Tapestry of Grace Year 1: Week 4-6, Creation and early Israel

After taking a look at ancient Egypt for three weeks, we went back to the very beginning in week 4, and began to study the "books of Moses" after coming to an understanding of his own upbringing and life in Egypt.  Starting with creation, we studied the Biblical account of how the world came into being, and paid particular attention to the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the genealogy up to Noah.  We spent a lot of time understanding the flood and reading about Noah's life, before and after the flood.  in our co-op this week, we went outside and measured how long and wide and tall Noah's ark would have been in real life.  It was way bigger than any of us had ever imagined!

We started here, and stepped off the length of the ark...

You can hardly even see where we started! It was so far!

We went back inside and got to work on making timbrels, which were a simple instrument similar to a tambourine the Israelites used. 

This is a great group of kids, learning and building memories together! 

Week 5 was all about the Tower of Babel, and learning about the early cultures of Sumer and Ur, as well as leaders like Sargon.  In our group class we got messy and made simple ziggurats out of boxes and paint!

I love this group of boys!

And this group of girls!

And these big boys!

The next week, we took the opportunity to get outside and spend some quality time with nature. My beautiful Kansas girl!

The kids almost immediately found a turtle.  This turtle lucked out, because he got to go home with Luke's buddy and live in their old garden.  He's a very happy turtle now. 

Kids and creeks go so well together.

We also had a nice encounter with a very friendly police officer who drove by and helped us with a ball in the road.  He came back with stickers for all four kids.  Go Derby Police!

Week 6 we spent learning about the Patriarchs of Israel and how Abraham left his home and traveled, and how Joseph eventually ended up in Egypt, which led us back to Moses.  We're really enjoying our second pass through the ancient world, it's so much more fun with friends this time!  More fun things to come in the next three weeks!