Temple Of The Doom

One good thing about Home Learning(HL) is that it forces me to "study" and do research in order to assist Ilham. While doing that, I learn many new things as well and sometimes it made me recall things that I had forgotten. I like it most of the time, that is. Doing research can be time consuming, and sometimes we didn't have that. We need to sit down together, otherwise it will be my homework and not Ilham's!!!



For the second HL project, we thought of making a temple of ancient egyptian. As usual, I suggested it to Ilham because I thought it was one of the easiest thing to do and didn't require much time to complete :D Afterall my motto is "Don't complicate your life" :D So, we sat down together and browse through the internet looking at various designs of ancient egyptian temples. We tried to find common things that these temples had and any special features about them.



Some of the temples are truly interesting like the Abu Simple Temples. Looking at the photos of the two temples (great and small temples), I remember watching a TV documentary on how this temples were relocated in the 1960s, from its original location on the bank of River Nile. The relocation was necessary to avoid it from being submerged by the rising water of River Nile due to the building of Aswan Dam. The temple complex was originally carved out of the mountainside during the reign of Pharoah Ramesses II in the 1240s BC. During the relocation, the entire complex was carefully cut into large blocks, dismantled, lifted and reassembled at the current location.

The temples during the day and at night

It was believed that the axis of the temples was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that on 21st October and 21st February, the ray of the sun would penetrate and illuminate the sculptures on the back wall except the statue of Ptah (the so called god of the underworld).



Ok, back to HL, Ilham was very excited about the project. He made a temple with LEGO pieces, complete with a pyramid, palm tree(I think it should be date tree right??) and river Nile. The temple was built and then kept being dismantled and reassembled for a few times. He was no architect mind you, so he made the temple without really thinking and without proper planning :D He started building from the back of the temple, eventhough I advised him to start from the front. So in the end I made the entrance (but he modified it) and we had to move it a few times trying to place it at the centre and the right size. We also had to keep dismantling parts of the temple so the colours would balance and mix nicely. He insisted to put hidden treasures inside the pyramid just like the real ones. That was a real pleasure for him, he had such fun showing the treasure to his classmates :D

Side view (picture taken before the inclusion of funny looking pharaoh and priest)

Front view

Yeah... we had fun doing this. Even DH was also involved :) he placed the small yellow "statues" at the side of the temple and he added top part of the entrance, making it looked like a triangle. He even put a LEGO man on top of it (but we took it out before going to school he..he... Ilham didn't like it).

Ancient Civilisations Day

Unlike the International School of Amsterdam (ISA) where they have "Unit of Inquiry"(UOI) as part of the curriculum, here at the British School, students cover a few "projects"(I'm not sure the term used) a year. Similar to UOI, each project may take up to 8 weeks to conclude. To be honest, until now I still do not know under what subject they learn this.


Ilham and his fellow Year 4 classmates had just finished lesson on Ancient Egypt. Next, according to Ilham, they will learn The Tudors, The Romans, then World War II. So I suppose they learn this under History???? I would prefer the UOIs because they cover a more global issues like health, science, taking care of our planets etc...


They sure spend a lot of time learning about Ancient Egypt, from river Nile to pyramid to flood to pharoahs to mummies and Moses!!! Ilham came back one day telling me that they watched videos of Moses and that they had already watched 6 cds and still have a few more left !!! I wonder, is it really necessary to spend that much of time on Moses(their version of it anyway)???


Anyway, to conclude the end of lesson on Egypt, on November 11th, the students celebrated Ancient Civilisations Day where they dressed up as Egyptians and ate home lunch with an Egyptian twist. The costumes need not be expensive, just something white or T shirts will do, and sandals of course, preferably leather (imagine that!!! not expensive and yet leather!!! )


Since we didn't know where to buy the costumes anyway, we decided to make a simple one. Coincidently, we happened to have a guest staying with us at the time, and she was full of ideas. Let's see what she came up with using double sided tape (we do not have sewing machine!!)

Ancient Egyptian Warrior - that's what Ilham wanted to be...

Eye kohl was a must for men and women then..



Capal served as egyptian sandals :))


And his classmates...

Note that Arek, the middle boy was actually wearing his father's T-shirt :)))



Ahhhh the beautiful Cleopatra...



Lunch with Egyptian twist - pita bread and dried fruits....


They spent the day playing games like translating the secret code of Ancient Egypt letters and wrapping up mummies. As it happened, one of the boys came to school dressed up as a mummy, so he became their victim. They just had to wrap his head !!!