Ancient History - Up to Date!

We are officially (well, as official as anything gets around here!) on holiday. So, not a lot has changed, except that our education has become more 'subtle' - less formal lessons, more life lessons! Ie; instead of 'get your books out', it's 'if you want to eat xyz, you'd better figure out how you're going to do it', and 'sure you can watch tv, after you've picked a chore and watched a documentary!' Acutally, that's how it always works around here, so maybe it's just packing away specific books. They are aghast that I have had the nerve to fill a basket with 'Expected Holiday Reading' though ;) Sucks to be my kids :)

We started the year learning about 'What is Archaeology?' and we did our own dig. The photos below were taken at the Hyde Park Barracks (see previous post) and document how they excavated the site, and some of their finds. The kids were impressed to see the relevance!

And now we have ended our year, and I have so much blogging to catch up on. But I think in order not to bore anyone, I will give you the highlight reel!

Ancient India

Earlier in the year we learnt about Mohenjo-Daro, the first city in the Indus Valley. This term we learnt about later developments, principally the development of Hinduism and the Caste system, Buddhism and the Mauryan Empire. We talked a great deal about belief systems, but I think we enjoyed playing with mehndi the most!

Love our local Indian grocer :)

 Ancient China

Building on what we had already learned about China earlier n the year, we moved onto Qin Zheng (and his burried army!) and the Great Wall; discovering how China became one country from several warring states. We looked at the development of pictograms to calligraphy and Also about some of Confucius' teachings. Mum let us try some fortune cookies too, but she decided that we had done enough clay based crafts and activities already this year and we didn't need our own buried army - just yet. Maybe when we go over this cycle when the 'littles' get to this stage! So we made our own paper instead. I think Mum realised a clay army may have been a better idea after all.... And she had to get Dad to the build your own compass exercise as it just wasn't playing for her! Good thing her sense of direction is pretty good any way ;)

Making paper pulp.

Spreading out paper pulp to dry.

We decided it was a boring colour! So we experimented with Mum's inks.

Out to dry.

Mesoamerica: Olmecs and Nazca

We touched briefly on Mesoamerica. There isn't a great deal to learn (IMHO!) before the Aztec and Mayan periods, of which there is much more information. So we used this more of an opportunity to involve everyone in art and craft, which was well accepted!

We imagined how the Nazca lines were drawn, when the people drawing them couldn't see what they would look like from great heights - by using white crayon and water colours. The kids copied some Nasca designs and made up some secret coded messages themselves. As you do. 

And we played at making mosaics. We considered making designs similar to the people and culture we were investigating, and then decided we'd rather make it up ourselves! 

Alexander The Great and Ancient Greece

We read about the ambitious Alexander and his conquests, and how his empire was divided on his early death. We tried our hand at tying knots - not as technical as the Gordian Knot, but still tricky for us! We especially liked reading about Bucephalus, and how Alexander tamed him.

We read more about the seven wonders of the ancient world, and made our own Pharos of Alexandria.

We enjoyed making out own hoplite shields while we learned about the Peloponnesian War.

We especially liked playing with them, and using them as frisbees....

We compared the differences between the Roman and Greek gods, and learned how they were adopted and adapted by Rome through the Eutruscans; the Romans worshiped a great many things and had gods or goddesses for mostly every area of life.

We tried our hand at Greek Architecture, learning (though probably not retaining for all Mum's efforts!) the differences between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns. Dad can show them again one day perhaps? 

We made our own Greek coins, then did some fierce trading!

And a little science and maths, learning about some famous Greek discoveries. Eureka!

 Antiochus Epiphanes and the Rededication of the Temple

By an amazing stoke of coincidence, our studies happened to fall within the week of the celebration of Hanukkah. We celebrated miracle of the oil ourselves, lighting the menorah and saying the blessings. Though with young children wanting to blow them out (candle every-night - it MUST be a party?) the deeper meaning was not fully grasped. Maybe next year? Though they loved playing with the dreidels that we made ourselves (Mickey Mouse themed, would you believe?!) , though not losing so much... and there were far too many requests for jam doughnuts!

Ancient Rome

We talked about whether we would like to be Rome's First Citizen (or Emperor), and why, or why not?

Mr 11 really impressed me. For starters, Aspies like to go straight to the black and whit practicalities, which is great, I think! But it can make creative writing a bit of a challenge if we're not in the right mood :)

His first reason was, that he was quite happy being himself, thankyou very much....  (considering some of his Aspie days when he just is so frustrated, this is good news!)

His second reason was, that he didn't like the even remotest possibility of being assassinated..... (good point!)

And his final point I loved!

I wouldn't like to be so rich; I would probably have to drink a LOT of wine, which means I would probably end up a raving drunkard, and I don't want to end up a raving drunkard!

If that was the most important lessons he learned while studying Ancient History, I am pleased enough! Be happy with who you are, and don't be a (raving) drunkard!

Roman Sandals - Not very comfortable! Only hope the originals were more wearable!

And now you know how an Emperor winds down after a tough day despot-ing (new word, I just made that up. You're welcome).

But the Emperor soon had to get off his laurels (lol, I am a riot!), take some responsibility for his empire; we had made a map on a scroll, perhaps it was accidentally burned in the fire at Alexandria? The kids loved learning about Julius Caesar, crossing the Rubicon, his Gallic wars etc, all very exciting. Where was I? Oh yes, responsibly building aqueducts for the people to have water for their baths and what not. Of yes, and to give them lead poisoning.

 Maths Play

Along side all of the 'boring' stuff, we had some fun exploring. We loved playing with the Geo blocks, creating all sorts of shapes and patterns. Mum couldn't get over the face that we played with them for three hours straight....!

And some geometry play on the ipad - our train fanatic created many, many of these images of engines throughout the ages.

Mum decided to take our measurement, capacity and volume class outside. It was very hot!

Guessing the volume of an apple, a ball and some lego bricks.

How many teaspoons in a cup? Clearly Mum doesn't do enough baking??

Free play with syringes.... much more fun!

Working hard or hardly working?

I. Love. This photo.

Mr Two checking our work!

Dreamland

Mr Five recreating a movie scene (Back to the Future III!).

Finally deciding to give writing a try... Mum trying not to be too excited!

His real loves - Building models for Angry Bird games. Or for smashing them. Not sure which is more popular, but he could spend all day building with blocks, all manner of constructions with more and more elaborate features. Love the attention and concentration he is showing.

Mum pinning Mr Five down for some dreaded desk work! You can see I am torturing the poor kid...

And now I am reorganising the house so we are ready to start again, next year! I must say, getting all my ducks in a row is probably my favourite part of this time in the year, but it never seems to last very long. If only time would stop for a little bit so I could enjoy a nice clean slate for a bit longer!