though of using a book and just basing it off of that. Perhaps we'll have to type it up when she finishes and post it in the files or something in case others are interested.

[niki]

We are preparing for our Roman Feast. The kids have many great ideas, I just thought I'd share...so apart from the food, here's some ideas for our entertainment:

Reading of notebook pages on "emperors"

A play with "roman masks"

Gladiator "fights" dad will be the emperor giving thumbs up or down!!!!!!

Naval battles (kids wearing cardboard ships)

Chariot races (scooters with horse-heads on them)

Other information and happening in Rome presented as a "news cast"

Hoping to get some of these things together over break...yes, I know I'm posting on Christmas...dad's napping, kids are playing and I found myself alone with school on my mind?!!??!?! What's wrong with me? Merry Christmas!!!!

[JoyfulDancer]

We are getting ready to have our Roman Feast this weekend. We have planned our menu, including a roast peacock (roast chicken with peacock feathers bought at Michaels stuck in the back), and some recipes we found online. We are hoping to stop at an import store to see if they have anything interesting to add to our feast.

We are going to put a big plastic tablecloth on the floor with couch cusions around it covered with sheets. Dad doesn't want to lie on the floor, so he will be the Emperor sitting on the couch.

For entertainment my dc are planning a play from the New Testament, since that was Roman Times. They will play music and recite their memory verses. They like the idea of a gladiator fight, so I think we'll be adding that.

Its really going to be a fairly simple thing, but my dc are getting very excited, so it should be lots of fun.

[Julie in MN]

Hello! We've just started RTR and are already into it...I would love to do some simple recipes one night for supper? Any ideas?? I've looked online but haven't found much...thought someone here might have some good recipes or ideas of things you've done with your families. My dh LOVES this kind of thing and the dc would love doing something special like this...as I was searching I read that roman children often waited on their parents...ha!

I know something like this is planned later but I can't wait....maybe a homemade pizza, spaghetti, etc??? Thanks!!

I absolutely am not a cook, and the only thing that comes to mind is the bubbly grape juice that's easy to find this time of year - depending on whether you're living the Spartan life or the life of an Athenian

But I thought the "peacock" idea here was cute:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 802#p57843

And Donna had some do-able ideas here with bread and grapes and such. It seems like finger foods like cheese cubes, crackers, and maybe dates might be easier to eat if you do the reclining style. (Plus Kelly has some Viking meal ideas for the future.)
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2845

Julie

[tabby]

I do not have any recipes to share, just some ideas of what we did for our Roman Feast. Maybe the food that we chose would spark some ideas?

We served olives, halved brussel sprouts sauteed with a little garlic, salt, and olive oil, boiled eggs, boiled artichokes with butter to dip, a chicken dressed up to look like a peacock and grape juice. Week 13 in the Teacher's Manual has a lot of these foods listed, as well as others. I am not sure if the brussel sprouts are authentic, but they were a "different" small veggie that could be eaten with our hands.

I know it mentions that potatoes and tomatoes weren't introduced to the Romans yet. Wow - I think of all the yummy things they were missing out on!

You could go really simple to more elaborate. It could be as easy as fish sticks, apple slices, and carrot sticks. Or you could go more along the lines of the suggestions of the feast scheduled later. Either way, it can be tailored to fit your family. How fun!

[Amy C.]

The only "Roman" supper we have had was our Roman feast. I used the recipes in The Roman Empire and the TM (week 13, I think). However, there have been several times this year that we have had cheese, grapes, olives, and bread (like a round sourdough loaf from the grocery's bakery...just something different) for lunch. It is simple and yummy!

Amy C.

[KelsiTX]

Thanks for all the great ideas....NO TOMATOES?! That throws pizza or bruschetta out the window!! Ha! Tomatoes are my favorite...how did they eat without them! But I would like to stick with being as close to the real thing as possible! I love the peacock thing too...definitely will do that and some grapes, cheese, bread, etc to go with it. And we love the juice...thanks for reminding me of that. You girls are great!!

[AnnieMarie]

For our Roman feast we had "dormice" with a warm cinnamon dipping sauce, flat bread, peeled grapes,sliced apples, and "wine". The dormice being meatballs with pinenuts in them to simulate bones and then put the meatballs on kebabs. It sound pretty gross, but the kids thought it was very fun. We actually really got into it. We ate on the floor with pillows and a community dipping bowl and had entertainment. One of our favorite memories of the past few years.

[Amy C.]

We also had dormice in our feast. I just formed ground beef into mini meatloafs and baked in the oven. I did try to form "mouse ears" in the meatloafs but you really could not tell what they were once cooked. We tried ours dipped in honey but decided that ground beef and honey did not appeal to us.

Who would have thought we would have ever eaten "dormice".

Amy C.

[Amy C.]

Can we talk about this? What did you serve? I picked up some convenience food meat pie type things and grape juice. What else should I get?

We just did Marie Callender individual pot pies (I got both chicken and beef) and ginger ale. It was a busy day, and I needed e.a.s.y. We even cooked them in the microwave and not the oven.

Amy C.

[Pylegang]

They didn't use spoons during the middle ages. How about serving a soup . . . with no spoon? My kids enjoyed "drinking" their soup from the bowl.

[Amy C.]

They didn't use spoons during the middle ages.

We actually did use spoons with our pot pies. I read in the TM that if you wanted to have a peasant meal to use spoons but not forks so that is what we did. I didn't want to eat pot pies with our hands. We may not have been very authentic, but it was supper, nonetheless, medieval or not.

I like Kellybell's idea. I should have checked the ideas forum, but oh, well.... Maybe next time.

Amy C.

[Julie in MN]

Please. Is there anyone on here that has pulled this off with more than their own family? We are a family of seven and my 6 ft + sons (2) and husband would fill the 3 couches. Where would the rest of us and our guests sit? Really I'm just wondering if anyone has any practical/simple ideas for me. I would like to do it as much like a Roman feast as possible including our friends who have a family of 8. How do you fit that many people in, in a reclining position?

Just spreading out a tablecloth on the floor and surrounding it with cushions is mentioned a couple times on this thread, so that's one possibility.
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 802#p57843

If you still don't have a large enough space, then some random other thoughts are to eat in shifts, to have the children eat in a separate area, or to hold your party in some kind of party room?

Hoping others with large families will have time to chime in!
Julie

[Yodergoat]

Is there a large room you could use at your church? That's what I would have to do if I was planning a meal for that many people (whether they were sitting on the floor or not)!

Our church has a room next to the kitchen used for baby showers and such. I know not all churches have something like that, but hopefully it's an option...

[MelissaB]

The Roman Feast is one of our family's favorite memories. Like Julie noted, a blanket on the floor works really well. Also, the area doesn't have to be perfectly round. A long, narrow space of floor would work perfectly, also. I got the impression from our RTR reading that resting during eating is the key.

Would you like some food preparation ideas? Here's an MFW link for "Any Roman Recipes?": http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... ast#p81886

This is a good link to look at, too: http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... ast#p27876

While these are great links, the real fun is lying down while eating! It's such a fun experience. We used an indoor trampoline covered with a tablecloth as our "table", and each of us used our bed pillow to lean against. Even though our family ate cold barbecue chicken, sliced cucumbers & watermelon (the electricity went out unexpectedly ), we had a wonderful time.

So no worries - just Enjoy!

[thelapps]

Thank you for your input. I do have a large house. Just have a hard time picturing how to do the reclining thing, like I said, with so many long people. Seems your heads would be about too far apart to visit with one another! Do you lie full length or curl up or just however you wish? does everyone recline in the same direction or one side go right and the other left? Maybe funny questions. Anyone have any pics of how YOU did it? Thank you! Your ideas help me!

I received an email of Highhill Homeschool's latest blog post. Guess what it was about? A Roman feast! No ideas about reclining but some interesting recipes. If you want to check it out go to blog and click "History" and you should find it on that page under the heading "The Roman Empire". Week 10- Feast. Enjoy!