Ancient History - Creation to The Flood

It is my desire to teach my children that the bible IS history, not a separate fanciful subject. I want them to know God is real and so is his word.  It is true and can be trusted completely from the first word to the last.  I want to show them how the bible is supported by the findings of secular man, logic and science. 

This is a tall order for the elementary years apparently.  I've jumped the gun and bought Middle School curricula in the past hoping I could simplify it but it didn't work. The solution was of course to create my own curricula.

Additionally, as I mentioned in a previous post, I could not find a pre-made timeline that met all my needs.  I decided to start creating my own timeline a few years back.  I finished tweaking this timeline last month. I spent this month working off this timeline to create a history curricula for the boys.

This turned out to be a much bigger task than I had imagined. It took the whole month and I still have not completed the last part of the timeline curricula.  Currently the curricula is over 35 pages long. I don't think I've ever written anything this long; remember I like numbers better than letters.  However, after a month of researching and tweaking I was getting burned out and decided to keep our school date start of Monday, July 2nd.  The only way to truly test the curricula is of course to use it.

Thankfully, I am not a person who has a problem with change.  The first week of using my curricula led to a lot of changes, in timing and even in materials used.  Below is what we did, with comments in red of what worked and what did not.  Overall, I would call the week a success because the boys are enjoying learning and ask about doing History work.  More importantly they seem excited about learning, which is all I ever wanted because when you're excited about something you really learn.

*Note in most cases I was able to find the DVDs we have online for free viewing and and have included the links.

READ ALOUD BOOK:  In the Days of Noah by Snellenberger

MUSIC:  Holst’s “The Planets” I’ve included them in the daily schedule below as an idea how to introduce them this month.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzLjg-e9bYg&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DfnE7zalDDi01NYqtdHvJH

ART:  Noah’s Ark by Edward Hicks http://gardenofpraise.com/art2.htm

Dates		People/Events
B.C. 4004		Creation
		The Fall in the Garden
3874		Cain & Abel & Seth - The Godly Line
2302		The Flood
2300	1600	The Ice Age
2242		Tower of Babel
c. 2200		Sumerian Civilization in Mesopotamia
2109	1703	Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by Pharaoh Menes (Dynasty 1 -11)
1900		Pharaoh Cheops/Khufu Builder of Giza Pyramids

 DAY 1 – 4004 BC Creation

• Read Genesis 1-2:3
• “Ancient Civilizations and the Bible Elementary Activity Book” by Diana Waring (ACAB) Unit 1 Discussion Questions
• Hand out 7 index cards to each child.  Ask them to write the number 1 t o 7 (one number per card) on the opposite side tell them to draw a picture about that day of creation and these simple words:

o   Day 1:  Day & Night

o   Day 2:  Heaven & Earth

o   Day 3:  Seas & Land        

o   Day 4:  Sun, Moon & Stars

o   Day 5:  Creatures of the Sky & Sea

o   Day 6:  Creatures of Dry Land & Man

o   Day 7:  God Rested

• ·        Here’s an alternative “Creation Memory Pegs” with coloring pages for each day which may be really useful with younger children.
• While drawing listen to:

o   Play Holst’s “The Planets – Mercury, Winged Messenger” Before we listened we discussed briefly who the god Mercury was and I asked what they thought the music would sound like as a result.  After listening we talked about if it sounded like they expected, could they imagine him running about?  The boys liked this piece

o   What in the World (WIW) Disc 1 Track 2  “Creation” (7 min.) This was too mature, my boys didn’t get her sarcasim.

o   True Tales (TT) Disc 1 Track 2 “Dates for Creation” (10 min.)  They got more from our discussion afterward where I explained things than listening alone.  I’m realizing they prefer active listening, ie. Discussion over listening to audio lecture

• Watch “Created Cosmos” by Dr. Jason Lisle  This is not their first time watching this video, each time we watch it we are all in awe.  It is so beautifully done and really puts the size in perspective the boys can understand.  I had hoped to do some art with it but we didn’t get a chance.

DAY 2 - 4004 BC Creation

• REVIEW:  Use the index cards from yesterday to play two different games.

o   Order Up:  Using the Picture side, have the children put the days in order and then turn them over to check if they are correct.

o   What Happened?  Call out a random day and see if the children know what happened.  This could be incorporated into a game of “Mother May I” where the children get to move forward only if they answer the question correctly.

• Read “In the Days of Noah” pgs. 4-7  After much debating I guess I chose well, the boys are so liking this book that they ask me to read more each day.
• ACAB Silly Songs pg.  13  The boys absolutely adore this song and have asked to sing it every day since.
• ACAB Marvelous Maze pg. 11  Boys liked this maze, but my boys like any maze.
• Mark on Timeline  Since my 7 and 9 year old are doing this together I’m expecting more out of my 9 year old and requiring him to write out the points on the timeline in addition to gluing the pictures.  Ironically my 7 year old has chosen to write out the names also.
• Play Holst’s “The Planets – Venus, the Bringer of Peace” and have kids move to music

o   Briefly discuss who the god Venus was, what they think piece will sound like

o   After listening talk about what the piece sounded like vs. their expectations and what instruments were used to achieve that sound.  They liked this piece also.

DAY 3 - Fall in the Garden

• REVIEW:   Days of Creation

o   Play Adam Name Game:  Get animals you have around the house or a book with lots of different animals in it and discuss what you might have named the animals and what day they were created.  We didn’t do this they have the days down pat and wanted to sing the "Silly Song" again.

•  Read Genesis 3
• ACAB Unit 1 Discussion Questions
• “Act It Out” – Jared came up with this great idea to act out Chapter 3, we had so much fun we did it again for daddy when he came home.  Jared was God and the Serpent, I was Eve, Lance was Adam and Titus the serpent crawling on his belly at the end.
• Read “In the Days of Noah” pgs. 8-11
• Mark on Timeline
• Play Holst’s “The Planets – Mars, Bringer of War” and discuss (see above)  Lance thought it sounded like Star Wars and Titus disliked it so much he kept telling us to turn it off.  Jared said he could hear when the “bad guys were caught”.

DAY 4:  3874 BC  Cain, Able and Seth – The Godly Line

• REVIEW:  Timeline and Days of Creation w/ Silly Song
• Read Genesis 4 & 5
• ACAB Unit 1 Discussion Questions
• ACAB Coded Message pg. 9  The boys did not enjoy this so we stopped.
• Read “In the Days of Noah” pgs. 12-15
• Mark on Timeline.
• Play Holst’s “The Planets – Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” and discuss.  Boys really liked this piece Titus was jumping and dancing around.  Very “happy” music.
• Listen to:  We listened to these but this will be the last day.  The boys sat quietly and did their best to listen but it’s clear they don’t enjoy it.  I noticed that most of the commentary is quoting from “Puzzle of Anicent Man” by Donald E. Chittick.  This is an awesome book about OopArt (Out of Place Artifacts) and other archaeological issues as they relate to the bible.  So from now on I’ll just read from the book so we can pause to discuss as they want/need to, they’ll get more out of it this way.

o   WIW Disc 1 Track 3 “Early Man” (12 min.) Replace with pgs. 33 -38

o   TT Disc 1 Track 3 “Early Man” (17 min.)

DAY 5:  2302 BC The Flood

• Watch Creation story according to Native Americans (starts after introductions minute 4:45) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NP6MGRNt_A 
• How do these stories compare to the bible? 

• Read Genesis Chapter 6-8
• ACAB Unit 1 Discussion Questions  Like the CDs, I had bought this book with the set years ago.  Unlike the CDs, I’ll probably keep using the book but I’m sorry to say, I would not recommend buying it.  There are some neat ideas but I think discussing the chapters would go fine without the questions and similar activates could be found for free online.
• Pre-measure out the distance of 450.  Take the children to the spot.  You stay at the beginning and have them walk out the 450 feet to the spot you’ve marked.  So they can get a visual of the size of the Ark. Boys enjoyed this turned out the ark was about the size of all the houses on our block put together, which is a great visual.
• Read “The Puzzle of Ancient Man” pgs.  38-43 Reading this worked better than listening, we were able to pause to discuss and skip ahead a little too.
• Mark Timeline
• Listen to Holst’s “The Planets – Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age” and discuss Boys like to watch the youtube version that shows the orchestra and close-ups of the instruments best.
• Read “In the Days of Noah” pgs. 16-21
• Watch “Noah’s Ark:  Thinking outside the box” by Tim Lovett (25 min.)  This is a great DVD (or watch on youtube) because the design came from a nautical engineer and they include some nautical history.