Yes, I know I've not done much of that the last couple months, but we've also not done much for lessons lately either. I will explain that one in my pregnancy update here in a minute.
So I was having a good day today with my blood pressure and symptoms, and decided to take advantage instead of taking it easy and trying to not overdo it. I did a history lesson and a tie-in art lesson with the girls. Now, I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but we have streamlined our history from doing a full Sonlight world history core to just reading "A Child's History Of The World" and doing whatever strikes our fancy to go with it as I feel up to it to finish this school year. Simplified history here, so we could work with my limitations of the pregnancy and also be able to not miss much with a new baby and getting settled and adjusted to 5 kids.
Today's chapter was about Egyptian writing, also known as hieroglyphics. Now, a couple years ago I went over this material with Missa when she was in 1st grade with OHVA, so it was review for her and new for her sisters. I read the chapter, and we discussed the stuff that we read (lots more than JUST writing in there, it was also a good bit about Egyptian culture and gods/goddesses they worshipped, I'm going to do some searching later today for coloring pages and simple things to do tomorrow and the next day when I crash physically so they can continue with the culture and such with minimal work from me directly and I won't have to read to them too much hopefully). I then remembered that we had some stuff hanging around from Missa's time in OHVA so I went to dig a minute.
I got out 3 pages that show the American English alphabet and the hieroglyph translations, and made a couple copies for the kids to use as a reference. The project was simple. Draw a simple self-portrait and write their first name (or nickname, in the case of the little girls) in hieroglyphs. I paired them up so that the little girls each had a big girl to help, and then spent 45 minutes listening to Liddy throw a conniption fit because she couldn't draw her name out perfectly enough. *sigh* Yes, she is my motor delayed child, mostly we're caught up but she still has some issues there at times, but she is also a MAJOR perfectionist and drawing is the enemy with her most times. She spent time cooling off and working out her fit in her room while Missa helped both little girls with theirs (this girl has a talent for hieroglyph drawing, she does rather well for an 8 year old I think). Liddy and I came to an agreement that she would draw her picture and point out which hieroglyphs she needed for her name, and I would draw her name out for her.
Missa did better than I did at drawing names out. But that is ok, hopefully Liddy will see that it is ok to not be perfect at everything and sometimes someone else is better than you at something. We hung their portraits on the wall over the fireplace, and a copy of the pages for the "translation key" as a display of our work today. I'll take pictures later and might share, if I feel up to it.
But 3 of the 4 girls thought it was an awesome fun project, and I found it really simple to come up with in a pinch. I just wanted something to fill a little time after reading the history chapter just in case I needed to lay down because of my blood pressure.
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