Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 19

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We listened to The Early Greeks or Chapter 19 in the car, on the way to soccer practice. I brought along their clipboards, crayons, and worksheets. Alas, sweet five-year-old daughter refused to color. But my son did his work.

My husband assures me it is only a matter of time before our daughter will get with the program and obey more. After all, her behavior reminds us of our son when he was five. I hope my husband is right.

Since she is only in PreKindergarten, I did not lay the law down. I just let her look out the window instead of coloring, knowing she was listening to the story simply by being in the car with us. But, in all honesty, I don’t think I will invest in the CDs for volume 2. As useful as they can be, I think it makes more sense for me to read to them the stories while they color. Based on my experience this year, we have only listened to five, maybe six lessons in the car. The rest, I have read them at home.

The following day, I read the story to them again to give her a chance to work on her coloring and map. The whole process was a bit convoluted, as she wants to sit in my lap while coloring and I must juggle book, wiggly five-year-old in lap, and reaching for the tissue box (spring allergies are in full swing at our house).

The crafts seemed a bit too much for our energy level at this time of the year. I was delighted they decorated their Greek vase coloring sheet very nicely and we moved on to the next chapter. We are trying to catch up and finish this textbook by the end of the school year, which is about 40 days away.


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 18

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Life in Early Crete finally brings us closer and closer to Greece and Rome – my favorite part of Ancient History. We lead Theseus through the maze to fight the Minotaur and then we build a LEGO maze.

LEGO Maze and Minotaur

LEGO Maze and Minotaur, the first version

We forgot all about Ariadne’s yarn. Oh well. The kids got really fancy and built an even bigger maze. Then they replaced the rhino with a leopard and brought in a small toy person to represent Theseus. They came up with all sorts of stories. By now, I was not there anymore. This story got them playing and I went on with my day.

LEGO Maze, Theseus, and Minotaur

LEGO Maze, Theseus, and Minotaur

A few months ago, we made an erupting volcano; here’s the YouTube video. When we read about Thera, I reminded the kids of the experiment. Of course they wanted to make another one. I said, “Maybe another time.” I remembered how they kept pouring vinegar and baking soda onto the poor “mountain” and how they did not know when to stop.

LEGO Maze, Revised

LEGO Maze, Revised

We ordered some of the recommended books from the library. Atlantis fascinates my son very much, especially after watching a 28-minute LEGO movie about it, LEGO Atlantis. They found it on YouTube one day and have gone back to see it a few times since.

The Minoan Ship seemed too involved for a craft. Sculpture has never been my gift, so I stayed away from it.

With the coloring page of bull jumpers, we had this long conversation about boys and girls. The three figures look like men, but they have long hair. My daughter was confused. I pointed out their chests were bare and – um – they looked like men in that area. She still wanted to pretend that at least one of them is a girl. We gave her permission to pretend that way.

Narration efforts are still feeble, but we press on.


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 17

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Babylon Takes Over Again! or chapter 17 helped us remember some of the Bible stories about King Nebuchadnezzar. The kids knew the story of his golden statue, but not the story about his madness. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were also a new concept. The children drew them out of their own imagination. My daughter requested help, so I drew a ziggurat for her and let her decorate it with trees. My son drew an aerial view and then a side view of a mountain with all sorts of vegetation on it.

We did this chapter at bedtime, instead of our regular reading. They enjoyed it and I did too. We got it done.

They answered the narration questions well and I started to see the beginning of narration. I still have to teach them how to narrate, by giving them the beginning of the sentences in the activity book and allowing them to finish the thought. Most of the time they do it well. And by “they” I mean mostly my son, as he is the first grader and I direct my questions to him.

The coloring page with Marduk and Tiamat was deemed appropriate by a committee made up of teacher (moi) and principal (daddy). Our daughter thought Tiamat was actually an alligator at first. I asked them if the picture bothered them. They said no.

We opted out of the science project. I really don’t want more dirt and grass seed around. Am I getting lazy? A veteran homeschooling mom told me how a teacher gets transformed from August to April. In August, all the supplies are ready, there is a smile on the teacher’s face, and her energy level is through the roof. By April, smiling can seem difficult at times, the supplies are half used and nobody cares anymore where they are anyway, and the energy level has dwindled down significantly.

Um, I’m feeling it.


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 16

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The Return of Assyria, Chapter 16, showed me that my children enjoy these stories or, – shall we call them by their official name? – history lessons after all. We had struggled through chapter 15 and we had some attitude issues to deal with. Besides, I was busy putting together my first picture book for Kindle. Something had to give. I put History on hold for the past two weeks. Or was it three?

With Chapter 16, I decided to try something new: I read the chapter to them at bedtime. In Susan Wise Bauer’s description of this curriculum, she calls it “The book that delayed a thousand bedtimes” or something to that effect. It gave me the idea that, after all, the author went to great lengths to make history appealing to young children by using a story format. Why not use these for bedtime reading? Why not replace Spot, Max and Ruby, Clifford and the Berenstain Bears with the true stories of ancient civilizations?

Assyrian Siege Tower Craft

The Assyrians Are Coming! And yes, Iron Man is leading them in his slippers.

Instead of our books or library books, we read these two stories within this chapter. They loved being in my bed with their clipboards, crayons, maps and coloring pages. They listened intently. My son, the first grader, answered the review questions perfectly. Daddy walked into the bedroom while we were covering the review questions and enjoyed seeing how much our son knew about the Assyrians.  Continue reading »


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 15

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The Ancient Phoenicians, chapter 15, has been a convoluted chapter for us. First off, I remembered Carthage from when I studied Ancient History in the fifth grade and I looked forward to it. But we went skiing instead, as a family, the day we were supposed to cover this chapter.We called it a P.E. day.

Secondly, every time I tried to play the chapter in the car, to make up for lost time, the kids did not show an interest. I did not have the energy to enforce learning time (car schooling). It does take energy, at least for me, and some days I have it in limited supplies.

Thirdly, the weather has made the roads so bad, the library has had irregular hours and they have not been able to procure my ILL titles to read about this chapter this week.

Stack of history books

Our stack of 12 books from the library, to catch up on our history reading

But we persevered, despite more seeming setbacks.

The other day I got a screw in one of my car tires, and spent two hours in a mechanic’s waiting room. They were super busy because, as fate would have it, two of their guys quit that day. They did not charge me anything for patching the tire, because of my wait. I insisted I wanted to at least pay for their expenses. I told the shop owner I understand “overhead” and that I feel bad for not paying for something. He said he felt bad I had to wait for two hours.

Well, I had brought my knitting with me and it was not a total loss of my time. Of course, I was there with the kids. My son had brought a LEGO magazine to read and my daughter had her Hello Kitty coloring book and crayons.

Something happened inside of me while waiting there. On the way home, despite their protests, I told them gently that we would listen to Chapter 15 after all; that it was a short chapter and, afterwards, we would listen to Wizzy Gizmo, which was their initial request. They love Wizzy Gizmo… but we need to do our history lessons as well. And we did. I have said it before, these CDs are worth it.

When the library finally called me that they had my ILL titles, I drove over there and brought home 12 titles from our previous lessons. We are catching up with reading from previous chapters.

One project I want to do for the Phoenician chapter is the bread recipe, but there is no way I can do it this week. I have to prepare my daughter’s birthday party on Sunday.


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 14

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Chapter 14 deals with the life of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. The kids knew the story from their Bible lessons. This was very good reinforcement though.

I read while they colored. We made a Moses basket. Well, I made it. They painted it. Team effort, right?

It was not exactly easy, but I persevered. I know what you are thinking, that I have too much time on my hands. The thing is, I take time for things that matter. And the story of Moses is very dear to my heart – God used this story to speak to me about homeschooling a few years ago.

For some reason, gold paint really appeals to my children. Continue reading »


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 12

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Chapter 12 deals with the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. I read to them while they colored the brooch pictures. To my surprise, it really worked. I thought maybe it was just a fluke last time. But it really works. Coloring keeps them focused and they listen while I read.

We worked through the review questions and tried our best to narrate. Let’s just say, it’s a work in progress. But we shall not give up…

For our craft, we made gold color bracelets. Big mess, but worth it. My son enjoyed it so much, he decided to paint his hand and do a hand print in gold paint.

Painting a gold bracelet

Painting a gold bracelet

 

Gold Hand Print

Gold Hand Print

I discovered that the tube of tissue paper is impossible to cut the way they recommended in the book (first in half, then lengthwise). At least, for me, it was impossible. I found it easier to cut it first lengthwise and then in half.  Continue reading »


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 10

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We studied Ancient China, chapter 10 of The Story of the World Volume 1 mostly in the car. I knew the Story of the World CDs would come in handy. The kids enjoyed the story of the silk worms. They had no idea about how silk is made. I feel so privileged – all over again – to be the one introducing them to such facts about the world.

They did their mapwork. My daughter colored the page with Chin and his dad, but my son put it off. Again, I do not insist on coloring if he does not want to.

We read some of the books recommended. My local library did not carry these particular titles, but they got them for us in about a week through the inter-library loan program. Meanwhile, the children’s librarian brought us similar books which they did have. One of them actually had the same title as the one recommended by Susan Wise Bauer, i.e. “Ancient China,” and it made it confusing later on as I was returning both titles.  Continue reading »


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 9

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The First Cities of India was a delightful chapter. We listened to it in the car on the way to an appointment. The kids were intrigued by the story of the quail. A week later, I played the chapter again on another trip.

They colored their maps. I chose not to have them color the ceremonial mask. It looks a little scary.

Map Work SOTW

My daughter with her mapwork for Ancient India

My daughter colored the picture of the statue from Mohenjo-Daro, but my son did not. I am beginning to see a pattern here. I really don’t like to enforce coloring for a boy who is into drawing more than coloring. So I let it go.

We made little bricks out of air-drying clay and let them dry overnight.

Rolled Out Clay

Rolled Out Clay

Because I did not press their corners down, the bricks dried up with one or two corners tipped up, which made them unstackable. Oh well… I guess we can recycle them into math manipulatives.

Air-Dry Clay Bricks

Air-Dry Clay Bricks

But I have to say, this project would have been daunting, requiring a lot of patience. The bricks are really thin and it would take a lot of them to build a whole village. Just my $.02.

Air-Dry Clay

Air-Dry Clay

We enjoy our history lessons, but other things get in the way. We will have to catch up in the next semester. But if the next semester happens to be just as busy as this one, we will have to finish our history curriculum during the summer. We homeschool year round anyway.


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 8

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Chapter 8 deals with the Assyrians: Shamshi-Adad and the Story of Gilgamesh. If you don’t mind the subject of cruelty and dictators, then you should be OK with this chapter.

Other than that, this was a fairly easy chapter to go through because I decided to read to them only Gilgamesh the King (Ludmila Zeman) and not the next two books. I am not trying to be mysterious here. It’s just that Susan Wise Bauer has specifically asked us not to publish her reading lists, so I will not go into details about all the other titles.

Gilgamesh the King Book Cover

Suffice it to say that I learned the hard way to preview these titles and, as I looked at them, they just seemed so pagan and raw for my young kids, I decided they should be in middle school before reading such matter.   Continue reading »