Temples, Tombs, Hieroglyphs

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This year for history I decided to use Train Up A Child's: World History Course.  This world history course is a literature base course. Luckily for me most of the books needed can be borrowed from my library.  Currently we are studying Ancient Egypt and working our way through the book: Temples Tombs, & Hieroglyphs.



This is a bit of a slow read for us, slower then I would like, but we are making progress and working our way through it.  In the course of reading we learned a little bit about James Henry Breasted. Breasted is one of the first American Egyptian Archaeologist that made a lasting impression on Egyptology, his work is still used today.

Web-princess took a special interest because she learned he was born here. I learned Thursday night that his remains were actually buried here too. So Friday morning we took an impromptu trip to the cemetery to hunt down Breasted's grave marker.   -- what makes his grave marker even more unique is that it's made from a block of granite from Egypt.  I think this is the closet she'll or even I will get from touching something from Egypt.

Smiling and standing next to Breasted's headstone.

It's always nice when a bit of what you are talking about can come "alive". Sure it was just a tombstone. However, it connected us personally to this archaeologist that we are talking about and his discoveries and work.

Under this granite block from Assuan, Egypt lie the ashes of James Henry Breasted

How has your homeschooling going? Any impromptu trips? impromptu activities?

Eagle Scout: Civil War

Eagle Project: Civil War Grave Stones

As I mentioned a few weeks back my son, Superstar, has made Life Rank.

Life Rank is one step below Eagle Scout. My son has 5 merit badges and 1 Eagle project to do to make Eagle Rank.

He is still not sure what to do for his Eagle project. We have been looking at the ideas at My Project Finder to try to get the ideas flowing.

He is unsure about his Eagle project at this point, but he does have a clear goal that he wants to be done with everything by his 17th Birthday so he has a shot at earning some Eagle Palms

Even though my son does not have an Eagle project, at this point, the Eagle project process does mean he has had the opportunity to help the older scouts on their Eagle projects.  One of the more recent Eagle scouts in my son's troop Eagle project was researching, finding, and requesting new grave stones for Civil War Vets in our local cemetery.

My son helped on a couple of the days needed to find the graves. The scout ended up submitting over 40 names to to have new grave markers -- markers that were never there to begin with or damage over the years -- and to date 9 of the graves markers have been approved and replaced.

Over the weekend there was a ceremony to mark the occasion.  It was after the ceremony and talking to the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War, that were present, that we learned that during the Civil War they estimate that nearly 700 young women  served the military as soldiers.  This in today's time might not seem shocking, but remember in this era of American history women were not allowed to serve in the military and were not allowed to vote. If they were serving it was because they were disguise as men.  If they were voting it was because again they were living as a man and even their closet friends didn't know the truth of their gender.

I knew women did these things but I had no idea the number was as high as the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War shared with us. They also told us the story of some women that even POST war kept on living a man and that how no one knew... for one local woman it really wasn't until she seriously injured in an automobile accident in 1910 that her secret came out.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something. See our full disclosure policy for more details.


Do you have an Eagle Scout? Or almost Eagle Scout? What did you do for an Eagle project? What will you do for an Eagle project? What projects have the scouts in your troop recently do?

Digging, Reading, Baking, History.....

Thankfully Superstar is not sick and even though today is Martin Luther King Day we did school work today. This morning started off rough. Superstar had a bit of an attiude about math. He picked it as is first subject but started to cry over it because it was division. He really loaths division and if he had his way not do any.

I did allow him to pick a different subject to start with so after some science, history, and reading he decided to tackle those division problems. Thankfully the rest of the day for him went well, school was done for him by noon, and he got to enjoy the rest of his afternoon doing other activities.

Seeing I've split the kids up Superstar in the morning and Web-princess in the afternoon, Superstar is free to do other activities in the afternoon. He spent his time digging for dinosaurs bones (a kit he got for Christmas) and making corn bread to go with tonight's dinner.

He did these activities while Web-princess did some reading with the McGuffey reader and online tutor. I've only used the online tutor videos for two days now. I'm not sure if that's the direction I want to go to completely, but so far Web-princess does enjoy it.  We've had the readers for a while now and have been using them. The tutor was something a friend of mine told me about. I've had the link for a while now and just started to use it. Web-princess also read some of her history text book while Superstar was busy being a baker!

Oh and if you use currclick and have any times in your wishlist go check them out. I got an email from currclick today saying that some of my items on my wishlist were on sale. One item on my wish list was $25 dollars but it was mark down to $2. So you know I got that today. I'll have to look it over more closely now that I have it, but I'm thinking I can use it for some American History in the near future.

Archaeological Dig

Last Friday we had the opportunity to go to Shabbona Grove, IL for an archaeological dig. The dig is apart of the Shabbona Grove Archaeological Project.  The kids along with other kids from I-HOPE were able to dig, clean artifacts, sift through the dirt, and later catalog items all under the watchful eye of Ms. Croyl.

SS digging on site.

When digging they were told to take small thin layers at a time. This was so they could tell what layer things came from. Also by digging small layers at a time if something clearly unusual pops up then we would see it. Like this red rubbery/plastic thing that we dug out.

unusual red rubbery/plastic thing

When we found something unusual like the red rubbery-plastic thing pictured above then we took measurements of where in the square it was and how deep it was from the surface. We also record it's orination: was it standing up? laying on it's side, etc.  All of that data is recorded into a computer that will give a detail picture of the area.

The above are up-close pictures of that mysterious red thing we found. If you, dear reader, have any idea what it could be PLEASE let me know.  Sometimes archaeologists find things they aren't exactly sure what it is, and it is the case with this red thing.  So if you know please share! This could really help them date other artifacts that were found on the same level, such as a nails and Lincoln log. Lincoln logs go back to the 1916 closer to the time period they were hoping to find. So you never know....

When cleaning artifacts we found coal and bullet shell.

WP in red and friend cleaning artifacts

circled thing is a piece of coal

circled thing is a bullet shell

Side Notes: Yes I know WP (Web-princess)'s hair is SHORT! She had me cut it like that over the summer. It's longer now then it was, but still very short! Also please, if you have facebook, share I-HOPE's fan page with everyone. I'm trying to reach as many homeschoolers I can, especially local homeschoolers! I realize you may not be a local homeschooler, but given how paths can cross, because of social networks,  you may know someone locally to me via the internet or your friends may know someone locally to me.

The co-op is new I started it last summer and I'm trying to grow it! Thanks a million for sharing the facebook fan page.  Also all of the pictures belong to I-HOPE and were used with permission.

SCARCE: New (to me) books

Today several members of I-HOPE (the new homeschool co-op/group that I have started) traveled to Glenn Elyn, IL to visit SCARCE. SCARCE is a "school" book rescue. I learned about them back in February, but I didn't have the privilege to go down their until today.

They are FREE for public school teachers, but do make homeschoolers pay a yearly membership fee, plus $5 per book. They have a LOT there! Digging around I was able to find Social Studies (World History) textbooks for the children. I was able to get 2 textbooks (one for each child), the corresponding student worksheets, chapter tests, and the complete book on audio CDS for $30 (not including the yearly membership fee).  Based on my brief assestment of the material while at SCARCE I'm confident that this material will last me for 2 school years.

I'm excited to dive into the books more and see what's actually there! I'm also over joyed to have been able to get the corresponding audio version of the books. We were told almost an year ago that Web-princess has convergence insufficiency. At first we didn't do anything with that knowledge because we were in the middle of dealing with Superstars surgery for ITW. (Can you believe that it he had the surgery almost a year ago? At the end of the month we see the surgeon to learn if he can be brace (AFO) FREE!)

After things started to settle down post surgery, I started to dive into convergence insufficiency to learn what I can do for Web-Princess. I learned that those with convergence insufficiency responded best to reading with the same methods used for dyslexia. Those with dyslexia respond best with a multi-sensory approach to reading.  I learned all of that January 2010, but it took me several months to learn what the means and HOW to do that in our home. I really didn't start applying things until April/May 2010, which really was at the end of our school year. I've started THIS school year trying to do things as multi-sensory as possible.

Thus the more senses I can engage when learning to read or doing reading activities the best! We do a lot of writing with shaving cream, writing in sand, reading with audio books. We have been learning phonics with card games. The more I can engage the different senses at the same time the better she responds. So to get a Social Studies Book today with the corresponding audio version is AWESOME!!

Speaking of Web-princess, I'm so please to see progress in the reading, writing, spelling area. Her independent reading is more of a 2nd grade level. Her writing is more of a K level. However she's starting to get it and is actually trying to read more on her own.  Not only that but she has also made up her own books and stories. All independent and outside of "school" time.

Her latest creation is called "Soopr Sron Boy" (translation Super Strong Boy). It's a chapter book! She even included a table of contents at the beginning of the book. She informed me that this book will have a sequel (although she called it a new chapter, but what she describes to me is sequel).

Chapter 1: Her Ces the Hero 

Sopr Sron Boy wes a vare god hero.

Translation: Chapter 1: Here Comes the Hero

Super Strong Boy was a very good hero.

 I know this is "behind" what most of her peers would write.  However it took us two school years to learn why reading, spelling, and writing was a such a struggle for her.  Now that we know and have been applying multi-sensory approach as much as possible she has made HUGE progress. In just a few months she has gone form a child that refused to even TRY to read something to a child that is TRYING  READ and WRITE her own books!

I know that as long as I try to use multi-sensory approach to reading, writing, and spelling as much as possible that she will continue to bridge that cap and will no longer be "behind" when it comes this area.

That's why it's so cool that I found the social studies books today with audio CDS! Yes it's social studies, but it does require that she reads it! So being able to read the book and listen at the same time, engaging both senses, will be awesome!!!

America The Story Of Us

Back in March I shared how the history channel was giving away FREE copies of America The Story of Us.  Well Just wanted to share that our FREE copy arrived today.  This is several weeks later then I expected but I'm still thrilled that it's here.  Have you received yours yet?

An Archeologist-In-Training

My sister (step-sister) is an "archeologist-in-training". She just got back from Peru, where she ate some guinea pig and help on an archeological dig and preservation. She will be going to India next toward the end of September/October.

As part of our social studies history lesson this coming school year we will be going over the continents. I figured that we personally would follow Auntie and her blog "Crystalline Adventures" as we do our studies.

I'm sharing her blog here, because I though PERHAPS some of my followers would also be interested in her travels and the little tid-bits she has to share regarding her stay, the food, and the bit of culture she learns along the way.

FREE DVD TO HOMESCHOOLERS FROM HISTORY CHANNEL

HISTORY is offering America The Story of US on DVD to every school in the United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school, for grades K-12 and college. Please see History Channel's Website for more details on how to receive your copy today!

T/H: Betsy's Price is Right