Monday, September 29, 2008

Today in School


We have been studying Ancient Civilizations. Embree & Reeves both can actually locate on a Map the Nile & Egypt, the Tigris & Euphrates rivers & Mesopotamia, India & the Indus Valley, and the Yellow River Valley of Ancient China. They have been so excited to learn of all these civilizations...can tell you about nomads in the Fertile Crescent and how to make a mummy (we actually have a small chicken on the kitchen counter mummifying as we speak...6 weeks & counting...more on that in a week or so!)

Today we began a week of study on Ancient Africa (not including Egypt...it has so much to cover it is handled on its own). We talked about how the Sahara Desert used to be fertile and then became arid & dry, separating the villages in the north of Africa from those in the south. We began reading Anansi the spider tales and we made African paper beads.

Later this week we will be reading more myths, making African instruments, and making a African feast for dinner on Friday evening...chicken with figs, papaya rice, fried plantains. I'll let you know who eats and who goes to Subway after the kids go to bed!

While both kids are enjoying our history lessons, Reeves seems to really connect! There are lots of battles and tyrants. He's very good at map reading and wants to delve more deeply in many subjects than I originally plan. He's beginning to venture into reading on his own and has picked out books on warriors and myths...particularly interested in the Minotaur! Also, he's quite adept at math...whizzing through his own 1st grade work. I've noticed that if Embree asks a question about her own math, Reeves often shouts out the answer!

Next week we are back into Egypt for awhile and I'll be posting about or final preparations of the chicken mummy. Needless to say, Embree is thrilled!!!

2 comments:

Aunt Kathy said...

What a good picture of Reeves! It is sooo hard to catch him. This one captures the spark in his eyes. He is obviously engaged in learning and enjoying what he is doing.

sandie said...

Reeves gets more handsome every day. I knew he was smart and so pleased to know he is enjoying school.

Granny