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Review of Go Fish For Ancient Egypt by Birdcage Press

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Benjamin Franklin said, “Games lubricate the mind and body.” I agree and so that is why I am so excited to tell you about the fun we have been having with Go Fish For Ancient Egypt  by Birdcage Press. I am especially excited to use it because it tied in nicely with our Ancient Civilizations and Ancient Empires study.

I was delighted from the moment I opened the box not just because playing games makes learning come alive, but also because of the beautiful and appealing playing cards. I was impressed too with the quality and durability of the cards because we plan on using these again.

The boxed set contains 36 color playing cards and a 34 page fact book. I wanted to let you know that the cards do cover the Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Egyptians. Everybody feels differently about how to explain pagan Gods and Goddesses of any ancient culture in their school.

I prefer to introduce them so that my sons are aware of how their beliefs affected the every day lives of the Ancient Egyptians. However, introducing and actually studying and learning their beliefs are two different concepts. Playing Go Fish For Ancient Egypt, I feel, is a way to quickly introduce topics that you don’t want to cover deeply in your everyday study of history or that you are not going to spend time learning about.

There are basically 6 cards in a set to cover 6 topics which are Gods, Goddesses, Symbols, Pharaohs, Mummies and Afterlife.

What I liked too about the cards besides the eye catching artwork and pictures is the tidbit of information at the bottom of each card.You will find one or two sentences about the picture on the card and beneath those sentences are the answers for the other objects or persons found in that set. For example, if you had the Ramses II card in your hand which is set 4 Pharaohs, then reading at the bottom it is easy to see that Akhenaten, Amenhotep II, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III and Tutankhamun are the other pharaohs listed in the set.That is a clever way to teach repetition and aid in memory. Having fun or learning is hard to tell the difference in this game as it should be.

Another true gem about playing games and especially Go Fish is that it can be played by any age. Any age from K to adult knows the object of the game which is to find sets. For younger children who cannot read, the picture about Ancient Egypt is key to remembering which card his partner has.

For the older kids, they will not only recognize one of the topics but read the few sentences about it. It can’t get any easier to learn about history than that. Whether you are a history lover or abhor history, it is easy to be won over by this card game.

The 34 page fact book was a nice added feature to the card game. It is a small book jam packed with interesting tidbits about Ancient Egypt. One part in the book we plan on doing next week is how to write like an Egyptian or should I say draw like an Egyptian. It is just an added bonus to the game that is already fun, but gives a little more background on each theme. Mr. Awesome read it aloud to all of us and as he and Tiny were playing together.

I want to admit another prejudice of mine and that is many times I prefer physical games over digital games. I love all my techie devices and the boys do too. But physical games bring a spirit of camaraderie in our school day that you can’t really get when you connect to digital games.  Most of us homeschool so that we engender sibling togetherness and games like Go Fish For Ancient Egypt make it easy to foster family time.

I always encourage any homeschooler, new or seasoned to not get out of balance by collecting only curriculums or workbooks and not adding in quality educational games. We need to let go of the thinking that learning should not be fun or is not meaningful unless we are sitting at the desks pounding out a writing lesson. Break the cycle and add in quality games.

I can’t help but share a few other games from Birdcage Press because I am so over the top about all of their products.

They have games on art, wildlife & nature, air & space and history. I think my only complaint, appeal, plead would be add to more history games. Of course as history lovers, the boys and I could never get enough of games like that, but I could imagine ones on the great empires like Ancient Greece and even modern U.S. history.

I have been swooning over what might be my next purchase: The Renaissance Art Game.

I encourage you before you make your final curriculum selections for next year to add in card games. They not only stir the heart and soul, but can be done by all ages as you learn valuable skills together.

Thank You Wenda O’Reilly and staff for a delightful educational product!

Switching gears here, but can you believe it is the 3 day countdown at Circle of Moms contest? Thank You for your votes. It means a lot. Can you take just 5 seconds today and vote?  Click on the Circle of Moms and look for my blog button.

Product Name: Go Fish for Ancient Egypt. Card Game & Book Set

Website: Birdcage Press

Price: $10.95

Ages: 7+.

Type of Product: Physical Card Game – Museum Quality Cards

Customer Service: My cards arrived promptly as promised. Customer service was prompt and excellent.

Hugs and love ya,

All product information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

 


 

How to Make Smokin’ Hot Egyptian Pillars Out of Cardboard

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Dynamic reader rave


How to Make An Egyptian Pillar Out of Cardboard . You'll love these EASY steps. Click here to start making yours!

CynthiaIdeally I wish everybody would have a Cynthia as one of their co-op leaders,  but since that is not possible, I want to share one idea that came of out of her creative little mind for our co-op. Besides being a great friend, she is so talented at coming up with ideas that keeps the fire for fun stoked in our co-ops.

It was her idea to have two 8 1/2 feet Egyptian columns and they came out so beautiful because of her hard work.

The strengths she brings to a co-op is an excellent example of what I talked about in my 5 Days of a Homeschooling Co-op. Prep the learning environment and the kids will have fun and learn at the same time.

Here is her supply list:

  • 14 – 5 gal. buckets
  • 2 rolls duct tape
  • 6 sections of clean bendable cardboard large enough to wrap around buckets (each about 4 ft. wide x 3 ft. tall )
  • paintable wallpaper samples cut into strips (optional)
  • chalk pastels
  • paint
  • Elmer’s glue
  • spray can of matte finish for protecting chalk pastels
  • large heavy rocks that will fit in 2-5 gal. buckets
  • 2 pieces of wood cut to serve as caps for tops of pillars
  • 2 hooks for banner
  • tape measure, ladder or chair

And here is her explanation of how to make them.

1. Find a picture of Egyptian pillars to use as a guide for colors and patterns.

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racinet-egyptian-columns

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2. Decide how tall you want the pillars. We used 7 buckets stacked on top of one another which made each pillar about 8 1/2 ft tall. You can adjust the height by using more or fewer buckets.

3. Remove the metal handles from all of the buckets.

4. Fill the bottom bucket with heavy rocks. This will give the pillar stability.

5. After the bottom bucket is full of rocks place another bucket with the open end on top of the open end of the bucket with the rocks in it. Use duct tape to secure the two buckets together tightly right around the outside of the buckets where the open ends are placed together. Be generous with the duct tape and go all the way around the buckets perhaps even a couple of times for strength and stability.

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6. Place a third bucket on top of the first two so that the bottom ends are against one another. Use duct tape to secure them together tightly where the two bottom ends meet. Don’t forget to go all the way around the buckets with the duct tape once again.

7. Continue placing and taping the buckets together in the same manner as the first and second buckets alternating (open end to open end, bottom end to bottom end) as you go up until you have reached the height you desire.

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8. Decorate each section of cardboard. There are many ways this can be done, but we used chalk pastels which we sprayed with matte finish for the bottom two sections and paintable wallpaper sample strips for the top section. After the wallpaper sample strips dry, glue them to the top cardboard section. Or instead of wallpaper sample strips you can easily continue decorating the top section with pastels or paint.

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9. Once everything on the cardboard is dry attach the bottom section to the pillar. We taped ours together at the back with duct tape as well as double-sided duct tape between the cardboard and bucket to give it extra strength. Be generous with the duct tape so the pillars don’t come apart.

10. Place the next section of cardboard right above the one on bottom and duct tape it in the same manner as the first.

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11. Attach the last section of cardboard with duct tape above the second one in the same way as the first two.

cap of pillar

12. Now you are ready to cap the pillar. For a cap we used a board cut a little bigger than the top of the bucket. We also nailed another board a little smaller than the opening of the bucket to the bottom side of the board that serves as the cap. This anchored the cap inside the bucket so that it would not fall off.

13. To hang a banner or something else between the pillars install hooks into the middle of the edges of the caps.

In another post, I will share how Kelley made that beautiful banner.

Great Empires Review and Co-op 4.2013 17

I love the fact she used discarded wall paper books and buckets. Simply ask your local paint store if they have any supplies like that they are discarding.

Our study of the Great Empires won’t be easily forgettable because of her hard work. A little cardboard, imagination and diy creates lasting memories.

Thanks Cynthia for such an amazing job. I hope this inspires you with an idea or two to keep activities fun in your co-op or just through the summer.

Are you going to give it a try?

Use this idea with my Ancient Civilizations Unit Study and my other unit study, Ancient Civilizations II.

Hugs and love ya,

FBI Unit Study:Federal Reserve Bank Field Trip & Free Resources

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

After calling the branch office of the FBI, yep I do things like that, to see if I could plan a field trip there, I decided to take their advice and plan a field trip to the Federal Reserve Bank instead. The FBI has a local outreach community and though it sounded nice to have a special agent come and talk to our group, the outreach coordinator felt it was more beneficial to see a federal entity in action. Also, because my focus was aimed toward my highschoolers this would add to their credit for economics.

I have to admit at first that visiting the Federal Reserve Bank hadn’t even crossed my mind and I wasn’t even sure it sounded so appealing. I would have to decide first where I stood on monetary policy before I could ask my teens.  Economics, beyond budgeting was not my favorite subject in school either.

However, this field trip did not disappoint and stacked up high against others we have taken. You see those gates in front of the eagle? Nobody can get in unless the security guard lets you in. Because we are talking literally about 9 billion dollars that could be sitting in the bank at one time, we had to pass security checks much like the ones at airport screenings.

Did I mention our seniors who just turned 18 enjoyed savoring their new found adulthood by show off their driver’s license for identification?

Too, we were told ahead of time that there was no photography in a lot of places because it is the actual operations of the money handling. I managed to get as many pictures as were allowed.

So we snapped a few pictures early morning in front of the secured building before we went inside to find out exactly what is the function of the Federal Reserve Bank.

The first floor had the money separating machines. We learned how money was shredded after it no longer was able to be read by machines and how other money was counted and stored on robot pallets. Then, we went upstairs to this room. By the way, did you know they use the term note and not dollars in the bank? It makes sense though to me because in my legal background, we use the terms promissory note to represent money.  I found that interesting but apparently my boys didn’t.  Whatever.

They were asking more questions like what is the bank’s greatest national security threat and did they have bullet proof glass. The boys apparently have seen too many movies and are thinking the bank is prepared for a “bank heist”.  They assured them that a bank heist was not on their list of threats but that their greatest threat is a terrorist attack. A blow to the bank would threaten the stability of the economy.

The room pictured above is used by consulates or other important heads of companies as they meet together to discuss their interest in either doing business in the area or if they are out of country, they may want to make connections here in the states. So the room serves as a place to work and collaborate.

I never knew that the Federal Reserve Bank did so much more than cover loans for banks.

Then we were taken to another large conference room where consulates and businessmen meet too. We all got to sit around the table and thankfully Tiny asked what the button was under the table as he thought about pushing it. It was a panic button. If it was pushed, security would be on us in few seconds. Did I mention this field trip is probably best for older kids?

We were shown a short film presentation on what the Federal Reserve Bank actually does because a  lot of us were still foggy about it. Did you know that the employees are not federal? It was set up by Congress in 1913 but the employees are bank employees even though it’s overseen by Congress. It is quasi-governmental and tax dollars do not pay for them. Instead, they return money to the treasury.

One cool thing the kids enjoyed learning is where their money traveled from. Looking at this bill above and the left is the alphabet letter and number of the Federal Reserve Bank that put it into operation. Try it with your kids. Take out some money and find out which branch it started out at and how think how did it get to you.

I bet not many people know who these folks are either but they make all the decisions for the economy, including setting interest rates here in the United States.

Lastly, we were given more free resources and packages than we could hardly carry out of the building. Guess what? You can order them for free too. (Click Classroom Resources and Order Form for the blank form) I am telling you, there are enough free resources here for your home or classroom that you could teach about economics, the federal government, monetary policy and threats to security that would keep you busy for weeks.

A nice surprise to round out our experience was when everybody received a tube of old shredded money.

We especially loved learning how to tell apart counterfeits or fakes from good money.  When they told us that the counterfeit money was sent to the Secret Service, the boys decided that may be another topic they have to read about. I wish I could have taken more photographs inside because it was such an enriching and rewarding field trip. Learning about the money operation and function of the Federal Reserve Bank that serves as a quasi-governmental agency was so much more than I knew.

Another idea for a field trip on this topic besides visiting any federal office is to visit the U.S. Bureau of Engraving & Printing. There are only 2  locations though in the United States. One is in Washington, D.C. and the other one is here in Texas in Forth Worth. It is a great place for a field trip if you are ever close.

Hugs and love ya,

 

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FBI Unit Study and Lapbook: Experiment 3 (Building a Crystal Radio)

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

This next hands-on activity we did on our FBI unit study ended up involving the whole family or should I say attracted anybody of the male species.

You have to love it when dad gets involved. Not only did it end up involving the whole family but we did this over a period of two weeks because the boys changed their minds mid-project.

Also, just so you are clear, though I know you probably are, my name is not Technical Tina.

I always say when you homeschool you take on projects you yourself would never ever do and well with boys, I have no choice but to learn about terminals, circuitry, diodes and geodes (oh wait that has to with rocks), capacitors and all of those thing-a-ma-jigs and doodads.

Are you looking to study modern American history? You'll love this AWESOME free FBI Lapbook and Unit Study | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

So after we studied about spying and the importance of communication to the FBI we found this next idea for a project from the Spy Museum.

The boys built an oatmeal box crystal radio like the one below from the crystal radio site, I am thinking they probably still build it.

It is a handmade radio that can receive am radio stations. This made for some great discussions of how this works without a power source. I think we call that physics. Then again it does have a power source which is the antenna.

I have to admit after doing this alongside the boys we all had many questions.

The website was full of great beginners tips which I appreciated. For example, I like this very simple explanation about a crystal radio: a crystal radio is the simplest kind of radio. Most radios you buy use complicated electronics to make a strong copy of the sound. A crystal radio is a simple kind of radio that just picks up the wave and changes it straight into sound. It does not use separate power or batteries to make a stronger copy of the sound. It gets all of its power only from the radio wave.

Please don’t let me teach my boys how to read schematics either which was another nice skill they picked up from this site as we read on it.

The helpful links on how to read schematics added to a much more enriching understanding as we hit on some of the basics of how to represent a circuit on paper.So I got brave and ordered the simple crystal radio from the website and the book for beginners for me them.

r. So Mr. Senior 2013 found another set of instructions on the site that uses a bigger container, a Quaker oatmeal box.

Well, not wanting to waste the few parts I already got, we had a quick a lesson on naming all those little things.

Then dad gets involved and picks up way more crystal radio pieces. It was interesting to read though this hobby started in the 1920’s and then it was revived in the 1950’s.

It was a hobby for father and sons to share at that time.

I ask my dad if he remembered them and he had heard about them from his father.

Glue the template on the container and lid and start following the directions.

Poor sweet little boy. At least he still does not mind using momma’s tools that are pink.We used a craft knife to strip the ends of the wire and started winding it around the box…

Then get another brother to jump in and help some.Oh, and yes, have over another friend of the male species so that my house is only full of them now..Let him work on it some too. They had to make a tap terminal every 8 winds of the wire. Strip the ends and wrap around the screws to make the taps.

Almost done, then we connected the earpiece and the detector clip. The sounds we got were so muffled but were excited to just hear the sounds.Dad to the rescue to check our “connections”.  We ended up getting only like one local am station but there are  some 5000 stations.

Too, we can add another antenna on this and will be taking the radio with us as we drive out more to the rural areas.

I survived this project and actually learned a thing or two in the process. I just hate to sound so cliche but it really was a lot of fun and we still have it to play with for later.

Are you looking to study modern American history? You'll love this AWESOME free FBI Lapbook and Unit Study | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Free FBI Lapbook and Fun Unit Study for Kids

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have my free FBI lapbook and fun unit study ideas for kids. Also, look at my page The FBI American History.

Also, look at my page Homeschool Lapbooks – Powerful Tools For Mastery Learning and Best Homeschool Unit Studies.

The boys and I were absolutely thrilled with this next unit study. We covered it and still seem to be covering sub-topics or at least going over them.

My oldest two sons are learning on their own about it now without me. That is what I am talking about, I can go on to the next unit study with my youngest and the oldest boys can cover a unit study sub-topic they still want to do.

The FBI unit study is way longggger than the Amazon Rain Forest unit study and heaven forbid I tell them to go to the next unit study because I almost had a full blown mutiny at my house when I did.

The unit turned into two lapbooks or like I had mentioned before at least enough printables for two lapbooks or notebooks.

One tip about using minibooks that I know a lot of new notebooking page users or lapbook users tend to forget is that they are just minibooks. This means you can use them ANY way you see fit.

My older boys continued to like lapbooks not because they were crafty or like to color but because they have a say in them and I make them geared toward highschool. 

I have always tried to make them as enhancements and not make them have to do them. As they got older I adjusted the minibooks, for example, by making lines small enough for a little more room for writing.

Too, sometimes they just prefer a notebook page to glue a mini book on and use the rest of the page for sketching and labeling.

Notebooking pages can include timelines, graphs, or more text on the page.

They like the choice of viewing timelines and resources to see what they want on the page. The minibooks helps me too as the teacher because I can guide them toward the main points I want them to take away from the sub-topic on our unit study.

On to the first lapbook. I will explain how best to use each minibook here and then at the bottom I will put the links.

These first two minibooks are focused on learning about the 3 branches of the United States Government.

If your child is real young, it may be enough to just write the names of the 3 branches on each branch of the tree.

If they are older and you want to cover a little about what each branch does and the members or groups that make up each branch, then include Exploring Each Branch of the U.S. Government minibook. Links are included on the downloads to take you to sites that will help to explain the branches. Use one or both minibooks.

These next two minibooks at the top and center of  the lapbook are about the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover. Despite his controversial lifestyle and the debate that is still going on today about J. Edgar Hoover, he still receives the lion’s share of recognition for his contributions to the FBI during the time he served. This point is even recognized by the FBI. 

He was such an interesting person to read about and the controversy in our house was sparked more so by the new movie that came out about him even though we did not see it.  My teens are still in controversy over his lifestyle but focusing on the contributions he made to the FBI during the time he served and how times changed significantly during his lifetime makes for  fascinating history topics.

You can’t have a study of the FBI without investigating espionage and crime. Crack the code flip book is about codes used by the FBI. Incorporating fingerprint science into the investigation by the Bureau is something else J. Edgar Hoover can be credited for. 

Fingerprint facts minibook goes along with our activity we did on fingerprints. The front page is a place for your child to put a couple of his fingerprints on.

Not only did J. Edgar Hoover grow up in Washington, D.C. but it is the location of many U.S. symbols. The minibook Washington D.C. National Landmarks led to the discussion of American history symbols and their meanings which is what I needed to accomplish in this unit study for my youngest guy. Of course, it never hurts to review them with me my older guys too.

The G-Man and Inventions – Connecting Borders of the United States minibooks are next. Probably many of our great grandparents were familiar with the term G-Man. Before 1934, “G-Man” was underworld slang for any and all government agents. In fact, the detectives in J. Edgar Hoover’s Bureau of Investigation were so little known that they were often confused with Secret Service or Prohibition Bureau agents. By 1935, though, only one kind of government employee was known by that name, the special agents of the Bureau.

Connecting borders is a minibook to focus on the inventions of that time that made a difference in the way the FBI developed. On the FBI site, it comments: “The United States was well united, with its borders stretching from coast to coast and only two landlocked states left to officially join the union. Inventions like the telephone, the telegraph, and the railroad had seemed to shrink its vast distances even as the country had spread west.”

Okay, right before I took my long winter break that I normally take in Nov/Dec, I had left this minibook with you because I knew it would take a while for your children to research about these presidents that J. Edgar Hoover served under and then write about them.

Creating these minbooks for so long, I am normally pretty right on target with the amount of space needed for writing but not on this one. I goofed on these minibooks and if your child was telling you that there was not enough room to write he/she was right. Believe me, I heard about it from Tiny.

Remember, I don’t expect huge gobs of writing because we do other writing, but I do expect some.  The reason I was off on this one was because some presidents had a couple of vice-presidents and then too back then it was the norm for families to be larger. Of course, Tiny wants to list every vice-president and every child.

So I had to redesign them and make them a tri-fold and not bi-fold. I hope you haven’t started it but if you have, just use these larger minibooks with more room to write on for your next set. There are 10 presidents in all to focus on in this unit. And oh yes, because we started with these ten on this tri-fold, then I think I better go ahead and complete all of the presidents like this, don’t you think?

Then you could put them on an O ring to study, put them on a notebooking page or put in a pocket. I think I hear another project coming up!

3 Branches of the United States Government

Exploring Each Branch of the United States Government

About the FBI

Who was J. Edgar Hoover?

Crack the FBI Code

Fingerprint Facts

National Landmarks

G-Man

Inventions – Connecting Borders of the United States

Pocket for Presidents

President Fact Cards for Presidents Number 26, then 30th-38th.

Then if you missed the previous printables, here they are in one spot for you.

These are the first two covers created by the boys that can be used on the outside of your lapbook by cutting in half, used to divide data in your lapbook or to put inside a notebook binder if you are notebooking with the minibooks.

FBI Cover I

FBI Cover 2

FBI Notebooking Pages – World Events and/or history of FBI

Download key figures in FBI here.

Also, I started back last night with our workshops for the New Bees and the morning after the workshop, I have such a high of homeschool endorphins. After we discussed how to cope with strong willed children or is that ….ummmm…. strong willed moms, it made me think of this quote today.

“Be strong enough to stand alone, be yourself enough to stand apart, but be wise enough to stand together when the time comes.”

~ Mark Amend~

Sometimes you can be your child’s best friend and sometimes you have to be their worst enemy. I think we all have days like that. Anyway I went away full of homeschool pep and I hope the new homeschoolers do too after each workshop.