What Owen learned about Ancient Egypt

Owen’s Dictation about what he learned – Ancient Egypt

January 8, 2013

The Nile River. They made canals to water their crops all year. They hunt geese. When somebody died they take out their hearts. They bury Pharaohs in pyramids. IF the feather weighs more than your heart you would be eaten up by an alligator, lion, hippo thing. They use big big blocks to make pyramids and it takes 9 people to move one block. King Tut was found in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. They played music, dance, swam and fight for fun. They kill hippos. They fight each other on boats as a game. They could never move the boundary stone; its how they paid the taxes on their lands. They had to be careful of alligators and cobras on the Nile River. Sometimes people got beat up if they didn’t bring home enough geese. They get honey from bees and sometimes got chased by bees. They had parties with lots of food. At the temple the priest would take a bath before ceremonies. They had different gods in Egypt’s. Egyptians writings are called hieroglyphs. They wrote on papyrus. Inside the pyramids were: mummies, furniture, gold jewelry, and food, anything they wanted in the next world. 

Owen's drawing of King Tut - January 8, 2013

School Update

School Update

We had a great almost three week break from school but we are back at it!! Just wanted to give you an update on a few things that we have been doing. First I should say that Emma decided that she wanted to do school at home with Owen, being that she is only three and I am not a big pusher when it comes to preschool, we decide that this was just fine with us. I do think that preschool is important when they are four before they start kindergarten and with that being said I am glad that we are blessed and are able to keep her home with me.

Owen is doing a great job with reading and writing. He is able to read three and four letter words very quickly and we are working on introducing five letter words. Everyday he reads me a story out of one of his easy readers and he usually reads a little to me at night in bed. Every week he is introduces eight new spelling words and two new sight words. We are on a 4 –day a week school schedule so that on the 5^th day we can do science, field trips and play dates or nothing if that’s  what we choose. On Mondays the words are introduces, Tuesdays he write them big, Wednesdays he writes them small and Thursdays we mix them up. The spelling words are four and five letter words. He is doing great with these!

Math is still a lot of review for him. He is learning to add and subtract larger numbers, learning about even and odd numbers, telling time, shapes, money, typical math stuff.

In science we just finished a great book that covers major animals that live on each continent. It’s amazing how much I am learning too! It’s also amazing to see how differently God made each animal, and how unique they are to be able to survive in their particular environment.

We just finished up a unit on ancient Egypt and on the next blog I will write a dictation that Owen told me about what he learned as well as share a drawing of King Tut. We also made a “mummy body,” out of clay and if it ever warms up maybe the clay will get hard! Once it’s hard we will wrap the mummy in cloth (toilet paper).

We also started a unit on Presidents of the United States. It’s basically an introduction to the presidents. We watch a very short video and read a little about the president. We are starting in order with the first, George Washington and making our way to the current. Our goal is to learn about two presidents a week. This week we learned about George Washington and Owen wrote in his journal:

George Washington was the first president. He is on the dollar bill. He is also on the quarter.

We learned a few facts that if you ask Owen he should be able to tell you.

            We also are “growing a frog.” We received our tadpole in the mail today and it should take about a month for us to have a frog. We will keep you posted on his name and pictures.         

            Everything is going really well with school. It took us a little while to get into a groove that works best for Owen and for myself. But I think that it’s working out. Its great that I know exactly what he’s learning, where he’s at, what his strong and weak marks are and how to improve those. We are having a really fun time doing this. We do need a few more play dates with kids his own age and that really is my only complaint! 

Owen's coloring of George Washington - January 8, 2013