[Read the Introduction to this 31 Days series here.]
[Read a little more about our analysis process here.]
Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs is the perfect length for reading aloud at a Book Detectives meeting. It’s a fascinating biographical story, blending history (ancient and modern) and literature with wonderful illustrations. If you’re wanting to add a craft to your Book Detectives meeting, this story is begging for a hieroglyph art project!
Crime Scene [Setting]
Where?
Paris, France [house, roof]
Egypt (Rosetta), Nile River
Real world
When?
Champollion’s whole life (40 years)
Born 1790 (George Washington, French Revolution, Napoleon) [Fair warning: CC students will be breaking into song…]
True historical story
Suspects [Characters]
Who?
Jean-Francois Champollion—seeker of knowledge, loved ancient languages, obsessive, passionate, young
Brother—encouraging and helpful
Englishmen
Napoleon—wanted to dominate world, fascinated by Egypt
Working through Ancients this fall, I purchased this book, along with 'God's Names', by Sally Michael. Everything else is what's available at the library, or a staple (SOW or Usborne) at our house. I'm going to use this formula, to see if we can establish a pattern, with your permission. I've also got a group of middle school kiddos that work through a vocabulary and phonics lesson every week. We've been reading 'The Magician's Nephew', which is of course longer, and beginning this week/month, 'The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle.' Going to see if I can use it for this as well. I skipped over as well to 'Afterthoughts' blog and read a great article about Reading Slowly. http://afterthoughtsblog.net/2015/03/slow-reading-matters.html I have one that 'runs' through books, and needs a little more time to digest. He re-reads, but for assigned books, we need a (better) structure.
ReplyDeleteHeidi, I did your Master Class at Sarah's website and I LOVED it!! I am loving this series, and I'm telling you right now that if you put these posts in PDF, or some sort of book format, I would buy it!!
ReplyDeleteTo the commenter above: I feel like I'm in the same boat as you! I have realized in the past month that I don't have to approach reading the same way all the time. I realized that I can have meaningful discussions with the stuff that we read all together. I also want to teach my kids to enjoy what they are reading and I also loved that blog post at Afterthoughts about reading slowly. Sarah Mackenzie, and others, also talk about a commonplace book, which I have implemented with my children. We also buy the Kolbe literature guides and every now and then, I have them do vocabulary, answer questions, and maybe even take a test or write a paper. I just want them to be prepared in case they ever have to go back to school some day. We do a little bit of everything. But I love these posts here from Heidi! They give me confidence! ;)
Oops, I forgot to click on the box to get follow-up comments. And I can't WAIT to read this book to my kids this week. We do Catholic Schoolhouse as a spine for our curriculum and this is PERFECT for what we are studying this week!! Love it!!
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