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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Ancients

I cannot recommend The Story of the World highly enough. We look forward to history more than any other lessons or reading! The corresponding activity guide is a gem.

Archaeologists Dig for Clues (generous quantity of information packed inside a child-friendly picture book!):
Cave Painting:

Hieroglyphs (love the included stencil!):

Model of the Nile River:
Flooding the River Banks to Water the Crops:
Egyptian Gods and Goddesses (a level 2 easy reader!):

Egyptian Tatoos (from Dover):

Ancient Egypt Treasure Chest (a real treasure chest of crafts and activities, including the papyrus and hieroglyph stamps and Egyptian necklace shown below):

Hieroglyphs on Papyrus (The Boys' Names):
Cunieform on Clay (Levi's Name):
Hand-beading an Egyptian Necklace:

Just the tip of the iceberg!

Or would that be the tip of the pyramid...


The Great Sphinx
Giza Plateau, Cairo.
Khafre's pyramid in the background.

11 comments:

Dreams of a Country Girl said...

you are an amazing mother and teacher....i will be a using you as a HUGE resource in the fall

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

Heidi said...

I'm tellin' ya~ just get the activity guide and you'll be set for at least a year!

Dreams of a Country Girl said...

i just got it in the mail today.....

Heidi said...

Hey, what timeing! Have you looked through it? What do you think?

Renee said...

Heidi,
What made you choose Story of the World over Tapestry of Grace? Or did you consider TOG? Just curious. I considered both and I think we will use TOG in the fall, but I haven't seen either in person. The Egyptian unit looks like a blast!!

Anonymous said...

Heidi, totally off-topic, but you're so creative I thought maybe you could help with this.

I posted this on the WTM board, but you might overlook it! I'm going away on a 2 week vacation with my MIL. The kids (dd10, ds9, dd5, ds2) will miss me being gone for 14 days. I'd love to pre-write daily letters so they have something from me daily.

That could be a little boring. What could I do to spice it up? I'm thinking of giving them a special gift halfway through (initialized necklace, bracelet, or something like that), also I could include a picture with the card...anything "crafty" and special I could do? Thoughts? :)

Heidi said...

The Good~ To be completely honest, I never even took a look at TOG. I read TWTM before Susan even wrote SOTW. I loved her writing and knew that I would like her history series. It was so highly recommended after it came out. I just decided to go with it, and I'm not disappointed.

I know that many people really like TOG, especially now that it has been redesigned. If I've heard any complaints, it's that it is too hard to follow and do everything. But I have no direct experience with that.

I like the fact that SOTW is a great spine and is very flexible. I like being able to go with my own schedule and pick and choose the activities/extra reading/narrations, etc. that I want to do or have time for. Reading the book chapters themselves takes very little time and feels very informative, simple, and engaging.

In the end, you just have to pick what you think will work best for you! Wish I could give you a good review of both!

Caralyn~ I posted a bunch of ideas on the boards. Hope you like some of them! :)

Anonymous said...

Heidi, I knew I could count on your for ideas! They're great. I've got to start working on them, since there's 14 days x four children. Yikes! lol

BTW, my MIL is taking me on a Mediterranean cruise! Originally she wanted to take my two SILs plus myself on a cruise (this was a number of years ago), but then my FIL broke his foot, which meant she asked one SIL to go to an alraedy-planned trip to Cuba. Then she wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise, and since the other SIL lives in northern Alberta, it made sense to ask her (plus I was still having babies at that time, and the SILs are much older than me). Now it's my turn, and if I have to say (humbly, of course), I'VE got the BEST trip!!!!!!

Heidi said...

Oh my goodness, Caralyn! That sounds amazing. Yes, I think you definitely got the best trip. A Mediterranean cruise is one of the top trips on my list.

My hubby and I went to France (and a little Germany) for 10 days when Levi was almost 1 1/2. I though I was going to die! He started talking about traveling again, but it is going to be a while before I am able to leave the 3 boys. We want to do a bit of traveling with them as well.

Fun. Fun. Fun. I am so excited for you!

Tricia said...

hello Heidi! I found your blog at Todays Creative Blog, and I'm so glad I did! It's so lovely and inspiring. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that you home schooled and were studying ancient Egypt. I home schooled my two daughters, (now married and in their 20's.) and they still talk about how much fun they had with our Egypt study :)

Aja Jenise said...

Hello Kim! I am just cruising around and found your blog through another... well isn't that original. Anyhow, we too use the Story of the World and just finished some of the Egyptian history. I was very excited to see the ideas and projects you created for that theme. Thanks for the inspiration... I WILL be back here soon!!
Aja