Our School Project

(Check out my little body of water...kind of a bath thing like I imagine-although I'm quite sure theirs was more sophisticated! I was pretty proud of my version)


Ok, like always, I think I had a different picture in my head about how this was going to look, and when it was going to be finished...and how much of it I would do and how much the kids would do. And I think most of those things didn't go together. But, we built the city of Pompeii. You know, the one buried by Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79? I didn't know that. No kidding. I really never knew that Mount Vesuvius was a volcanic mountain in Pompeii, Italy and that Pompeii and all of it's people and animals and buildings were buried for over 1,000 years under ash filled with poisonous gas when the volcano erupted (plinian eruption by the way). I've heard of Mount Vesuvius of course. It's the one that people compare huge zits to. Seriously. That's what I knew of Mt Vesuvius. That it was a huge (eruptive) volcano. Nothing else.
The day of the eruption, August 24, 79, people were bustling about as normal. Animals were grazing on the sides of the lush mountain. People were going about their daily lives. Taking care of their kids, working, going to the market, doing all that they normally do! Can you even imagine? It must have seemed like another earthquake (things rattling, rumbling) and there was a red cloud, like a mushroom, over the city and debris began falling. But, there wasn't really time to get out....the city was buried as the cloud plummeted to the ground. Anyone who survived the initial burial, would have instantly been killed by the intense, scorching heat and poisonous ash.
And did you know you could go there today? Of course you would have to have a lot of money to do that. And be okay with the thought of it erupting AGAIN! ;)
Here is our little version of Pompeii. I'm going to see if I can talk the kids into covering it in ash from the barbecue pit! Think they will? I don't know. They didn't even want to make it a "functioning" volcano. Because they didn't want to have to throw it away. We'll see.

Here's just a sampling of what else has been going on in our homeschool:
Wednesday we went to the Museum of Science and History. Columbus Day is this month so we toured the replica of the Nina!!!

It's not very big! I would DEFINITELY not want to cross the Atlantic (or any other body of water larger than a small lake) on a vessel like this! The only "below deck" option was for cargo. So, any sleeping, eating, etc was done on the deck-under some boards, but totally on the deck. Wow. And eating. They got one hot meal per day-cooked in what looked to me like a dutch oven. (Didn't hear what they called it as I was playing "uh-oh" with Nathan. Where he drops something over and over and says uh oh and I pick it up. It's a fun game.) Anyways, if there were high winds or any bad conditions, the hot meal was canceled because of the danger of the fire getting out of control. It was very interesting! Do you know where the term "knots" came from? (As in the speed of a ship traveling) They would let out a rope with knots tied in it at intervals. They would let that out somehow and measure it that way (honestly, the exact method escapes me. Prob'ly because I was playing "uh oh" again). And fathoms...they showed us the tool used to measure fathoms! Such a neat experience. :) And then the kids played in the exploring area of the museum-just for kids.