Monday, October 10, 2011

MFW Highlight Week 5 Creation to Greeks

Themes for our studies this week

Mummies....
We read how the Egyptian kings were preserved.  Preserving something means stopping it from decaying.  Decay is caused by bacteria and mold.  Since bacteria grows best in moist places the Egyptians made a mummy by removing moist body parts and drying out the rest.  Mummies were also wrapped in bandages soaked in an oily resin that killed bacteria and molds.

We inserted a piece of bread with antiseptic cream on it in the first bag.
In the second bag we inserted a plain piece of bread.
In the third bag we put a piece of toasted bread.

Our results after a week:  
  • The slice with antiseptic cream had no mold.  The cream worked like the oily resin that the Egyptians used. 
  • The plain bread was moldy.
  • The toasted bread was the same as when we inserted it into the bag.  The kids learned that bacteria and mold could not grow on the toast because there was no moisture.  This is why the Egyptians dried out the bodies. 
An additional read:

Mummies Made in Egypt (Reading Rainbow Book) 

Pyramids...


  We took a stab at building a pyramid and our friends joined us.  The kids used sugar cubes, which were not in my opinion the best tool for doing this. The sugar cubes were all different sizes, which made it a little more difficult.  Legos or unit cubes would probably be a better choice. 

While building it gave me a chance to review with the kids how to figure the area and perimeter.

Mapping...
Hannah drew a map of the Middle East today.

Memorization...
We are working on memorizing the books of the Old Testament.

Music & Art...
We listened to Vivaldi's "Spring".  The kids were to create a spring scene while listening.




Something New...
Hannah started a new math program, Teaching Textbooks, this week.  So far it has been a success and Hannah really enjoys it.  Math is her difficult subject and not my favorite to teach.  Teaching Textbooks first gives a chalkboard lecture, has interactive questions, then they have problems.  If she doesn't understand how to solve it or gets it incorrect and wants to see how to solve it correctly you can click a button that will walk them through it.  I believe there are a total of 4,000 problems that they walk the student through.  It also has a grade book.  You can see what they got correct vs. incorrect which problems they watched them solve and the grade they scored.

We also bought the DVDs MathTacular 1,2,3.  They have been a huge hit especially with Micah and Lauren.  Teaching them concepts pulled from several different Math programs such as Singapore, Saxon, and Horizon.

Congrats....
Micah finished his Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  He is now reading at a 2nd grade level.  Way to go Micah!

Playing....
Daddy and Lexi playing ball.


Over the weekend...
We got to visit mama and papa at the farm in Schulenburg.  The kids saw answered prayers.  We have been praying for rain for Schulenburg and the surrounding areas.  Many people are having to sell off their cattle, wells are drying up, it is such a difficult time for many out there.  Well it rained Friday and Saturday!  Lauren told grandma that she prayed for rain and God answered her prayers.

To top it off daddy shot a deer with his bow and arrow.  Thank you to Uncle Roland and Papa for helping daddy track it down at 10 o'clock at night.





  

2 comments:

  1. The artwork and pyramid look great! Your kids like they had a great week.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We will be doing the next year, it's great to get a sneak peak. Thanks for linking up and sharing your week!

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