Smart Play Home School Group

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2007

HISTORY 2 - continued the story of Caesar and Pompey. Caesar followed Pompey to Egypt in order to arrest him but the pharaoh had killed him by the time Caesar arrived. Caesar was not happy and joined with Cleopatra (whom he fell in love with) to defeat the pharaoh (her brother). Cleopatra became queen of Egypt and she and Caesar established a close bond. On Caesar's return trip to Rome, he defeated some rebels in Asia Minor and coined the phrase "I came, I saw, I conquered." In Latin it's Veni, Vidi, Vici. When he arrived in Rome he gave land and jobs to soldiers and the poor and had them spread out among his newly acquired territories to establish Roman ways there. The Roman consuls named him "Dictator for Life," causing some in the senate to think he was too powerful and begin plotting his demise. The boys really got into this story, they were very eager for me to tell them what happens but I kept them in suspense. Suzy gets to finish Caesar off on Tuesday - I hope they'll pay attention because they seemed to understand the situation and all the politics involved.

SCIENCE 2 - explored gravity and how objects dropped from the same height land at the same time even if there's a difference in weight. we'll learn about how friction (wind, surface area of objects) affects this tomorrow. they did well with the experiments and seem to grasp the concept. they really like talking about what would happen if there wasn't gravity. did a good experiment hanging pencils to see if they could make it hang diagonally. once they settled down, it was a good day.

see you tomorrow.....rachelle