CTG - Weeks 4 & 5

[Marie]

Weeks 4 & 5.

[mdfriederich]

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:54 pm
I thought making the map of the "Middle East Today" sounded challenging so I got my tracing paper out and traced the map on pps. 44-45 of ECC's Illustrated World Atlas, which is the map of South West Asia, and then I had to add on Egypt. It's an o.k.ish looking map. Because I thought this was pretty hard, I'm planning to copy it for my kids and they can label it and color it if they wish.

Looking forward to going to see the King Tut exhibit on Wednesday at the Chicago Field Museum!

[Lucy]

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:33 am

We did the Map of the Middle East several years ago but I just used the map that is behind the timeline pages and had the kids draw in the country borders that are there today. (In the photocopies it said you needed a map for Wed. but I think that was a mistake and meant for Thursday.)

Diane, I can see how you could draw a completely new map from scatch. I hope your kids appreciate all you do to make school and learning more fun and easier for them!

The only 2 that will be hard to fit in will be Afghanistan and Pakistan, but I think they may be considered part of Central Asia and not considered the middle east.

Good thing we are going back to ECC next year!

Peace and Grace,
Lucy
_________________
Wife to Lee
Mom to Twila 13 and Noel 11, MFW since 2002

[KimR]

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:50 pm

We decided to build our pyramid out of Legos since my ds likes them so much. After we finished, I ran upstairs to take care of some things. Eventually he called me down to show me his additions to the pyramid. He had added a valley temple, a pathway leading to the pyramid, and the best part...there sat our cat lying perfectly looking like a Sphinx! LOL!
I just HAD to share that with you guys!

[Suzq]

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:09 pm

We did the sugar cube thing yesterday as well and my kids said the same thing about it being a waste of sugar -- of course they were hoping the pyramid would not take up the whole box so they could try one lump or two in the tea we had after we were finished. Funny! I guess it is not a waste when you eat it yourself!

My son made a pyramid out of legos too -- he put jewels and a sarcophagus on the inside that we can just barely see when we look in the door.

We are very much enjoying MFW!!
_________________
Blessings,
Suzq (MI)
wife to dh 14 years
mom to ds(1995) & ds(1998)

"His grace is sufficient"

[Heather (WI)]

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:17 pm

I did the map even easier, and just looked up an outline map of the Middle East today online, and we labeled that!! ;o)

Hope this helps!!
_________________
Love in Christ,
Heather (WI)
Adventures, ECC, CTG, and RTR!!

[Tina]

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:54 pm

Hi: We did the map of the middle east today. It was neat doing it on the copy of the map that we have been using for ancient egypt and mesopotamia because the children were able to see how the "then" land is "today's" land. Drawing the boundary lines was a bit challenging but my older child (10) did it with confidence and understanding. My 8 yo ds needed some assistance with the boundary lines but could very much understand that ancient egypt was really right there on the Nile.

Good visual.

The sugar cube pyramid was fun to make. We also enjoyed a video by reading rainbow based on a mummy book by Aliki. The dc enjoyed that. It mentioned and showed the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and since we are so close to Boston (almost 2 hrs away, we live in MA) they are now asking to go to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to see the ancient egypt display. I don't know if I will make it all the way there, however, a smaller museum that is closer has some of museum of fine art's stuff on egypt displayed, and its a lot closer than Boston!

Enjoying this study!
_________________
Tina, homeschooling mother of Laura (1996), Jacob (1998) and Tucker (2003) In MO
"One of the greatest blessings of heaven is the appreciation of heaven on earth. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."--JIM ELLIOT

[ChristyH]

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:13 am

As I don't have CTG, I am not sure if it isn't already in the book basket.

It is DK Experience (series), Pyramid by Peter Chrisp. I saw it on the shelf at the library and thought it looked neat.

Posted Wed Sep 17, 2008 7:17 am by ChristyH

I am reading Egyptian Diary, The Journal of Nakht by Richard Platt, to the children as a read aloud for our Egypt part. It covers a lot of customs from that time really well and is a fairly quick read. Lots of fun pictures. It will take us about two weeks to read because I only read four pages a day.

I wanted to read the Golden Goblet but with reading Tanglewood's Secret it was just too much.

[Lainie]

Hi all,
So far our school year has provided a few "don't do as I did" moments. I hope my antics benefit someone out there.

We did our reed boat today. For some reason the simplified version listed in TM didn't register in my brain. We did the project in the Ancient Egypt Book. We bought the dried grasses at Michael's and they worked fine. What I didn't think about was the fact that dried grasses can evoke an allergic reaction. Working with grasses (and they got everywhere) and breathing it all in caused my throat to burn and close up a bit.

We cut our project a little short but it still turned out nice. I just wanted to give y'all a heads up if you had allergies to be careful. Allergies can be dangerous.

Here's pic of the boat.


It did float by the way- It was pretty hilarious. :)

[Julie - Staff]

Ugh! I can't find sugar cubes anywhere. If you couldn't find sugar cubes and you don't have any of those starchy noodle thingies on hand, then just what exactly does one build a pyramid out of? HELP!

Postby Julie in MN » Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:45 am
Legos
Wood blocks
The paper one in the CTG manual (cardstock)
Cardboard
Cans of soup
...

Postby Jenn in NC » Sat Oct 04, 2008 6:40 am
At the walmart in my area the sugar cubes were on the very top shelf and not so easy to see. And the box was smaller than I imagined it would be -- maybe that is why I had a hard time finding it?

I like Julie's lego idea

Postby mamaofredheads » Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:52 am
Agreeing with Jenn. My Walmart had them, but in a hard to find spot. That was over a year ago for us, but I'm pretty sure I had to ask an employee and they found them for me.

[Julie in MN]

I have a suggestion regarding one of the recommended books in week 4 - The Golden Goblet.

My son & I recommend that you do NOT read the back cover -- or virtually any description of the book -- because all of them are "spoilers." The back cover of our version told about events that happen in chapter 10! You will definitely lose a lot of the drama if you read almost any summary of this book. So you might want to avoid descriptions & even tape a piece of paper over your back cover saying "spoiler alert!"

My son read this book in 7th grade with a local homeschool boys' book club. He really enjoyed it. It does have false beliefs, but none of them seem to really have any power. To ds, they were clearly of no use to the characters.

Also, ds needed the first chapter to be read aloud. He needed help getting into the unfamiliar setting, characters, and names. But then, he's not much of a natural reader. Starting the book together helped really "hook" him :o)

[Julie in MN]

Week 4 - Coloring Pages

When we came to the coloring pages in CTG, I allowed my son several options. He is not a coloring type, so he could --
- color only the brown sections of the page (or the most prominent color)
- use a "coloring stick" to color large swabs of the page (a colored pencil without the wood around it)
- make his own page by typing up similar information that he had learned and adding a google image or a photo of something he'd done along the same lines as the topic of the coloring page.

Week 5 - Pyramids

My son made the pyramid in the manual, but then he made pyramids out of everything he could find in the house -- wood blocks, legos, duplos... We took a photo of his Valley of Kings.

[LA in Baltimore]

Our science experiment on testing the strength of a pyramid vs. a cube went well today.
Two things I would change for next time:
1) We used the reusable plasti-tak mentioned, but it was very stiff. (Couldn't find the brand I used to
use, so got what was available at the local store. )
Next time, I'd use a more pliable material to connect the straws. Maybe playdough?
and
2) I'd use thinner straws. We had a few different size straws and the thinner straws worked better.

Happy pyramid building!

[Teresa in TX]

Ds and I looked at the description of the reed boat and neither of us were that enthused with it. I remembered that when they had gone through the ancients at a younger age, we had made a model of he Nile River in one of those really big aluminum pans. You fill it with potting soil or dirt, then you wedge out a Nile River in the middle, long ways. After that, you lay down foil in the river bed and make sure you make the Delta part at the end. Then you pour pebbles into the river bed to make sure and hold down the foil. Then you sprinkle grass seed just along the edge of the Nile, to represent the flood area. Then every few days you "flood" the Nile and see how that grass grows along the Nile. We are going to make mini reed boats and some pyramids. I'm planning to put a top layer of sand along the top. We're trying it tomorrow. I'd like to find some mini palm trees to fill in here and there.

[LA in Baltimore]

FYI - Sugar Cube Pyramid...
A 1 pound box of sugar cubes will make 3 pyramids (with 6 X 6 base stated in TM) with some cubes left over for eating.
If you increase the base to 8 X 8 you can make 3 pyramids with 2 boxes of sugar.

[Julie in MN]

Help! My mind is a blank and I can't find a pattern online no matter how many different ways I google it. My son is driving me nuts with wanting to make these crowns. Did anyone make a pattern or have a link to one or did I miss something in the books/TM? I am usually pretty good at winging it but not today. Thanks!

We had a pattern from a book. Maybe your library would have it? It was called "Ancient Egypt Activity Book, Hands-On Heritage, by Edupress, by Robin Hamilton."

I just happen to have my CTG guide handy (with the note above), since we are reviewing some things during Bible time. Maybe later I can dig up a photo. It really was two simple pieces of long construction paper, one red and one white, which were both put one-inside-the-other in the end (like wearing 2 paper Burger King crowns inside one another).

edited to add:
Some photos of the crown(s) can be found using google images
http://www.bensoncountynews.com/images/ ... terman.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f169/ ... ber070.jpg
http://www.dignubia.org/maps/timeline/bce-3400.htm
http://www.youregypt.com/ehistory/histo ... edynastic/
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... _crown.svg

You can also find ancient relics showing the two crowns being combined, but they always seem to include immodest women & such

But again ours looked a little more like Burger King crowns, with a long piece of construction paper wrapped around the head and stapled together
http://www.davealpert.com/blog/wp-conte ... n_Full.jpg

[cbollin]

Hi Debra,

I know we winged it because that was the week we were packing things and moving from Indiana. I have daughters, so we have play crowns all over the place. So, we just tossed some red construction paper around one of them. then in a moving box they went. sad but true.

take a look at page 16 of Ancient Egypt for some ideas.

Take white paper and fold it over and put tape or staple. Leave a gap similar to p. 16 of Ancient Egypt (oh I hope those page numbers haven't changed in all of these years... it's the page called From Pharaoh to Laborer

do similar thing with Red paper.
*******
if that picture doesn't help, perhaps it doesn't have to be "egyptian" style. You might google on
paper crown pattern

and enjoy something that way. I see that something from "akidsheart" dot com has something with Purim crowd pattern.
*******
but it can be as simple as a 8.5 x 11 piece of paper and just folded over the head in order to make a crown like the ones shown in Ancient Egypt book. no pattern needed.
-crystal

[TriciaMR]

You can check what we did at my blog below...

I looked in the ancient Egypt book and decided to just make it simple.

-Trish

[angelsoup]

I feel like the cavalry has come to the rescue! Trish, a picture is worth a thousand words. Tell your kids I learned something from their school. Thanks.

I wanted to share what a friend of mine sent to me. She doesn't use MFW. I hope this helps someone like it did me.
Debra

• http://www.egyptologyonline.com/pharaoh's_crowns.htm
  You may have already seen this above site. I don't have a crown pattern in MOH, but I did look in my activity book for SOTW, Volume I and this is advice for the White Crown of Upper Egypt...
  
  1. Wrap wax paper around your head to make a cone shape. Tape the edges, then cut off any excess.
  2. Scrunch an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper into an egg shape.
  3. Push the ball of paper into the peak of the cone, and gently mould the waxed paper around it. This should result in a cone with a flattened top and an indent at the bottom of the egg shaped top.
  4. Cut the bottom of the cone so it fits nicely on your head. Then, cut an area around the ear.
  
  Sorry...there is no photo in the book!
  Brooke

[tjkluse]

We're having such a good time with CtG that I've been trying to really photograph our experience so the kids can look back and rememebr. Whe the guide book suggested dramatizing the uniting of Egypt the kids didn't seem overly enthusiastic until I mentioned that we could video tape it. Well, that was the ticket. They thought it was a great idea nd they took off running.
I told them they had the remainer of the day to figure out what they wanted to do and film it. I was really impressed with what htey came up with. They even added little jokes to their 'script'
My older son did most of the filming and then edited it. It was his first experience with iMovie. It's here if anyone is interested in taking a look:

http://nowboardinggate3.blogspot.com/20 ... egypt.html

Enjoy.

[doubleportion]

I can't find sugar cubes. Did anyone have luck finding them in a strange out of the way place? I have looked at our local Walmart and Kroger. I don't have a huge amount of time to run and look at too many other places. Other ideas? Did others do this with something else, with success? BTW I have a dd but we do have some legos. I have thought of doing it with legos but not sure what size. What is the size of a sugar cube?
Edie

Schnucks in Memphis had one brand.

another idea --- do you have unit cubes from C. Rods, or other brand of math cubes? You wouldn't glue them together of course... but those work too. My kiddos did both this year. But agreeing with you --- around our neck of the woods, there were harder to find.

-crystal

hmmm no Schnucks here. That's okay.

I have a small C Rod set. I will have to look at it and maybe secretly make one and see if I have enough.

I thought they were on our grocery shelf but tucked below or above where I usually look at baking type things? Or was it the coffee aisle? I'll have to look again when I go, but you might try asking a knowledgeable person at a grocery.
Julie

I looked in both those areas here. Rather lacking in variety in our small town even in big chains store that would carry much more in larger cities.

At our local Kroger (King Soopers), they're in the baking aisle over by the chocolate chips, baking powder - maybe one shelf down from the top? The bags of sugar are also on that same side, only on the very bottom shelf. Ours were the G&H brand pink, blue and white on the box. I always ask a staffer for help if I can't find something.

They cubes are about 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch.
-Trish

Thanks! That's the info I needed!
We will try another medium and see what we come up with.
Thank you all!


Edie

[jasntas]

Hmm...My local grocery store (Save Mart) carries them in two locations actually. They are in the baking goods isle. They are on a lower shelf. And they are on the coffee isle. On a higher shelf. I originally had a hard time finding them too. Our Wal Mart didn't carry them either.

We are not in CTG but used them for a science experiment in ADV. Funny my dh used them for his coffee when we were finished with them and I just discovered we would have been able to use them again for an igloo for ECC. And now I know we will need them again in CTG. At least I know where to find them now.

I hope you are successful at finding them locally as well.

[RachelT]

Hi! We had a lot of fun with pyramids in Week 5! We could never find any sugar cubes locally, so we used Legos to build pyramids - which the children were more than happy to work on while I did some reading aloud to them! I've posted pictures of these and some of the experiments that we did about pyramids, too, on my blog. Just click on the link below to find them. We love true "hands-on" learning time!

http://rachelsreflections-rachelt.blogspot.com/

[Lizzy]

I just finished reading the Tanglewoods Secret suggested reading book. I never would have picked this book up off the shelf, had never heard about it. It was the most amazingly wonderful book. Such a wonderful message at the kids level about faith, accepting Christ and love. I was choked up reading towards the end. Thank you for the recommendation! I will definitely be passing this one on to others. What a treasure.

[pollysoup]

I wanted to share this link to make an Egyptian Double Crown simply (week 4 day 2). I just guessed at the pattern and it has turned out well.

[ search YouTube for History Projects: Make an Egyptian Double Crown schoolebooks ]