TOG - Week 2

Wow!  There is sooo much to blog on for our homeschool, so I believe it will be easier for me to keep track of if I name my posts by the Week # we are in.   So for Week 2, here we go....

Pyramid Building!  The kids designed pyramids several different ways - all wonderful and creative:

"blocks" pyramid by Dio

"blocks" pyramid by Dom

"toy room" pyramid by all!

Dom using "plumb" line to line up the pyramid blocks

all the pyramid workers chiseling the pyramid stones

"blocks" pyramid by Donatella

Dom building a model of Khufu's Great Pyramid above, and below.

Dom showing the interior tombs of Khufu's Great Pyramid

"lego" pyramid by Dio (notice the opening in the green legos

for the "burial chamber")

the "mummy" in the burial chamber

the inside of the pyramid - very complex!

Making Mud Bricks!   Well, we saw that Maria did NOT like the paper mache goop from Week 1, she definitely was not thrilled with mud either!  But we (including mom!) took off our sandals and made mud bricks the way they did in Ancient Egypt (and still do in parts of the Middle East today)...here's the process:

First, we bought a baby pool for the mixing.  We added one 50 lb bag of clay soil, another 50 lb bag of sand, water, and finally straw.  This truly is authentic mud bricks making.

Maria prefers to watch :)

Brick makers mixing with their feet

Their faces say it all!

Mastroianni feet - can you pick out mommy's?

Dio's brick ready to be sun-dried!

Maria's brick

Dominic's brick

Donatella's brick

(we'd like to thank Daddy for disposing of the baby pool filled with mud!)

After many, many days of drying in the sun, the bricks are ready to be tested!  In the Ancient days a brick was considered good if:

1) It could be rolled to building sites without crumbling or falling apart:

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All bricks pass first test

2) if it could withstand the weight of other bricks stacked on top of them, or approximately 50 lbs:

We had Donatella stand on them since she is the closest

to 50 lbs

All bricks pass second test

The third and final test is:

3) if the brick is dried so well it does not wash away in the rain.We submerged each brick in a bucket of water for 30 seconds.  Just before this test Donatella's brick broke in half-

water carriers

Dio holding his brick under water

Dominic holding his brick under water.

and the winner is... Dominic's brick - it was the only one to pass all three tests.  His and Maria's did the best and I realized it was because of the shape of their bricks - they each used an empty tissue box, whereas Dio and DT each used empty milk cartons.  The flatter rectangular shape held up better, and

dried better.  Congratulations Dominic!

Promotion for Mastroianni boys!

On Saturday, Aug 28, Dom and the boys had their karate promotion.  I was scheduled for a meeting that morning and had been praying about where I should be.  God finally prompted me to ask Dom how important it was to him that I be at promotion (I already knew the boys wanted me there)...turns out it was pretty important.  God always knows where He wants us, because I was blessed beyond measure.  I have journaled about this in another book of mine, but will say here that I have never been more in awe of my men, especially my husband, for so many reasons, reasons that will remain between me and the Lord.   God is good.  Here are the photos I took on Saturday:

Sensei setting up Dominic's 12" board

Dominic ready and focused (I missed the

actual wood breaking for Dom)

Dio breaking his 12" board

Sensei setting up big Dom's FIVE boards!

Daddy getting ready and focused...

WOW!   Amazing...followed by loud cheers!

I'm not in awe because my husband can break five boards, but of what he has accomplished over the last year and how God is working in his life.  Praise God!

And now I am fast forwarding to tonight - as each receive their new rank:

Dom and Dio receiving their purple belts

Dom receiving his green belt

Dom accepting his new rank.

Tennis, anyone...

About six weeks ago Donatella started taking tennis lessons here in Bedford.  She is enjoying it, and I finally remembered to bring the camera.  We are proud of her as she works hard:

Entrance to tennis courts

practicing her drills

forehand ground stroke

nice...hitting over the net!

backhand

forehand volley (above and below)

Game - Set - Match!

Embalming and Mummies!

One of the highlights to our first week of school was learning about the embalming and mummification rituals of the Ancient Egyptians.  And because all the kids love hands-on projects (and Tapestry of Grace is full of them) we decided to re-create that process in our home!  We needed a model for our mummy, so it was decided that Fancy Nancy would serve that purpose for the next 8 weeks!    Below are the embalmers hard at work:

Here she is... although the bodies were soaked

in salt for 40 days, we did not perform that part

of the ritual, we just pretended we did.  The kids

then went on to "remove" her organs and brain and

put them in the very special canopic jars below:

And since we were not shaving her head, we thought

it would be nice to "wrap" her hair so as not to get any

paper mache in it:

Learning about this process was so interesting - as they

"prepare" the bodies for their next life... one of the ceremonial

things to do is paint the fingernails and toenails in gold!

Here is Donatella as head manicurist and pedicurist:

After the nail painting, the body is then washed down:

While all this was going on, Dom and Maria were

preparing the paper mache - we have learned that

Maria does NOT like goop!

Preparing for wrapping!

Well, I guess Fancy Nancy is not looking

very Fancy right here!  The boys made some

heiroglyphic messages, and below Dom made

the special face mask to adorn the head:

A few days later Dio asked if he could make a sarcophogas

for the mummy....so hard at work he painted a box and we

lay our mummy to rest...where she will stay until we display

her at our End of Unit Celebration in October!  We had a lot

of fun...

It's all about the process and working together, and not the final product.

We sure are having fun!

I wish I could say more about how this all relates to God displaying His glory, but then I would need

write the curriculum here in our blog.  Tapestry of Grace is a wonderful Christian curriculum, and we are

studying history chronologically, beginning with Ancient Egypt, then pausing and going back to Creation

for a few weeks, then picking up where we left off.  We are so enjoying learning about God's plan

and how He unfolds it throughout HIStory.