Excavating Adventure

We started the Story of the World history lessons this year(audio). The first 2 lessons were on what history is, archeology, and nomads. We decided to sit on these topics a while. "Nomad" is a very broad area to cover. So, we basically just discussed the meaning and then went to the library and read on a few known groups of nomads. They all had bascially the same lifestyle. They were people of the trade: hunters and fisherman. They lived in caves and tents. More recent nomadic groups were often labeled as outcast because most city folk declared them to be thieves and criminals. We made a shoe box dioroma of a living site with paper tents and caves. Wood fires and even put some rags for clothes on army men. Then moved the box to different locations throughout the day to represent the traveling aspect. For my younger 2, they colored some pictures of tents, teepees, caves, and early hunters.

Today, we played archeologist. Before we started on this project, we went through two books that showed the many different things that archelogist locate and where in the world they may find them.( Threw in a little geogrpahy here) We also discussed the importance of the items they find. How these pieces determine how people lived long ago.

I was able to find some inexpensive mini-excuvation kits for under $5. You can find them at this link: www.powscience.com/store/actionproducts/idigminikits.html

They do have larger ones at a higher price. The mini ones took my determined boys about an hour. I tried to get them to take a break, but they were to excited. These are made of a really fine pebble, so I suggest if you use them, to do it out doors or over a BIG table cloth or tarp.

My oldest got himself a fools gold piece. My 6 year old, an arrow head, which we are now attaching to a small, skinned down tree branch and turning into a small spear/arrow.

They learned out to use simple tools such as toothbrushes and toothpicks to be delicate and protect the item from being scratched during the digging. OR busted from being banged on the table :) If you are careful and patient then the artifact will be better preserved.

Here are some picturtes of our adventure. I apologize for the bad images. I used my little cheapy camera today!

What adventures did you share this week?

SOTW History

I have recently started my 8 and 6 year old on story of the world, history curriculum. I decided for a change by using the CD version over the books(but the books are great resources as well). It is great!! Not only do each of the boys actually sit quietly and listen to one or two lessons, but they really enjoy placing all the colorful picture cards on their time lines and even trying to out smart each other on the memorization cards.
On a mom's side note:I have very...busy...boys. This an an excellent way to have them settle and focus their minds. I have found myself having them do this assignment before more antsy subjects like math.

This time line is done in a drawing book. Originally, we did it on construction paper and folded it where the pages met. But the pictures kept falling off and the paper continued to rip. With a drawing book(I used an 11X14) everything stays put and the pages are thicker because it is made for drawing. Which will help in the long run with all of the handling. It has 24 pages, so 48 total. So we will use this for volumes 2 and possibly 3.
I got this 1/2 off at my local craft store for $4.You could use a normal 8X11 at walmart for $3 , but you will have to lower the year amounts on each page.

I have had some tremendous help from Hannah's homeschool help( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hannah_hs_helps/) She is simply amazing about creating detailed and organized activities to relate to the story of the world series(and other subjects as well). I also got the Art book idea from another homeschooling blogger(ournestof3). I took this mom's suggestion of not using the 9s in the timeline. Like 3200-1999. It was just more simple for the kids to say 3200-2000, 2000-1500, etc, Below are the years and how I placed them on our time line:
Pages/Years
1.4000-3000
2. 3000-2000
3. 2000-1500
4. 1500-1000
5. 1000-750
6. 750-5000
7. 500-250
8. 250-0
9.0-100
10-24 from here on out, each page is 100 years.

Our Nest of 3 website: She has some templates for the cover and time line strips.
http://ournestof3.blogspot.com/search?q=story+of+the+world&updated-max=2007-08-24T10%3A36%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=20