Week 3: Ancient Egypt

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Just Jackie

We are learning World History this year. I put together a curriculum using a Bible Encyclopedia and the internet.
Our curriculum will include:

  • Egypt
  • Assyria
  • Babylon
  • Medo-Persia
  • Greece
  • Rome
  • England
  • America

It may not be a traditional approach, but it’s not unfamiliar to me. Number One Son studied World History the same way!

This?week takes us to Ancient Egypt.

Egypt

We learned that this was the first world power, and that the Egyptians had over 700 gods!!
I’m doing good to keep up with the names of my three kids!! I’ll stick with One God. 😉

 

Ten Plagues on Egypt

We all got a kick out of our research on the 10 plagues.

Each plague was directed at ten of the Egyptian gods.

1) Water turned to blood: Nile-god Hapi
2) Frogs: Frog-goddess Heqt
3) Gnats: Thoth, lord of magic
4) Gadflies: Ptah, creator of the universe
5)?Pestilence on livestock: cow-goddess Hathor; Apis the bull
6) Boils: Healer deities Thoth, Isis and Ptah
7)?Thunder and Hail: Reshpu, controller of lightning; Thoth, god of rain and thunder
8)?Locusts: fertility-god Min, protector of crops
9)?Darkness: Ra, the sun-god and Horus, a solar god
10)?Death of firstborn:?The last plague,?was especially humiliating to the Egyptians.
They viewed the Pharaoh as a god incarnate. Therefore, the son of a Pharaoh was also considered a god.
The final plague, in essence, resulted in the death of a god.

 

We discussed the housing, transportation, and a bit about their religious beliefs. A lot of it centered around animals.
We learned that of all the pharaohs that ruled in Egypt, only a few were actually mentioned by?name?in the scriptures!
The girls?took turns looking them up in the Bible.
We went over the reason the Egyptians mummified their dead.
I didn’t want to spend too much time on this because so much of what the Egyptians believed go against the Bible and what it
teaches.

The girls then began constructing their lapbooks.

Nan??Flossie

We got our pictures from some World History textbooks. There were plenty to go around!!
Their eyes lit up when?they saw a picture of Queen Nefertiti. Not because they love her…
but because they recognized her name from the?Dinosaurs on a Spaceship episode of Doctor Who!

Nefertiti

 

Yep, we’re Whovians!!

 

 

 

 

Nan and her lapbook: Front, Middle and Flap lifted
Nan Egypt? ?10 plagues??2013-08-27 16.19.39

 

 

 

 

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Flossie and her lapbook: Front, Middle and Flap lifted.

Egypt? ?2013-08-27 16.17.19????Flossie Egypt3

I think I’d forgotten how much they enjoy lapbooking! I think it’s safe to say we will be doing it every chance we get.

Next, we will learn about Assyria, the cruel nation that ruled after Egypt.

Jackie

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Home’s Cool!!

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Flossie Bobbsey

Homeschooling is really cool.

I mean, having your Mom as a teacher is better than having someone teach you because they get paid for it.

Plus, you only have three hour school days instead of seven or eight.

You get to choose what to read, you don’t have to wake up early at all, and you have tons of fun, too.

So, even though you don’t get lockers or get to use a backpack, you don’t have bullies, you don’t have to wear school uniforms, and you definitely don’t have to eat (gag) school (yuck) food. Barf!!

School Food

 

So, seriously, consider talking to your parents about homeschooling.

Trust me, it’ll do you good .

Later,

Flossie Bobbsey

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Ease on Down…

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Just Jackie

Well, this is our in-between week. We’re slowly starting this week, since Daddy went back to work this week. But, we have our annual convention this weekend, so we’ll be taking a break due to that.

Today, the girls and I discussed what to expect for the year. They’re really looking forward to both World Geography and Science! Yay!

I was still struggling with Science, but I finally decided on 106 Days of Creation, from Simply Charlotte Mason.? I downloaded a sample a few years ago, and tried to put my own version together, but I was still new at doing my own lesson plans, so it wasn’t as great as it could have been (don’t tell them, okay?)

So, this week, we’re starting our Examining the Scriptures Daily routine (read, copywork, discussion), and I’ve added one more part – they now are writing a brief something about how they can apply the scriptural counsel this day.? Pray. Read. Meditate. Apply. Basic fundamentals of a relationship with Our Heavenly Father. ;0)

Going on the advice of Nicole at Journey to Excellence, when planning her America Story of US curriculum, I’ll plan our World Geography ‘journey’ 3 weeks at a time.? That seemed strange to me when I read her post.? Now, I’m running around the Internet like a crazy woman trying to hunt down recipes for Mexican foods – which we won’t be studying until the end of the year!

Why should I work myself up?!!

I’ve also found myself ogling other homeschool blogs… pouring over what they’re doing for curriculum. I think I do this annually now. It’s an addiction, really. (blush)
I just love that there is so much out there… but I get scared that there’s so much out there. But searching this way helps me keep my “Frankenstein” curriculum fresh.

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Putting it all together

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Just Jackie

Pot holes in LA

Well, a new year is lurking on the horizon, and I’m in the middle of getting curriculum 2011 underway.

This year feels different already, given the fact that it’s the first time in 4 years that I’m only creating curriculum for two. *Sniff*

#1 son is now graduated, working, and a full-time volunteer minister! *sniff again* Time just flew by…

But I digress. On to this year’s curriculum.

There will be some old familiar faces rejoining us, and some that are brand spanking new!

First, I wanted to share something that was brought to my attention this past spring. For all intents and purposes, I’m an unschooler! I didn’t know that! I thought ‘eclectic’, sure, but an unschooler? Me?!

It was such a freeing term to hear! Since I began working full-time ish, I was feeling like I couldn’t continue homeschooling. And that scared me! I was incorporating school into the business I’m running. The girls loved it, but I still felt like this wasn’t really school. Again, me?! Really?!!

A wonderfully sweet man, who’s an unschooling, work-at-home dad, explained to me, in no uncertain terms, that what I’d been doing is pretty much unschooling! Wow.

So’s anyway, I just wanted to share that.

We will have a 4-day school week, even though our ‘unschooling’ portions carry over the weekend. One day a week is set aside for volunteer service.

Bible Study: We do a combination of Daily Scriptures (as copywork), and then read a bible-based article or bible story, and notebook what we discussed.

Nature Study: Barbara has done such an awesome job with the Handbook of Nature Study blog, that we can’t not continue using it.

Art: We are also continuing the Sketch Tuesday, which is also hosted by Barbara. The girls eagerly look forward to the weekly sketches!

Math: We’re going to start Your Business again. Last year, I kinda dropped the ball with this one, and we shifted mid-stream to MEP. While I loved both maths, I felt that the girls weren’t quite ready for Your Business curriculum as-is. There will still be some tweaking, so that we can get the most out of it.

Geography: We’re taking a trip around the world! Well, virtually, anyway. I’m making up plane tickets and passports and everything! The girls have chosen the countries they wish to visit, and I’m the travel agent! I looked at? a few ready-made things for this but I’m just not an out-of-the-box kinda girl, so I’m piecing things together. We’ll be notebooking our travels.? Because this will be covered daily, I’m incorporating our Musician and Artist study with it.

Grammar & Spelling: I’m digging out our old McGuffey readers! I missed them last year! I just purchased a copy of Simply Grammar, but? it hasn’t arrived yet. We were using Growing with Grammar, and while I still like it, I think the workbooks are too easy! Nan and Flossie both seem to fly through the lessons. This one may need to be adjusted again.

Literature: We’ll be continuing Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children as our read aloud for the first half of the year. Independent reading for the latter part. We purchased each of the girls a Kindle. They didn’t enjoy reading books that I had printed off the computer, and since most of the reading material we use are available for free electronically, this was a perfect fit!

Life Skills: Mary Frances to the rescue! We’ve enjoyed the books so far, and I see no reason to stop. We finished the cook book last year, and started the knitting and crochet book. The girls already know how to crochet, and since the doll patterns that are included won’t fit their dolls, they quickly lost interest. This year, we’ll be reading, “The Mary Frances Sewing Book.

American History: I’ve ordered “America: The Story of Us” DVD set AND book (the book was free, just pay shipping) and downloaded the lesson plans! Once our Geography tour gets us back to the United States, that where we start American History.? I just found this post at Journey to Excellence!! This is so awesome! She has done a fantabulous job of helping anyone, ahem, me, put together a wonderful American History lesson plan. This will more than likely be our history for next year, but I like having an ace-in-the-hole!

Science: I’m still working on this one. Flossie has shown extreme interest in learning all about the human body. I’m creating a curriculum for this one – a combination of Notebooking and Lapbooking… Napbooking? Lopebooking? No-lapbooking? ROFL – that’s kinda fun!!

 

 

Posted in Art Study, Bible Study, Curriculum, History, Literature, Math, Music Study, Nature Study, Science, Sewing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Checking in

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Just Jackie

So… We’ve been quite busy lately! School is going wonderfully. Number one son is now finished with high school and now working on completing his bookkeeping course. He’s also looking for a part time job, so he can begin pioneering! So excited that he’s trying to work his plan!

The girls gave finished Mary Frances Cookbook and are now on to Mary Frances Crocheting & Knitting book. I am in love with these awesome books! I feel that I’ve discussed this before, but I just can’t say enough about them
🙂

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Apple Nature Study

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Just Jackie

So, this week, we, following the Autumn 2010 OHC, learned a little about apples.

“The Principal” joyfully picked up a few different varieties of apples for us to review.

We ended up with Granny Smith, Gala, Johnny Appleseed, Golden Delicious and Johnna Gold.

We observed the different shapes and colors, and even the smells that each had.

After we cut them open, we compared seeds. Then, the fun part – Tasting!

?apples

After all the tasting had been done, I put the cut apples into the food processor (oh, I don’t recommend anyone doing this – I’m not very kitchen-friendly, so I had no clue what I was doing!) in an attempt to make them applicable size for pie.

They came out like slivers, or stringed apples. We used them anyway!

I found a recipe for a pie involving 2 crusts, but I only had one, so we improvised and used two different recipes: One for the filling, and one for the topping (apple crumb topping!)

The crew seemed to really enjoy the project and the resulting pie. Me? I didn’t eat it. I couldn’t get past the stringy apple filling!

Looking forward to next week’s challenge!

Our Bible study has been quite interesting – first, we started off listening to an article entitled, “Did the people in the Bible really live so long?” – how interesting it was to hear how many scientists think that the YEARS that they lived were actually MONTHS!
We’ve been studying a booklet about the Bible – this week, we were discussing the reason for Jesus coming to earth, the miracles he performed while was on the earth – I’m loving seeing the girls really grasp the meaning of the information, as well as the scriptural backing!

Monday started on a low note, as I wasn’t feeling well. So, we cuddled on the couch and watched “Cable in the Classroom” – How the States got their shapes. Quite an interesting little bit packed with trivia! Anyway, while we were on the couch, I reached for my crochet (it’s what I do when I watch TV), and the girls grabbed their crochet!
By the time the show was over, we had each finished crocheting a dishcloth! I was shocked! That was their first quick finish project – EVER – and they didn’t need me to TELL them to do it!

So proud of my girlies!

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We’re using Your Business from SimplyCharlotte.com for math – I have managed to break down the lessons, so they will last us a few years! Flower Picker is running a Book Store, and Face is running a Pet Store. They’re loving it so far! They’ve been honing their addition and subtraction skills, exercising their newly learned “multiplication” skills, and have both decided they HATE paying bills! This is a really great Math option – it’s real life math, so it’s very easy, as the teacher, to understand how to explain it!

I’ve been reading aloud Literature to them again this year.
We’re reading Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children by Edith Nesbit. So far, we’ve read 6 stories. I am enjoying Shakespeare for the first time in a long time! We’ve quickly realized the theme that runs through all of the stories – unrequited love, girls love to disguise themselves as girls, and people committing suicide.

We’re also reading Mary Frances: Adventures Among the Kitchen People.
This story is absolutely adorable! The kitchen utensils have wonderful personalities, and senses of humor. While we read, the girls copy down recipes, so at the end, they’ll have their own little cookbooks. There are other books in the Mary Frances series, so I’m planning to get a few more: Mary Frances Sewing Book, Mary Frances Housekeeper – and we already have Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting Book.

Posted in Bible Study, Literature, Math, Nature Study, Yadda Yadda | 2 Comments