Today We Went To Ur

Today is History and Geography day. The globe is out and it follows us from the couch - where we do our reading aloud - to the computer - where we look at pictures.

This is Sargon. We read about how he rose to power, overthrew the king of his city-state in Sumer and went on to conquer all the other city-states in the land of Sumer. Which is southern Mesopotamia. Which is modern day Iraq. We learned how he was the first known military dictator. He named the first Empire, which included all those conquered city-states: The Akkadian Empire.

Fast forward a few thousand years and we read how Leonard Woolley spearheaded the excavation of the city of Ur, one of the city-states of Sumer.

Kori is so excited to know another famous archaeologist. The nitty-gritties and many more pictures are found at this link: The Royal Tombs of Ur After reading the story of the excavation of Ur, we went on to play the game of 20 squares. Very popular with the kids. We had to finish up quickly as we had to get Brian at work but the kids were talking about making our own game of 20 squares. I have to admit, it would be nicer to play on a real game board than just using the mouse to point and click our way through the game.

We will have a day #2 in Sumer as I was reminded by the children that we didn't have time to colour a map. So tomorrow, while we are out getting the car fixed (don't ask), I will stop at Staples to photocopy maps and colouring pages.