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 Hatshepsut, 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 DVDs (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 computer 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....

*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.)

*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!