Our First Field Trip

We have been doing school loosely all summer -- mostly science and history. We started our full schedule the second week in July. Then we got off track during Amy's illness, death, and funeral and Emma Grace's horse camp.

I thought we'd be farther along in our history course by late July, so I purchased ticket to the Tombs of Ur exhibit at our science museum. Even though we hadn't studied Mesopotamia yet, we still went. Actually, Emma Grace and I went. Vivian lost the privilege of going for misbehavior and spent the afternoon with Cliff at his office.

My point in going to this exhibit was to supplement our study of Mesopotamia and the biblical figure Abraham who came from Ur. The exhibit was relatively small but informative. Emma Grace would have sped through the whole exhibit in about 7 minutes, but I managed to hold her back and make a few points along the way.

She enjoyed the jewelry and the statues of animals. We talked about the difference between our belief in one God and that culture's belief in many gods. We talked very generally about their belief that they had to buy their way into the afterlife (including human sacrifice, but we glossed over that part). And we talked economics when we looked at a map that displayed the locations of the various materials used to make their jewelry, sculpture, tools, etc. I asked Em how the people of Ur got those materials when those materials were not available in or around their city. She responded that they traveled to the other places and brought it back. Then we talked about how they probably traded something they had for the gold or lapis to take home with them. It was a fun time.

Before we left the museum we walked through the dino exhibit and the imagination station area. By accident we walked into an exhibit about King Tut. Since ancient Egypt is also in our curriculum, we took in that exhibit as well. Facinating. The scientists did a facial reconstruction to see get an idea of how Tut looked. Emma was quite intrigued.

All in all we had a great time. We missed Vivian and her contribution, but it was nice to have time alone with Emma Grace. Hopefully no one will miss out on field trips in the future, and hopefully Viv and I can get some time to do something just the two of us, too.