Flowers for the Teacher

We've slowly tried updating and maintaining our blogs in order to keep charting our progress. We've enjoyed many stories and documentaries on Ancient Egypt and of course applying our hands-on technique with current studies in Hieroglyphs, Egyptian and now Babylonian Mathematics with Astronomy soon to follow. My husband has always had the desire to homeschool with an emphasis on maintaining a connected foundational approach through history in all fields of study. Though I was a bit overwhelmed originally with the idea (10 years ago), I have had more than an ample amount of time to come to understand his rationale- among my own personal convictions for wanting to see homeschooling through.

However, my oldest has always attended a local Catholic school where she has graduated from and who is now attending the 7th grade at the local public school. This transition was a mixed blessing, it has overall served to be the best decision for her at the this time.

Lately, we've discovered a docudrama series from BBC on Egypt: Parts I-VI that has been most enjoyable, especially since our six year old really enjoys the main characters: Jean-Francois Champollion, Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. He's been quite busy with small activities plus some projects that have required more attentive skills.

To practice more hieroglyphs we tried our hand at homemade paint from berries that we could muster up, warmly offered by my sweet Mother-in-law (an encouraging benefactor). Making our own papyrus wasn't very accessible but Ebay is always on hand to fetch us in some fresh from Cairo for a considerably low fee... the package itself was as exciting as its contents and we had several hands on board to have their own cartouche written out for him or her. Today we replaced the orginal seal my son made for a cylinder one instead. His attempt at creating his own original version foiled when trying to make its impression.

Keeping our booklist mostly up-to-date, I'm now in the process of looking for literature and instructional how-to's on particular areas of study as we expand now onto Assyrians, Philistines, Palestinians, Hittites and Ancient India. I'm quite certain that some Hebrew will eventually take place but a much anticipated studies in astronomy observation has been long awaited and the season is just right for this to begin.

-Headmistress

Here is a brief list of some of the most helpful sources that I have relied upon for the time period of ~3500 to 2000 BC.

• The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome - Susan Wise Bauer. This work by the well known classical homeschooling author surveys the major civilizations in a chronological rather than a geographical fashion.
• The Sumerians - Samuel Noah Kramer. Trying to teach Sumerian and Akkadian history will be a frustrating endeavor if you are only working from a work like the one above, because the dynamics of city-state dynasties and constantly changing kingships can lead to very disjointed narratives. Kramer succinctly but thoroughly chronicles Sumerian history - plus so much more!
• The Ancient Orient - Wolfram von Soden. This is a reference work that is indispensable when dealing with the multitude of peoples that are encountered in the early history of the near east. 
• Historical Roots of Elementary Mathematics - Bunt, Jones, and Bedient. This gives you a wonderful explanation of the mathematical methodology of the Babylonians, Egyptians, and the Greeks. I have found that writing numbers is the easiest way to introduce writing and reading an ancient language as foreign as hieroglyphs or cuneiform as it is easy to learn and can be used instantly.
• History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy - James Evans. While not a historical survey, this hefty work includes several applications of its content, either in observation instructions, or in giving detailed instructions on how to construct and use ancient tools of astronomy. Very valuable for structuring astronomical time spent with children.
• The History of Ancient Egypt - Audio lectures by Bob Brier. This is a Teaching Company course. Dr. Brier is a popular lecturer who is often in televised documentaries on Egypt. It does not matter what he is talking about - he makes everything sound fascinating and engaging. 
• Civilisations. This is a video series of documentaries of the major ancient civilizations. While many documentaries on the major ancient civilizations focus on the fantastic or the scandalous, this little set really stands out. It covers almost no historical events or people, instead focusing on the civilizations as a whole - dealing most significantly with the rivers which gave each civilization life. They are almost all on youtube, but without subtitles, making the "talking head" portions useless, unless you are fluent in French. The rest is narrated in English. This could be viewed also by particularly patient or interested first graders.
• Genesis Lectures - Dr. David Neiman. These audio lectures, the first of which is available on youtube, by one of Samuel Noah Kramer's students, provide an archaeological and historical perspective on the early history in Genesis. 

A few of the books listed above I reviewed on our sister site. There are, of course many, many more sources not listed above that I have used, several of them useful in some way or another, even for a map. There is nothing like studying ancient history to force an appreaciation for the art of cartography!

Here are a few of the children's books that we found worthwhile:

• Living in Ancient Mesopotamia - Norman Bancroft Hunt. Actually, all the books in Hunt's series are highly recommended. His drawings are outstanding and his information is accurate, interesting, and just in-depth enough to feed a young, curious mind. Any adult would also find this series to be interesting reading.
• The Shipwrecked Sailor - Tamara Bower. This book is a compact version of an actual ancient Egyptian text, illustrated and presented for children. This one was really a shocker. On each page there is a highlighted sentence, and at the top of the page that sentence appears in heiroglyphs with both the transliteration of the hieroglyphs and the exact translation of the individual hieorglyphs. For those who are teaching their young students an ancient language, such as Latin or Greek - this book is a fantastic introduction to the necessary skill of translating. Through its engaging nature, translating the individual words (often not in the same order they would be in English) into a meaningful sentence comes almost instinctively. What a great idea!
• Mummies: Made in Egypt - Aliki. Nice illustrations and a nice description of the process and purpose of mummification. Pretty detailed for a children's book.
• Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Bell & Quie. This book presents the different aspects of Egypt in the typical, pretty, though superficial Dorling Kindersley style; but before each DK spread on a given aspect of the civilization there is a nicely illustrated spread that tells a particular Egyptian myth relevant to what follows. For example, there is a nice rendition of the Set and Osiris story with a nice large illustration; turn the page and you have your DK page on Egyptian funerary practices and beliefs.
• Gilgamesh the King - Ludmila Zeman. This book and the two that follow it tell the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story itself is engaging for young children, especially boys. This series is beautifully illustrated. The story has been doctored-up a bit, but not to a degree that detracts from the meaning or its basic historical imagery. Besides, taking a story with as many diverse sources as Gilgamesh and then narrating it in a way that is appropriate (a necessary endeavor) and engaging for young children affords significant artistic licence.

Let me know if you find any of these helpful and please share your own finds as well!

-Headmaster

Now beginning our first grade school year itinerary, we've begun our Ancients study with Mesopotamia. Lessons from our 'Headmaster', that included a reintroduction documentary of how civilizations finally established themselves and why, onto a quick overview of the area from Ancient Mesopotamia for Kids from the library as well as coordinated reads. All of our material is essentially on loan from the library or found online, of which we hope to link and document for future use. For the kids, I'm listing what we're reading among other helpful sources for ideas related to history in the booklist. I'm including an outline here from Core Knowledge that I thought was worthwhile but by no means am following, however, the appendix is very useful. More on this area in an upcoming post.

With a couple of sidetracked project ideas from our read aloud archeology and fossil books first, we made our own fossils and took time to do an excavation in our own backyard that required serious organization. First clearing the area (that happen to be a portion of the vegetable garden that needed to be done anyhow), staking out sections to be mapped out on a graph for documenting our findings, using our compost sifter- sifting our levels of dirt that was dug with hand trowels (no shovels allowed) and finally collecting. Our fragments then had to be cleaned, sorted and stored in labeled baggies. Afterall, it could be some actual findings that a certain young first-grader may happen to find.

It never ceases to amaze me that anytime a hands-on project comes up, interest spikes, add dirt and it's all the greater. The map of the graphed out area (it's only 8' x 4'), scaled at a half inch for every foot, is then illustrated with what was found that included a map key for each specimen. Our findings? Among them (upon a quick examination): rock, clay, charcoal and 'fragments of something'.

Speaking of clay, one of the upcoming projects happen to be making a clay tablet and writing in cuneiform and eventually hieroglyphs (soon enough). Upon looking for some practical terra cotta form of clay, I lucked out to find a wonderful untreated American product of Natural Clay, made by Amaco. A cube of 10lbs. (one half inch slice off of this and you've got your perfect slab for a child sized tablet) with a coupon at our local Michael's craft store it cost about $4. Using the edge of a chop stick for a makeshift stylus, it needs an edge- a sliced reed or stick would suffice (we did also use a skewer stick for finer writing too), we practiced first from examples bookmarked from our texts. Although, a quick search online would find the same, we then carefully lined the tablet and set to work for the final copy.

Note: projects are not completed in one day and we do not have a time issue factoring in our completion but allow for precision and fun. This gives us the freedom to continue to explore, create and overall leave an impression (at this level) of what 'living' in the times may have been like. The above mentioned have already been essentially completed within a few weeks time at only 2-3 days per week. Also, projects differ from activities/crafts.

Some additional projects on our agenda in the upcoming weeks: irragation canals, an example shaduf (as illustrated above), art and music studies, coil pots, recipes, homemade poultice

-Headmistress

                                    A scholar works in the Lascaux Caves after their closure to the public.                                                    Photo © Sisse Brimberg/National Geographic.

While enjoying our summer after the dismal weeks of spring rain, we've not only had our various activities being worked on leading up to Ancient Civilizations (beginning in the fall) but also have had a few interesting reads geared towards ages 4-8; though suitable for up to 10 yrs. as well, after we began with Genesis. 

From various sites online, the above photo is taken from the famous Lascaux Caves located in France, among others. We discovered this gem Discovery in the Cave, a loosely based non-fiction book that tells of four teenagers and a dog who first discover the cave, where then it maps out the different chambers also found. Doing an art study and sketchings of paleolithic paintings or engravings using similarly made materials is also fun and accessible. We used wood charcoal on large flat stones after viewing photos via the web and using the book as our guide... simple sketch paper was also used. To take a virtual tour, visit Lascaux here.

Similarly, Sunset of the Sabertooth and it's nonfiction companion Research Guide: Sabertooths and the Ice Age by Mary Pope Osborne are fascinating to younger readers as well. The book visits with cave-dwellers, woolly mammoths and a saber-toothed tiger. I remember my daughter years ago loving the series but today, with modern technology, our son is able to engage with Jack and Annie by visiting the Magic Tree House and collect rewards on missions and stamps on his passport for the adventures read- after completing trivia questions based on the story. The site also includes a printable welcome package, certificate and activities that coordinate with the books. Such as, draw your own Cro-Magnon Cave Painting.

Maria's recommendation of Ubiquitous was also an interesting selection to read from. The book begins with a timeline that is scaled 1 centimeter per 1 million years and introduces or elaborates on species that have survived over an extraordinary amount of time.

For leisure reading (among our daily or evening reading books), The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone has been a fact filled fictional story that follows a prehistoric family, which includes glimpses into their primitive lifestyle, skills and surroundings. It's a wonderful representation of a period living book that engages the child and allows them to follow along and view things as perhaps once our ancestors did. We highly enjoyed it, available free at Google Books here.

Following in the 'footsteps' so-to-speak, of what survival and hunting methods used may have been, Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children has some clever tactics to pursue for fun as well. Though we never actually pursued hunting, everyone can enjoy the game of quietly approaching one another.  

Lastly, though for younger readers, The First Dog is a good intro to the period with beautiful illustrations included on the sidebars that Jan Brett is so famously known for. It's a journey of a young boy and a Paleowolf and perhaps the first domestication of a wild animal.  

A side note: Granted there seems to always be some reluctancy within our Orthodox community on the subject, my husband and I do not feel it lessens ones degree of faith discussing pre-civilizations but rather deepens it. It is our opinion that denying our world discoveries is denying portions of our history- although, given that view, we do feel our teaching on the subject should be with some discretion at age-appropriate levels. Our children's relationships with God continue to be well established within the Church and aiding them to help grow that relationship to deeper levels wisely, will ultimately be our entrusted care and responsibility.        

-Headmistress

For our Stone Age Summer, we tried to do many of the things that our ancestors did to live. We began with actual lithics because it is very engaging and exciting for a young boy. As knappable stone is not particularly abundant where we live, we cheated and ordered some knappable stone in a small "kit" from Native Way. We got right to work making sharp edges...

We worked on cordage making - stripping inner bark from cut pussy-willow branches, and splitting cattail leaves, then twisting them to make strings. This craft simply does not fly with a boy expecting to engage in the manly pursuits of survival. But, we were able to use the willow-branches as fishing rods!

Foraging was great fun - not all of the wild edibles are likely to end up on any kids favorite-food list - but a few are tasty enough to catch their eyes wherever they go - especially Wood Sorrel, or as our kids call it - "Sour Apples". Actually, this particular edible has become quite popular among the neighborhood kids, and it is not uncommon to find one of them in someone else's yard pulling these things up and eating them, or arguing over who found them... 

We also scraped some sap off of some pine trees that we found by our church and boiled it down in our fire pit, thus making pitch for glue-sticks. We crafted throwing sticks and had a good amount of fun practicing hitting targets. As these sticks were meant as hunting weapons, we practiced stalking techniques by using a game outlined in Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children.

The game consisted of one person sitting with his eyes closed, while others scurry away; when the person sitting is ready, the others begin to "stalk" up to him, and if the sitting one hears a sound, he points in the direction; if he points to a stalker, that stalker is out. The object is to stalk right up to the individual, take something from in front of him, and walk away all without being heard. It is as much a game of patience as in primitive hunting technique - but it was enjoyed.

One of the most illuminating activities was a result of the fact that it was a failure, and that was making fire by friction. In hindsight, the types of wood were probably faulty. But the struggle and failure to create smoking embers gave an understanding and appreciation of the hardship and importance of maintaining a fire to our ancestors.

The only item that was not explored was making mud-bricks - but we will have plenty of time for that in the beginning of this school year - we will just not have the opportunity to sun-bake them.

-ICH Headmaster