Monday, September 13, 2010

Our Week in Review

We focused our attention this week on a comparison of the Egyptian gods to the God of the Bible. We did this through an in depth study of the plagues God inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the pharoah allowing them to leave Egypt. I never realized before how each plague confronted and overpowered either an Egyptian god, or a firmly held belief/superstition within Egyptian culture. They also showed the distinction God was making between the Israelites (who did not experience most of the plagues) and the Egyptians. It was quite fascinating and, I pray, gave the children a deeper and fuller appreciation for the awesomeness of God.

All of the children made these booklets of the ten plagues, even our 8th grader! They drew and colored in them as I read the first 12 chapters of Exodus. This was a week-long project and, as last week, they came from lapbooks available from Tapestry of Grace.



The first plague: the Nile turning to blood. Even the streams that fed the Nile and water in the man made canals turned to blood. The Egyptians had to dig alongside the Nile to find fresh water for drinking!


The eighth plague: locusts. The Bible says not a single blade of green was left in the entire country, except where the Israelites lived. Not a single blade.


Here is son C's drawing of the plague of boils.





The Bible's description of these plagues is quite terrifying and really captured our imagination. If you haven't read the first few chapters of Exodus in a while they may give you a fresh perspective on the power of God! From the first plague to the tenth, God systematically pronounced judgment on the Egyptians for worshiping idols, yet at the same time displayed incredible grace toward those who turned to Him. Just truly amazing to think what those who lived through it must have thought.

Little Man literally spent HOURS last week working on his plagues booklet! Here he is coloring his "darkness" page. The sun god, Ra, was basically the Egyptians chief god. What a statement of God's power over Ra when it became dark for three days and nights! The Bible says the darkness was so dark it could be felt, and that no-one left their homes for three days or saw another person for three days. Can you imagine??


The children have also been playing for hours with their playmobil pyramid! We got this for our boys for Christmas last year, and though they have played with it before, it has really been heavily used the last three weeks!



Nesting the coffins inside one another.



The pharoah on his litter!


Oh no! Tomb robbers stealing golden objects from the burial chamber!

We were sad to see our three week mini-unit on Egypt come to a close, yet we are excited about all we have learned and looking forward to what's next!

5 comments:

  1. These are so neat! And I think it's great that G wants to do these, even though she a D level student. She is a very good artist. I am planning to get these for next year as we will be adding Princess L into our TOG studies a little more. She should be reading and writing a little better next year. I just don't have the time or energy to add that in right now. Glad to see your school is going well.

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  2. I'm glad they're enjoying it so much!
    Blessings,
    Laurie

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  3. Thanks for sharing your ideas! I have recently found your blog and am enjoying reading it :).

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  4. what great hands on teaching/learning things you are doing - it looks like so much fun. too cool!

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