Green Apple's Blush: Tutoring Ancient History and Geography

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Tutoring Ancient History and Geography

I am tutoring a young person in history and geography this year. I only have a short time with them, once per week, so I am providing them with lots of books to read on topic during the week. When they are with me, I am reviewing some of what they've read, using some of the SOTW chapter questions as well as my knowledge of some of the books they're read. I am using the SOTW maps, but because they are so simple I'm also adding in others that I already own from various other sources.

Here are some of the readings thus far this year:

Pre-history - Intro to study of Archeology and History

Archaeologists Dig for Clues, Kate Duke

Archaeologists, Holly Cefrey

Hunt! Can You Survive the Stone Age? Julia Bruce

Life on Earth, Steve Jenkins

The Tree of Life, Peter Sis

Painters of the Caves, Patricia Lauber

Lucy Long Ago, Catherine Thimmesh

Story of the World (intro – what is history/archaeology)

You Wouldn’t Want to be a Mammoth Hunter! John Malam

The Ice Age Tracker’s Guide, Adrian Lister

11,000 Years Lost, Peni Griffin

Death Trap, The Story of the La Brea Tar Pits, Sharon Thompson

Ancient Agriculture, Michael Woods and Mary Woods – just chapters 1 and 2 for now….

Mesopotamia

I don't usually lump the study of one group all into one time frame, but the way SOTW covers all the different cultures that inhabitated/controlled Mesopotamia over time is just too disjointed for me, so I decided last time we did it to lump all the chapters together and then fill in with reminders as we study other cultures. It seemed to work well, so I'm doing it that way again.

SOTW chs. 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 16, 17

After studying Mesopotamia, we'll come back and pick up the Old Kingdom period of Egypt (chs. 2 and 4) and then move on in a more normal fashion.

For extra reading regarding Mesopotamia, the first book covers all three major civilizations that lived in the region, so read that one if nothing else:

Ancient Mesopotamia, Virginia Schomp

Ancient Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Eva Bargallo

Kids Discover: Mesopotamia

Calliope: Mesopotamia the Land of Firsts

Mesopotamia: Iraq in Ancient Times, Peter Chrisp

Appleseeds (a Cobblestone Publication): Children in Ancient Mesopotamia

The Assyrians, Elaine Landau

The Sumerians, Elain Landau

The Gilgamesh saga:

Gilgamesh the Hero, Geraldine McCaughrean

and/or a trilogy of books by Ludmila Zeman (Gilgamesh the King; Revenge of Ishtar; Last Quest of G)

...and for the second week of this study:

Lugalbanda, the Boy who got Caught in a War, Kathy Henderson

You Wouldn't Want to be an Assyrian Soldier, Rupert Matthews

Chs. 1-3 of Joy Hakim's The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way

To Ride the God's Own Stallion, Diane Wilson (which was not a hit with this particular child, although my younger son loved it)

Week 4: Old Kingdom Egypt

Voices of Ancient Egypt, Kay Winters

The Great Pyramid, Elizabeth Mann

The Sphinx, Bernard Evslin

Pharoah's Boat, David Weitzman

The Great Pyramid, Hazel Martell

Nat. Geo.: The Scorpion King:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/the-scorpion-king/

Picture of the Narmer Palette:
http://www.nationalgeographicstock.com/ngsimages/explore/explorecomp.jsf?xsys=SE&id=451261

Egyptian timeline (Nat. Geo.):
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/timeline.html

You Tube on Narmer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW06y_BRyCQ

Egyptian Myths, Jacqueline Morley

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Henry Barker

Gods and Goddesses in the Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians, Henrietta McCall

Chs. 2 and 4 of SOTW

...and for the second week of this study:

Calliope (Cobblestone) Science and Medicine in Ancient Egypt

The Star-Bearer: A Creation Myth from Ancient Egypt, Dianne Hofmeyr

Egyptian Treasures, Catherine Chambers

Ancient Egyptian People, Sarah McNeill

The Ancient Egyptians, Lila Perl

Ancient Egyptian Art, Susie Hodge

I think we're going to start a simple timeline next week, too, using mostly the review cards from SOTW, as well as some stickers, etc. that I have....

I hope someone finds this helpful!

Regena

No comments:

The Planting of the Apple Tree, William Cullen Bryant

Come, let us plant the apple-tree.
Cleave the tough greensward with the spade;
Wide let its hollow bed be made;
There gently lay the roots, and there
Sift the dark mould with kindly care,
And press it o'er them tenderly,
As, round the sleeping infant's feet,
We softly fold the cradle-sheet;
So plant we the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Buds, which the breath of summer days
Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;
Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast,
Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest;
We plant, upon the sunny lea,
A shadow for the noontide hour,
A shelter from the summer shower,
When we plant the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Sweets for a hundred flowery springs
To load the May-wind's restless wings,
When, from the orchard-row, he pours
Its fragrance through our open doors;
A world of blossoms for the bee,
Flowers for the sick girl's silent room,
For the glad infant sprigs of bloom,
We plant with the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June,
And redden in the August noon,
And drop, when gentle airs come by,
That fan the blue September sky,
While children come, with cries of glee,
And seek them where the fragrant grass
Betrays their bed to those who pass,
At the foot of the apple-tree.

And when, above this apple-tree,
The winter stars are quivering bright,
And winds go howling through the night,
Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth,
Shall peel its fruit by cottage-hearth,
And guests in prouder homes shall see,
Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine
And golden orange of the line,
The fruit of the apple-tree.

The fruitage of this apple-tree
Winds and our flag of stripe and star
Shall bear to coasts that lie afar,
Where men shall wonder at the view,
And ask in what fair groves they grew;
And sojourners beyond the sea
Shall think of childhood's careless day,
And long, long hours of summer play,
In the shade of the apple-tree.

Each year shall give this apple-tree
A broader flush of roseate bloom,
A deeper maze of verdurous gloom,
And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower,
The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower.
The years shall come and pass, but we
Shall hear no longer, where we lie,
The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh,
In the boughs of the apple-tree.

And time shall waste this apple-tree.
Oh, when its aged branches throw
Thin shadows on the ground below,
Shall fraud and force and iron will
Oppress the weak and helpless still?
What shall the tasks of mercy be,
Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears
Of those who live when length of years
Is wasting this little apple-tree?

"Who planted this old apple-tree?"
The children of that distant day
Thus to some aged man shall say;
And, gazing on its mossy stem,
The gray-haired man shall answer them:
"A poet of the land was he,
Born in the rude but good old times;
'Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes,
On planting the apple-tree."