Yay, we got to Britain in our History Odyssey  ancient history study – “Europe Builds Monuments”!  J was quite excited to be finding out about the place Doctor Who’s Cybermen visited … 😐

We’ve passed Stonehenge several times in the car this year, on our way to and from Centerparcs. I now wish we’d taken  the short detour to park the car and get up close – next time! –  but at least I remembered to get the children to pause their car DVD players as we drove by!

The Amazing Pop-Up Stonehenge is not quite a living book, but its cool pop-up and lift-the-flap type features more than make up for anything lacking in the text, and its short paragraphs conveyed enough information to arouse the children’s curiosity.  I was on the verge of losing J at one point during a paragraph about how sloping holes were dug for the stones, so – necessity being the mother of invention – I brought out moonsand, wooden blocks and playmobil people, and the children created their own “Stonehenges” (I did point out the scale inaccuracies!).  They also had fun burying playmobil weapons and armour in the sand and then, as archaeologists, uncovering the artefacts!

We finished by watching Making History: Secrets of Stonehenge (45 minutes) on YouTube.  In between the historical narrative and interviews, this documentary features a digitally-enhanced re-enactment of how the huge bluestones were moved and erected, and in addition shows how the special effects were created – highly recommended if your children, like mine, have in the past attempted their own green screen effects!

Later I found this in the garden: