Little Explorer's International Night

Our local homeschool group, Little Explorers, held its 5th annual International Night last week. It was huge success! We had 14 students representing 9 countries. The students put together displays including reports, time lines, maps, hands on projects, costumes and more. One of the high lights were the photos and video from two students who had recently been to Italy and Greece.

The night started off with a pot luck dinner. Each family brought a traditional dish or two from the country they studied. The food was AWESOME! Then the children went on a world wide scavenger hunt. Each child submitted questions about their country that could be answered from the information on their display. Everyone had a great time visiting each display and answering all the questions. A few even brought their scavenger hunts to be graded! We ended the night with a trip around the world where all of the students brought their passports to be stamped by all the attending countries.

Above is the girls display about Ancient Greece. You can see the Minotaur Maze and the Greek Pottery they made. They included a timeline, map and lots of information about daily life. One of the most interesting parts of their display was on all of the Greek gods and goddesses which they then compared to the God of the Bible. I wish I had gotten a good picture of both the girls in their costumes. Maybe I will have to have them pose for a shot here at home.

Above is the display on Ireland. Below is another display on Greece. This family was recently in Greece and had tons of wonderful pictures and an awesome video. We should all be so lucky to visit the countries we studied.


And then there was the display on Mexico.


And finally the whole group!

Everyone did a wonderful job. It was a ton of fun. Thanks to all the guests who came and made the evening even more of a success.

The Minotaur and a Maze

The girls have been having a wonderful time studying Ancient Greece. They have especially enjoyed the mythology and hero stories. One of their favorites was the story of the Minotaur and Thesus. They both have always enjoyed mazes and I think that was the allure here. They thought it would be fun to make their own labyrinth for their friends to try out at our homeschool group's international night. It was a big project with a lot of little detail, but it was a lot of fun too. Below you will see some of the construction steps they went through.

Above you can see Sarah cutting pieces for the walls. She had previously draw out the maze on the paper, and then cut along the lines into a piece of corrugated cardboard. The wall pieces slid into the slits in the cardboard.

Here Hannah is hot gluing the joints of the walls together. Earlier in the day she had painted them. If anyone is interested in making their own maze, I suggest you paint your cardboard BEFORE you cut your wall pieces. We learned the hard way and had to take the wall apart, paint it and put it back together. It was a project just to keep the pieces in order so the maze would fit back together.

Here are Thesus and the Minotaur in the finished maze. Sarah made the pieces from pictures she found on the Internet and dowels. You can move them through the maze quite easily.

Here is the completed maze. It really is cool and not to easy to solve.

Here is a supply list if you would like to give this project.

• Lid of a copy paper box.
• Piece of Corrugated Cardboard the same size as the box top
• Thin Cardboard (we used cereal boxes)
• Box Cutter
• Paper Cutter
• Scissors
• Paint & Brushes
• Dowel
• Hot Glue Gun
• Card Stock

A hint for drawing a maze. Use two different color crayons the thickness you want your path to be. One color will be the solution. The other color will be all the wrong paths. Sarah did this and then covered it with another piece of paper, taped both pieces to the window and traced all the paths. This was what we then used to cut the paths in the corrugated cardboard.

Greek Pottery

The girls have been studying ancient Greece for both TOG and our local homeschool group's International Night. Here they are making Greek Pottery, only the pottery is old plastic containers and paper mache.

The girls tried a wide variety of plastic containers in all shapes and sizes to get a form that closely resembled some of the pieces of ancient Greek pottery pictured in there school books.

Paper macheing the forms was messy and a lot of fun. This step took a couple of days as we let the pieces dry overnight between the layers.

Once the paper mache was dry it was time to paint. Once again the girls looked a books and online photos to help them decide on a design.

Sarah's pot on the left depicts much of the sea life that was such an important part of Greek culture and survival. Hannah's pitcher has a geometric design. While messy and time consuming this was a great project. The girls really enjoyed it and the results are terrific! Great Job!

Indian Food

We thought it would be neat as part of our study of India to try some Indian food. None of us had ever had Indian food, but there is an Indian Restaurant in town that gets rave reviews. So we figured we would give it a try.

We decided to get a vegetarian appetizer sampler. These were actually quite tasty. There were four different varieties. Vegetable Pakoras (fresh-cut vegetables, deep fried with chickpea flour), Aloo Tikki (potato patties with mixed vegetables deep fried in chickpea flour), Vegetable Samosas (deep fried mild turnovers, stuffed with potatoes and green peas) and Paneer Pakoras (homemade cheese mixed with nuts and shredded potatoes, deep fries with chickpea batter)

Next we tried two of the Indian breads. Roti, a thick wheat bread baked in the oven and brushed with oil, is shown above. We also tried Nan, an unleavened bread similar to pita bread. I personally liked the Roti, but the girls liked the Nan better.
We ordered a lunch special because it came with Dal (lentil) soup and rice. The rice was well rice. Everyone liked it. The lunch special the girls picked was Sagg Vegetable Tikka. This is spinach, mixed vegetables, chunk of white chicken mixed together with a little cream and curry. Well, I think the girls couldn't even get past the site of this. Spinach is one of their favorite vegetables, but not creamed like this. I actually thought it was quite good, although the texture was not what I prefer.
Hannah's face says it all. The deal was that they had to try it. And they did. I don't know if we will be getting Indian food again in the near future, but we did have a lot of fun.

Indian Sari for Kit

The girls have been studying ancient India this past week. Sarah always is very interested in the clothing of the cultures we study. This time instead of making a costume for herself, she decided to make a Sari for her doll Kit. This was a good choice as a Sari for a woman takes about 12 yards of fabric. Wrapping that much fabric around ones body is not easy, even doll size, so we went in search of some help. We came across a site that had simple directions explaining how to wear the Sari. You can find the directions here http://www.exoticindiaart.com/howtowear/2/

The hardest part was making the pleats and tucking them into the petticoat. Believe it or not, that is how they hold all that fabric up! We also found a video on youtube that was really cute and helpful. Unfortunately I can't find that link anymore.

Well, here is Kit in here finished Sari.

Sarah you did a great job!

Sewing for School

This year as part of our Tapestry of Grace curriculum, the girls are learning about many of the ancient civilizations. As we complete our study we finish it off with a celebration and feast with two other families using Tapestry as well. One of the girls favorite parts is making their costumes. Sarah has been putting her sewing machine to good use.

Here she is getting some hand sewing practice adding decorative ric rac to the neck of her dress.

The hand sewing was a little more difficult for Hannah. Maybe it was because mom has a hard time teaching her lefty daughter. Hannah stuck it out and her finger a few times, but she finished. I am so proud of her for completing her dress.


The sashes and head coverings were next. Here Hannah turns the tube she will use as her sash.

Here they are at our feast and celebration. Check back later for more pictures of our feast. I think they their costumes turned out great. Thank you Tapestry of Grace for making our studies come alive this year.

Tabernacle

Constructing a model of the Tabernacle was the girls' big project for the end of TOG Year 1 Unit 1. We used the top of a case of printer paper for the foundation of our model. The girls painted old fashion clothespins gold and put them around the sides of the box top. Above, Sarah attaches cloth to the clothespins.
The furnishing were made from various wood pieces we found around the house or purchased at A.C. Moore. They were then painted gold or bronze as instructed in the Bible. Above is the Ark of the Covenant with the lid removed. You can see the tablets with the 10 commandments, Arron's staff, and a jar of manna.

Here Hannah works on painting the Alter for the Burnt Offering that would be placed in the courtyard. Below are the furnishing for inside the tent.

Here is their finished Tabernacle! I think they did an awesome job!

Thanks to Kristen who was kind enough to share the directions for this project. You can find them at http://www.squidoo.com/tabernacle

Weaving 101

For her Tapestry of Grace week 6 craft project, Hannah decided to try her hand at weaving. We made this cardboard loom out of a box side and butcher's twine.

The over-under pattern wasn't hard to master, but Hannah was shocked how long it took to make such a small blanket. She couldn't imagine having weave all of your family's fabric.
Here is the finished "blanket".

Hannah decided it was the perfect size for her American Girl doll.

Timelines

Fridays are timeline day in our homeschool. The girls look forward to coloring the figures they studied all week long. Then during lunch we discuss each person or event and add them to our timeline in the appropriate place.
The timeline is a large piece of cardboard covered in a stone print contact paper. We then made lines with red ribbon. To figure our the dates for the lines, we took the number of years TOG yr 1 covers and divided it by the number of lines we had on our board. Mom then adjusted the numbers a bit knowing that we would have more on our timeline during the later part of the year. We typed the years on address labels and adhered them to the ribbons.
Here you can see the timeline in our kitchen. It is a good 6 feet tall. Thanks to Homeschool in the Woods http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/HTTA/timeline.htm for their beautiful timeline figures and the Mystery of History http://www.themysteryofhistory.com/ for their sewing board timeline. Our timeline is based on their directions.

Cylinder Seals

The girls are at it again with another hands on history craft project. Today they are making cylinder seals similar to the ones found through out ancient Mesopotamia.



Carving the desired shapes and letters into the clay was not an easy task. It gave all us a greater appreciation of the ancient artists who crafted the cylinders we viewed on museum web sites. They are beautifully detailed.

Earlier in the week we used a picture of a cylinder seal from the Royal Tomb of Ur for our weekly Charlotte Mason style picture study. The girls have really enjoyed these studies. The addition of art history and appreciation to our curriculum this year has been extremely beneficial. Thank you Tapestry of Grace!



Above is the impression Sarah's seal made in play dough. Below is Hannah's. Nice job girls!

The Royal Game of Ur

BubbleShare: Share photos - Craft Instructions


The girls had such a wonderful time playing Senet at our Egyptian feast. They were excited to learn about the Royal Game of Ur. We searched for a printable version of the game, but couldn't find one. That was a big disappointment. So they decided to make their own.

You can see a picture of the game found in the Royal Tombs of Ur by Sir Leonard Woolley here http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/t/the_royal_game_of_ur.aspx
I think their game is a very good representation of the original.

We found directions to play the game here http://www.gamecabinet.com/history/Ur.html

The project was a lot of fun to make and play. Here is the supplies we used, but you could substitute whatever you have on hand.

• Black Card stock (scrapbooking paper)
• Light Brown Card stock (scrapbooking paper)
• Cream Card Stock (scrapbooking paper)
• Square Punch from Creative Memories
• Cocoa Stamp Pad
• Acrylic Stamps from Close to My Hear
• Adhesive
• Circle Cutter from Creative Memories
• 3D Foam Mounting Circles (to make the pawns 3D)
• Black Stamp Pad
• White Colored Pencil (used to make the dots on the black pawns)
• Pencil with Eraser (used the eraser to make the dots on the pawns)
• Paper Cutter
• Air Drying Clay for the Pyramidal Dice

If anyone would like more detailed directions let me know, I would be happy to help you out.

Comics in School!

We just finished up week 5 in Tapestry of Grace year 1 which included studying the Tower of Bable. Sarah created this cartoon as a picture narration of the Biblical account. It is the first time she ever created a cartoon. She truly enjoyed the assignment and showed her understanding of the event. The cartoon blocks are from a template I downloaded from http://www.donnayoung.org/art/comics.htm
If you are not familiar with Donna Young you will want to take some time to peruse her site. She has tons of wonderful forms to download for FREE!

Making Papyrus

Sarah received this kit as a gift a while back. It was perfect for your Tapestry of Grace year 1 studies about Egypt. We had hoped to have this made by our Egyptian Feast, however, it takes a lot longer to make than we anticipated. Above the reeds are soaking, this step lasted over a week and we had to change the water frequently.
After the reeds finished soaking, the girls laid them in sheets, overlapping the edges slightly. The reeds were quite waterlogged and fragile.
Next, we rolled the reeds between two pieces of cloth. The amount of water that gushed out of them was amazing. We placed the reed mat between layers of newspaper and piled a bunch of books on top. It sat this way for a couple of days, moved only to change the newspaper when it was too wet.
Here is what the mat looked like after drying for about a day. Unfortunately, mom moved the mat into the living room by the wood stove to speed up the process and all the reeds shrunk. Needless to say that was the end of the nice mat that the girls were going to decorate with hieroglyphics. We did get a pretty good idea of the texture the "paper" would have been as we did have a small section of reeds that had adhered. All in all it was a great project for the girls. The effort and time it took to make sure left an impression on them. Hopefully, they will think twice before emptying mom's printer tray for their daily sketch session.

Anceint Egypt

The girls are having a great year so far. They love their new curriculum, Tapestry of Grace. We are using year one and just finished studying ancient Egypt. Both of them learned an amazing amount from the wonderful books, numerous hands-on-projects and thought provoking questions and activities sheets. It would take much too long to tell you all we did so I will just hit on the highlights.

The picture above shows the girls in costume with their paddle dolls waiting the arrival of the other families for our end of Egypt feast. Their crowns are made of card stock and tinfoil. They made the beads for their necklaces out of sculpty clay, baked them and strung the necklaces. It is hard to see, but they are standing in front of our timeline. This has been a great project this year. It covers the entire door! Each Friday, we add the figures we studied that week. It is a great way to review!

Here Sarah works on her paddle doll. Both girls are glad they have American Girl dolls instead of these!

The girls had a blast creating these edible maps of Egypt. There are large sugar cookies that the kids frosted to depict the geography they had been studying. We used blue and green frosting for the Nile and the fertile land along its banks. Crushed graham cracker was perfect for the arid desert sand. Chocolate chips became pyramids. And red hots the cities. I'm not sure if the kids enjoyed making or eating the best.

Feast day finally arrived. All the kids had a great time and didn't think the food was too bad either. We had an Egyptian marinated chicken (thanks Molly), Tiger Nut Dates, Hummus and Pita Bread, Chicken Soup, Pomegranates and Mango. Each child had a cartouche with their name in hieroglyphics as a place card. Can you guess whose this is?

After feasting it was on to the main event - Mummification! Each of the kids mummified a doll. It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. They performed each of the steps on their doll. First we talked about removing the organs. This we couldn't do, but the children drew a red heart to remind them that the heart remained in the body. Then they washed the dolls and massaged them with spice scented oils. Next they were packed in salt to dry them out. While they were drying, everyone cut amulets out of foam sheets. These would be hidden in the layers of linen wrappings. Next it was time to wrap the mummies. We use a water and glue mixture for the resin. This was great fun and I think everyone learned a lot.

The finished mummies look great! Some of them even smell pretty good too!

The day ended with the kids doing their best rendition of "Walk like an Egyptian." Aren't they adorable! A great success, we can't wait to get our families together for the next unit celebration.