Week 4, Ancient Egypt

This week began our travels back in time to ancient Egypt. We will spend quite a bit of this year studying Egypt's history. So far, it's been fascinating! In our history studies, we have learned about life in Ancient Egypt - how they farmed, where they lived, and how they dealt with the Nile River floods.
(Here they colored pictures of an Egyptian tool called a shaduf which helped move water to the fields)

We learned about how they traveled on the Nile, using the current to go one way and the winds to go the other way. It made for very easy travel. We made these little reed boats one day as a craft.

We studied about the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in 3100 BC by King Menes. The girls had a great time acting out this story! I'm sure they will always remember it!

In science, we studied pyramids. The girls made pyramids and cubes out of straws to see how a pyramid is stronger.

We also drew pyramids one day and tried to make them look 3D.

As a read aloud right now, we are reading The Golden Goblet. I wasn't sure if it would keep their attention, but they are LOVING it! They beg for extra chapters to be read. We got through 3 chapters yesterday because they kept wanting more and more. They keep trying to solve the mystery in the book and decide what they would do in the main character's place! I love seeing them take a real interest in the story. It really gives us a good insight into life in Ancient Egypt.

In art, we are still learning the basics as we are beginning this 4 year study. One day this week we were practicing how to draw circles. To be honest, this is probably our least favorite subject of MFW, but it's short and only 2 days a week so we are plodding through. We do lots of other arts and craft type of activities to satisfy my creative kiddos, so I figure we can get through this. I think it's going to be a good thing in the long run and really teach them a lot about the techniques of HOW to draw things, as well as teach them about art history.

In music this week we continued our study of Vivaldi. We listened to part of his Four Seasons piece - Spring. Next week we will continue that. They notebooked about what they had learned about the life of Vivaldi to include in their history notebooks.

We also watched Kaylin's dance recital piece from a year ago because they danced to the Four Seasons. Kaylin's group was Fall, but the whole piece was included in the recital. How fun to relate something they remembered from real life to what they were learning about Vivaldi!

Of course, we did our other studies also. They are all seeming to do very well in Math this year, which I am excited about. Annlee has caught on quickly to division and Kaylin (gasp) is LOVING fractions! Maryella had her first real "challenge" with Math this week but after a few minutes she got the concept of estimating and rounding and was doing it in her head with ease.
We are moving right along in Language Arts as well. Kaylin is reading a book about Pharaohs right now that's on a pretty high reading level and Annlee is actually enjoying reading a Flat Stanley chapter book about his adventures in Egypt. It's on a 4th grade level, and even though that's a little under her actual reading level, I'm just glad she's reading! Maryella is still coming along with her reading. She had a very good day yesterday where she really worked hard and had a great attitude. Reading time went smoothly for the first time in a while.
They are all still working through their Rod and Staff English books and WriteShop curriculum. Kaylin and Annlee have been studying how to include humor in their writing and we've had a few quite funny days, to say the least. Maryella is learning about biographies (she's read about Helen Keller and Clara Barton so far) and is in the process of writing a short little piece about herself. I just love this list of things she came up with for what makes her special...
I am special because...
I am a preacher's kid.
I love elephants!
I like to do art.
I love to eat sweets!

We are progressing in All About Spelling and Kaylin and Annlee are almost done with book 3. We will start book 4 in about a week and a half, I think.
The girls are all enjoying Rosetta Stone Spanish on the computer. They are all doing pretty well. The older two are moving pretty quickly through it.
Their favorite part of the day is probably practicing guitar. I love listening to them working at that!
They've done an awesome job learning the books of the Old Testament. Even Elianna can sing the song that we've learned. I shold probably record that! Although, I still haven't figured out how to get my videos on here.
And I guess the last thing we are learning is our Greek Vocabulary. So far, we've learned biblos (book), photos (light), sauros (lizard), and graph (to write or draw). We will be adding one more every week.

And because of the nature and freedom of homeschooling, we are taking off next week for another family beach vacation. This one won't be quite as long, as we need to get back for the girls' dance classes, church activities, and a dental appointment, but it will still be fun! I hope everyone has a great week and may God bless you!