Mummies, VBS, & Swimming Pools!

Today we finished up Day 19 of our school year. It is hard to believe we only have 11 days left in our Egypt unit study. We are having so much fun this summer! Here are a few interesting happenings I wanted to share:



Hot Dog Mummy!

What study of Ancient Egypt would be complete without learning about mummification? To get some hands on experience and better understand this fascinating process, we decided to mummify a hot dog!

We needed:

- a hot dog (any kind will do)
- a deep plastic container with lid
- a large box of baking soda
- yarn/string
- a ruler
- pencil and paper for making a lab report
- 2 weeks to wait for the process to complete

Here is the page where I found full instructions for completing this "Minding Your Mummies" project!

VBS

Both of our boys attended a one-day VBS last weekend. My parents offered to take them for the day while my hubby and I enjoyed some much appreciated "date" time. Big Brother had attended several VBS programs before, but this was Little Brother's first. From the sounds of it, they had a wonderful time singing active songs and playing new games. Their lesson was about the story of the fiery furnace and about standing strong for Jesus. I was very impressed when Big Brother came home telling me he had felt challenged to start really putting God first in his life. I have noticed him reading his Bible and praying on his own outside of school time faithfully this week. That really puts a smile on my face! VBS programs and summer Bible camps had a big impact on my life growing up, and I was glad to see my boys getting a taste of that this summer.

Swimming

Big Brother has been desperately needing a new outlet for his seemingly endless energy. After looking at and comparing numerous activities, we decided that swimming would be a great way to get in some fun P.E. this summer! I'm not a fan of the idea of going to a public pool (health concerns as well as the modesty issues involved). Thankfully the Lord worked it out that we were able to go in together with my parents on purchasing a pool and the needed supplies. What could be better than having a private pool at your grandparents' house?!

So this week Big Brother has been very motivated to get our schoolwork finished by lunchtime and so we could go to the pool at my parents' house for an afternoon of P.E. I am working on teaching him swimming skills and safety. He is doing great, and we are both enjoying the exercise. He loves racing me across the pool and playing "Marco Polo." Little Brother is still a little nervous in the water, and that's just fine. He did seem to like the pool better when he had some balls and a toy boat to play with in the water. He also seems to like practicing kicking!

Just a last little note here while I am on the swimming pool! We all sunburn very easily. For the first couple days, I slathered both boys in sunscreen (despite their protests, which were many and loud), but I forgot to use it myself. And I have the worst sunburn ever to prove it! OUCH!!! I found a simple homemade remedy to soothe the pain, though. Mix 4 Tbsp. of baking soda with just enough cold water to make a paste, use a cotton ball to rub it on your sunburn, leave on about 10-15 minutes, and gently rinse. It felt so cool!

And yes, I think I will remember to use my sunscreen from now on!!

So what is your family up to this summer?

Enjoying The Golden Goblet

Today is Day 12 of our 2016-2017 school year using AWOA as our main curriculum.

We are now digging deeply into our assigned literature for this unit, a book called The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. This fictional story about a boy named Ranofer who works in a goldsmith shop is set in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. We are really enjoying this book very much!

I love reading books aloud in our homeschool, and thankfully Big and Little Brother both also like to hear a good story.

To keep his hands busy while I read aloud as well as to help him actively process what happens in the story each day, Big Brother has created character cards.



As we meet characters in our reading each day, he makes a simple drawing on an index card and we label each card with the character's name. Then he uses these cards something like paper dolls to act out the events of the chapter as we read. This keeps him listening carefully and busily engaged in the story.

His drawings are rather simple, but he has include some good details that he has picked up from listening to the book. For example, he gave Rekh the goldsmith a bad leg just like the character in the story, and he gave the cruel stonecutter Gebu a sour face and a stonecutting tool.

When I first looked through The Golden Goblet before we started reading it together, I had wondered if it might be too challenging for an 8 year old to grasp. But I should not have worried! He loves it, and he even begs for me to keep reading after we finish our assigned chapter each day.

Little Brother is listening in on the reading with us, too. Although I am certain he's not grasping much of the story, he is practicing listening and enjoying either playing quietly with Play-doh or coloring.

I am also enjoying getting into the story of poor Ranofer myself. I have not read ahead to see how it all ends, so I am always excited to see what comes next in each day's assigned chapter!

Click here to find The Golden Goblet on Amazon!!

This post contains affiliate links. Thanks!

Fun Alphabetizing Spelling Activity

Today was Day 3 for us using the A World of Adventure unit study curriculum, and we are loving it!

I wanted to briefly share with you an activity we did for spelling practice today that Big Brother really liked.

Normally being given the assignment of putting words in alphabetical order makes Big Brother groan. For some reason despite having a very high reading level, he still struggles with something as seemingly simple as remembering the order of the ABCs.

But this simple activity helped to make an otherwise boring and troublesome task so much more fun and interesting!

You may remember that we are in the midst of a unit study about Ancient Egypt, and as part of this unit study we are learning about the life of Joseph in the Bible. We all know the story of how Joseph was falsely accused and put into prison.

So to go along with the prison theme today when his spelling lesson called for him to alphabetize his word list, he made a spelling chain!



I cut 21 strips of construction paper so that he would have one link for each word on his current spelling list. Big Brother used a marker to write one spelling word on each strip of paper.

I had a sheet that I normally use when working with Little Brother which has all the capital letters of the alphabet printed out in order in large print, and I allowed Big Brother to use this sheet as a guide.

He carefully put each strip in the correct order, sometimes having to look to the second or third letter to determine which came next. I double-checked his order, and then we worked together to glue the strips together to make an alphabetized spelling chain.

Big Brother was so proud of his chain that he wanted to hang it up in our living room for decoration!

Visit our Shield of Faith Homeschool Gift Shop to discover homeschool apparel and gifts designed by homeschoolers for homeschoolers!