Indus River to Joseph

Since we've been back from Boston we've been trying to find a new rhythm/schedule that works but to be honest we are still looking.  I hope the new plan for next week will be a success but I'll wait to see if it lasts more than a week before I talk about it.

That said, we did the below over more than a week but I think with focus it is entirely doable to do in a week or two at most.

I've been using a lot of free videos on the internet lately, in addition to books to both entertain the children and simply teaching for me.

1750 BC Aryans Establish Indus River Valley Civilization

• REVIEW:  Timeline;  Use puppets to narrate about China
• Read excerpts from "Building History - Indus Valley City by Gillian Clements.  An alternative book is “Life in Ancient Indus River Valley” by Richardson.  I chose Glements books because I thought it more would be more interesting to my boys in content and layout.
• Watch? “Crash Course: Ancient Indus Valley Civilizations” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ndRwqJYDM  This video is designed for highschool kids so it has some irrelevant tangents about getting a girl friend and the such.  Ignoring that it is a fast paced introduction to the highlights of the Indus River Valley civilizations.  Boys thought it was funny and totally missed the older references.  Watch it yourself first to see if its appropriate for your children.
• Watch this video “Achievements of Indus Valley Civilizations” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLXJxemLEI4  This video is a second alternative to Indus River Valley in a nut shell.  It is basically a power point presentation highlighting their achievement with some nice photography.
• Mark Timeline
• Memory Narration Points:
• Developed same time as Egyptians, Babylonians, and Shang in China
• Highly advanced city planning; grid system, oriented to catch wind for cooling, sewer systems 
• Trading culture, known to have traded in mesopotamia from seals found there.  
• Peaceful culture; no evidence of weapons or sacrificial religious practices
• Had unique pictorial form of writing that has yet to be deciphered, reason for disappearance unknown. 

1750 BC Minoan Culture

• REVIEW:  Read "Search for Lost Cities" by Nicola Barber.  We went back to this book again this week.  I enjoy using so much I bought it this week when I couldn't check it out from the library any more.  It provides a nice summary about how many ancient civilization were found again and what they discovered.
• Read “Usborne Internet-Linked Greeks”  pgs. 4-8
• Read and look at pictures of Knossos in “Lost Civilizations” pgs. 28-35
• Watch this video "Minoan Culture"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkau9AEko2g  I chose this video over others for the following reasons: It skips the sensationalizing of the Minotaur legend, has a nice tie in to Egypt, a nice lead into Mycenean culture and its only 15 minutes long. 
• Find Crete on a map.
• Mark Timeline
• Memory Narration Points:
• Lived on island of Crete, Capital was Knossos
• Worshipped the bull, myths of Minotaur and Labyrinth
• Traders and Sailors known for their beautiful pieces of arr and pottery; admired by the Egyptians.

MUMMY MATH: An Adventure in Geometry by Cindy Neuschwander
I bought this book on a whim for $6 on amazon.  I've read books by this author in the past and really enjoyed them but I had no idea how much the boys would like this one.  Don't be intimidated by "Geometry", the geometry is limited to the identification of various geometric solids.  The story is top notch!  I read it to the boys once and Lance immediately asked to read it out-loud to his brothers again.  They must have read it four times that day and continued to read it over the next few days so much that Titus had parts of it memorized.  Eight thumbs up!

 1703 BC  Middle Kingdom in Egypt

• REVIEW: Make “History Pockets”  Egyptian Puppets to narrate what they’ve learned about Egypt
• Read “Usborne Time Traveler” pgs.  100-105
• MAP TREK: Map #9
• Watch Video "Pyramids of Egypt" http://www.beyondpatmos.org/watchvideo.aspx?videoid=440  This is an incredible video by the writer of "Unveiling the Kings of Israel" and "Unwrapping the Pharoahs", with footage in areas no longer accessible for filming, which is reason enough to forgive the low quality of the picture sometimes.  The first half covers Joseph, so you may choose to wait to watch the whole video till you study Moses.  This may also help keep the attention of younger views since it is a long video. There is a lot of new information in this video to spur off lots of discussion, at least it did in our house.
• Draw something from “Draw and Write Through History” or “Ancient Egypt Drawing Book”
• Read ““Peeps at Many Lands – Ancient Egypt” by James Baikie – Chapter 2 & 3 “A Day in Thebes” (13 pgs.)  To be honest we tried reading this but it didn't work.  At first I tried to edit and skip ahead but it didn't keep any of our interest.  If you like HIGHLY detailed descriptions of things, you'll enjoy this, if your looking for more action you'll either have to make it further into the book than we did or look elsewhere.
• Mark Timeline
• Memory Narration Points:
• This is the era of Joseph, Israelite slavery, Moses and the Exodus
• Dynasty 12 was one of the three great high points in Egyptian history with a huge number of monuments being built. 
• Sesostris I was believed to be Pharaoh when Joseph was viser and known as Mentuhotep.  A viser of unusual power and prestige that all who saw him had to bow down.
• Significantly, the pyramids in this dynasty were built of mud brick not stone.
• There is much evidence of large number of Asisiatic slaves.
• King Khasekemre-Neferhotep I of the Dynasty 13 is believed to be pharaoh of exodus, its significant his mummy was never found.
• Contrast in two pharoahs facial expression on monuments, Sesostris seems to smile and Neferhotep has a deep frown.

Joseph as a Slave & Famine in Egypt

• REVIEW:  Timeline, Maps
• Have children narrate what they remember about Joseph
• Have children draw what they think Joseph’s coat may have looked like
• Mark Timeline
• Read “Joseph” by Brian Wildsmith  This is a beautifully illustrated book, the books took down to read a look at after we finished the first read.
• Discuss story verses biblical account
• Discuss art, try to recreate some of the art

Twelve Tribes of Israel

• REVIEW:  Timeline; narrate the story of Joseph.
• Read Genesis 41: 1-57
• Read VJTB pgs. 46-50
• ACAB Unit 3 – Make a Sun Clock pg. 28
• Narrate and read excerpts from “Unveiling Kings of Israel” pgs. 49-55 or watch the second half of the "Pyramids of Egypt" video as a lead into next weeks discussion of Moses.