The Last Journey of the Vikings is a docudrama series about the Viking People.  They traveled widely and shaped European politics.  What is the truth about the Vikings?  In the Eighth Century, the Vikings started appearing along the coasts of Europe.  With their fierce warriors, they gained a reputation as Europe’s terrorizers.  They targeted monasteries because the monks could not defend themselves.  Eventually, the Vikings’ strategy changed.  They mixed with the powerful.  So why did the Vikings become pirates?  How did they spread their influence over Europe?  Tune into this documentary to find out.
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The Sixth Century has come to Europe.  The Roman Empire has collapsed and with it the stability Europe enjoyed.  The people of Scandinavia started moving to find the tools needed for life.  Why were the Scandinavians the only people that moved?  What sort of events happened to cause the people to move?  Perhaps it was a series of volcanic events and blocked the sun and caused bad harvests.

Animals and people died during this period and the survivors moved to try to find a better life.  Villages have been abandoned.  Agricultural land has been returned to the forest.  There is also violence as settlements were attacked.  People were left unburied where they fell.  Death was a common companion.  The powerful seized additional lands at the expense of the people.  The ruling class’s power was transformed.  Eventually, the climate changed, but life would be different.

The survivors would reorganize.  Territories were created.  New government structures emerged.  The world was less crowded.  Land could be snapped up by the powerful.  Hierarchies were created.  Social classes started emerging.  The warrior was held up on a pedestal.  The warriors could protect the people.   These warriors would emerge as leaders.  Warfare becomes part of life.

Women emerged as power players, especially when the men were not at home.  They took care of the house.  They were the crafters in society.  They made sure that land was planted.  Women were given large dowries when they were married.  If the couple divorced, she would be taken care of.  If she married again, she would improve her new husband’s fortunes.  They helped the men engage in travel and warfare.

The sea started to rise in importance.  The Scandinavian people knew how to build the boat.  However, if they wanted to expand their horizons they would have to learn to build sea-going vessels.  They knew about how Rome built ships because of their contacts with the Roman Empire.  However, the Vikings would build ships the way that suited them best.  Both men and women came together to shipbuilding.  The men cut the logs and formed them for the planks.  The women wove the sails.  After months of hard work, the ships are completed.  Now the Scandinavian people could start planning expeditions.  Where would these ships take them?  What would they do on these expeditions?  How did the word “Viking” emerge for these people?  Tune into the Last Journey of the Vikings to find out!

This first episode was rather slow going at times.  It took time to introduce the society where the Vikings emerged.  It was thought-provoking and will give the viewer something to chew on.  It is foundational to learning more about the Vikings.  If you need a quick primer on the Vikings then turn to this episode of the Last Journey of the Vikings.

This is a French-produced documentary bringing together a variety of experts.  If there are foreign-language speakers, there are English subtitles.  The documentary is also broken down into chapters which makes it easy for viewing or picking clips for use in the classroom.  

It is the 13th Century and Marco Polo is going to embark on a voyage to China.  However, doubts exist that he made it to China.  The scale of his adventures defies belief and his account becomes a best seller of the Middle Ages.  Is there legitimate proof that Marco Polo was in China?  Even on his death bed, he hinted that he had only told half the story.  Today, historians are looking at the documents to prove that he was there.  Who was the real Marco Polo?

It is 1298, and Genoa and Venice are at war.  Marco Polo, a Venetian Merchant is arrested and ends up in a Genoese jail.  Here he is imprisoned with an author of chivalric romances.  Marco entertains this author with his travel tales.  The author is fascinated by the tales and together they put Marco Polo’s tales in a book.  What if these tales were hearsay?

One historian doubt that Marco Polo made his way past Constantinople.  Here he would have met a variety of merchants who did make their way to China.  These merchants would have told Marco their tales.  Marco would have passed those tales off as his own.  So was Marco Polo a plagiarist?  Other historians disagree with that assessment.  They go even further and turn to the Chinese sources to match what Marco Polo said.  Even back then he was called a braggart as nobody believed him.  Even the house where he lived is called “Braggart’s Court.”

One historian turns to the Venetian archives to see what they have to say about Marco Polo.  Marco Polo was the most famous merchant in Venice.  He was seventeen when he went on his first voyage to eastern Asia.  His father and his uncle had traveled these routes before.  They had gone to Mongolia and met with Kublai Khan.  On one journey, the Kublai Khan had expressed interest in Christianity, so he sent Marco Polo’s father and uncle back to Venice to bring back priests.  To ensure that the pair made it back safely with the priests, they were sent with currier tablets.  These tablets belonged to Kublai Khan and would have ensured safe passage.  These served as ambassadorial passports for the Mongolian Empire.  Did these tablets exist?  Historians turn to the archives to find out.

The first step of the journey back to Mongolia and the court of Kublai Khan was the Holy Land.  Here Marco Polo would meet the newly elected pope.  The pope sent along with two monks and a vial containing a couple of drops of oil that belonged to the lamps that burned at the tomb of Christ.  One historian pokes holes at Marco Polo’s journey pointing out that there was no pope at the time and the Vatican letters.  However, Marco Polo provided the names of the two monks in his story.  The two monks fled, fearing for their lives.  Marco Polo, his uncle, and his father continued to press on.  They traveled over the deserts, on the Silk Road and ran into bandits.

Marco Polo describes the trail he took.  One historian points out the gaps in Marco Polo’s record during this journey.  He does not mention the Great Wall.  It would have been a feature that Marco Polo would have seen.  However contemporary sources at the time also fail to mention the wall as well as maps at the time overlook the wall.  The first appearance of the wall was on a 16th Century map. 

After three years, Marco Polo, his father, and his uncle arrived at the court of Kublai Khan.  He had just declared himself Emperor of China, unifying China once again under one Emperor once again.  It is here, Marco steps back and highlights Kublai Khan.  He talks about how Kublai Khan dressed and the clothing customs in the Imperial Court.

This is a German-produced documentary with English narration.  This was a fascinating watch and tells an excellent story of Marco Polo.  I thoroughly enjoyed the counterpoints to the assertion that Marco Polo did not make his way to China.  At times I felt that particular historian was condescending.  This would be a documentary to show in a history class and it would be a good documentary to show to an English class on how to debate.

This is the story of William the Conqueror.  He made his mark in history by invading England in 1066.  Who was the real William the Conqueror?  The primary source records are scarce when it comes to William's history.  When was William the Conqueror born?  What were his motivations for invading England?  He goes down in history as a brave man but was he that brave?  What was he like?  This docudrama is a dramatic retelling of William the Conqueror’s Story. 

William the Conqueror grew up in Normandy in the court of his father Robert the Magnificent.  The exact date of his birth is not known.  His mother was a local girl, so he was called a bastard his whole life.  Before Robert the Magnificent went off on a pilgrimage he had William crowned the Duke of Normandy in a grand ceremony.  He was only seven years old.  However, the nobles did not let him rule without a fight.  They did not want to be ruled by a bastard.

His uncles tried to overthrow him and there was an assassination attempt.  William was tipped off about the attempt and he fled on his horse.  This story starts the beginning of the legend of William the Conqueror.  He was young, brave, and strong.  He was a bastard and a loner.  He was capable of riding over long distances with killers at his heels.  He fled to Falaise where he would shelter from his enemies.

He was a man who never doubted his legitimacy.  His ancestors came from illegitimate marriages.  So when his legitimacy was questioned, he would take action against them.  At age 18 William took his first political action.  He reached out to the King of France.  Together they took down the rebel barons.  William was able to prove his leadership during this battle.  He took his rightful place as the Duke of Normandy after this battle.

After his marriage, he got married.  He was faithful to his wife Matilda.  She was the daughter of the Count of Flanders.  Matilda was also a descendant of the Carolingian Dynasty, so this would provide additional legitimacy to William’s rule in Normandy.  He was marrying into the highest royal line.  William and Matilda were devoted to each other.  William had no known mistress nor a known bastard while married to Matilda.

News of the marriage reached Rome where the Pope did not accept the marriage because they were cousins.  However, William ignored the pope and married Matilda anyway.  Together they built two great abbeys and this seemed to have assuaged the Pope.  William was going to settle down into a provisional life…until Edward the Confessor, the King of England named William as his heir.

It was the first step in the Beaux Tapestry that was created.  Edward the Confessor sent his half-brother Harold to Normandy.  Together they went to war in Brittany and became friends.  William made Harold swear over relics that Harold would back his claim to the throne of England.  This oath was most likely sworn in the crypts of the Beaux Cathedral.  Harold swore that after the death of Edward the Confessor, the King of England that he would hand over the kingdom to William.

Edward the Confessor died and on his death bed, he promised Harold that he would be King.  The next day, Harold crowned himself King.  William was not happy with Harold’s decisions.  William immediately planned an invasion of England to take the English throne.  Did Harold really go back on his word to William?  The sources are scarce at best.

In the meantime, William was raising an army and the money to invade England.  His men worked on building ships to prepare for the invasion.  A comet was spotted in the sky before the invasion and William took it as a sign.  Was it a sign of changing fortunes for William or for Harold?  William moved his troops further north, waiting for more favorable weather to launch his invasion.  The wind turned and the invasion of England was on.  Would William emerge victorious?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

When this popped up on my feed I was pleasantly surprised and had to do a review of this documentary.  This one would be an excellent documentary for research purposes.  I would show this documentary to a history class as well.  The run time for this documentary is 51:39.

In the series finale, our families are experiencing the 1970’s.  For the parents, this trip back is nostalgia for them.  Traditional family roles were changing.  The family itself was fracturing during this decade as well.  So which was the best decade for the families?  There will be a poll taken at the end of the series.  They will experience the 1970’s at warp speed.
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The Taylor family will return to the working-class home.  Mr. Taylor’s father worked in construction.  The Taylors had come down in the world from their time in the Edwardian period and are now firmly in the working class.  The Taylors explore their new home.  The Meadows return to their middle-class home.  They started at the bottom and worked their way up.  It is a nostalgia trip for the parents and the girls, it is a trip into the unknown.  The girls are not impressed with the décor.

The Hawkes family move back into an apartment in the big house.  There were some improvements to the apartment.  Mrs. Hawkes is officially a landlady and reflects on what her parents had.

A new family joins the street and they are renting an apartment from the Hawkes family.  They are the Rhodes family, and this family has a single mom and two sons.  The tenants are not impressed with their surroundings.  Mrs. Hawkes is encouraging to the family because they had encountered worse conditions.  How will the Rhodes handle life in the 1970s?  Ms. Rhodes starts knuckling down to clean things up.

The men in the family are enjoying their childhoods.  The kids are having a good laugh at them.  Children had toys in the 1970s and everyone had toys.  The Rhodes boys are unimpressed with the low technology amusements.

Everyone settles down for the night.  Ms. Rhodes is finding cooking convenience food a challenge.  She only has a hot plate for her stove.  Mr. Meadows is enjoying the music and singing along.  Mrs. Meadows is preparing dinner for the family.  She is unsure of what she is going to be feeding her family.  The pancakes are overcooked.  It is the first time that the family is sitting in front of the TV.

The children head off to school and everyone goes to school.  The school leaving age was raised to sixteen.  The oldest Meadows girl works as a teaching assistant.  All the women of the neighborhood will be working.  Ms. Rhodes will be working in a café.  Mrs. Taylor will be working as a district nurse and Mrs. Meadows will be working as a crossing guard.  Mr. Taylor will be working on a construction project.  Mr. Meadows is left behind, the three-day working week was introduced during this decade.  He should be working as a draftsman as his father did, but he is being forced to stay home.  Mr. Meadows does the household chores.

Mr. Meadows reflects on his experiences as a child with one of the guides.  His father had worked less but was this part of the three-day week?  The guide said that everyone was subject to the three-day work week because it prevented coal from running out.  Mrs. Taylor arrives home to discover that her husband is on strike.  So how do the other families cope with the conditions of the 1970s?  Watch this episode to find out.

This episode is a fascinating look at what happened in England during the 1970s and how Margaret Thatcher got elected.  This would be a good episode for research purposes in a history class and independent study students as well as a family and consumer education class.
 

 Good morning, our families are back living in the 1960s.  The Goldings have moved on, so it is the Taylors and the Meadows.  Here are some big changes for our families.  The Meadows have moved into the middle-class home while the Taylors have moved into the working-class home.  Each family tours their house.  There is some new technology.  The big house has been carved into apartments.  Many big houses were carved into flats due to high taxation.

The Meadows are thrilled with the new arrangement.  Mr. Meadows’ father was a businessman so he would have been in the middle class.  The Taylors will have to adjust to the working-class lifestyle.  The working-class house has the latest in gadgets.  Mr. Taylor’s father was a mechanic, so would have been considered working class.  Mrs. Taylor will have to work outside the hose as well.

A new family joins up with the Taylors and the Meadows and they are the Hawkes family.  They are going to sample the life of a Caribbean immigrant family.  A brother and sister will move in first, mirroring what immigrant families went through in the early 1960s.  When they arrive at the row of houses they are greeted with a nasty sign.  It would have been the same sign their immigrant ancestors would have encountered. 

The apartment is a mess, so the brother and sister try to work to clean up.  Immigrants were exploited and they were charged high rents.  The brother and sister were shocked at the condition of the apartment.  Caribbean immigrants would have had to accept jobs they were overqualified for.  They wonder how their grandparents survived those first years in England.  England, although they invited them to the country, the people were unwelcoming to the immigrants.

In the meantime, the Meadows receive a visitor.  Teens had a bit more freedom during the 1960s, so the Meadows girls are being outfitted for a new wardrobe.  The girls will also be moving into the second apartment apart from their parents.  This is a shock for Mr. Meadows because they had pulled together in the previous decades to work and support the family.  They will also be working in a boutique.  Teens had their identity during the 1960s.

The Taylor kids are experiencing their sense of freedom.  They also have the run of the house and have the freedom to play.  The newcomers have not spoken to anyone all day and the sister has to do the cooking.  She does not have experience of cooking and was told that she was not a good cook.

The Meadows girls return from work and show off their outfits.  Mr. Meadows is concerned about the lengths of the skirts.  The girls tease their father about wearing shorter skirts.  Mrs. Meadows reflects on how the parents would feel about seeing their girls dressed in such outfits.  It is the last night that the Meadows will be together before the girls move into an apartment.

The Taylors are enjoying a night watching TV.  It is the first time the family has been together in one place in decades.  The Hawkes night is getting worse as the power cuts out.  Dinner is looking unlikely.  They are feeling down in the dumps.  She feels that her grandparents would have felt homesick.  The sign that they had seen earlier affects the brother.

How will the families adjust to the conditions of the 1960s?  Will the Hawkes pull together and relive the experience of their grandparents?  How will the Meadows girls handle being on their own?  Tune into this episode to find out!
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This would be a good episode for research purposes and a filler for a history classroom.

Our families are turning back the clock and will live the lives of their ancestors during World War II.  The house has been transformed into what it would have looked like during World War II.  There are blackout blinds and taped-up windows.
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The Taylor Family’s fortunes have been on a downturn and they are still living in the big house.  The Taylors struggled with their role at the top of the pecking order.  During World War II servants are the thing of the past and the family can run the home the way they want to.  The basement has been turned into an air-raid shelter.  The Taylors continue to explore the house, feeling reminded of the war.

The Goldings explore their middle-class house and discover rabbits in the house.  The war has brought the golden age to the end.  The Goldings are surprised to see a recipe for rabbit pie in a cookbook.  They are reluctant to kill a rabbit.

The Meadows are in for a big surprise.  They have a pig in the house.  Families banded together to raise a pig for some additional meat.  They are also growing their vegetables.  Things are looking up for the Meadows family.  Rationing benefited the poor and was a burden to the upper class.  Mrs. Meadows believes things will be better for them.  Mrs. Meadows will be the air raid warden for the neighborhood.

World War II was an equalizer.  The families, no matter what class, are facing the same conditions.  They will be living with a limited full supply.  Mothers of all classes struggled to put food on the table.  It will be a challenging week for the family and the families will be given gas masks.  The Taylors comment that it is strange to bit fitted for gas masks. 

The men join up with the local home defense, as their ancestors would have done during World War II.  With real weapons in short supply, the volunteers had to make their weapons.  The men undergo training for home defense.  Mr. Taylor had served in the RAF and is in his element.  Mr. Golding is having a challenge learning how to march.  Mr. Taylor and Mr. Meadows have a good laugh over Mr. Golding learning to walk.

World War II is now bringing the families together and social barriers are coming down.  The families are given cod liver oil to help supplement their nutrition.  The Taylors take it and find it challenging to get down.  Mrs. Taylor is back in her element.  She did not like the lady of leisure life.  She is now the cook, nanny, and cleaner.  The family sits together for a meal, the first time in forty years.

The air raid siren goes off and the families evacuate to the bomb shelter in the Taylors house.  It is the first taste of war for the families.  During World War II, over two million homes were destroyed.  Sound is being piped into the bomb shelter and they hear airplanes.  They are now getting a taste of what their ancestors went through during the war.  The women are worried about Mrs. Meadows, who is watching the street.  While the families are in the shelter, Mrs. Meadows reflects on being left alone and vulnerable.  So how did the neighborhood fair after the first air raid?  What damage was inflicted on the neighborhood?  How do social barriers continue to fall during World War II?  Tune into this episode to discover more about the Family during World War II.

This particular episode is an excellent episode to show to a history class!
 

Turn Back Time The Family moves into the Interwar Years.  So the terraced houses were turned into the houses of the 1920s.  The families will face the conditions of the Great Depression in this episode.  Their guides meet up with the families again, to sum up, the changes the family will change.  World War I, had a huge effect on the family.  One family lost an ancestor in World War I.  Life in Britain would have been a financial roller coaster for the family.
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The Taylor Family is still living high in the upper-middle-class family.  The Golding family is still in the middle class.  The Meadows are still in the working-class home. 

The Meadows explore their working-class home.  They are living more comfortably in their home.  There are two bedrooms in the house now.  However, there is still no indoor plumbing for the working-class family.  The Meadows learn what jobs they will have.  They will be servants in the Taylor house.  Mr. Meadows will be a chauffeur.  However, this news leaves the family apprehensive because they are putting all their eggs in one basket relying on one family.  Mr. Meadows learns that his ancestor worked as a chauffeur.

The Goldings return to their middle-class home and it is a big upgrade from their Edwardian home.  It is cozier than the Edwardian home and they have electricity.  Mr. Golding learns that his grandfather was an estate agent and he was surprised to see that.  The Goldings have employed Mrs. Meadows as a part-time maid.  She is delighted to be cooking on gas in the Goldings house.

The Taylors then explore their upper-middle-class home.  They will have a maid and a cook this time.  They found their lives in the Edwardian era challenging.  The children will now explore playtime and not be treated so formally.  The Taylors' ancestors lost a bit of their fortune, but they still had money and could live comfortably.

The Meadows girls are struggling with their new roles as servants in the Taylor household.  Laundry is proving to be a challenge for the youngest Meadows girls.  The Taylor children are enjoying the toys and the new nanny.  Mr. and Mrs. Taylor go out and enjoy an outing together.  The Taylors do not go out alone in their modern life.  It is a new era for the families, but can the good feelings last?

The families settle into their roles and reflect on their lives in the previous era.  They found the rules of their decade challenging.  In the Golding home, Mrs. Golding is now in charge of discipline and reads out the rules.  Mr. Golding spends a half-hour with the children as was expected in the Interwar Years.  The Taylor children are going on a treasure hunt with their nanny and it is without parent supervision.  Children were encouraged to roam free and become independent. 

Life is good but then Wall Street Crashes, signaling the Great Depression.  The Taylors are hit hard by this news and their finances will take a hit.  They have to go over the budget and determine where to save money.  There will be some hard choices.  The next morning, the Taylors are living as normally as they can.  The news of the Great Depression will hit the Meadows family even harder.  The Taylor family is finding it hard to break the news.

Will the Meadows pull together?  How will the Taylors cope without their fortune?  Tune into this episode to find out more about how the families handled the Great Depression conditions. 

This would be another good episode to show for history and family and consumer education class.

Good morning, we are going to continue our journey through history meets reality TV with Turn Back Time: The Family.  This would be a good series to show to a family and consumer education class.   The first episode explores the Edwardian period and the families are going to live the lives of their ancestors.  A row of terraced houses was transformed into family homes that belonged to the early 1900s.  Three families were chosen to live in the houses.  They will learn about 100 years of family history.
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The Taylor family is from Norfolk.  They are a family of six and are a busy family.  The second family is the Meadows family and they are a self-made family.  It is a family of four.  They run a polo school is excited to do something as a family outside of polo.  The last family is the Goldings and they are a family of five.  For them, family is about equality.  At the start of the show, the families will be given a guidebook with the rules they will have to follow.

The family was something to expire in the early 1900s.  One house was the typical upper-middle-class family, the second house was for a middle-class family and the last house belongs to a working-class family.  Which house will the families be assigned to?  The answer surprises them and the viewer.  The house assignments are based on what the family ancestors lived as.  The Taylors are confident that there was no millionaire ancestor in their family. 

The families meet with their guides and the guides reveal which houses each family will live in.  The Taylors are assigned to the upper-middle-class home.  The Goldings are assigned to the middle-class home while the Meadows are assigned to the working-class home.  The Taylor meets the staff that will assist them through their journey.  They will have five servants in the home.  The Taylors are shocked at their good luck, believing that there was no money in the family.  So who made the family money?  Juliette the guide explains who made the money, and Mr. Taylor’s ancestor owned a cotton mill.

The Meadows will have a tougher challenge in the working-class home.  They will live in two rooms and the four will have to share a bedroom.  They will have to use a chamber pot or a privy.  It was a shock for the family.  Joe, the third guide, helps explain why the Meadows ended up in the working-class home.  Mr. Meadow’s grandfather was a general laborer.  Mr. Meadows will have to look for work to make money.  The oldest daughter will work as a scullery maid in the big house.

The Goldings will live in a middle-class home.  It is modest with seven rooms.  They will have running water and the latest cooking range.  Susan, one of the guides, explains why the Goldings live in a middle-class home.  Mr. Golding’s ancestor was a tailor who immigrated from Russia.  This ancestor prospered from the start.  So Mr. Golding would have had a white color job.

The families will shed their clothes and dress in period costumes.  They settle in for the night.  So how will the families cope with their roles?  What will the families learn about their ancestors?  How will the children adjust?  Tune into this episode to find out how the families will cope with their life.

This would be a good series to show during a history class and home economics or family and consumer education class.  It is a good summary of the evolution of the family over one hundred years.

Good morning, we will conclude 1900 Island with the Industrial Revolution hitting the fishing community.  It is the final week for the families.  At the start of the episode, the women are preparing the fish that the men caught on their long trip.  The retired fisherman is teaching the women how to gut the fish.  The men are checking on the lobster pots.  The pots are empty again so they do some hand fishing.  Every extra fish is extra money and food for the community.
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In the boat shed, the finishing touches are put on the dingy for the community.  The dingy will be used to fish in the shallower waters.  The community comes together to launch the dingy and go fishing.  Although women did not fish on the open ocean, there is evidence that they used dinghy’s and fished close to the shoreline.

However, there is another boat that looms on the horizon: a steam-powered boat.  These steam-powered boats meant the end for smaller communities that used sailboats.  The men comment on the sight and talk about the impact that steam powerboats would have had on the communities.  The families saw the boat as a threat.  In the 1900’s the fishermen would have moved on to bigger harbors or changed occupations.

The families then sell their fish and the women are doing the negotiating.  The sale is not going their way.  The fish prices are lower this time.  Even though it was their largest catch to date, the price they got was thirty percent lower.  The families have made seventeen pennies each and it is a bitter blow for the families.  At the start, the fishermen were making fifty-five pennies for their wages.  The families' spirits are low after the low price shock.

The families have been relying on secondary incomes to help supplement their incomes.  One family has been selling eggs and that was a steady income.  They talk about giving up fishing, which would have been the same questions the fishermen back in the 1900s would have faced.

The crash in fish prices has hit home and so the families come together to hunt for shellfish.  Shellfish prices are rising.  Gout had flared up again and so one man remains behind to keep the fires burning.  The families walk ten miles to start hunting shellfish.  The men are hunting muscles and the women are hunting cockles.  This time the families have to come up with something.  Finding cockles will be a challenge for the women.  They have to go further out, where the mud is deeper.  The women finally have hit the jackpot.

The men are hunting muscles and are having better luck.  The work is easy and the muscles are easy to find.  Harvesting muscles is not for everyone and the men are questioning why they are doing “women’s work.”  These types of feelings were the same that the 1900’s fisherman would have faced.  The men also hit a good spot for the muscles and start thinking about the money they will make from the venture.  It was a good day's work for the hunters.  It will be two days of prep before the shellfish are ready to sell.  Two families work on preparing the cockles to sell because prepared cockles will fetch a higher price.

To continue to learn more about the 1900’s Island, watch this episode.  What have the families learned from this experience?  What will they take back to their modern lives?  This would be a good episode to show in the class because it showed the struggles of the families as they tried to make money.

It is week 3 on the 1900 Island and life is a challenge for our modern families.  The men plan a three-day fishing trip, leaving their wives and children behind.  The women fish for lobster but the food is running short. 

​At the start of the episode, the men are learning about setting lobster pots from Mickey, an expert fisherman.  The men are using handwoven lobster pots, putting the bait in, and setting them out at sea.  It was another way the families could make money.  Lobsters were highly prized fish that the wealthy wanted to eat.  The lobster potting would help one of the families eat well.

A new member of the community has moved in with one of the families.  He is proving to be an asset to the family.  He collects wood and works with the island shipwright as an apprentice.  As an apprentice, his personal life would have been strictly regulated by the master.  This practice goes back to Medieval times.  He will be building a new dingy for the community.  The apprentice works on making oars for the new boat.

Mickey works on getting the pots set up and one of the members helps get the pots set up.  He is finally allowed to get out on the water after suffering from gout.  The lobster pots will be dropped nearby the rocks.  The pots are set and it is a waiting game to see what they catch.  The fishing communities had to be self-reliant and they would have to be highly skilled to keep boats in good repair.

The food situation for one family is proving to be a challenge.  The mother is not eating enough and the father is not happy with the situation.  The shop keepers are concerned about their neighbors because it is clear that they are not eating well.  So they come up with a charity scheme for the island.  Individuals had to help out people in need.  One family puts together a food hamper for the bigger family.

The fishermen check on the lobster pots to see if there is anything in them.  The first pot that is pulled is empty and so it is reset.  Another pot comes up empty.  One of the women is finding it a challenge to be stuck on land.  The women were tied to the home in the 1900s.  Women’s suffrage was starting to become a fight.
One family rethinks their charitable initiative and believes that charity should be done quietly and should retain a person’s dignity.  However, the family is grateful for receiving the food.  It is a boost for the family.  With food supplies and money running low, they plan for some overnights on the boat.  It will be a challenge for novice fishermen.  Fishing was a dangerous occupation, and in the 1900s one in ten fishermen apprentices were lost at sea.

The men head out to sea for a longer fishing trip.  While the men are away, the lobster pots will still need to be checked and so the women had to row to check lobster pots.  The families have one final night together before the long fishing trip.  The men go off to sea to go fishing.  There will be no communication between the island and the women left behind.  Will this trip be a success for the men? 

While the men are away, how will the women handle being left on their own?  Tune into this episode to find out more. 

This episode was more interesting because of the fishing trip and the women being left on their own.