Tuesday, March 6, 2012

History Studies: Making Unleavened Bread

This week in our Mystery of History studies we read about Moses and the Exodus out of Egypt. It was a story we have read many time in our Bible, but this week through some historical fiction and other activities, we were able to gain a deeper appreciation of this Biblical event.



The first book we read was Tirzah by Lucille Travis. This book tells the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt through the eyes of a 12yr. Hebrew girl. What I liked about this book is that it made us think about what it might have been like trekking through the desert with Moses. Many times I have read this story in the Bible but didn't think about details. How did the Israelites feel when they were being chased by Pharaoh? What was it like seeing the cloud lead them through the desert?

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Moses had instructed the people to quickly pack and be able to leave at a moment's notice. He told them to make bread without yeast, since making bread with yeast took a long time to bake. Bread without yeast is called unleavened bread. After reading in our Bible and our history book, I handed my older kids the Old Testament Days: an Activity Guide by Nancy Sanders and told them they were in charge of making unleavened bread for our family.


They gathered the supplies: flour, salt, milk, oil and honey and started making the bread.


First the flour was measured.


Then the salt.


All the wet ingredients were mixed in a separate bowl and then mixed together with the dry ingredients.


The girls mixed the dough with their hands and then placed small circles onto a cookie pan. They pricked each circle with a fork and placed into the oven.


After 20 minutes, our bread was done!


We ate ours with a little butter and honey. Yum!

While eating the bread, we talked about how Jewish people remember the miraculous way God delivered them from Egypt by celebrating Passover. We could probably spend a couple more weeks just learning all about the symbols and significance of Passover!

We've actually spent 2 weeks longer on this unit than what was scheduled. I do this often. :) Many times there are so many cool projects, books, and activities that we want to do that won't fit in the schedule. If my kids are interested in going deeper, we make time in our schedule. Once we are done with our rabbit-trail studies, then we go back to the next history lesson. It took awhile for the box-checker in me to get to the point of sometimes abandoning the schedule, but I've found that it's ok! :)

You might be interested in:
Illuminations: Getting Started with our new History Program
Mystery of History and the Ancient Egypt and the Minoans




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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Ancient History: Eygpt and the Minoans

We have now completed one month of Illuminations by Bright Ideas Press (I'll have a detailed review up next month). Using Mystery of History Vol.1, we learned about Early Egypt, Stonehenge, and the Minoan Civilization this past week.

Our read-aloud book for the past couple of weeks has been The Golden Goblet. I am a big fan of good, historical fiction books. I learned more about history reading historical fiction books as a kid than I did in my history classes. I pre-read this just so that I could be enthusiastic and pronounce things correctly when reading aloud to my kids. I enjoyed it and my kids are starting too as well. It definitely is for older elementary children as there are some sensitive topics (Ranofer is often beaten and starved by his half-brother.)

After reading a couple chapters in the book, my son illustrated one of the scenes with his Legos.


A good part of the book takes place in a goldsmith shop, so this shows Ranofer working--well if I explained the whole thing I would give too much of the story away! :)


My 9yr. old daughter on the other hand, was very interested in what we learned about the Minoans and on her own, created her version of a fresco (well without plaster--she made do with what was on-hand.) I love that my kids are interested enough to do projects that are not assigned! She also made a salt-dough amulet, but I failed to photograph that project.


I was excited to get a box of books in the mail! These books will be used later in the year for our history studies. Just a few more left and then I will have all I need for the year. If you are wondering what the book list looks like, you can check out the Illuminations Year 1 Grade 3-8 list on Amazon. I've also been pinning ideas on my MOH1 Pinterest board.

What's been your favorite time-period to study in history?




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