Time to Judge (Part 2)

Her's the continuation of Part 1 of explaining some changes in our history curricula.

We are back to having fun this week studying the world in reference to the word :-)

At the beginning of each lesson I will present Summary/Background before studying individual events:

Time of the Judges  (1380-1051)

As the Judges rule Israel other civilizations are active around the world...

• The Hyksos rule Egypt this entire time To be discussed more during “The New Kingdom”
• c 1300 The Assyrian civilization establishes in the Mesopotamian town of Nineveh To be discussed more at time they overthrow Israel
• 1250 The Myceneans fight in the Trojan War We'll study Homer also
• c1200 The Phonecians establish their trading culture on the shore of the Mediteranian To be discussed during the Davidic Kingdom
• The Hittites rule to the north of Phonecia in southern Asia Minor  To be discussed with Ramses II
• c1200 the Olmec Civilization cultivating in Mesoamerica  This is a bit hard to tie in other than an aside to note the beginning of "advanced" civilizations in Mesoamerica but it was a fun art project.
  

1250 BC Trojan War

• REVIEW:  Narrate about Minoan and Mycenaean Civilizations; note this battle was the beginning of the end of Mycenaeans. 1100 BC begins the Dark Ages.
• Read “Usborne Internet-Linked Greeks”  pgs. 14-15
• Complete MAP Trek:  Early Greece (Focus on Minoan/Mycenea/Troy)
• Read “The Trojan Horse” by Emily Little Note there are errors in the back of this book about Homer, i.e. that he "wrote" the poems and that he lived 700 A.D.
• Make Trojan Horse Paper Craft http://www.dltk-kids.com/world/greece/m-trojan.htm  To make this sturdier we used cardboard, however the boys lost interest half-way and Christina ended up finishing it.
• Mark Timeline

Address Homer -  900 BC  Homer

• Read “On the Shores of the Great Sea”  (Free Book) – Chapter 17 “Siege of Troy”
• Read “Usborne Internet Linked Greeks”  pg. 17,  86 (Homer)
• Note the importance of Bards throughout history, how we’ll learn more about bards of Charlemagne (Roland) and William the Conqueror next year.
• Note that the stories were told for many years before they were written down after the Greeks adopted the Phonecian alphabet (adding extra symbols for vowels) around 800BC
• Read “On the Shores of the Great Sea” – Chapter 18 “The Adventures of Ulysses” (4 pgs.)
• Discuss the way Homer uses words to really make the story come alive, how it was different that they other accounts of the battle we read.
• Draw what you think the Trojan Horse looked like.  This was Lance's idea, he felt the picture on the Vertias Press Timeline cards was totally inaccurate because the box on top and windows would have been a give away.

Jared's on top - Lance's with zoom-in on bottom

1200 BC Olmec Civilization in Mesoamerica – The First Builders

• REVIEW: Ice Age Land Bridges
• Read and Look at pictures in “Ancient Mexico” by Longhena
• Discuss how little is known of their culture but it is believed to have greatly influenced the later cultures in Mesoamerica.  How they still don’t know how they got the stone for huge stone heads from 100 miles away through swampy land.  How presuppositions of early man being primitive hinder archeologists from uncovering more about this culture.
• Watch Video Olmec Art at de young Museum http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ_UOgq6LBA&NR=1&feature=endscreen
• Compare Olmec art to Chinese and Mesopotamian and Egyptian art previously viewed.
• Find the Olmec civilizations of San Lorenzo and La Venta on a map. 
• Streams of Civilizations pgs.91-93 You can also read a little more to add the Chavin civilization of Peru to the discussion.**
• Use clay (or play-dough) to try to re-create some of the sculptures found in “Ancient Mexico” We had great fun doing this.

Then things digressed to light houses :-)

**  I also added "2100 BC Caral Civilization in Peru" to the timeline.  This is a civilization recently found in the deserts of Peru.  They find they were a peaceful culture centered around cotton trade.  They built pyramids and did NOT celebrate any religious rituals involving human sacrifice.  This last fact is one that clearly disappointed the BBC.  The BBC put together a Five Part documentary "Lost Pyramids at Caral" on Youtube.  Because of their presuppositions (sensationalizing Aztec human sacrificial) the first four parts aren't worth watching but the last episode summarizes well what they found.  This fits so well to our timeline with all the pyramids popping up around the world at the same time.