For the past couple of years, I’ve been working on curating a unit study on Mesopotamia. It’s been a bit of a labour of love. I’ve created a six week planner, project books for a variety of projects, as well as individual lessons and videos. I’ve also made notepages, science experiments and art studies. Most of these things are free here on my blog. One day soon, they will all be searchable from my huge Mesopotamia Unit study page. The six week planner and the project books will be on sale for a low cost.
The Mesopotamia Unit Study Core Book
The main part of the curriculum will be a book entitled ‘The Angelicscalliwags Travel to Ancient Mesopotamia’. This book is an autobiographical story book. It’s autobiographical in that it is ultimately a story about us doing a six week Mesopotamia Unit Study. It’s fictionalised because some of what I’ve included is written to help the story or the learning to be gained by the story. Also Gary is not a green keeper in this book. So that part is very fictionalised!
This book will be set out over six weeks, with one chapter to be read out per day. The lessons and activities follow the book’s path. My hope is that everything will be included so a homeschool mum, especially a new one, will be able to pick up and go. The unit study is very Angelicscalliwag-esse. There are lots of books to read (most of which I’ve reviewed here on my site so you can pick the best one’s for your children) and a huge number of creative, hands on activities to do.
Volunteers Needed!
I am so very close to finishing curating this Mesopotamia unit study. Once the book is finished, I would love to have around ten people read it and give me their honest opinions. You will be given the fairly unedited version. It is an easy to read book which I am hoping will be interesting and full of learning potential. You don’t need to read it to your children (although you can if you want!) but if you could read it yourself and then answer ten questions for me, I would be eternally grateful!
I am putting this out there now because I need a kick up the backside to get it finished! I’m on the home stretch but I think I might have Mesopotamia fatigue. It would be too easy to throw away all the work I have already done and call it a day. But I have put hours and hours of work into this and it would be a shame not to complete it.
If you would like to be a volunteer, please let me know at clairestewart@angelicscalliwags.com
I’m hoping if I can push through my Mesopotamia drought, I could have it finished by the time the new year rolls around. This means you’d have it sometime in January.
Curating a Mesopotamia Unit Study Goals
Aside from asking for help from you, I am also going to write a list of everything I have left to do. I will be posting an update each Wednesday so I can keep on top of these Mesopotamia goals. These are the things I have already completed, although they may need tweaking. I’m going to write them here because I need to see how far I have come, so I don’t give up. After, I will share all the things I need to get finished.
Things I’ve Completed
- Three videos about carrying out a six week unit study on Mesopotamia (Try Unit Studies; Five Tips to Make Unit Studies a Success; A Homeschool Schedule for a Six Week Unit Study)
- A post about the Adventure Box, a video to accompany it and some printable passports, airline tickets and luggage labels
- A post about how we make our paper mache maps and a video demonstrating how to make a small paper mache map and how to paint it.
- A post about the importance of quiet time after lunch and a video to accompany it
- A post about using note booking for unit studies and a video sharing fifty ways to do so!
- A post about hands on geography activities for history unit studies
- A video about dressing up and a post on dressing up for unit studies
- Project books for five different possible projects to do on Ancient Mesopotamia
- Many, many book reviews about books on Ancient Mesopotamia or set in Mesopotamia
- Many, many lessons with printables and accompanying videos of the suggested activities
- Museum tags for all artefacts made
Things Left To Do
- Number the pages and complete a contents page for my six week planner
- Get six week planner published, giving option of pdf or book
- A post and video about creating a junk box
- A post and video about morning meetings and the morning basket
- A post and video about the importance of read aloud
- Easy recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner to make when studying a six week unit study
- A post about project work and a video to accompany it
- Publish the project books, give option for pdf or book
- Review the remaining books on Mesopotamia
- Write a post about the remaining things I have written about in the book and a video to go along with the post. I have a lot of these still to do so will add them each week I accomplish one.
- I have seven more days to complete in my fiction read aloud book, one chapter per focal subject.
I’m sure there are more things to add to the to do list and as I come across them, I’ll add them. For now though, I am really pleased by what I have accomplished. I just need to finish. Between now and Christmas, I am going to keep myself accountable and write a post each Wednesday about all I have achieved that week regarding the curating of a Mesopotamia Unit study.
If you are interested in being my volunteer reader in the new year, please do email me on the email above. I can’t pay you, but I would be happy to give you every element of the unit study once completed for you to use and perhaps review. For now though, I’d appreciate any help with reading over the actual book. Thank you in advance for any help!