The Valley of Snakes

Last week it was the rise of Islam and ancient Baghdad. We read Sinbad in the Valley of the Snakes. This is our classroom transformed into the Valley of Snakes. Pretty cool and easy, too. Just cut a circle of construction paper, color with patterns and cut into spirals. Hang from the ceiling and you've got a snake fest.

Origami

Studying China, Korea, and Japan is a great reason to go all out with a great meal. We'll be cooking a Japanese meal this week. Mmm, Udon. We studied India last month, too, but never got to the curry.
Here is Ethan with his very cool origami cranes.
Konichiwa.

I trade off Tuesday afternoon playdates with my friend Heather who is another homeschooling mom. Her son Mikey is about Ethan's age and they get along really well. She told me about this funny conversation she overheard between the two of them which proves we are definitely raising misfits:

Ethan: Mikey, have you studied Ancient China yet?
Mikey: Yeah.
Ethan: Did you hear that only the emperors were allowed to wear...
Both: YELLOW! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Ethan: That's weird! Why do you think they did that?
Mikey: I don't know maybe they really liked bananas! Ha! Ha!

Homeschooler humor.

Byzantine Mosaics

So this is our project for the Byzantine Empire. Beautiful Mosaics adorn the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul so these are our smaller, but no less lovely versions. We also made paper dolls of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora. The mosaics can go in our garden now.

and a quote from Emma:
Jacob looks nice in that picture. He's making his happy face that I like to see.

My Bible

This is my standard work for homeschooling. It is a guide to a classical education and I refer to it almost daily. I don't ascribe to the unschooling method but want a challenging active curriculum that encourages growth, skills, and thinking. I found it in this excellent book.
I appreciate the tone of the book as well. The author is intelligent and straight forward about the drawbacks of public schooling without being fearful, condescending, or apocalyptic. The final chapter of section III is a short essay called "Some People Hate Homer." It is a statement on why free people need to be educated, period. If we don't know how to think, we cannot govern ourselves, personally or politically. It is very good reading.
Another good read is "The Day of the Amateur" by Hugh Nibley which is for those of you who think only a "professional" is only qualified to teach. We could extend that thinking to just about anything. Only a doctor can heal, only a seminary teacher can be know the scriptures, only a teacher can teach, only a counselor can listen. I reject that notion. An excerpt from that article can be found here.

The Fall of Jerusalem

Okay, so this was really not a fabulous activity on my part but it was easy and we got the story down pretty well. We played out the destruction of Jerusalem with blocks and Playmobil Roman soldiers. Very dramatic. Our house is there to the left of Emma in Bethlehem.

The Celts

This week we learned about the Celts. We read some Celtic Legends including Beowulf and made Celtic dragon brooches. Me thinks that all the kids will remember is that sometimes they battled naked and hung the disembodied heads of their enemies over their doors to honor them. We also dressed in Celtic cloaks with their brooches. I think they should have been naked. Would have made for a much better picture.

Mount Olympus

We finished studying Ancient Greece a little while ago. This is the Mount Olympus we created in our play room complete with the houses of Aphrodite, Hera, Hermes, Apollo, Athena, and Zeus, of course up at the top.




And before you accuse me of teaching revised history, we are well aware that Ethan is in a ROMAN chariot. They just wanted it for the picture.