The Code of Hammurabi

Hammurabi is someone we've studied in our history.  He was a pretty good king of Babylonia.  I hadn't know there were any good ones, but he was. :)  Perfect, he was not, but he didn't want people to obey him just because he had a good army.  He didn't want a military dictatorship like Sargon (not a nice guy.)  He believed that he was made king so that he could treat the people fairly.  He developed the first set of written laws that we know of and called it, the Code of Hammurabi.

So, we made up our own code.  It's subject to change and evaluation, but it's what we came up with nonetheless.  The girls each contributed as well.  We signed it and it hangs on our back door.

We still have a long way to go, I'm afraid.  It hadn't even been 24 hours and I was sending each girl back there to look them over and see which rules they were breaking.  It's a work in progress.  You've got to start somewhere though, right?  I'm open to ideas....

Biking!

I LOVE to ride a bike.  I lived on my bike as a young girl/teenager.  Up until I could drive, that is.  In Michigan my best friend and I would ride through our neighborhood, through a path in the woods, across the elementary school, through another neighborhood and then to the grocery store.  We'd buy some fun little treat and stop at the school on the way home to eat it.  We lived by a really nice park with boardwalks through the woods that I'd ride on too.  Ah, the days....

I don't have a bike anymore, but Little One has just learned to ride without training wheels.  I took a video of her riding with them on but not using them and the next day took a new one with them off.  Then she REALLY needed a bigger bike so this week she got one.  She tried out a couple of them and loved this one.  She's been riding all over the place.  So fun!  Someday I want to get a bike and we can all go riding together.  :)

Video of bike riding

Homeschool Project - Papyrus vs. Clay Tablets

Here is the last of the homeschool projects for a bit.  Scroll down for the others. :)

We did an experiment to see why it was that clay/stone tablets lasted longer than papyrus.  They really had fun with this one.

First we had to make our clay tablets.

Next they did some cuneiform on them.

These are Little One's initials

The "I" of Ira's initials took a lot of room so she stuck with just "I."

Next we made a papyrus scroll that they painted some hieroglyphs on with grape juice.

We left them outside for a couple of weeks and through a couple of different storms.  Our papyrus didn't hold up so well.

Next they got caught in the water when the Nile flooded.

Post flood

Finally, they were lost in the Sahara Desert for awhile.

The clay tablets won.  Still readable and almost as good as new.  The papyrus didn't fair so well. :)

Field Trip - Red Butte Gardens

Arbor Day is free to visit Red Butte every year so we braved the cold that day and went.  It had been so nice and warm earlier in the week, but it snowed that morning!  It melted by the time we went later that afternoon, but it was still pretty nippy.  We didn't stay too long because of it, but had fun nonetheless.  The girls liked seeing what all the different plants were.

I thought the texture and color of this branch was awesome!

Little One especially liked the ducks. :)

My cute girls...freezing but happy.

Homeschool Project - Sugar Cube Pyramids

These were quite fun to make too.

Little One's completed pyramid!

Ira with her pyramid!

Of course, no child's life is complete without having eaten a sugar cube.

Yum!

Homeschool Project - The Nile

After Spring Break we started a new history program and have been loving it!  So far I think our favorite section has been ancient Egypt.  Man, I want to go to Cairo!

First off we made a model of the Nile.  It didn't turn out quite like we'd wanted, but it was still very fun and the girls had a blast. :)

We made a river bed out of foil.  The delta started out easy to tell but became less so in the end.  Ah well.

Then they painted glue on the bottom so the river bottom (kitty litter) would stick.

Next was to fill the sides with dirt.

We sprouted some wheat for our grass.  Once it started to sprout we planted it.

Then we had to flood it, of course.

After a few days of flooding, we had some nice grass growing!

Easter

Easter was very nice.  We had Patrice and the kids over for our annual egg hunt a few days before.  Terry was working.  It was a bit chilly, but you'd never know it except for Lexi wearing Mom's coat.  The others didn't have sense enough to be cold. :)

Mom and I had fun filling and hiding the eggs.  We do it so that each of them have the same number of eggs but we put initials on them and hide them according to age/ability.  Justin's were pretty much just in the grass.  Little One and Nathan's were in similar places, Lexi's a bit harder and then Ira's even harder.  It was very fun.

One of Justin's

One of Little One's

Justin with his spoils

I hid this one and it was one Ira had trouble finding.  Bwahahaha!

Little One with her eggs

Nathan with his eggs

On Easter itself we were in Pocatello.  We had done a really cool thing the day before though.  Their church up there does a "Walk with Christ" every year that was really, really neat.  It's for the whole community and they did a great job with it.  Once we got home that evening we colored eggs.  That was fun too.  The girls did a good job.

And of course, they got their stuff.