Category: History: Africa Unit

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Geography of Africa–The Countries and Physical Features

Once again, we brought out our pin maps as we learned about the countries of West Africa. We used the flags of Africa from Montessori Materials  to create country pins for our pin map (African Flags-page 1;  African Flags-page 2). You can download and print out the map from the African Learning Pack I made back in September. I used a plain cork board underneath the map. As we were talking about the trade between...

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African Art Projects – Moroccan Tiles, African Masks, African Music

This year we have been studying world cultures focusing primarily on Africa.  We started out with some basic facts about Africa and then moving on to Egypt including a study of Ancient Egypt.  From there we studied the Islam and its history.  We learned about the spread of Islam and moved on to a study the countries of northern Africa.  We looked at some of the beautiful examples of Moroccan...

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Cooking with Kids: A Taste of Africa and the Middle East

As you probably know, the kids are studying world cultures this semester and the focus has been on Africa. Last week, the kids and I made several African and Middle Eastern dishes for dinner. We used the Kids Multicultural Cookbook and Cooking up World History for ideas. We made korma chicken (we added broccoli) with rice: The next night we made almond soup and Moroccan couscous. The almond soup was very, very...

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Our Visit to the Local Mosque

As I mentioned yesterday, we have been studying Islam. We spent about a week and a half learning about how Islam was founded and some of their basic beliefs. Over the course of the week, the kids had tons of great questions… Things I just couldn’t answer. I decided to contact a nearby mosque to see if they did any community outreach. I make that sound easy, but it was actually...

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Learning About Islam – Free Worksheets and Resources for Kids

This year we are studying World Cultures and our focus has been on Africa.  Before we delve further into the culture and history of northern Africa, I wanted to help the kids understand a bit about Islam. Here is a set of worksheets I made for the kids as we learned a bit about Islam. This might also be helpful if you are doing an introduction to world religions.  You...

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The Day in the Life of a Homeschooler

Every now and then I like to write up these posts. The first one I did was when the kids were 3 and 1 (and ED wasn’t born yet!)…I’ve done them periodically since then. This is a glimpse of what goes on when we’re actually home all day. It’s not a “typical” day because as homeschoolers each day is different than the day before–at least in our family. That’s what...

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Could the Pyramids and Sphinx be Destroyed?

Since we are studying Ancient Egypt, this story is especially timely. The kids and I had some really deep discussions about this and the actual destruction of the Buddha of Bamiyan back in 2001. Some radical Islamists view the pyramids as symbols of paganism that should be destroyed. In fact, a couple of weeks ago (Nov. 10, 2012), Murgan Salem al-Gohary, the leader of Egypt’s ultra-conservative Salafist party called for the “destruction...

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Ancient Egypt Death Mask Craft

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Ours was truly wonderful. I love Thanksgiving because its a time to focus on family and the best part is the dinnertime conversation about what we are thankful for. The kids have such precious things on their minds! Anyway, we’re back to school now—and we’re finishing up some pretty fun projects. We had stepped away from our Ancient Egypt unit for several...

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Ancient Egypt: Gods, Goddesses and Myths (Free Worksheet Set)

We have been learning a lot about the myths of Ancient Egypt. While I read to the kids, they often work on their own art. I came across a wonderful drawing book Ralph Masiello’s Ancient Egypt Drawing Book  (affiliate link) that the kids have been using to create their own Ancient Egyptian-themed drawings. Below they are drawing the Ancient Egyptian god, Osiris:  Another day the kids drew Ra as they...

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Ancient Egypt Unit: Creating the Nile River Valley

We started our unit on Ancient Egypt with a geography project. This is one we did about four years ago as well, but it was well worth repeating! We placed sand in an old plastic container. Then using toilet paper and paper towel rolls, we created the base for the winding Nile River. We covered that with aluminum foil. In upper Egypt we created the ‘mountains.’ We sprinkled potting soil...

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Africa Unit: Basic Facts About Africa

As I’ve mentioned before, we are studying World Cultures this year and are starting with Africa. Last week we started with some basic facts and the geography of Africa.  We’re using a really terrific basic textbook on Africa that has lots of pictures and is wonderful for the ages of my kids.  The first few days we worked through this Africa Learning Packet I created that was loosely related to the...