This blog is a journal of sorts for me, so infrequently I'll be posting lessons and such that we do. Let's face it, this is about the one place where I won't lose it!

For our History curriculum, we are using The Story of the World series by Jessie Wise Bauer. I'm also using her grammar curriculum, "Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind".

This week: Cavemen! (When she says Story of the World, she starts at the beginning!)

Vocabulary word: Nomad

We read a story about Tarak, an 8 year old nomad girl who hunted up a lizard for breakfast. Mr P would be a champion nomad - he catches Carolina Anoles every single day!

We talked about what nomad tents were made of, and why they would sleep in caves. We also talked about how they would cook their food, without stoves, pots or metal of any sort, and without refrigeration. Having watched much Discovery Channel, and being big fans of Survivorman, this was all review to them.

We made cave paintings as well. We looked at paintings on the internet, and talked about what kinds of things cavemen painted (animals) and why (they were important for food and shelter; the tribe revolved around following the animals and hunting). We used materials similar to what prehistoric nomads might use - beet juice (ground roots), coffee (boiled plant matter), and sidewalk chalk (closest I could come to ground up colorful rocks and ochre).

Labels: education