Friday, September 19, 2008

History Odyssey

One thing I added this year was history, which has been a whole lot of fun so far. I'm using Story of the World - Ancients, which starts out with ancient nomads in the Fertile Crescent (6000 BC) and works its way up. I also use History Odyssey, which provides a "lesson plan" of sorts to go along with SOTW and we do these neat things called Hisory Pockets, which is all sorts of cutting out and coloring and making picture dictionarys and stuff like that. It's very hands-on and interactive, and all of us just have a great time on Thursdays, a.k.a. History Days. In fact, yesterday, we did history for two and a half hours! With NO COMPLAINING! Amazing.

On the left, Declan is demonstrating how the ancient Sumerians sailed down the rivers to trade goods. On the right, Reilly is showing just how much strength it takes to staple card stock to a popscicle stick. It's a full body event!

On the left, Reilly is working on her picture dictionary. On the right, Declan is engaging in a very entertaining puppet show about two ancient Sumerians who got married and had to kiss (several times!) and then sail on their boat down the river to trade things. Actually, I think he may have said that they ended up living in Tulsa. *shrugs shoulders*


Usually, we start school at about 8:30 and we're done by 11:30 or 12:00. I like this, because I like to be done before lunch; I find that it is very hard to regroup after lunch and get back into the swing of lessons. But, since we got so involved with history this Thursday, we had to finish up after lunch.
Luckily, the after lunch activity was a fun one! Dress up like ancient Sumerians and weave on a hanging loom!



One thing that cracked me up while we were "weaving" was that Reilly mentioned that the men back in that time had the "easy" work! This led to a discussion of how, exactly, it was easier to go out and kill a deer or farm the land then it was to weave the cloth to make the clothes. All of which led, of course, to discussing just how much easier we have it NOW!

It was a great, great day!

4 comments:

Heather the Mama Duk said...

Looks like awesome stuff! That weaving is nifty.

Tisha said...

I'm glad you're enjoying History. It looks like a lot of fun and they are definitely enjoying it.

Mama Teaching 3 said...

FUN, FUN, FUN, and FUN!

Sherri said...

Fun stuff!! We're studying some of the same stuff for the second year in a row. Next year I will have to get back into US History so they don't forget it!