"Hello Salamis, I am a Greek trireme" (to the tune of "Hello Seattle").
We worked on timelines today, and he made a magnificent trireme that was about 400 years long!
Who Was the Pharaoh of the Exodus?
It’s pretty easy to figure out a timeline for the patriarchs of the Bible. Assuming the Fall at about 4000 B.C. , one can easily piece together the details from genealogies given in the Bible. Coordinating secular and sacred history is, however, a little more difficult, but Truth is Truth and everything will fit together when we find it. (See a related post here.)
Ramses II usually gets the nod as the Exodus pharaoh because of several Biblical scriptures stating that Israel sojourned in Egypt for 430 years. But this idea never seemed right to me. Why do we never hear about such a big event in Egyptian history? And why (my husband always asked) didn’t Ramses die in the tenth plague when firstborn sons were killed?
Then one day I read Galatians 3:16-17 which specifies 430 years from the Covenant (before Abraham went to Egypt) to the Law (at the time of the Exodus). That’s more than 200 years different than if you count 430 years from when Joseph went to Egypt. Based on those numbers, I knew the Exodus was during Egypt’s 18th dynasty—the dynasty that drove out the Hyksos pharaohs of Joseph's day. The 18th dynasty not only “knew not Joseph,” but hated him and his associates. I couldn’t pinpoint a specific pharaoh though, because there are so many discrepancies with the dates.
That’s where I left it, but I shared my conclusions with my friend Heidi and she discovered more when she was studying Egypt with her family. Heidi determined that Hatshepsut must have been the pharaoh’s daughter who adopted Moses, and that Thutmoses III was the pharaoh of the Exodus. I’m sure she’s right, and here’s why:
Hatshepsut—a.k.a. “His Majesty herself”—is known as the female pharaoh who locked her young stepson away with the priests while she (who was supposed to rule as his regent) seized power and ruled for 21 years. I hadn’t thought about it before, but it would take a woman with such chutzpah to adopt a Hebrew baby at a time when Egypt was killing all the Hebre
w boys. Hatshepsut never had a biological son (only two daughters), but she named her adopted son Moses after her father, mighty Thutmoses I. It makes perfect sense that she was preparing Moses to rule next.
But then Moses left (to Midian). A short time later Thutmoses II (successor to Thutmoses I and husband of Hatshepsut) died. That left Thutmoses III—son of a harem wife and practically a commoner himself—as Pharaoh. Hatshepsut’s young daughter married this half brother, and Hatshepsut was Dowager Queen and regent—for awhile. But she wanted more. Perhaps she was hoping and waiting for Moses’ return. In a bloodless coup d’etat, she seized all power and proclaimed herself Pharaoh of the Two Lands.
By the time Moses did return 40 years later, Hatshepsut was dead. Thutmoses III had been sole Pharaoh for many years and had created a huge empire: setting out every spring to quash rebellions and to conquer new lands. In spite of his might, however, he certainly felt threatened by Moses who was the true heir. Thutmoses III blustered and bullied to hide his insecurity. But it took the tenth plague—where his own firstborn son died and Thutmoses III didn’t—to prove he was an imposter and to shatter his pride. And then the Israelites were gone.
Thutmoses III had no more conquests following the Exodus; after 17 years of empire building, he stayed home. He had to, since his army was at the bottom of the Red Sea. He did, however, have a big temper tantrum and demolished all of the shrines and monuments which Hatshepsut had built. (Many of these had pictures of Hatshepsut with a little boy.) After a long reign, Thutmoses III was followed on the throne by Amenhotep II—his second son.
Ramses II usually gets the nod as the Exodus pharaoh because of several Biblical scriptures stating that Israel sojourned in Egypt for 430 years. But this idea never seemed right to me. Why do we never hear about such a big event in Egyptian history? And why (my husband always asked) didn’t Ramses die in the tenth plague when firstborn sons were killed?
Then one day I read Galatians 3:16-17 which specifies 430 years from the Covenant (before Abraham went to Egypt) to the Law (at the time of the Exodus). That’s more than 200 years different than if you count 430 years from when Joseph went to Egypt. Based on those numbers, I knew the Exodus was during Egypt’s 18th dynasty—the dynasty that drove out the Hyksos pharaohs of Joseph's day. The 18th dynasty not only “knew not Joseph,” but hated him and his associates. I couldn’t pinpoint a specific pharaoh though, because there are so many discrepancies with the dates.
That’s where I left it, but I shared my conclusions with my friend Heidi and she discovered more when she was studying Egypt with her family. Heidi determined that Hatshepsut must have been the pharaoh’s daughter who adopted Moses, and that Thutmoses III was the pharaoh of the Exodus. I’m sure she’s right, and here’s why:
Hatshepsut—a.k.a. “His Majesty herself”—is known as the female pharaoh who locked her young stepson away with the priests while she (who was supposed to rule as his regent) seized power and ruled for 21 years. I hadn’t thought about it before, but it would take a woman with such chutzpah to adopt a Hebrew baby at a time when Egypt was killing all the Hebre
w boys. Hatshepsut never had a biological son (only two daughters), but she named her adopted son Moses after her father, mighty Thutmoses I. It makes perfect sense that she was preparing Moses to rule next.But then Moses left (to Midian). A short time later Thutmoses II (successor to Thutmoses I and husband of Hatshepsut) died. That left Thutmoses III—son of a harem wife and practically a commoner himself—as Pharaoh. Hatshepsut’s young daughter married this half brother, and Hatshepsut was Dowager Queen and regent—for awhile. But she wanted more. Perhaps she was hoping and waiting for Moses’ return. In a bloodless coup d’etat, she seized all power and proclaimed herself Pharaoh of the Two Lands.
By the time Moses did return 40 years later, Hatshepsut was dead. Thutmoses III had been sole Pharaoh for many years and had created a huge empire: setting out every spring to quash rebellions and to conquer new lands. In spite of his might, however, he certainly felt threatened by Moses who was the true heir. Thutmoses III blustered and bullied to hide his insecurity. But it took the tenth plague—where his own firstborn son died and Thutmoses III didn’t—to prove he was an imposter and to shatter his pride. And then the Israelites were gone.
Thutmoses III had no more conquests following the Exodus; after 17 years of empire building, he stayed home. He had to, since his army was at the bottom of the Red Sea. He did, however, have a big temper tantrum and demolished all of the shrines and monuments which Hatshepsut had built. (Many of these had pictures of Hatshepsut with a little boy.) After a long reign, Thutmoses III was followed on the throne by Amenhotep II—his second son.As great as it is to finally have all the pieces fit together, it’s even better to see how this strengthens Moses’ position as a type for Jesus Christ. I already knew that both were deliverers, both were lawgivers, etc. Both of them escaped death because of kings who killed baby boys. But add to that that both were adopted into royal lines where they should have ruled an earthly kingdom. Both of them had younger brothers who wanted (and tried) to rule in their place. It’s this testimonial to the life of Jesus Christ that is best of all. (And the fact that I can teach it right along with our history.)
Candlemas
One of our favorite holidays is Groundhog Day. Did you know that it’s about halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox? So the sun is growing stronger (hence we have the tradition of looking for our shadows). It’s also the day in the Catholic church when they bless the candles for the coming year.
So this is the day that we’ve chosen to make our own candles.
Every year we gather the wax that drips from burning candles or candles whose wicks are gone. Anything usable we sort by color. Then we melt it all and make new candles from old. Some years we dip candles, if we’re ambitious. This past year we used small milk cartons and cardboard juice cans as molds to make pillar candles. We bought our candle wicking at Paper, Scissors, Stone.
Happy Candlemas 2010! I hope you make some beautiful candles.
Our 2009 Christmas Spiral
Somehow our Christmas spirals never turn out the way I plan them, and this year was no exception. It was, however, a happy success.
The weather cooperated for once, so I was able to make a BIG spiral that looked beautiful! (Our house is small, so we have to make our spiral outside under the carport. This year's didn't have to be totally under cover, though, because we didn't have rain or wind.)
Several of D's friends helped me carry and arrange the branches. They got so excited just looking at what we were making that I impulsively invited them to come. Seven to nine year olds seem to enjoy this tradition more than anyone. One of the boys did end up joining us.
My older kids were not extremely enthusiastic about another spiral (this is our third), so I told them they didn't need to walk but I would appreciate their singing. B--my 25 year old--not only wanted to walk the spiral, but he made himself a torch! (I'm sure you can see where the unexpected comes in here!)
The evening turned out to be very fun. I talked a little at the start about how we were in the season when the light was coming back and how we would soon celebrate the birth of Jesus--the Light of the World. I think only the little boys were listening though, because everyone was anxious to get started.
In spite of their misgivings, everyone walked the spiral except for Ju who was taking pictures. My grandson even did it twice. (These little ones can really feel the wonder of the season and the candlelight!)
While they were walking, we sang some reverent Christmas songs--"Still, Still, Still"; "Stars Were Gleaming"; "Shepherd's Carol." When B skipped around with his torch, we sang "Torches Here, Jeanette Isabella"! (That is actually one of my favorite songs.)
We finished by singing "The Lord is my Light" and going in for spiced hot cider.
Studying Egypt, 2009
I started this unit with things my children already knew about—pyramids and mummies. After about a week, we continued by using the book Pharoahs of Ancient Egypt (by Elizabeth Payne) as our outline. This book discusses some of the more prominent pharaohs and the archeological discoveries related to them. I added a few other things—trade routes in connection with Hatsheps
ut, Egyptian religion in connection with Akhenaton, Biblical Joseph during the Hyksos’ reign, etc.
I really enjoyed a DVD we happened to find about Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten (Nefertiti Resurrected). Archeologist Dr. Joann Fletcher believes that a damaged mummy—found in the Valley of the Kings—may be Queen Nefertiti. There is evidence that this woman died from a stab wound, which is consistent with the fact that Nefertiti had enemies in high places. There is also evidence (from the positions of her mummy’s arms) that this woman ruled as pharaoh! Fletcher has theorized that Nefertiti was renamed Smenkhkare, the pharaoh who was Akhenaten’s co-regent and who ruled for three years after Akhenaten’s death. The evidence is compelling!
ut, Egyptian religion in connection with Akhenaton, Biblical Joseph during the Hyksos’ reign, etc.One of our books for this unit was The Curse of the Pharoahs by Zahi Hawass (Egypt’s current Director of Antiquities). Hawass has an engaging, instructive style. After reading his book, we started noticing Dr. Hawass everywhere—in our DVD’s (not always named, but we recognized his face) and mentioned in other books. Then I started to wonder… it seems that this man has a lot of energy…and ego. One book I read talked about how American researchers were “kicked out” of Egypt because Zahi Hawass didn’t like what they were learning about the Sphinx! I’ve decided this is one of those cases where we learn more than we planned on: not only about Egypt, but about the “politics” of archeology.
Along those same lines, Motel of the Mysteries by David McCauley is a must-read so that you learn not to believe everything the archeologists might say.
I really enjoyed a DVD we happened to find about Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten (Nefertiti Resurrected). Archeologist Dr. Joann Fletcher believes that a damaged mummy—found in the Valley of the Kings—may be Queen Nefertiti. There is evidence that this woman died from a stab wound, which is consistent with the fact that Nefertiti had enemies in high places. There is also evidence (from the positions of her mummy’s arms) that this woman ruled as pharaoh! Fletcher has theorized that Nefertiti was renamed Smenkhkare, the pharaoh who was Akhenaten’s co-regent and who ruled for three years after Akhenaten’s death. The evidence is compelling!
Another excellent DVD was Discovering Egypt (Video Visits series). The feature title shows mostly modern-day Egypt, but the “Cities of Ancient Egypt” option has com
puter imaging that turns the ruins into what they may have looked like anciently.
Finally, my favorite part of this block was our foray into archeoastronomy. Robert Bauval has written a series of books about the ancient Egyptians and how their immense knowledge of astronomy guided their building of pyramids and temples. This is FASCINATING! I no longer accept the premise that those pyramids were just a bunch of tombs.
Now I want to visit the land of the Nile :)
The Math Gnomes Visit Egypt
(First math block for grade 2)
Since my older kids were studying Egypt, D was naturally very interested in pyramids and mummies. It was time for the math gnomes to take a trip! D decided they would travel by rocket.
Following is a brief summary of our block, to show how you can make any theme fit specific math concepts....
Since my older kids were studying Egypt, D was naturally very interested in pyramids and mummies. It was time for the math gnomes to take a trip! D decided they would travel by rocket.
Following is a brief summary of our block, to show how you can make any theme fit specific math concepts....
*When the gnomes arrived, they decided to visit the Giza plateau. Those 3 giant pyramids are awesome! We decided to see how much treasure could fit into each one. The littlest pyramid can only hold 9 treasure bags. When we got more than 9, we had to make a bundle of 10 and move it to the next pyramid. We tried all different numbers of treasure bags (Gnome Add was a big help), until D understood place value.
*The pharaohs lived in Egypt thousands of years ago. D is writing all the numbers from 1 to 1000 on a LONG strip of paper. (I never realized how much the writing would help with place value, but it was a good eye opener.)
L (now 10th grade) asked why she didn’t get to learn math this way!
*When you have big numbers (years, stones in the pyramid, workers to build the temples…), it helps to add and subtract in columns instead of lines. D learned to write his problems a new way.
*And when Gnome Add has too many numbers in one column (pyramid), he can carry over to the next. Thus we learned renaming. (We did this with manipulatives too.)
L (now 10th grade) asked why she didn’t get to learn math this way!
Mesopotamia Unit, 2009
This was a challenging unit to put together. All of the books at the library had pretty much the same information, and none of it was very inspiring (or very high-level). Besides the Epic of Gilgamesh, the only literature I could find to read aloud was a short story about the Tower of Babel that I had cut out of Omni magazine ages ago! (It wasn’t totally relevant, but provoked lots of good discussion!)
Finally there was the question of the “whole to parts” approach. What does that look like for ancient history? I decided to begin this unit from an archeologist’s point of view—considering clues to the culture then adding each subsequent discovery to see the big picture. We didn’t study the religion, daily life, education, government, and other aspects of the culture separately, but considered them as we moved along the chronological history of the area. I specifically didn’t include much about Biblical history—except when it intersected that of Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria—because we are already familiar with those stories.
Following are my weekly plans. Throughout the unit each of the kids worked on a flapbook to record what he had studied. And one final note: the Spirit told me I needed to talk about Babylon in the scriptural sense (worldliness), not just in the historical sense. So we spent several days just on that.
Week 1
*Archeologists found one civilization on top of another in the Fertile Crescent.
Trace the clues to the existence of Sumer (ancient stories, clay tablets…).
Learn about discoveries and prominent archeologists (Wolley, Koldeway, Windler, Laird).
Standard of Ur—what are the pictures showing?
Finally there was the question of the “whole to parts” approach. What does that look like for ancient history? I decided to begin this unit from an archeologist’s point of view—considering clues to the culture then adding each subsequent discovery to see the big picture. We didn’t study the religion, daily life, education, government, and other aspects of the culture separately, but considered them as we moved along the chronological history of the area. I specifically didn’t include much about Biblical history—except when it intersected that of Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria—because we are already familiar with those stories.
Following are my weekly plans. Throughout the unit each of the kids worked on a flapbook to record what he had studied. And one final note: the Spirit told me I needed to talk about Babylon in the scriptural sense (worldliness), not just in the historical sense. So we spent several days just on that.
Week 1
*Archeologists found one civilization on top of another in the Fertile Crescent.
Trace the clues to the existence of Sumer (ancient stories, clay tablets…).
Learn about discoveries and prominent archeologists (Wolley, Koldeway, Windler, Laird).
Standard of Ur—what are the pictures showing?
Other artifacts: clothing / tools / jewelry / sundials…
Try writing with a stylus in wet clay!
Try writing with a stylus in wet clay!
Vocabulary: ziggurat, cuneiform, tel
Tower of Babel
Read aloud “Tower of Babylon” by Ted Chiang (fun!)
Ziggurats related to astronomy and time-keeping
Read aloud “Tower of Babylon” by Ted Chiang (fun!)
Ziggurats related to astronomy and time-keeping
*Mesopotamia is called the “Cradle of Civilization.”
What makes a civilization?
Look at geography of the region
What makes a civilization?
Look at geography of the region
--Make a map of physical places and early cities.
Vocabulary: alluvial, delta, meso-potam-ia (related to the word hippopotamus!)
Babylonia = Shinar (Gen 10:10)—lower end of Tigris & Euphrates valley / city: Babylon
Assyria = Asshur—Tigris valley north of Babylonia / city: Ninevah
Sumer, Akkad, Ur
Vocabulary: alluvial, delta, meso-potam-ia (related to the word hippopotamus!)
Babylonia = Shinar (Gen 10:10)—lower end of Tigris & Euphrates valley / city: Babylon
Assyria = Asshur—Tigris valley north of Babylonia / city: Ninevah
Sumer, Akkad, Ur
Week 2
*The Epic of Gilgamesh is Sumerian literature.
Read aloud. (It took about three days.)
*The Epic of Gilgamesh is Sumerian literature.
Read aloud. (It took about three days.)
*The Sumerians have many gods.
Identify diety—relationships, what they stood for, Sumerian vs.Babylonian names
Vocabulary: polytheism
Week 3
*City-states become empires
Mesopotamian government
Identify diety—relationships, what they stood for, Sumerian vs.Babylonian names
Vocabulary: polytheism
Week 3
*City-states become empires
Mesopotamian government
Organization of society
Sargon of Akkad—first “empire”
Ur-Nammu—Third Dynasty of Ur
Hammurabi of Babylonia —written laws (Hammurabi’s Code)
Vocabulary: city-state
Sargon of Akkad—first “empire”
Ur-Nammu—Third Dynasty of Ur
Hammurabi of Babylonia —written laws (Hammurabi’s Code)
Vocabulary: city-state
*Many nations, in turn, control the Fertile Crescent
Assyria (Senacherib), Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar), Persia (Darius)
Add to timeline.
Memorize poem “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron
Week 4
*Babylon has everything the World can offer.
city walls / Euphrates River / Ishtar Gate ….
Seven Wonders of the World—Hanging Gardens
Make watercolor paintings of the hanging gardens
Assyria (Senacherib), Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar), Persia (Darius)
Add to timeline.
Memorize poem “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron
Week 4
*Babylon has everything the World can offer.
city walls / Euphrates River / Ishtar Gate ….
Seven Wonders of the World—Hanging Gardens
Make watercolor paintings of the hanging gardens
*”Babylon” is the Lord’s symbol for worldliness.
actual city
Rome (Revelation / I Peter 5:13)
The World (D&C 1:16, 35:11, 64:24, 86:3, 133:14)
Sing “Ye Elders of Israel"
actual city
Rome (Revelation / I Peter 5:13)
The World (D&C 1:16, 35:11, 64:24, 86:3, 133:14)
Sing “Ye Elders of Israel"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
