Ancient Discoveries, the Clepsydra

After watching an Ancient Discoveries episode about ancient technology, Georgia wanted to try to make her own simple water timer like the clepsydras she saw in the show. Clepsydras, like sundials, were probably one of the first time-keeping devices in history. They were used all over the ancient world throughout history, but the name clepsydra comes from the Greeks who used them to time orations made in court so that each side had equal time to state their case. In Greek, Clepsydra means "water thief" or "steal water".

Georgia got out some disposable bowls and straws and went right to work. She used an old cell phone to time how long it took the water to empty into the other bowl.

You can almost see the water dripping out...

We found a site from the History Channel called The Ancient Hobbyist which shows how to recreate and build some ancient inventions. Here's a video that shows how to make a clepsydra as a clock.

And you can download a PDF of step by step instructions on building a clepsydra here.

There are some other interesting projects on the Ancient Hobbyist site that we'll have to try sometime...like a bamboo flute, or a trebuchet!!

Maple Syrup Festival

We went to the Maple Syrup Festival again this year. We learned about syrup making through history and different cultures. We also learned about modern practices, and watched sap boil in the evaporator. We sampled syrup made in our own county...and bought some to take home, too. It was DELICIOUS!!! The girls sampled some maple candy.

Georgia demonstrated the yoke for the group.

Listening to a colonial-era interpreter about syrup making in his day, you can see the sugar shack in the background.

After our tour, we decided to go for a walk down to the beavers' pond. It was such a beautiful day for the first weekend in March!

We saw a lot of turtles out sunning themselves on such a lovely day.

And some Canada Geese as well...

We had a nice walk, definitely a nice break from winter weather.

The next day, Georgia made us some yummy pancakes! She made banana, blueberry, raspberry, and plain whole-wheat pancakes. We had a feast! And we used the local maple syrup purchased at the festival! Mmmmm.

Completed Mummy

Georgia finished painting her papier-mâché mummy. The mummy wears an Ankh necklace like the one Georgia made for herself.

Mummy

Last week Georgia started making a paper-mâché mummy! We found the idea in one of our library books, Make History: Ancient Egypt by Nancy Fister and Charlene Olexiewicz.

She started by making a cone shape out of newspaper. We cut it to measure about 8 inches tall. She told me that for measuring horses they use hands, and the adult hand is roughly 4 inches wide, so she used my hand and cut the top at 2 hands. We taped the cone and filled it with the newspaper we cut off. Then she crumpled newspaper into a ball and taped it on top to be the mummy's head. She also folded the point of the cone and taped it to look like the feet.

Next she made the flour and water glue mixture, using 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup water.

And she wrapped her mummy using white paper strips dipped in the glue.

Here she sits drying. Georgia said it'll be a girl mummy.

We let the mummy dry overnight. The next day she drew a design and started painting. She still has more painting to do before her mummy is complete. I'll post pictures when it's finished.

Janus, Februa, Mars...

On Groundhogs Day we watched this year's celebration as Punxsutawny Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. We were not impressed. I don't understand this "holiday". Weird I tell ya... We did learn that it is the exact middle of winter here in the northern hemisphere. That's interesting I guess.

That did, however, spark an interest in the origin of calendar names, which then sparked even more interest in the history of time keeping traditions. Here are some of the sites we visited:

Announcing the Sky Calendars through the Ages, astronomical origins, year, week, calendar name origins.

Walk Through Time From the National Institute of Standards and Technology, The evolution of time measurement through the ages.

Official US Time just click a time zone.

Calendar Origins "answers to many questions about calendars"

Current Moon Phase for the northern hemisphere. will be a full moon in a couple days.

Calendars: Counting the Days from the World Book Encyclopedia.

Archaeology of Ohio

On Saturday, Mark and Georgia attended a lecture called Archaeology of Ohio. Author and editor Robert N. Converse shared his knowledge on the prehistoric cultures of Ohio, with a focus on artifacts and prehistory of our county. After the presentation, he offered to inspect any artifacts that we may have found, letting us know more about the pieces.

Georgia brought in her arrowhead that was found at her great grandmother's house.

She was told that her arrowhead was from the Archaic Period, and probably came from the Glacial Kame or Red Ocher cultures. He said it is about 5000 years old!!!

After returning home she told me all about the lecture. We searched the Internet to learn more about the Glacial Kame and Red Ocher cultures, the Archaic Period and looked at a virtual gallery on the First Ohioans.

She also watched some videos on making a stone age weapon, flintknapping stone age tools, and making a knife by flintknapping.

She also bought a dinosaur excavation activity from the gift shop. She needs to dig for the bones and then put the skeleton together. They are supposed to glow in the dark, too. She's found most of the bones, but still needs to put it together when she finds the rest.

Olivia worked on crystal mining.

We are still chipping away at the crystal mining block. It gets taken out from time to time. When all the rocks are free they can add them to their rock collections.

Ancient Egyptians

Georgia has been reading about the Ancient Egyptians. In the book Spend the Day in Ancient Egypt: Projects and Activities That Bring the Past to Life by Linda Honan she learned how to make an Ankh necklace. She made one out of Sculpey.

She watched some videos at HowStuffWorks.com on the Ancient Egyptians, the Nile, the Pyramids, Egyptian mythology, Ancient Egyptian farmers, Heiroglyphs, and Papyrus.

She made a pyramid from construction paper using a template at Crayola.com.

She learned more about mummies from the BBC's Mummy Maker, and from the book Mummies!.

She learned more about the Pyramids, mythology, and the geography of ancient Egypt from the BBC's Pyramid Builder Challenge.

At BrainPop.com she watched videos on Egyptian Pharoahs, Mummies, and the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

We read the Secret Name of Ra by Anne Rowe, Temple Cat by Andrew Clements, Ancient Egyptian Art by Susie Hodge, and I Wonder Why Pyramids Were Built and Other Questions About Ancient Egypt by Philip Steele.


We still have more library books and websites to check out, and more projects to do.

Winter Woodland Survival

Georgia's December nature class was called Winter Woodland Survival. The local Long Hunter (1790-era interpreter) Chris Supinger taught the kids basic survival skills used in the 1790's. They learned how to find landmarks to navigate through the woods. Mr. Supinger had a fire going and cooked up some tasty snacks for the kids, which included dried apples, beef jerky, and dried corn. He also taught the kids how to build a basic shelter. They split into two teams and worked together to build their shelter. Of course, Georgia LOVED that! Her and Olivia are always building shelters around the house after watching Survivorman or Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel. (Survivorman is her favorite.)

Chris Supinger, Long Hunter
(this was taken at the Maple Syrup Festival in March 2008)

After a week of strong winds and rain, we took a walk through the woods to find the shelters the kids built. I didn't think that they would still be standing...but to my surprise, they looked like they were just built! They did a great job constructing them.

This class is the first of a new quarterly series for Park Pals on surviving and living off the land. We think this is excellent! Soon, Olivia will be joining Georgia in her Park Pals class. She can't wait.

Shelter # 1 Georgia's Team

Shelter # 2 The other team

December

This month the girls learned about the history and customs of winter holidays around the world, as well as the seasonal changes in the natural world. We read some library books and visited websites to learn more. Here are some of the places we visited...

• Toured a Tree Farm
• Learned the History of Hanukkah
• Learned about the Dreidel
• Made a Dreidel
• Read "Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat"
• Learned about Kwanzaa
• And Christmas
• And Saturnalia
• And Yule
• Watched a Brainpop video on Winter Holidays
• Reviewed Christmas Carols, Music, & Lyrics
• Learned how they make candy canes
• Made a Christmas Tree countdown calendar
• Baked lots of cookies!
• Listened to Christmas Greetings in different languages
• Played Christmas Games
• Did Gingerbread Man Math
• Read the History of Gingerbread
• Made some Gingerbread Cookies
• Learned to Make Paper Snowflakes
• Watched Brainpop video on Snowflakes
• Learned Science of Snowflakes and Snow Crystals
• Clouds
• Avalanches
• Migration
• Metabolism
• Hibernation
• New Year's
• Read Animals in Winter by Catherine de Sairigné
• Animals that Hibernate by Larry Dane Brimner
• Ice Bear by Nicola Davies
• New Year's Celebrations by WorldBook
• The Penguin Quartet by Peter Arrhenius
• Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere by Bob Barner
• Polar Bears by Mary King Hoff
• Where Do They Go?: Insects In Winter by Millicent Ellis Selsam
• Winter by Janet McDonnell
• Winter: December, January, and February by Cath Senker
• The World of Penguins by David Saintsing
• Took a tour of Daddy's work

Gingerbread Horses

Gingerbread Men

Christmas Cookies

Decorating the tree

Making Trees and Ornaments for a Countdown Poster

They added one of their ornaments each day until Christmas.

The end result...

Touring Daddy's work

Thanksgiving Studies

We read some books from the library:

Thanksgiving Poems by Myra Cohn Livingston
Thanksgiving by Natalie M. Rosinsky
The Wampanoag Indians by Bill Lund
Massasoit, Friend of the Pilgrims by Virginia Voight (This is a biography that we started but have not yet finished.)

We still have some more to read another day.

We visited Scholastic's site on The First Thanksgiving. This is a great site!

At National Geographic, Georgia made a Thanksgiving themed Mad Lib, read about the first Thanksgiving, and of Thanksgiving traditions, and had fun with the Cartoon Factory Fill-In.

We also watched a neat video of an "exploding pumpkin." Not exactly Thanksgiving, but fun anyway!

And we played some Thanksgiving themed games at Funschool.com, such as Turkey Flibriks, and Thanksgiving Feast.

We still have lots more sites to check out another day!

Ancient Civilizations

Georgia has been reading about ancient civilizations. She read the book Lugalbanda, an ancient Sumarian legend that predates Gilgamesh.

She saw her monogram in cuneiform here. http://www.upennmuseum.com/cuneiform.cgi

And she checked out some ancient inventions. http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/hsclist.htm

She also checked out what might possibly be the world's first city at the Mysteries of Çatalhöyük children's site. http://www.smm.org/catal/