And Another Thing...

The Minotaur By Ben

 

The Minotaur

By Ben Stanley

One of the kings of Crete was named Minos.  One day, there was a storm at sea and  Minos asked the god Poseidon to bring his fleet home safely.  In exchange Minos would sacrifice his best bull.  Poseidon agreed, however, when the fleet came home Minos sacrificed the smallest bull.  Poseidon was furious so he decided to take revenge.     

 

Minos wife was expecting a baby, when it was born it was half man half bull. The Minotaur, meaning Bull of Minos, was very ugly to look at and the people were afraid of it.  It had a nasty habit of eating people!  

 

Minos told Daedalus, who would be called an engineer today, to build a labyrinth that was big, treacherous and so complicated that no one could find their way out.  It took many year to complete.   When it was completed, Minos put the beast in the labyrinth so it could not find its way out.  Minos then demanded tribute from islands and cities, including Athens, in the form of young men and maidens.  

 

The king of Athens was named Aegeus.  He had a secret son, named Theseus who grew up on an island called Troezen.  Even as baby he was fearless, when Heracles came to their town he laid his lion skin over a chair.  Theseus thought it was a real lion so he attacked it with and axe.  Heracles said Theseus would be a hero just like him when he’s older.  

 

When Theseus was 21 he left his mother to see his father, Aegeus in Athens.  When Theseus heard about the Minotaur he wanted to kill it so he went to Crete.  The princess of Crete, Ariadne wanted the Minotaur dead too, because she thought it was cruel. So she gave him a ball of gold thread and a magic sword because it is the only sword that can kill the Minotaur.  Theseus went in to the maze, tying the rope to the door knob and unwound it as he walked through the maze.  When Theseus got closer, the Minotaur smelled him and attacked him.  Theseus grabbed its horn and cut off it’s head.  

                The next morning Minos went to get the prisoners to put them in the labyrinth and he found their beds empty and a boat missing.  During the night Theseus and Ariande had helped them escape and get back to Athens.  

The Trojan War by Braidon

After watching this video, Braidon wrote a short paper about the Trojan War (thanks for the idea Jenn M.!).  I'm hoping that this will be a weekly project for both boys for the next couple of months.  The boys have not really done a lot of formal writing, so I'm also hoping that their style will improve as we go.

 

The Trojan War

by Braidon Eikenberry

   The Trojan war was between the Trojans and the Greeks.  The war was ten years long.  Zeus called on Paris of Troy to decide who was the fairest between Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. He chose Aphrodite because she promised him the most beautiful woman on Earth to be his wife. He  took Helen  of Sparta from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta.

Helen daughter of Zeus and Queen of Sparta was known as the most beautiful young lady in the world. Her stepfather saw how many men wanted to marry his daughter so he held a competition to see who should marry her.  The one who won the competition was Menelaus.    

                There was an epic battle between Hektor of Troy and Achilles of Sparta.  Achilles the son of Zeus was made invincible by putting him in a river called Styx,  except for his heels.  Achilles won that battle because of his invincibility.  Then after the battle Achilles dragged Hektors body around the city of Troy three times to show that he had killed him.  

Troy withstood the siege  for ten long years.  The final Greek victory came when the Greeks made a huge wooden horse that could hold twelve soldiers.  One night all the Greek ships sailed off so the Trojans thought they had won the war.   The  Greeks put the horse outside the gates and the Trojans thought it was a gift, so they took it in the gates.   The Trojans had been celebrating and became very drunk.  While they were asleep the Greeks came out of the horse, down the the ladder, and killed the Trojans in their sleep.  Then they got Helen and went home after ten long years. 

Getting ready...

It's that time of year again!  Not-Back-to-School time!!! We've been doing a few things to prepare for a bit more structure in our learning adventures this year.  The kids and I made a plan based on what they want to learn about this year.  We all decided that it would be good to have an hour or two set aside each day for some structured learning so that we can all focus.   I'll still be available to help them out, answer questions or just listen through out the day, but we all think it's best if there is some time set aside where we're not distracted by other things.

The boys will be learning about World War II this year.  We started this last year, but never really focused on it and they are ready to do that now.  I've ordered two books which will be the spine of our studies and we'll add other books and activities in as we go.  We're also going to do some more formal math this year.  The boys are going to try to get into Washtenaw Technical Middle College in a few years and they both recognize that they will need to demonstrate some math skills.  So, I ordered The Key to Fractions and we'll start working on that.  We'l continue with those booklets all the way through and I think they'll have a good grasp of those concepts at the end.  We'll continue on with Spelling Power.  This is actually the one thing that the boys really ask for on a regular basis.  They are both concerned about being able to spell well, so they look forward to this part of our studies.  We're also going to focus on some writing skills this year and I am trying to figure out a way to make that really fun.  Any suggesstions would be appreciated.

Olivia is at a 2nd grade age this year and she's still getting comfortable with reading.  We'll be working on phonics, math and history this year.  She's working her way through the Explode the Code workbooks and really enjoys them most of the time.  We will also contiune on with Miquon math, finishing up the orange book adn moving onto the red book.  For history, we're basically copying Theresa's plan.  We'll use Gomrich's A Little History of the World and make timeline cards, also using the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History.  Hopefully later on this year, when the reading takes off a bit, she'll start Spelling Power as well.

Anna is just at a Kindergarten level this year, so we're still taking things very slowly.  She is very interested in learning her alphabet, so we'll continue working with the Waldorf Alphabet Book and the Wise Enchanter, making her Magical Alphabet Book.  I also plan to include some math games, but nothing formal yet.

Today, I'm going to be working on rearranging and setting up our learning room.  We're moving our computer in there as a result of the kitchen redo, so we've moved a very cool retro desk up from the basement.  I was also completely inspired by this school room and will be putting up rain gutter bookshelves this weekend.  I'm planning to arrange the furniture so that I have the one big wall in the room completely free for the bookshelves and Olivia's timeline.  I'll be sure to post pics when I'm done!

So what are the rest of you doing to get ready for learning this fall?

Fieldtrip back in time

Earlier in the week, we went to Greenfield Village with a couple of other families.  This was our first trip there and it certainly won't be our last.   There is so much to do there that I am considering this our orientation trip since we didn't even come close to seeing everything.

First we had to stop and enjoy the fountain at the entrance to the village.

Then we got to watch these men and horses plow a field that will mostly likely be planted in corn.  This man was very knowledgeable and answered all the kids questions.

When we got to the Firestone Farm, we were delighted to meet the new lambs.  The one closest to the ewe was born just two days ago.

As we were gathering up to move to another part of the village, the farmers put the sheep out to pasture.  It was so fun to see them all running to the field, you could tell how excited they were to get over there! 

After lunch we stopped to watch this glass blower and man was it intriguing.  We watched him blow two different vases.  It was just amazing to see the process from start to nearly finish.  The glass is over 1000 degrees when it is finished being blown, so it has to go in a special oven to cool it down very slowly.

We walked over to the roundhouse and after we looked around, the kids got to help turn the track.  It was a really neat experience for them.

Of course, we had to ride the carousel once!  This carousel is over 95 years old and it is in great condition!  The girls has a blast riding it and I don't think we'll ever be able to go back without riding it.

One of our last stops of the day was at the millinery where the girls (big and little!) got to try on hats.  We were so pleased to find that they had at hat in each of the girls favorite colors.

I took many more pictures and I plan to write a more detailed post about each of the stops we made.  I can't wait to go back again and more thoroughly explore this wonderful place!

What learning looks like right now...

Yep, that's right.  We're doing a whole lot of sitting and writing right now with some fun activities thrown in.  This is Olivia's first grade year and she is really into "school" right now, so we have a curriculum plan and we're going to town on it.  She loves math right now and is having a great time with history.

Benny and Braidon wanted to learn about the ancient Romans this year, so I found a book that is acting like a guide and we're having fun with that too.  This week we start learning about the 7 kings of ancient Rome.  I also found a nice science curriculum for them to follow.  Luckily, that is heavy on experiments, so it's not all book-work.

I have several posts this week about the other things that we're doing in our quest for learning.  We've been making Etruscan arches, weighing things, starting a business creating new games and so many more things!

Natural History

Olivia has been studying prehistory this fall and is now getting read to move on to ancient history.  To celebrate, we took a trip to the Natural History museum at U of M.

  

 

 

 

The museum was too dark to get very good pictures.  There was so much to see and do that we are planning several more trips in the near future.  It's great to have such a neat resource so close and free to boot!

American Revolution Video

Benny and Braidon have spent the past few months learning about the American Revolution period.  This time line was the culmination of their work.  They had a great time learning about this crucial time in American history and an even better time putting the time line together.

**Disclaimer**  The events on the time line are not in chronological order.  We didn't discuss chronological order until after they were mostly done.  Apparently we had a miscommunicaton somewhere about what a "time line" actually is.

American Revolution Project

Benny and Braidon are very busily working on their Great American Revolution Project.  For the past several months, they have been studying the American Revolution in great detail.  It started with the viewing of Liberty's Kids, a PBS cartoon series about the Revolution.  That got them really excited and then they asked if we could pursue it.  So we put aside our ancient cultures studies for the time being.  We are now wrapping up our study and they are doing an illustrated time line as their big finish.  Hopefully we will have it finished by the end of next week.