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LOWER SCHOOL READING TEST
Dear Parent, Teacher or Student,
The following is the "reading test" to see if
a student is ready to start Lower School Curriculum.
We suggest that you watch the video found on this page, as
it offers more information on our reading tests and how they
work.
Please have drawing paper, pencils or crayon or other drawing tools ready. The student will need a globe readily available, and can locate locations on various Internet sites. Explain to the student that "SOM" is short for "The Story Of Mankind", which is the name of a book about history. Ask the student to do EXACTLY what it says to do. Let them know before starting that the drawing assignments are NOT art assignments; we just want the student to show that he/she understands an idea. These can be bad stick figures, so long as the student understands the materials and that can be more or less "seen".
This assignment should take about an hour. If the student can do this in an hour OR SO (give or take, say, 15 minutes), he/she is ready for Lower School.
- LOCATE: On a map and a globe:
- Europe
- Africa
- The Mediterranean Sea
- Egypt
- The Nile River (in Egypt)
- Greece
- FULLY UNDERSTAND AND USE IN SEVERAL SENTENCES:
- Hieroglyphics- Ancient Egyptian writing, made of written symbols rather than letters. Each symbol stood for an idea or object. The word means "Sacred (holy) writings."
- Wilderness- An area of land not yet civilized, without a civilization.
- Isolation- The act or fact of being alone, away from others.
- Mediterranean- The sea surrounded by Asia, Europe and Africa.
- The Nile- The main river in Egypt.
- Egypt- A country in Northern Africa.
- Egyptians- People who live (or lived) in Egypt.
- Irrigation- The act of moving water into fields by digging ditches and rows, bringing water to where crops are growing, to help the crops live and grow.
- Temples- Places where one goes to worship in their religion, including Jews, and many ancient religions.
- Greeks- People who live or lived in Greece.
- Greece- A country on the Southern edge of Europe and Asia.
- Churches- Places where one goes to worship in their religion, usually Christians.
- Preserve- To save, to keep something intact and whole.
- READ: in SOM, from Chapter 4, Hieroglyphics, from page 17, to page 18, stopping at "They had invented the art of writing."
THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF WRITING AND THE RECORD OF HISTORY BEGINS
THESE earliest ancestors of ours who lived in the great European wilderness were rapidly learning many new things. It is safe to say that in due course of time they would have given up the ways of savages and would have developed a civilization of their own. But suddenly there came an end to their isolation. They were discovered. A traveler from an unknown southland who had dared to cross the sea and the high mountain passes had found his way to the wild people of the European continent. He came from Africa. His home was in Egypt.
The valley of the Nile had developed a high stage of civilization thousands of years before the people of the west had dreamed of the possibilities of a fork or a wheel or a house. And we shall therefore leave our great-great-grandfathers in their caves, while we visit the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, where stood the earliest school of the human race.
The Egyptians have taught us many things. They were excellent farmers. They knew all about irrigation. They built temples which were afterwards copied by the Greeks and which served as the earliest models for the churches in which we worship nowadays. They had invented a calendar which proved such a useful instrument for the purpose of measuring time that it has survived with a few changes until today. But most important of all, the Egyptians had learned how to preserve speech for the benefit of future generations. They had invented the art of writing.
- DRAW: According to SOM, the thing that happened which ended Europe's isolation.
- EXERCISE: Find a plant growing outside. Irrigate it.
- DRAW: how the ability to irrigate fields in a desert could help a civilization grow.
- DRAW: how the fact the Egyptians were excellent farmers helped them build a civilization.
