Tag Archives: science

Getting locked out, Archimedes, and Alexander the Great.

Sometimes I get way behind in my blog posts about the subjects we are doing!

So if you follow our lesson plan at all then you know that this study was in November!

beforetheend

The morning started with a nice short walk at Ray Harral Nature Park.

I had planned to get some school done when we got home from the park.

teeth

Our day changed a bit when we got home and I realized I had lost the house key at the park…

silly

After talking it over with my husband, we decided I would just hang out until he got home for the day.

We live in a different town than the park and I was not 100% sure where I had lost it.

outside

Thankfully it was a nice day and we have a walmart close by.

phone

I am also really thankful for smart phones!

We had been reading “Archimedes and the door of science” by Jeanne Bendick for the month of November and this was a great opportunity to get a lot of it read!

lever

I had planned originally to study Anatomy for the month of November but this books was so full of experiments that we just did the book for science.

lever2

Getting stuck outside gave us the great opportunity to try out the lever we were learning about!

lever3

I tried to get the boys to think of ways to implement it on their own.

My oldest was not good at listening this day and so his lever did not work out.

lever5

They both reaped the rewards of my youngest simple machine!

Getting locked out does wonders for creativity!

We should do it more often!

Maybe with a bathroom closer though…

And the dog outside instead of locked in…

archimedes

This is another book I got for the boys to read on Archimedes.

“The Life and Times of Archimedes”, I know I already blogged “You wouldn’t want to be a slave in Ancient Greece!” but it is such a good series!

These great minds were kind of useless when it came to mundane things, like eating, bathing, and dressing…

Their slaves did small things like keep them alive.

alexander

“You wouldn’t want to be in Alexander the Great’s Army!” is another great book in the series!

The boys are so excited when they see these in our library book basket!

I also had both boys read Mary Pope Osborne’s Stallion by Starlight, which is about Alexander and watched “Engineering an Empire: Alexander’s Greece”.

alexander

For geography we studied maps of the lands that Alexander conquered.

 

Have you ever locked yourself out?

Please say yes so I do not feel all alone.

Hipprocrates, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates

For Hippocrates we did a review of anatomy since he is known as the father of medicine.

joints

We also read his mini bio, here.

books3

The boys really liked these Usborne books.

book

book2

I had trouble finding books for Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle so I used their mini bio’s I found online as well.

After we read their bio I would read some quotes from them and then we would discuss what we thought they meant.

We had been starting out our mornings reading Aesop’s Fables in the same way so the boys are pretty good at it now.

The Fables were written in around the same time so we were reading them for our literature.

Read the real thing.

Not the washed down version that leaves everyone with happily every after.

The Grasshopper dies because he did not plan for the winter, he does not spend a cold miserable winter learning his lesson so that he can plan for the next one…

 

It is also very enlightening to learn about slaves in Ancient Greece.

Many of these great thinkers had slaves to do everything for them, thus giving them plenty of time to develop ideas and theories.

youwouldntwantto

These are my boys favorite history books.

inside

I do not even have to tell them to read them.

I just put them in our library book basket and they snatch them out.

Our Lesson Plan Schedule

If you have followed me for a while then you may know that I do not use a curriculum for history or science.

I have many reference books that I use  but I mostly put it together on my own.

http://daniellehuddlestonphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/timeline.jpg

I love history so it is not too bad for me but it is time consuming.

I thought I would share my spreadsheet with you guys so you can see what are lesson schedule looks like.

This is using the “Big Book of History” and David Downs Chronology for the Pharoahs.

Month Science Geography History Literature
Aug-Sept Creation, Planets, Animals, Anatomy, Plants Study Bible Times Maps, Middle East Creation
Week 1 Light, Refraction Day 1, Genesis 1:1-5 Creation
Week 2 Atmosphere, Weather Day 2 Creation
Week 3 Earth’s Layers, Earthquakes, volcanoes Day 3 Creation
Week 4 Plants, Day 3 Creation
Week 5 Sun, moon, and stars Day 4 Creation
Week 6 Flying and Sea Creatures Day 5 Creation
Week 7 Land Animals and Humans Day 6
October How Animals and Plants have changed
Carnivor, poisonous plants, ect.
Middle East, early peoples The Fall
Week 4 How people changed Cain & Able, Seth
November
Week 1 Music, Sound, First Musical Instruments Middle East, Ancient people Jubal and Tubal-Cain
Week 2 Music, Sound, First Musical Instruments Middle East, Ancient people Enoch and Methuselah
Week 3 Land Formations, Go to Glass Mountains Noah And the Flood
Week 4 Land Formations, Glaciers The Ice Age
December
Week 1 Languages City of Shinar The Tower of Babel
Week 2 Ice Age Middle East Ice Age
Week 3 Middle East Sumerians
January Archeology, Solstice Europe, Asia 1st Egyptian Dynasty, Stonehenge,
India, Xia Dynasty, Abraham
February Archeology Greece, Middle East Job, Mycenaeans, Jacob
And Esau, Joseph, Israelite Slavery,
Founding of Sparta
Secret of the Prince’s Tomb, Tirzah
March
Life in Egypt, Deserts Study Desert Ecosystems and the area
Moses and the Exodus
Tirzah
Month Science Geography History Literature
September Metallurgy
Week 1 Iron Israel Joshua, Jericho,
Hyksos, Judges
AOI Battle at the
Kishon
Hittite Warrior
Week 2 How Stuff Works
Lead, Aluminum&
Steel
Hittite Empire Hittite Empire, Cont.
Judges, Trojan War
Week 3 How it’s Made
13:12 Iron Bathtubs
Israel Samson, Eli, Samuel
Week 4 Modern Marvels Egypt, Sparta Thutmosis 1,2,3
,David(make slings)
Saul
Showdown
with the
ShepperdDarien’s Rise
October Planets
Week 1 Build Hand Crank Greece, Isreal Spartans, Solomon,
Hatshepsut
Week 2 Kites Jonah, King Tut, Lycurgus of Sparta Odysessy
Week 3 Marib Dam Rome Olympic Games,
Seven Wonders, Rome(use
Teachers guide) Build model
Hour at the Olympics
Week 4 Persia, Mexico Daniel, Cyrus, Persian Empire
Esther(Watch Daniel), Mayan
God King
Aesop’s Fables
Week 5 Hippocrates Aristotle, Plato, Buddhism
November Anatomy/Batteries
Week 1 Archimedes Greece Alexander the Great Stallion by Starlight
Week 2 Great Wall China China 1st Emperor, Great Wall Day of the Dragon King
Week 3 Hannibal
Week 4 India The Roman Empire Conquers
Greece, Julius Cesear
December
Week 1
Week 2 Bronze Bow
Week 3 Israel(follow path) Jesus Danger of a silent night

 

This is a little rough but it gives you an idea of what I plan on doing in a school year.

I have this as a google document also and will be updating it with what we will be learning for the rest of the school year soon.

If you want to check that out you can view it, here.

You can also view what we did for each subject, here.

Check out how I teach history and science without a curriculum, here.

I also like “All through the Ages: History through Literature guide” by Christine Miller (I have not been using this much for ancient history since she used slightly different dates for when things happened then Answers in Genesis but I plan to start using it again).

Here is my rough list I have made of literature for certain times:

Creation ~”The Magicians Nephew” It has an amazing description of Narnia being created.

Post-Flood~”Life in the Great Ice Age” Follows a young boy at the end of the Ice Age.

3000-2000 BC~”The Golden Bull” Follows two children growing up in the city of UR.

“The Last quest of Gilgamesh” illustrated version of a story from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

“Mummies in the Morning” Magic Tree house about an Egyptian Queens tomb.

“YU the GREAT, Conquering the flood” A chinese legend on the beginning of the Xia Dynasty.

1800-1400 BC~”Secret of the Prince’s Tomb” An imagination station adventure at he beginning of Israel’s slavery in Egypt.

“A Cry from Egypt” Set during the Israelites slavery.

“Tirzah” at the time of Moses and the Exodus (REALLY good book!)

“The Golden Goblet” About a boy in Ancient Egypt.

“Mara, Daughter of the Nile” about a slave girl during Hatshepsut’s reign.

1300-1000 BC~”Hittite Warrior” Set in the time of the Judges.

“Showdown with the Shepherd” An imagination station book about David and Goliath.

“Black Ships before Troy” a retelling of the Iliad. 

“Tales from the Odyssey Part 1&2” by Mary Pope Osborn (told in an easy way for children)

“Shadow Hawk” by Andre Norton (Egypt during the Hyksos reign)

700 BC~”Hour of the Olympics” Magic Tree House about the Olympic games.

701 BC ~”God King” Ancient Egypt and Biblical Jerusalem.

450 BC ~”Herodotus and the Road to History”

400 BC “Victory on the Walls” a story about Nehemiah. 

300 BC “Stallion by Starlight” Magic Tree House about Alexander the Great.

250 BC “Archimedes and the Door of Science”

200 BC~”Day of the Dragon King” Magic Tree house about the first emperor of China.

Christ Birth~”Danger on a Silent Night” An imagination station adventure about Jesus’ birth.

Bronze Bow ~Set during the time of Jesus

50 AD~”The Ides of April” A Christian during Nero’s time.

62 AD~”THE IDES OF APRIL”

70 AD~”For the Temple A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem” by G.A. Henty

79 AD~”Vacation under the Volcano” Magic Tree House at the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. 

79 AD~”The Roman Mysteries” by Lawrence, Caroline

100 AD~”Beyond the Desert Gate” The Jews revolt against Roman occupation. 

150 AD~”Galen and the Gateway to Medicine”

300-400 AD~”Attack at the Arena” An imagination station adventure set in Ancient Rome.

“Spring Gate” About two Christian boys in the Roman Empire.

500 AD~”Challenge on the Hill of Fire” An imagination station adventure about Saint Patrick.

700 AD~”Detectives in Togas” about  boys in Ancient Rome.

“Mystery of the Roman Ransom” about  boys in Ancient Rome.

1000 AD~”Voyage with the Vikings” An imagination station adventure Leif Eriksson. 

1100’s AD~”The Boys Knight: A Tale of the Crusades” by G.A. Henty

1200 AD~”Peril in the Palace” An imagination station adventure set in Ancient China during the time of Kublai Khan.

1300 AD~”Hunt for the Devil’s Dragon” An imagination station adventure set in Libya.

1400 AD~”Monday with a Mad Genius” Magic Tree House about Leonardo Da Vinci.

1572 AD~”Under Drake’s Flag:A Tale of the Spanish Main” by G.A. Henty

1600 AD~”Dragon of the Red Dawn” Magic Tree House set in Ancient Japan.

“Problems in Plymouth” An imagination station adventure set in Plymouth.

1860’s AD~”With Lee in Virginia” by G.A. Henty

“Crazy Day with Cobras” Magic Tree House set in India.

1939 ~”Winged Watchman” set during WWII in Holland

Sorry that the B.C. dates are a little off from the other timelines I shared!

I left most of the dates at the excepted timeline of the Pharaohs instead because I was not sure what direction we would go.

If you want to read more about the argument against the traditional timeline, check it out, here.

books

I do not mind the boys hearing different dates.

answertimeline

We use the dates from Answers in Genesis for our timeline but we discuss the reason behind the different dates.

timelinefigures

When the boys get older I expect them to look at the evidence and make the decision on their own.

This was a really long post but I hope it helps someone.