Minoans and Mycenaeans . . .

As Moses led the people in the Exodus, and Joshua led the people into the land of Canaan to become a nation set apart by God, the civilizations of the Minoans and the Mycenaeans were emerging and thriving across the Mediterranean Sea.  It was out of these two cultures that the later Hellenistic Greeks got many of their myths and legends.  These are the two cultures we are focusing on for school:

First we studied the Minoans, named after the legendary King Minos, who lived in the palace at Knossos, Crete.

We read the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, the bull-man beast that supposedly lived underneath the palace in a labyrinth.

Raven’s notebooking page about the Minotaur.

Minotaur coloring page

We learned that the Minoans really did worship bulls.

Then we read the myth of King Midas, who wished that everything he touched would turn to gold.

Denna’s coloring depiction of King Midas.

Minoan Resources:

Before the Greeks – article for kids about the Minoans

Theseus and the Minotaur

Palace at Knossos

King Midas

Virtual Tour of Palace at Knossos

Knossos (picture links at bottom of page)

Minoan paintings lesson in pdf

Theseus audio (chapters 12-15)

Theseus shorter version (chapter 7)

The Golden Touch

Minoan Civilization notebooking pages

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Today, we started our study of the Mycenaean culture.  We will read about the great Trojan War, the discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, the adventures of Ulysses, the famous Lion Gate in Mycenae, and the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece.

The girls also completed their Ancient Greek lapbook covers this week:

Mycenaean Resources:

Article for kids on kidspast.com

Mycenae video

Treasure from a sunken Mycenaean ship

Mycenaean art

Map of Mycenaean world

The Story of the World (chapters 11-12) audio

Jason and the Golden Fleece audio (chapter 6)

Story of the Argonauts

The Siege of Troy

The Adventures of Ulysses

The Odyssey for Boys & Girls

Planning and preparing. . .

The days are counting down when our little cozy family of four will soon be a clan of five.  In so many ways this pregnancy is unlike anything I have experienced before.  With my husband being deployed I have had to reevaluate every step of the journey.  Things I had taken for granted, like a ride to the hospital, are now being sought after with much prayer.

Getting a nursery ready for our newest one was one of the greatest chores.  I am still in the process of acquiring 2 dressers for the room, but at least the crib and basics are ready.  I have had the wonderful help of my brothers and sisters in Christ in all sorts of menial tasks, and I am truly thankful for our church family here in Kansas.

I have been keeping myself busy with online college classes and homeschooling the girls, but in between I have found peace in crafting a few special things for baby.  We have decided to use cloth diapers this time in an effort to save money, and so I have been the ultimate penny-pincher and sewn up a few of my own:

Other than these, I bought most of our diaper stash through a forum for cloth diapering.

I also wanted to have the nursery in a western/cowboy theme, but decorations seem hard to find.  I fashioned a mini-quilt for the crib with some western fat-quarters I found at the local quilt store:

This is the center panel

Pieced squares for a border

The final quilt.  This is by far not a professional quilt.  My first attempt at quilting left much to be desired in the way of the final product and binding.  But, I was satisfied with allowing it to be displayed.

As the next few weeks draw my due date closer and closer, I am both apprehensive and excited about all the changes that will happen in our life.  My husband will come home for 2 weeks to visit us and the baby, and we will find our groove in schoolwork for both the girls and I.  I am at the brink of exhaustion from just thinking about what all needs to be done and what kinds of things will need to change in the coming months.  But, the Lord knows just how much I can handle, and has given me no more than that.  I am rejoicing greatly in His provision and faithfulness to us.

The girls have been especially helpful in organizing and cleaning, and I am thankful for their help during the day.  They have been enjoying looking at the baby items, and practicing on their own baby-dolls in preparation for taking care of their sibling.

In the near future, we will be celebrating Denna’s 5th birthday here in just over a week.  My little girl has grown so much, and she will be starting her phonics program as soon as all the materials arrive.  I have decided to use the same program I used with Raven; ABC’s with ACE and CHRISTI.  I have looked at other programs, but this one is just filled with fun and biblical wisdom.  I found the manuals used online, and I ordered the cd and flashcards for supplements.  Denna is very excited about starting, she has already memorized the first song.

Raven has been participating in bowling class with our homeschool group, and I hope to get pictures soon of her in action.  She has been struggling in math this year, so we decided to step back for a while and work on basic facts before moving onto anything more complicated.

We have continued in our chronological reading of the Bible, although the past few weeks of reading have been sparse.  We are in 2 Samuel studying Absalom.  In our history, we have studied the ancient civilizations of Minoans and Mycenaeans, and I will list resources in my next post. Very soon we will venture into Ancient Greece.

Winter Wonderland. . .

Being snowed in after having been down with the stomach flu certainly forces you to relax and recover in the proper manner, but it does not mean you can’t enjoy yourself!  While waiting for my car to be dug out from under 6 inches of snow, we made the best of our time and baked cookies, wrapped presents, and created wonderful homemade gifts for friends and family.

The girls couldn’t decide which was more fun, rolling out and cutting the cookies, or eating the leftover dough.  After a full day of making cookies, I think they were ready to have some healthy food, so we made some corn chowder with our leftover potatoes.  It was oh, so yummy that I didn’t mind eating leftovers for a few days.

While I actually had time, I made up a few projects on my new sewing machine I got for myself for Christmas.  This is just a simple book they sell in panels at Walmart, but it will make a fun gift.

I even got to try out my embroidery function on my machine!

I finished this little tote bag that had been cut out and waiting assembly for a long time. I messed up on the strap, so I don’t know yet what to do with it.  It might just become another one of our library book bags.

Finally, as a gesture of thanks to the girls’ Art teachers (and a friend whom I promised), I made these fingerless gloves out of some wool I had around the house.

Each pair got a tag with washing instructions, and was wrapped and ready to go with us to Homeschool Art Class.  I didn’t get to see them open the presents, so I will find out after the new year whether they enjoyed them.

The best fun of all was, however, getting out of the house and finding a good sled hill!  After Art Class on Friday the girls tried out the hills on post.  They packed their snow gear and sled in the car in anticipation of some slick slopes.  They were a little disappointed that the snow was melting, and the hill we chose wasn’t very steep, but nevertheless they made a go of it and built up some speed.

This week our science books for spring semester arrived, and I have been slowly gathering Ancient Greece and Rome books from paperbackswap.com.  I am excited to be starting our 4-year cycle based on Heart Of Wisdom.  We have already been working through the Old Testament for most of this year, and studying the civilizations mentioned, but this will be our official start on science in creation order.

I think it has taken me this first part of the year just to renew and prepare myself to be able to continue in our homeschooling.  I knew going into the school year that with my husband being deployed and me pregnant that my expectations should be redefined as to what we could accomplish.  I placed very little if any pressure on myself or the girls to render anything that mimicked school.  We have done work, and learned tremendously, all for the most part without lessons or traditional textbooks.  Just in these past few months have I began to integrate formal lessons back into our days.

The biggest motivator for me, I guess, has been the knowledge that we did have a year to slow down and focus on our family.  Being in it for the long-run has helped keep us from burn-out I believe, as we don’t have to feel as if somehow we are not keeping up.  We know we will be doing this for a long time, and therefore can function with the ebb and flow of life.

Easy Books with Fabric Faux Book Cloth Tape

Here is a super easy and fun idea for the young illustrator or author on your Christmas list this year!  Make them some blank books with custom fabric binding.

I’m off to find some 3/4″ double-sided tape online!

The Small Object Steno Pad » Easy Books with Fabric Faux Book Cloth Tape.

The week before vacation. . .

Our chronological reading of the Old Testament has been going fairly well, and we have finished off the book of Joshua and started Judges this week.  Along with the scripture studies, I try to have the girls read about one Ancient Civilization mentioned in the book we are reading.  This week we studied the Phoenicians.  Although not specifically named in Joshua or Judges, there is mention of Sidonians (from Sidon).

Phoenician ship drawing by  Raven

Notebooking page with a drawing of things Phoenicians traded.

Phoenician man, and a print out simple article about Phoenicians.

Along with the books shown above, we read 2 chapters from On the Shores of the Great Sea; specifically Conquerors of the Sea and Early Pioneers.

Raven also made minibooks for the first three judges of Israel:

In our Polar Animal lapbooks, we have completed all our minibooks and placed them into the folders.  We are now finished except for a cover design for Raven’s lapbook.

| View Show | Create Your Own

 

| View Show | Create Your Own

 

With all the preparation to leave for Wisconsin this coming week, we decided that we were at a good pausing point in our projects to leave them behind while we have a 2 week vacation.

In other news around our house, I have been crocheting up a pile of baby booties and hats for both myself and friends.

This last set is my absolute favorite.  I bought this yarn at Hobby Lobby, and it was baby yarn.  It didn’t even look camouflage when I bought it, but as I worked it up someone mentioned to me that the booties looked like little army boots.  So, for the hat I made a little brim to look like a field cover.  So cute!  Now that we know we are having a boy (woohoo!), I am going to bring these to the hospital and get a pic of our little guy in them for daddy. Hopefully they will fit!

In case you are looking for the patterns for these items, I will share my links:

The baby booties are the easiest pattern I have been able to find, from LionBrand.

The earflap hat pattern can be found here.

The camouflage hat is something I came up with, so I don’t have a pattern for it.