The Greatest Show on Earth

The circus is in town again and since we didn't go last year, we thought it would be fun to take the kiddos this year. Boy, were we right! Everyone had a great time. Nana and Pop-pop took the morning off from work to come with us. This year's theme was "Build It Big!"

 The clowns were Olivia's favorite part of the show.

Emma just LOVED the music. She was bouncing like a kangaroo in Rebecca's lap.

 We got some cotton candy for the kids, which they gladly devoured.

 

Basketball on unicycles...I can't imagine the training it takes to do that...

Rebecca's favorite? The tigers.

It was a little hard to tell who was stronger... ;)

As always, the elephants were a treat. 

One elephant kept pulling his tail away from the one behind that wanted to hold it as they walked. :)

 Ezra was slightly disappointed when we ran out of popcorn.

The show, with a 15-minute intermission was right at 2.5 hours, which certainly seemed like a long time, but it was fantastic. The kids just loved it and will be talking about it for weeks to come, I'm sure.

Ancient Egypt - MFW

For those who have never seen or used My Father's World, it is a Bible-based curriculum that encompasses history, art, literature and science in a very structured and organized way. For instance, a big part of the first few weeks of MFW-CTG is Ancient Egypt. It has been a very comprehensive study, covering their history, culture and economy. As we've studied the history, we've also been reading the corresponding Bible chapters that take place in Egypt.   

Olivia was King Menes of Upper Egypt

Gabe was the king of Lower Egypt

Upper Egypt invades!

King Menes becomes king over a united Egypt!

Olivia also learned about different styles of dress and how they indicated your status in Egyptian society. We made a slave's tunic and sandals from burlap and hemp.

The curriculum has had lots of coloring pages that illustrate daily life for the Egyptian people which we compared to the lives of the Israelites, who were shepherds.

Olivia also had to tell the stories of Abraham and Joseph in her own words, who both spent time in Egypt.

We also studied the architecture of the great pyramids and why they built them.

She then built a model of the Great Pyramid from cubes, including the covered walkway that would have led from the Nile to the tomb.

She then used small paper pyramids to build one large pyramid.

She also studied their artwork and writing and tried her hand at both with surprisingly good results.

Drawing her name in a cartouche.

One of the books we're using is God and the History of Art which has her trying different projects. One was to try to copy a tomb painting, which she did rather well.

In addition, we've read two books: The Boy of the Pyramids and Letters from Egypt. The Boy of the Pyramids was a great mystery story set in the time of the pharaohs, about a boy and his slave who get caught up in a case of grave robbing. Letters from Egypt was set in the 1860s and is a collection of letters from a missionary to her home church about Egypt and the culture at the time. Many of the descriptions of farming and peasant life are unchanged from ancient times: the annual flooding of the Nile, the crops, and the way of life in general.

So far, we've had great time doing the My Father's World curriculum this year and have lots more to do!