Flooding the Nile - Week 3

Flooding the Nile for the third time tied nicely into our scince seed theme for the week. It was especially nice to be able to examine how seeds we had planted previously were growing. At the end of week 2 you can see the water has receded pretty significantly, we've moved the pyramids because we learned they sit on the west side of the Nile (this picture makes them look like the east but the mountains are in southern {upper} and the Nile Delta is in northern {lower} Egypt), and our crops still didn't grow very well...

 Here we are discussing the issue(s) of our crop failure...

 Then we had a revelation!!! Actually, this was pretty goofy especially on my part. Egyptian farmers didn't mind the floods because they brought rich silt to their fields. It was okay that the river flooded the fields because it occurred at the same time every year and farmers waited until AFTER the flood to plant their crops. Yes, it took us 3 tries to realize we needed to flood the Nile first and then plant our seeds so they didn't wash away. What a lesson in using thinking skills and not just doing what is habit! I guess because I'm so used to planting and then watering I didn't even stop to think about what we were doing. Glad we had this (not so brilliant) aha moment!

 After a bit of discussion regarding planting the seeds after the flood, we decided it would actually make even more sense to wait until the water had an opportunity to recede for a day or two before planting. I'm telling you there was super Lueker brainpower at work this week! lol :) Here the girls are planting their grass seed (again).

 Our finished product - if our crops don't grow well this week, I give up! :)

Science - Seeds

Because of all the yard and garden work we've been doing around here it seemed timely to spend a week studying seeds and how they grow for our science lessons. This tied nicely into our Story of the World theme as well because they periodically include lessons on ancient agriculture (we discussed ancient agriculture once before when we learned how Nomads began farming and we built the Shaduf as an early irrigation system).

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Here the girls are looking at about half a dozen different types of seeds and disscussing the similarities and differences between them. Due to a science experiment that will appear in a different post, we were specifically looking at the coats of each seed and how hard or soft they were.

Just for fun, we planted some sunflowers and tomatoes from some kits we had received (from Grammy I think). I'm not sure about the purpose of these tiny pots as the plants are already exploding out of them less than a week later!

 After reading "The Carrot Seed" we went outside to see how our own carrots were doing. After a week in the ground they were beginning to surface.

 The corn was beginning to pop out of the ground as well

 These are the three books which prompted our week long lesson on seeds. The first was a suggested reading from Story of the World (it's too much for the girls but I find it helpful to read as background knowledge to discuss with them as is appropriate and fits into our other lessons). The second was a random library pick by Kennedy but fit perfectly into our science theme (especially since we had just planted carrot seeds in our garden). The third was a book I selected to enhance their learning and a bit more on the girl's level than "Ancient Agriculture."

Chicken Mummy - Day 4

In order for the mummification process to work you have to make sure your chicken stays dry. That said, you have to check and change the salt mixture relatively frequently. This is especially true during the first week. I changed it myself the first time on Day 2 because the day got away from us. While doing it on my own, however, I realized the whole point of this project is for the girls to understand the time and care involved in creating a mummy so it made no sense for me to be doing it without them. That said, when Day 4 rolled around and the day had gotten away from us again we got busy after bath time with the assistance of Jackson (and Daddy) in our pjs.

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Jackson was one happy baby to be included in this project!

 

 Egyptians used spices to assist in the preserving process as well (maybe the smell process :). We forgot to add spices the first day and I didn't want to do it without the girls on Day 2 so Day 4 was the first time we included spices (we decided on cinnamon and cloves). No matter what we're doing all three kids always love to smell spices and herbs so they all had to check everything out before dumping it in. 

 Mixing

 Once we had our natron mixture ready with spices we set it to the side and pulled our chicken out of its bag. You have to brush off all the old mixture from the chicken before you can place it in the fresh mixture. Surprisingly it really didn't have much of a smell. Certainly not what you would expect from an entire chicken that had been sitting out for 4 days. Kennedy was pretty excited to get back to work on our chicken mummy.

 Reagan, not so much...

 Reagan agreed to help pour our natron mixutre into the empty bag as long as she didn't have to do anything with the chicken. She refused to even put on the gloves. I guess she thought I might trick her into touching the chicken if she was wearing gloves? lol :)

 My little embalmer Kennedy, however, got right to work filling the chicken 

 You may have noticed Jackson disappear from the pictures. He was one unhappy baby when the dumping and mixing of ingredients was over. Part of the problem was he had decided to begin dumping it all over the floor... It was funny because I typically try to do projects during his afternoon naps so we can avoid any major issues. Things started out so well this particular evening I was beginning to think well maybe he's old enough to begin including in these sort of activities. Or not... Poor Jackson, it's just hard to understand all the rules! Luckily Daddy was there to bail us out. He got Jackson calmed down and then they came back to watch the girls complete the process.

 Reagan finally decided maybe she was brave enough to pour a little on top of the chicken once it was in the bag and practically buried.

So far things appear to be going well with our chicken mummy. No major issues as of yet, but we do have almost 2 months to go...



Story of the World Narrations

One of my favorite activities and recommendations as a way to study history using the Story of the World is doing narrations with the girls. They dictate a narration to me for each topic we read. The narration includes what they thought were the most important or interesting facts from the lesson and suggested reading(s). As they get older they will write the narrations themselves (so this is a great activity to ease us into writing assignments). After we've written the summary the girls illustrate what we've discussed. The narration process allows me to assess what the girls have learned or what we might need to review. It's also a perfect way to channel and capture their artwork in a fun way. Finally, it provides a fun way to review what we've learned in prior weeks because the girls enjoy looking at their previous work. 

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In the narration below Reagan drew an Egyptian (in red) with a tool in her hand for writing hieroglyphics. She also wrote her name in English and then used a chart provided in our activity book to write her name using hieroglyphics as well as cuneiform. These are two of the earliest known forms of writing. The girls weren't super excited about this chapter so we moved along relatively quickly instead of spending the week on it as I had originally planned. For some reason the idea of drawing hieroglyphics really frustrated Reagan. I'm not sure why because I presented it as a fun drawing/coloring activity that I would be happy to provide assistance with. Kennedy on the other hand thought it was a great idea. Once Reagan calmed down and saw what Kennedy and I were doing she declared it to be lots of fun! You can see some of her final efforts of both forms of writing on this page. 

 This is a narration Kennedy did this week on the First Summerian Dictator. We discussed how King Sargon united all the city-states within Mesopotamia into one country, Akkadia. I thought her idea of drawing one big circle to depict the united country with many little circles to represent all the cities was pretty clever. I also thought she did a good job of drawing the Euphrates (on the left) and Tigris (on the right) rivers. The person in green (Kennedy's favorite color) is King Sargon and all the little red people are his army.

Woodland Park

We met some of our BHLC friends at Woodland Park on Monday morning. I don't think I've ever had my camera along when we've played at this park before, but Reagan refers to it as the "purple playground" because of the colorful play equipment (which I still didn't manage to get a picture of somehow). I was worried about the weather but the rain held off and it turned out to be great because we had both the skate park and playground entirely to ourselves.

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Missy K was coming along oh so slowly so Travis rode out to meet her and encourage jer to keep going. They were so cute together! :) 

 Racing thru the puddles together - I love action shots!

 Missy K is truly my daughter (in college one of my best friends nicknamed me Puddles because I was always trying to convince people to come jump in the puddles with me). Kennedy had the best time repeatedly jumping in all the puddles she could find and especially this big one.

 As I was taking the pictures of Missy K Travis came tearing down the skate ramp (accidentally). Talk about an action shot!!! lol :) Amazingly he hopped right up and went right on playing. What a sport! :)

 Maddie looks like such a pro on her scooter!

 Maddie and Travis were so sweet corralling Jackson and keeping him from running too far away. Jackson thought it was hilarious to run around with the big kids.

 Missy K wanted me to take this picture of her eating a snack

 Nothing like enjoying a good snack with a friend :)

 Missy Reagan wasn't feeling the best that morning but she eventually decided to try out Kennedy's favorite puddle too.

 Seeing all the big kids in the puddle finally convinced Jackson to give it a try

 We found these enormous leaves when we went over to the playground. Kennedy took them to share with Reagan since she wasn't feeling well.

 This was a very brave little squirrel. He kept coming all the way up to Jackson's shoes and then would dash back. I'm sure he was looking for food and as Kelly pointed out he's probably seen enough people at the park to realize Jackson was his best bet for a quick and easy meal.

 Missy K was excited when a ladybug landed on her shoulder

 Since Jackson didn't come thru with a meal for this squirrel while we were playing on the playground he helped himself to Travis and Maddie's graham crackers!

 We all ran after the squirrel and watched him run up the tree with the graham cracker and enjoy every bit of his stolen treasure. Then I heard a sweet little voice behind me calling for the squirrel. I turned around to see Kennedy had run back to our bag and pulled out a package of peanut butter crackers and a couple of bananas to share with the squirrel. Unfortunately for Kennedy the squirrel no longer felt any need to perform or be sociable. lol :)

 While watching the squirrel, Reagan found another little bug on a leaf.

 Poor, poor Jackson... he stood and stood under the tree holding up this cracker waiting for the squirrel to come back down and enjoy another snack. I guess life is all about timing! lol :) Next time we go I'll have to arm Jackson with crackers to begin with!

 Reagan and Maddie riding back to the cars

 Missy K wanted to be included in the picture too so I took one more of all three sweet girls

Thank you for the park invite! We had a great time! We had never tried the skate park before but that was so much fun! We'll be headed back here in the future to have lots more fun!