Oh boy. It's been busy. Home school is in full swing... almost. (Why does it seem I can't ever get everything running at the same time?) I still have German study to add in - although I've gotten my books - and I haven't been on top of things enough to add in any art study, but honestly, at this point and the way things are going, we may not get there.
Anyway, it's been busy. We've been studying ancient Egypt for about 3 weeks, maybe? History is every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so that equals maybe about 9 full days of Egypt. Why does it seem like it's been so much more? I think it turned out pretty fun. We made a lot of narration pages, some of which the kids worked really hard on and they look really good. Also, we made a lapbook for ancient Egypt. I just used a free printable lapbook thing that I found online, so mostly the kids just cut and glued. There wasn't a lot of creativity that went into these lapbooks and they aren't our prettiest (the kids didn't really have any interest in coloring them) but they did have fun making them and it reinforced what we were reading and learning about, so I do still feel it was a good use of time. We read maybe 20+ books on various aspects of ancient Egypt, but of course, most, if not all, of the photos are of our projects.
This first one is not a project we did - more like a project I did - planning for homeschool
Ok, so we mummified apple slices using different "preservatives." We used salt - the Egyptians used a special salt called natron - sugar, and wheat. Wheat was Abigail's idea.
The before picture.
We made a replica of a pyramid and put inside it all the things you would find in a real Egyptian pyramid. Joshua was concerned there would be contention since we only had one pyramid to make and furnish so we suggested he just pain his Ziggurat from when we learned about the Sumerians. What a thoughtful guy.
We embalmed our mummies using scented oils (lavendar... mmmmm) and placed little beads in the wrapping to represent amulets. Then we added food, clothes, furniture, canopic jars, and gold and riches. Abigail also painted on the walls of the tomb.
We also spent a while learning about papyrus and hieroglyphics. So we made some of our own. Joshua actually painted real hieroglyphs on his papyrus (with English translation underneath).
Other ancient Egyptian topics we covered were the Nile and Inundation, obviously pyramid building with the Pharoah Khufu, mummies and Egyptian gods and goddesses (Anubis is Joshua's favorite), King Tutenkhamen, Abraham in Egypt, Joseph in Egypt, Moses in Egypt, and Jesus in Egypt and other stuff I can't remember right now. It's late.
We learned about moose, caribou, antelope, chiru (relative to the antelope but closer relative to goats and sheep - it lives in way out there China), and octopus, and squid. I learned a lot. But the octopus are my favorite so far. We didn't really do any crafts or experiments with the animals. But we did have an octopus snack!
So now we've moved on to the great island civilization of Crete and trees (we're learning about trees in science this week instead of an animal so that it can coincide with the fall leaves.) More on those later.
Anyway, it's been busy. We've been studying ancient Egypt for about 3 weeks, maybe? History is every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so that equals maybe about 9 full days of Egypt. Why does it seem like it's been so much more? I think it turned out pretty fun. We made a lot of narration pages, some of which the kids worked really hard on and they look really good. Also, we made a lapbook for ancient Egypt. I just used a free printable lapbook thing that I found online, so mostly the kids just cut and glued. There wasn't a lot of creativity that went into these lapbooks and they aren't our prettiest (the kids didn't really have any interest in coloring them) but they did have fun making them and it reinforced what we were reading and learning about, so I do still feel it was a good use of time. We read maybe 20+ books on various aspects of ancient Egypt, but of course, most, if not all, of the photos are of our projects.
This first one is not a project we did - more like a project I did - planning for homeschool
Ok, so we mummified apple slices using different "preservatives." We used salt - the Egyptians used a special salt called natron - sugar, and wheat. Wheat was Abigail's idea.
This is the after picture from left to right: salt, wheat, and sugar. Looks like the Egyptians got it right.
We made a replica of a pyramid and put inside it all the things you would find in a real Egyptian pyramid. Joshua was concerned there would be contention since we only had one pyramid to make and furnish so we suggested he just pain his Ziggurat from when we learned about the Sumerians. What a thoughtful guy.
Other ancient Egyptian topics we covered were the Nile and Inundation, obviously pyramid building with the Pharoah Khufu, mummies and Egyptian gods and goddesses (Anubis is Joshua's favorite), King Tutenkhamen, Abraham in Egypt, Joseph in Egypt, Moses in Egypt, and Jesus in Egypt and other stuff I can't remember right now. It's late.
We learned about moose, caribou, antelope, chiru (relative to the antelope but closer relative to goats and sheep - it lives in way out there China), and octopus, and squid. I learned a lot. But the octopus are my favorite so far. We didn't really do any crafts or experiments with the animals. But we did have an octopus snack!
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