Preparing and Res to Ref- Unit 16

Preparing Hearts for His Glory

This week we learned about the ending of the Golden Age of Greece. 

We learned that the 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the birth of Christ were known as the 400 years of silence.

During this time, Athens was known for its beautiful buildings, culture, and education... and its fleet.  Sparta did not care for the fine things but, they were jealous about the fleet.  Athens and Sparta fought a long war. Neither side won.

We learned that King Philip of Macedonia thought of a plan to become the King of Greece too.  When he was killed, his young son, Alexander became the new king of Greece at age 20.  Alexander studied with the famous Greek teacher Aristotle. 

The kids drew a piece of Greek pottery called an amphora.  They added an ornamental design in brown crayon and then painted it in black water color.  The only thing I would change was to do this project on water color paper.  We did not and our paper was wrinkly! 

We learned that the Greek amphoras show pictures of Greek heroes and  Greek stories. The black background of the vases makes the brown design stand out.

Our vase told the story of how Alexander the Great trained the stallion who was afraid of his shadow.

We learned that Alexander the Great had studied with Aristotle and became a great military commander. 

He conquered all of the known world and wept when there was nothing left to conquer.  On the return home he was feasting and drinking in Babylon and died.  He was only 33. He left his generals to fight over  his empires.

Alexander the Great was a great thinker and we copied some of his famous quotes. 

Another great cursive sample from a 5th grader. He is doing well as he has only been writing in cursive for a little over 6 months. 

Our narration was about Carthage and Rome in the Punic War.  We learned that jealousy stirred the controversy as each were jealous of the other.

This week the kids began working on the constellation books used to record the constellations that they learn.  They copied Psalm 147:4-5 on the front (I wish they would have done it a little bigger so it was more legible.) and then they drew the constellations on the inside.  

I had them use dots for the small stars and big stars for the brighter stars.  

The experiment was to discover why stars look like they twinkle.  We shined a flashlight into the jar with crumpled aluminum foil underneath. When we touched the water the reflection on the ceiling flickered. We learned that stars appear to twinkle as their light rays are bent when the rays move through the Earth's atmosphere.

••••••••••

Resurrection to Reformation 

This week he learned about the early explorers. Trade routes had flourished in the east.  The West needed a sea route.  

When Constantinople fell to the Turks, the trade routes from Asia to Europe closed. Sailors began seeking a way around Africa to reach India for spices, silks, and gems.

Lorenzo de' Medici also known as Lotenzo the Magnificent helped usher in the Italian Renaissance. 

The painter of the Mystical Nativity, Sandra Botticelli, lived and painted in Florence, Italy. 

Columbus sailed for India in the other direction, hoping to sail west to meet the east. He landed near the Americas. 

We made sea biscuits/hard tack. 

 It was a sticky mixture so we used lots of flour to roll out. 

After rolling out the dough, we used a pizza cutter to cut into 2" strips and then he poked holes into the tops with a fork.   

The kids tried to soak the sea biscuits in broth but, weren't really fond of them. They thought it tasted like a thick tortilla. Columbus and his voyagers ate hard tack sea biscuits on their long journey across the ocean.

We did learn many interesting facts about Columbus in this unit and also that Leif Ericson discovered America hundreds of years before Columbus.


•••••••••  JuSt FoR FuN!

We did add this fancy "get along jar" to our homeschool room this week.  It has been amazing! The two who are not getting along  - or tattling - get to draw sticks. These are tasks to do together, extra chores, silly games, sincere apologies, and a few grace sticks included. So far this has been amazing. The kids giggle and it is so funny watching them completely forget why they were even fighting in the first place!  This will be easy to recreate by writing on popsicle sticks.  Of course you can make age appropriate ideas or here are some of the ones we have in ours for our 8, 10,11,14 yo:

• Dust the furniture together.
• Prepare a snack to share together.
• Unload and load the dishwasher together.
• Jump on the trampoline for 5 minutes together. 
• Sit together quietly for 5 minutes.
• Pick up the playroom together.
• Say 5 nice things to the other person.
• Gather and take out trash together.
• Set the table together.
• Make/draw and apology card for each other.
• Tell each other you are sorry and HUG!
• Make the other person's bed.
• Take turns saying 5 things nice about each other
• Play a game together.
• Mommy's Choice 
• Pick up dog poop in the backyard together.
• Play legos for 10 minutes together.
• Do the Hokey Pokey!
• Go outside to ride bikes together.
• Put on your swimsuits and clean the tub together.
• Do the others persons chore.
• Tell each other a joke.
• Clean the door windows together.
• Make a snack to share with the other person

Hope you have a great week!
See you next time!