COMPARING TEENAGER LIFE

NOW TO MEDIEVAL TIMES

1)HOW WOULD YOUR DAY BE? 2) WHICH LIFESTYLE WOULD YOU PREFER

3) DO YOU FIND THEIR FUN AS FUN?

HOW WOULD YOUR LIFE BE IF YOU LIVED IN THE MIDDLE AGES?

In the Middle Ages most people had only 1 or 2 changes of clothes – usually wool.

“Daily Life Of A Peasant History Claymation”

Students - today you will be comparing your life to that of a common, “middle class” teenager in in Medieval Europe, or in the

language of the times, a Peasant.

Let’s watch the video to get an idea of what a Peasant’s life was like and feel free to sing

along with the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II-msNseoM4

WHO’S GOT THE MONEY?

The top 20% of Americans control about 93% of the wealth in the United States.

The top 20% in medieval Europe included the King, Lords, Knights, the Clergy (the Catholic church), and the wealthiest of merchants - they controlled nearly ALL the wealth in Europe. There was a small number of craftsmen and merchants who controlled some wealth, but nearly all farmers did not own their own land and worked for a Lord.

HOW MUCH WORK TO LIVE?

In the modern United States it takes about 80 days of work on average for a person to pay their rent and taxes for a year.

In the Middle Ages it took about 60 days of work in the worst situations to pay the lord of the castle his share of your crop before you kept the rest for yourself

HOLIDAYS… OR HOLY-DAYS

In the modern United States there are 10 public holidays that we are exempt

from work due to federal law.

In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church demanded attendance and no work on

80 Holy Days, or holidays.

LIFESPAN & HEALTH

In the modern world you can expect to live about 80 years.

The most common cause of death is heart disease or cancer.

In the Middle Ages life expectancy averaged at about 30 years. The most common cause of death was infection, disease,

or violence.

MARRIAGE & CHILDBIRTH

In the modern world the average age to wed is between 27 and 29, and women usually have their first

child at around 25. We pick who to marry.

In the Middle ages the average age to wed was 12 to 16 depending upon one’s social standing and the

country one lived in, and women usually had their first child at around age 16. Often, especially amongst the nobility, marriages were arranged by the parents and

were planned from birth.

WHAT TO DO FOR FUN?

Modern kids keep busy mostly with TV, videos, video games, computers, sports, recorded music, the mall,

cell phones, board games, reading, and public school. Your entertainment is only limited by the size

of your wallet.

Medieval kids worked part-time, and for fun competed in sports, played dolls, played hoops,

dancing and music was important, story-telling was popular, and they played games like chess, “merels”,

dice, and other games. Kids had to use their imagination to keep entertained…

LET’S PLAY A GAME! - MERELS

It’s l

ike T

ic-Ta

c-Toe

!Yo

u wa

nt to

get

3 in

a

row!

A ga

me

of lo

gic

& st

rate

gy!

RULES FOR PLAYING MERELSWatch the video to get the rules to play. Remember each person

starts with 9 pieces and takes turns placing or moving 1 piece at a time on the board. The object is to get 3 of your pieces in a

row, which is called a “Mill” and means you get to take 1 of your opponent’s pieces from the board to keep. When one

person only has 2 pieces left, they lose and the game is over! Now it is called

“Nine Man’s Morris”.

http://www.raftbayarea.org/ideas/Nine%20Mens%20Morris.pdf

LET’S PLAY A GAME! - MERELS

It’s l

ike T

ic-Ta

c-Toe

!Yo

u wa

nt to

get

3 in

a

row!

A ga

me

of lo

gic

& st

rate

gy!

GO UP TO THE FRONT & TRY MEDIEVAL FOOD!

There’s grain bread, honey and dried fruit.

They drank beer or wine instead of water.

You can’t have that though!