The Medes and the Persians brought a sigh of relief over all of us. With Cyrus, we finally could say, “Here is a great king, who loved and respected his people!” We talked about how the Bible mentions Cyrus as the Anointed of the Lord. My son exclaimed how nice a king Cyrus was.
Six bags for six puppets
The first story, of course, was a bit tricky. A grandfather who plans to kill his grandchild? Rather cruel and unusual. But we soldiered through. I noticed that if I don’t make a big deal out of it, they just move on.
Showing off Cyrus, the paper bag puppet version
I prepared six brown bags for puppets to act out the story. They decorated one and decided they would decorate five more for the next five days. Well, I don’t like projects that stretch for days. Besides, I cannot imagine myself directing a puppet show with lines like, “Take my grandson and kill him!” or “Shepherd, the king sent me to kill this baby out here, but I will not. I will let you do it. And if you don’t, you will be punished…” Last but not least, I asked myself at what point a craft project becomes busy work. One brown paper bag puppet is a great craft. Two may be stretching it. But six? Even if each child made three each, it would be busy work in my book.
We played the Conquer Mesopotamia Game. Take it from me… If you want to play the Conquer Mesopotamia Game, definitely print it out enlarged, as directed in the Activity Book.
The chess pieces were too big for the board
As you can see, our chess figures were way too big for the 8 1/2 x 11 page I printed it out on. Even when we switched to small LEGO pieces and a pencil eraser, we still had a hard time moving around the board.
Better choice – LEGO pieces and a pencil eraser
We got to about place #20 before they tired of the small page. My son ran to get Sorry. I had a phone call and excused myself. When I came back, they were arguing about how to play Sorry. I declared a recess and sent them outside.
Conquer Mesopotamia Board Game
Thus ended a very enjoyable history lesson.
lol- I love your “I declared a recess” – I can completely relate. 🙂 Wish I had read the instructions before I printed my too small board also (which we used mini littlest pet shop on).