Kaira’s Narration recalling what she knows about Babylon:

Babylon was a big city and was wicked.

It had walls around it and a river running through.

There were hanging gardens because the queen was from Media and she wanted to have mountains and so he built her a mountain with hanging gardens on it.

They were having a feast when it fell. Cyrus captured Babylon.

Kendra’s Narration recalling what she knows about Babylon:

Babylon was a big city with buildings. Nebuchadnezzar lived there.

Daniel got thrown in the lion’s den. There were big beautiful gardens.

It fell down.

We are concluding our brief time in Babylon by watching a Nest Entertainment Video about Daniel.  (We read the Biblical account straight from the Bible first--most of it was quite familiar to the girls.  It is fun to see them put history together with their Bible knowledge.) 

It is fun watching the girls enjoy history.

Even four year old Kendra gets a lot out of our lessons, and is picking up on the general flow of time and cultures. It doesn’t matter that she mixes up names, calling Lycurgus "Spartan" (Confusing his name up with the name of his city, Sparta.) She can tell us about the Spartan life (or maybe in her mind it is the Lycurgan life), and their values and goals–something many high school students couldn’t do. She has an opinion on the merits of Athenian values vs. Spartan values, and says she’d rather be an Athenian, but thinks being American is best of all–but America didn’t exist yet, so "Spartan" had to live in Greece.

Best of all, she’s fascinated with the whole thing!

In history we came to the Kings of the Jews, a familiar topic to my girls. Our lesson focused on David and Solomon, and as they recapped our school time with daddy at dinner I asked, "Who was Solomon’s father?"

Both girls eagerly answered, "David!" I then asked (although it wasn’t covered in our lesson that day), "Who was DAVID’S father?"

After a momentary slight-of-mind that caused her to blurt out, "JESSICA!" (The name of a girl in their piano studio), Kaira corrected herself and remembered, "Jesse!" She went on to continued the genealogy, saying, "And Jesse’s father was Obed!" I was impressed she remembered this from our annual study of Ruth. (Especially since it has been a full year since we've covered Ruth.)

Ken asked, "Who was Obed’s father?" Sure enough! Both girls knew that one, "Boaz!"

We've been enjoying the Greek Myths, and legends, and the history that they tell.

At church on Sunday, another homeschool mom asked Kaira which subject is her favorite.  Without hesitating, Kaira said, "History!"  I later asked her what makes that subject her favorite, and answered, "Because I like the stories.  It is fun to read stories about different people." 

Here's our most recent timeline figures:

Today in a single sweeping history lesson we covered 700 years of early Jewish history, beginning with Abraham and Sarah leaving Ur for Canaan, continuing with Joseph's role in Egypt, then touching on Ramses the Great, and ending with the Moses leading the jews in the Exodus from Egypt , and finally touching on Joshua as they reaturned to Cannan, the promised land.

Now that we’ve covered a reasonable chunk of history from creation (c. 5000 BC) to about 2000 BC, I’m planning to copy off small timeline figures onto cardstock, cut to approximately 3x5 card size and have the children practice lining up the cards in order. They are enjoying our timeline on the wall, and their History notebooks as well.  And of course, the "living history books" on the coffee table are always a hit!

Traveling on in history, we studied the Epic of Gilgamesh.

This ancient and epic poem bears remarkable similarities to several Biblical events. One hero falls asleep under a tree, where a serpent robs him of eternal life. Another man is told by the gods to build a big boat for an upcoming flood.  By obeying, he saves his family and the animals onboard.

This ancient story is a noteworthy example of the convolution caused by the "grape vine effect".  The children and I discussed how our scriptures are divinely inspired, and how God has preserved their integrity through the ages. To explain the distortion of the secular versions, we played a version of telephone.

Calling Kaira aside, I relayed a detailed story. I then did our language arts lesson before asking her to retell the tale to Kendra. Despite Kaira’s excellent memory, several details were left out, and a few facts even changed.

Kendra then retold the story to me. It had become convoluted–almost to the point of being a different tale–yet it retained a marked similarity to the original.

We are now into the Sumerians and their neighbors.  Tomorrow, while I read a library book on the Early Mesopotamians aloud to my scholars, I'll employ them with making playdough cuneiform tablets. 

This morning the girls woke to find a wolly mammoth on the breakfast table!  (Their origami-folding-Daddy made it for them last night.)

We are leaving the ice age, but this little fellow will be a reminder to them of our studies! 

After studying the Tower of Babel in history today, Ken and I left the children dumbfounded at lunch--We suddenly became unable to speak or understand the children’s (or each other’s) languages!

We’d planned it out yesterday: From the time Ken got up (right after our "school time") until after lunch we would suddenly "forget" English.  

The girls vacillated between amused and frustrated--resorting to pantomime to communicate simple requests.  Ken was quite creative and made up his own Babelspeek, but I was lazy and just used Spanish.

Although amusing for a short time  (since we knew it was a game), it was a relief to get up from the lunch table and understand one another again!

Now Kaira and Kendra are outside building ziggurats with rocks and sticks. 

Yesterday was the Great Flood, and now we are into the Ice Age!  In the evenings, Ken's been reading to us from Life in the Great Ice Age  by Michael and Beverly Oard (featured among others on the coffee table). It gives such an intriguing and (for a children's book) remarkably in-depth, look at the Ice Age from a Creationist/Global flood perspective. 

Next week will bring on the Sumerians, then the Epic of Gilgamesh and such.  I spent several rather full semesters in College studying the Mesopotamian civilizations, so I'm enjoying revisiting these early cultures and introducing them (ever so briefly) to the children. 

Many generations before the flood, just a few generations from Adam (and likely while Adam still lived!) a little verse in Genesis chapter 4 about Jubal and Tubal-Cain (as well as others who were establishing great cities) demonstrate a very advanced civilization.

We have officially begun our lightening tour through time!  Before beginning a four year history rotation through the ages, we are doing an overview of ALL history, beginning at Creation! 

I'd hoped to start a few weeks ago, and indeed for several weeks we've been "setting the stage" as we read from our Genesis-era books on the coffee table.  

Only yesterday did we formally begin our study, placing the first landmark (or should that be timemark) on the timeline.   

The children each colored a full page version of the timeline figure, and they will each be keeping a special notebook of their time travel journey. 

Here's our timeline, and a closeup of  Kaira's coloring of the first "landmark/timemark" on our journey:

(Timeline figure and coloring page are from Homeschool in the Woods History Through The Ages Timeline Figures on CD Rom.) Although the photos are the same size, Kaira's coloring is a regular 81/2x11" paper, and the timeline is a big poster on the door. 

For each child's history notebook: I was thinking I'd include the colorings, and a few narrations, and a bit of copy work (copy work only for the 6 yr old).  Any other ideas?  (My history scholars are ages 4 and 6.  They are very advanced readers, but their writing/fine motor skills aren't particularly accelerated.)  Suggestions welcome!