Field Trip: Getty Villa

When we visited The Getty Center last summer, I learned about the Getty Villa, a completely seperate branch of The Getty devoted to the art and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.  What a perfect way to wrap up our year studying these cultures!

Admission is free, but parking costs $15 and you must make a reservation beforehand. 

We saw lots of amazing artifacts that added a new dimension to our history study.  It was so neat to see Gracie get excited about seeing things that we had learned about:  a bust of Augustus Caesar, the gallery numbers written in roman numerals, ancient Roman coins (she had made her own version out of clay), a Greco-Roman mummy (which was "older than you, mommy!"),  and a tiny fragment of an ancient manuscript of The Odyssey.  We read this version during the school year.

She also developed a new appreciation for the art of mosaic.  She worked for weeks on a small 6 inch square mosaic.  This one was at least 4 feet long!

Like the Getty Center, the Getty Villa has a wonderful room devoted to hands on activites called the Family Forum.  We were able to decorate our own Greek vases by making rubbings on paper or drawing on huge reproductions with dry-erase markers.  (That's my art on the right.  I'm a woman of many talents, I know.)

My favorite feature was the big screen where you could become part of the image on a vase.  There was a wall of props to choose from, so you could fit right in to the scene, which changed every so often.  Isn't that fun?!

Warning:  In gallery 209, there were a few vases with scenes NOT appropriate for children.  Fortunately I saw them first and easily distracted Gracie into another gallery. 

Roman Feast

We celebrated the conclusion of our ancient history studies by having a Roman Feast!  Gracie did almost all of the food preparation.

So what does one eat at a Roman Feast?  Nothing too complicated, thankfully!  Crustulum is garlic bread and cecina is a baked mashed garbanzo bean dish.  (Recipes from Hands-On Heritage Activity and Coloring Books - Activity Book, Ancient Rome and The Story of the World. Activity Book 1: Ancient Times (Revised Edition) (Bk. 1). 

Plates and silverware are strictly forbidden.  Sitting on the floor is encouraged.

Don't forget to wear your laurel (or, er... ceanothus) wreath!

 

Story of the World: Volume 1: The Ancients

I am very excited to announce that I am now a contributing writer over at The Curriculum Choice!  I recently reviewed the first volume of Story of the Worldwhich is now posted here.  If you're considering this curriculum, head on over to see what I have to say about it!

 

The Curriculum Choice is a great place to get reviews on lots of different curriculum.  If you've never been there, go check it out!

Reading Independence & Booklists

Gracie will be in second grade this fall, and most of the reading we've done has been together.  I want to start fostering some independence in her for next school year by assigning a book each month and completing a related project.

So why am I doing this?

1.  To make her an independent learner.
2.  To guide her reading selection. 
3.  To teach her responsibility.
4.  It's something she is excited to do.

What will she read?

I'm still narrowing it down.  I want to preview each book to make sure it will be a good fit and doesn't have any surprises!  The books that she doesn't have assigned as independent reading will still probably find their from the library to our mantel.

Middle Ages Literature
(aligned with chapters of Story of the World Vol. 2)

The Sword in the Tree (2)
Marguerite Makes a Book (3,11)
Viking Adventure (14)
Minstrel In The Tower (16)
A Medieval Feast (16)
Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess (16, 19)
The Making of a Knight: How Sir James Earned His Armor (17)
The Door in the Wall (19)
Joan of Arc (26)
Columbus (31)
Leonardo Davinci (35)
Leonardo and the Flying Boy (35)
Good Queen Bess : The Story of Elizabeth I of England (38,42)
William Shakespeare & the Globe (39)
Pirates (Reading Railroad) (42)

Earth Science Literature
(aligned with R.E.A.L. Science- Life)

Weather/Water
The Cloud Book
A Drop Of Water
Water Dance
Earth's Surface
Hill of Fire
The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top: A Book About Volcanoes
How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World
Rocks & Minerals
Rocks in His Head
Rocks: Hard, Soft, Smooth, and Rough
Solar System
Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei
Footprints on the Moon
If You Decide To Go To The Moon

I love finding relevant booklists, so I hope this is helpful.  I will post the finalized list as I make my way through previewing these books.  Anything you would add?

Field trip to Egypt

Well, not really, but it felt like it!

Recently Gracie and I went on an extended field trip to the Bay Area. We went to see the King Tut exhibit currently at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco and the Egyptian-themed Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose.

Unfortunately there was no photography allowed in the exhibit, but we were quite surprised to see a stunning resemblance between King Tut and certain members of our family! Who knew? Maybe we're descendants of royalty! At the Rosicrucian museum, we felt like we had been transported to Egypt. The grounds were beautiful and filled with intricate buildings and plants like papyrus and pomegranate that made us feel like we were walking along the Nile. The highlight for us was a recreation of an ancient Egyptian tomb that we could walk through. The walls of the tomb were decorated with images from Egyptian mythology. On the right hand wall you can see some of the gods weighing the dead man's heart to determine if he will make it into the afterlife.This is a recreation of Hammurabi's Code that is supposed to be almost identical to the original.

There were also recreations of the Rosetta Stone and King Tut's actual mummy case (the original never leaves Egypt). There were plenty of original artifacts in the museum as well, but the recreations pleased us just as much. We learned about Hammurabi and different types of ancient writing, like cunieform and heiroglyphics earlier this year, so it was neat to see something close to the real thing. And it will be a while until we can travel to Egypt or Europe where those artifacts reside!

Although it's fairly small, it's a very comprehensive museum. On their website they have a 10-day curriculum guide to go along with a museum field trip, including a quiz, which we used as a scavenger hunt at the museum.