Unit 18: Preparing

Sis finally made it to the week we've been waiting for, the week we learn about the life of Jesus in our history studies. The Roman empire is still controlling much of the world when God sends his son to be born in the little town of Bethlehem.  The Jews are waiting for the Messiah, who they think will come and deliver them from the Romans. They didn't realize that he was actually coming to deliver them from sin, so many did not believe when he came. We enjoyed our lessons this unit. We got to use our Grandpa's box book again this week for our history stories. We read about the birth of Christ, many miracles he did, and finally his death on the cross. Next week we will read about the resurrection.

We're also still reading The Fountain of Life and Little Miriam of Galilee. Since we have so many books going right now for history we decided to take a break from our regular reading curriculum for a couple weeks.

We added Caesar Augustus and the birth of Christ to our timeline. We're doing an accordion book timeline this year made out of index cards folded in half. We're only half way through the school year and it's already so long! I'm glad we decided to make the book though instead of taking up tons of wall space.

Sis' research assignment was to find out more about the "Jesus Star," that the wise men followed. We used this website from Answers in Genesis for our research The Christmas Star.


Her project was to make a star. She cut out a large star and decorated it by drawing shapes inside. Then the shapes were painted using different shades of blue by mixing white and blue paints.

The best part of our week was a field trip at the start of the week. We went to the Henry Ford Museum near Detroit.  The Henry Ford museum is the perfect history field trip. There's so much neat history here and it made a really fun day together. Admission to the The Henry Ford Museum can be costly, but the best part is that this trip was totally Free! One day each year admission and parking is totally free for everyone! We spent most of the day there. It's a pretty big museum if you're going to stop and read about the exhibits, plus they have an old diner to eat at, a hotdog stand, and a cafe right on site for lunch break (I recommend the bacon, mac&cheese grilled cheese at the cafe' soooo yummy!)

 
Have you ever gone on a special field trip to show your kids something really cool hoping they're going to gain buckets of new knowledge and an unforgettable educational experience, only to find them running from each display wondering where the gift shop is? You say "Look kids! This is a real space rocket that landed on the moon." They glance at it for 30 seconds, say "cool," and before you can turn around they're headed for the building block table. Or, you get to Chapter 8 in your science book and say "We're learning about jellyfish! Remember when you saw a real life jelly fish at the aquarium?" They stare at you for a second, "No." It happens all the time. I know that they are gaining knowledge from the field trips and life experiences that we provide for them, but sometimes I wish we could slow down on field trips and REALLY learn something new that will stick. I knew that if we just showed up at the museum they would have little interest in many of the coolest displays, because they don't really understand what they are looking at. They would have a fun day, but not really learn much. I really tried to prepare the girls for this trip before hand this time, so that they would be excited about the displays that we would see. I found that telling them about the displays ahead of time and talking about what we would be seeing, was much more effective than trying to explain to them what they were looking at while at the museum. We read books about Rosa Parks and Abe Lincoln too the week before we went.

Our favorite exhibit there was the Rosa Parks bus. We waited in line to board the bus then they tell the story of Rosa to each bus load. By chance, we ended up being the ones in the exact seat where Rosa sat!! Sis was so excited. Also we saw a bunch of the presidential cars including the one JFK was assassinated in, the theater chair Lincoln was killed in, a cot George Washington slept on
during the American Revolution, the first Ford, famous race cars, an old train, tons of airplanes, historical inventions and furniture, and lots more. Plus we got to see live performances of old music, hear the MLK "I Have a Dream," speech, and have a paper airplane race. It was so much fun. The only question I have is why have we lived in this state our whole lives and never gone before? I'm glad we finally did.