History.... and Art!

We've been working on Story of the World history for 2 years now, with both kids working in different time periods.  I finally decided to back up "D" for a review of Ancient times along with "K".  We just finished Ancient times and even though we've been building our timeline books, we decided to do a visual timeline.  The leather bound history time lines each child has been making will be great keepsakes.  But there is just something about being able to be visually reminded of what took place and when by seeing it up on a wall all in one place.  It makes history more fun when you can see visually what was happening in say, India and China at the same time. Or to see who else was alive at the time Shakespeare lived.

Our wall art: History Timeline brings history to life!

The yellow tape represents Ancient times and the blue tape indicates where the Middle Ages begins.  We'll keep adding colors as we move along - and keep adding more historical information as we find it.

Daddy wasn't thrilled about the new wall decor, but it was fun making it and we're looking forward to adding to it as we learn more.

Art Show Prep
We've also been preparing for the homeschoolers art and talent show.  This will be our first time and K was hesitant to enter.  But she's really done some wonderful work in her art class - that talent gene must have skipped a generation (me) and gone right to her!  We're looking forward to the fellowship with other home schooling families, as well as seeing all of the art work the other home schoolers have done this year!

K's fawn in woods entry

K's water color and cutout drawing.

The weather was so warm last week, we had our lunches outside on the patio!

 

Making a Salt Map

We just finished a 2 year chronological study of the Ancient Times (we use the Story of the World for History).  So rather than just jumping to the Middle Ages, a review of all the things we learned seemed in order.  After we finished up our wall timeline, we decided to so a salt map of the Roman Empire just before it fell.  We discussed why it fell (morals and evil had taken over and down it went!)... and then we made our map.

You can do salt maps for just about any region - here are the steps!

You will need: salt (a lot of it), flour and water.  You will need a map of the area you want to use, enlarged to 11x17 (or close to that.)  You will  need a piece of cardboard.  The inside of a clean pizza box will work well.  We had a lot of boxes from our move, so we just cut a size that worked for us.  You will also need a marker and some tempura paints.

Map blown up to 11x17 size

Step 1:  Turn the map over and use a pencil to color the back side of the map.

Step 2:  Put the map on the cardboard piece and trace the map lines, pressing firmly.

Step 3: You will be able to see a light line, which can then be drawn over with a marker to make it easier to see.

Step 4: Mix up 1-2 cups of flour and 1-2 cups of sugar (equal amounts) and then add water until you get a playdoh kind of consistency.

Step 5: Begin pressing the dough onto the cardboard within the lines drawn.  Use flour on your fingers if it starts to stick to the figers more than the cardboard!

The lines will be a little rough, which makes it look more like a shoreline.

Our nearly finished salt map - the Roman Empire

Step 6: Allow your map to dry for several hours or sit it in the sun or even the oven to make it quicker.  (Watch the oven carefully... you are baking cardboard afterall!)

Step 7:  Now get out your Atlas and the kids look closely at the geographic layout of the land.  I had the kids make a chart for 500 ft, 2000 ft, 5,000 ft and so on.  They made colors for each catagory and then referred to their Atlas to make it as realistic as possible.

We also made some "flags" marking some key areas (of their choosing) during that time in history - and today!

Our finished map.  The glare doesn't show the label at the top right, which reads: Ancient Times, Roman Empire.

And that's all there is to it!  Now we all remember where the Roman's lived in those times - even I now remember.  :-)