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Wednesdays Around the World~ when sickness hits the family

Written by Joy
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Wednesdays Around the World~ when sickness hits the family

I am truly enjoying Wednesdays Around the World.  I love seeing others link up with what they have been learning.  This week, I will be highlighting what others have been learning in history.  You see, just when I think we are in the groove with school, something happens.  My children and I ended up sick!  I ended up taking a child to the doctor yesterday because he just was not improving.  He is now on an antibiotic and breathing treatments, as needed.  It is a nasty Upper Respiratory infection.  We are finally on the mend and will begin a full day of school tomorrow.

Now on to sharing what others have been learning in their history lessons.  Lindsay, from Bytes of Memories and her son studied about Joshua, The Battle of Jericho and Rahab.  I loved how creative Lindsay got with this activity.  To help explain the lesson, Lindsay and her son built a city of blocks and used little playmobil men.

Joshua and the Battle of Jericho from Lindsay at www.bytesofmemory.com.

Just head on over and visit Lindsay, her son to see how they learned about The Battle of Jericho!  I know I will be re-doing this lesson with my kids just so we can do her activity!

Ticia and her kids from Adventures in Mommydom learned about what it was like in the Trenches of World War I.  I love how Ticia takes the time to share with her kids that war is not as glamorous as what we are lead to believe.  I love the imagination used, by using pillows and cushions to build the trenches and then using rolled or balled up socks as mortars.

Ticia and her kids building trenches.
http://adventuresinmommydom.org

Be sure to visit Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom to read the full lesson!

I am looking forward to diving back into our history to see what new lessons we can learn.  I would love to have you share with us what you have been learning as well.  Just link up below!

****disclaimer~ This link-up is not officially affiliated with Bright Ideas Press but is my own project. I am a customer and fan.  

2013, homeschooling, Wednesdays Around The World, , ,

Wednesday’s Around the World ~ Athens, Sparta, Manasseh and The Powers of Mesopotamia

Written by Joy
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Wednesday’s Around the World ~ Athens, Sparta, Manasseh and The Powers of Mesopotamia

I am really enjoying the Wednesday’s Around the World link-up.  Not only do I love history and geography, it also helps hold me accountable for our lessons.  Athens, Sparta, Manasseh and The Powers of Mesopotamia is what we have studies this last week in our  Mystery of History: Volume 1 book.

We began reading about The Rise of Athens and Sparta.  Sparta was a very strong city-state.  They trained men, women and even children to do battle.  They didn’t allow people in and out of their city because they feared their neighbors.

Athens was also a large city-state, but they were a little different than the Spartans.  They enjoyed cultural things.  They loved the arts! The people of Athens enjoyed music, drama and were even known for their love of pottery.  They decorated the pottery they made with all sorts of designs.

For our activity, we were to draw a design of our own on a piece of pottery.  I could not find a terra-cotta clay pot, but did find some that were already painted a solid color and fired.  I let the kids choose their color of pot and they also decided to use colored permanent marker instead of a black marker.  I love my kids imaginations!

Claire choosing her colors

Once they chose their pot and markers, they started drawing their designs.

being creative and making their own designs

Claire and Samuel both decided to draw trees and flowers on their pots.

finished pottery designs

The finished products turned out great!

Next we read about King Menessah, the son of Hezekiah.  We learned that he was nothing like his father.  He was a very bad and evil king.  The sins he committed were horrible, including using the Temple that Solomon built as a place for God, and he put his own idols to worship, in there.

We also see a change though after 22 years.  King Manasseh was captured by the Assyrian Army and taken to Babylon in hooks and chains.  While he was in prison, Kind Manasseh began to pray!  He really prayed to God.  God heard his prayers and forgave him.  Once King Manasseh was released, he spent the rest of his life trying to fix all that he did wrong.  He tried to turn his kingdom around for God.

The next lesson we studied was about “The Powers of Mesopotamia”.  Two groups, the Assyrians and the Babylonians were in Mesopotamia.  They were very similar to Sparta and Athens.  How?  The Assyyrians were like Spartans.  They didn’t trust anyone, and were very war-like.  They were terrifying to other places around them.  The Babylonians were similar to the Athenians.  They were very educated in math.  In fact, they created several things that we still use today!  The number of minutes in an hour and the number of degrees in a circle!  It is so amazing at how smart these people were with the little they had!

Now it is your turn to link up and share what all you have been learning about in history and geography!


****disclaimer~ This link-up is not officially affiliated with Bright Ideas Press but is my own project. I am a customer and fan.  This post also contains affiliate links.

 

2013, homeschooling, Wednesdays Around The World, , , , , , , , ,

Rocky Mountain National Park ~ field trip

Written by Joy
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Rocky Mountain National Park ~ field trip

One of our favorite things to do as a family is to do field trips and go riding around our area to look for new things to do.   We love to have our own little adventures. Recently, we rode to Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park.     Estes Park was having a winter festival with lots of games, chili and a mac-n-cheese cook-off’s and music.  There were also a lot of vendors peddling their homemade wares.  We truly had a wonderful time.  It was quite cool though, the wind was blowing a lot.  We decided that we would leave and ride around a bit before it got too dark.

Rocky Mountains National Park

Once we left the festival, we realized that a Rocky Mountain National Park entrance was right around the corner from where we were at.  We decided to buy an annual pass to the park so that we can explore more of it later.  I can’t wait until it warms up and we can go hiking on some of the trails.

Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park

As we passed through the entrance, the scenery was just beautiful.  We even spotted a herd of elk just off the road.  Of course it was easy to see considering there were about 10 other vehicles pulled off and stopped in the road.  We joined right in to watch the gorgeous creatures.

Elk in Rocky Mountain National Park

The elk just stood there and continued to eat.  Every now and then, one would look up and around to see if they were still being watched.

Herd of Elk

There were two elk that decided to start head butting each other.  Those pictures didn’t turn out well.  You could definitely tell one was an older elk putting a younger else in his place!

Elk running down the road

As we left the herd of elk and continued on down the road, we saw an elk running beside the road.  God’s creatures are so amazing!

Sun setting on the Rocky Mountain National Park

As we continue on the small loop, the sun was starting to set.  The clouds were just gorgeous.  God sure does know how to paint the sky!

cool clouds over the Rocky Mountains

We were on just a small loop of the Rocky Mountain National Park.  We decided to just take this small loop since it was getting dark.

beautiful sunset over the Rocky Mountains

Riding around on adventures like this is a favorite pastime for our family.  It is time we get to explore God’s creations and a time we get to spend with one another.

I am linking up with Tonya over at The Traveling Praters for Best of the USA Blog Hop.  I can’t wait to see all the places highlighted in this blog hop!  I hope you will go visit the others who have link-up!

2013, family, homeschooling, , , , ,

Teaching Creation Thursday ~ Noah’s Ark and The Flood

Written by Joy
Teaching Creation Thursday ~ Noah’s Ark and The Flood

This weeks Teaching Creation Thursdays is brought to you by Dr. Derek P. Blake.  He is sharing with us his thoughts and a story on Noah and The Flood.

The story of Noah’s Ark and The Flood has always fascinated me.  It is a story of righteousness, redemption, and also a story of destruction and the result of sin. It isn’t just a cute little story of a man building a boat and saving animals by having two of every kind come on the boat while it rained a little bit.

Indeed, it is a real story about a real, righteous man who found favor with God. It is a story about a man who obeyed, and did that, which in the eyes of worldly wisdom was nonsensical. Through his obedience God saved this one family who truly loved Him, as well as a remnant of animals to start fresh on earth.  Yet also, it is a story of sin, and the result of sin: death. A lot of people and animals died because of the wickedness of mankind.

 

Stop by Teaching Creation Thursday on Creation Conversations.  What do you think about Noah’s Ark and The Flood?

2013, Creation, homeschooling, , , , ,

Wednesday’s Around The World ~ Ancient Native Americans

Written by Joy
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Wednesday’s Around The World ~ Ancient Native Americans

Welcome to another week of Wednesday’s Around The World.  This week the lesson I am highlighting is about the Ancient Native Americans. It is lesson 48 in the Mystery of History: Volume 1 book.  While I have been enjoying studying about people in ancient times and they are calling this lesson the Ancient Native Americans, I am truly excited that we have shifted to North America for a lesson.  I am so amazed that at the same time Hezekiah was ruling Judah, there were actually people living in what we now know as the United States.

The Ancient Native Americans have been labeled and put into 4 different groups.  The first group are known as the Paleo Indians.  They are the earliest known group.  Not too much is known about this group of Indians.  It looks like they moved around a lot, following the herds of animals for food and their skins.  They think they also had light weight tools because they did travel so much.

The second group is the Archaic Indians.   They seemed to be settled a little more than the first group, but staying in one place for a while.  They also dried some of their meat and grew grain for food.  They also had tools that they used for carving.

The next group is known as the Adena Indians.   This Indian tribe actually farmed their land.  They also made pottery to store the food they made.  The Adena’s are also known for their burial mounds that they built.

The last group is known as the Hopewell Indians.  They took the Adena’s idea of the burial mound and really went over the top with it.  Their mounds weren’t just the typical round mounds, they actually made it a work of art.  They would shape their burial mounds into different shapes.  Some are shaped into animals and are as long as 1600 feet!  That is truly amazing!  The Hopewell Indians were farmers who grew corn.  They also grew tobacco and made pipes out of the shapes of animals.

Some of these mounds are still standing today.  There is one in Ohio that is called the Great Serpent Mound and there is also one in Wisconsin that is in the shape of a turtle.  What is so wonderful about these mounds?  They have withstood the weather for for than 2000 years.

My kids enjoyed the activity we did for this lesson.  They got to play with model magic clay.  The suggestion from the book was to make an animal pipe using a straw and the clay.  However, the kids and I decided that they would make different animal shapes like they made the burial mounds out of.  My kids chose to make a bear, turtle and snake!

Turtle, Snakes and Bear Burial Mound shapes

While these were just simple small shapes, can you imagine making a burial mound 1600 feet long?  That would take a lot of digging and dirt moving!

We had several to link up last week and I thought I would share them with you today.

Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom had a lesson on The Call of Abraham.  They went outside and built an alter like God had told Abraham to do.

Deborah at The Paper Maid shares about the listening guides that you can find for Mystery of History: Volume 3 at the yahoo group.  Her boys will read their lesson and fill the pages out.  The lessons will sometimes include maps.  I did not know about this and look forward to checking in on this for my oldest daughter.

Lindsay from Bytes of Memory is talking about the Shang Dynasty and the Silk Secret.  Did you know that the Chinese people kept how silk was made a secret for over 3000 year?  She also has her son doing a neat little activity with yarn!

Be sure to stop by and visit these ladies.  They did a wonderful job sharing about their lessons.

Now for this weeks Wednesday’s Around the World link-up.  We would love to see what you learned this week!  Just follow the link-up below!

****disclaimer~ This link-up is not officially affiliated with Bright Ideas Press but is my own project. I am a customer and fan.  This post also contains affiliate links.

2013, homeschooling, Wednesdays Around The World, , , , , ,