Thursday, March 31, 2011

Oops, I Lied

I meant to come back and post our resources for Gilgamesh, but then I got busy.  It's really hard to be an at-home homeschooling parent, especially one who does things like bakes her own bread and makes her own chicken broth.  Kitchen tasks can be very time consuming.  Rewarding (chocolate frosted gluten-free yellow layer cake, anyone?), but time consuming.  Sometimes I think my life isn't all that busy because I don't generally run around everyday, but I tend to discount the time spent in the kitchen, doing chores, etc.

So, resources.  I'm a huge fan of picture books, even for older children.  In the beginning with Enki and Waldorf I was told how important it is for a child to hear a story before they see pictures, and I can see how wonderful that is, but picture books are great too, especially for children who read on their own.  What we do is read a book together and then move it to our fireplace mantel where the boys are free to pull it down and read it on their own.  Which they do, especially J-Baby, because they like looking at the pictures.

Gilgamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar, and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh, retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman.

Gilgamesh the Hero by Geraldine McCaughrean and David Parkins

I also reserved just about every children's book on ancient Mesopotamia that the county system had.  We haven't read them all so I will just list the outstanding books as we get to them.

The boys are already familiar with some of the Gilgamesh legend, but Gilgamesh the King was a little different from what they knew.  Good.  I like them to know that legends and history can be told in different ways.

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